REPOR TRESUMES ED 018 188 UD 004 756 THE NEGRO IN AMERICA, WHAT MUST BE DONE, A PROGRAM FOR ACTION. BY- ELLIOTT! OSBORN PUB DATE 20 NOV 67 EDRS PRICE MF-$0.25 HC -$1.08 25P. DESCRIPTORS- *GUIDELINES! *NEGROES! *GHETTOS! *SOCIAL CHANGE' VIOLENCE, RACE RELATIONS, DEMOCRATIC VALUES, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, ECONOMIC DISADVANTAGEMENT, GOVERNMENT ROLE, FEDERAL PROGRAMS, NEGRO EDUCATION, HOUSING, WELFARE SERVICES, EMPLOYMENT, JOB TRAINING, CIVIL RIGHTS, RACIAL INTEGRATION, NEGRO ORGANIZATIONS, BUSINESS RESPONSIBILITY, POLICE, THIS IN-DEPTH JOURNALISTIC REPORT ON THE CURRENT RACIAL CRISIS ANALYZES THE UNDERLYING CAUSES OF THE RECENT GHETTO RIOTS, THE HOSTILE REACTIONS OF WHITES! AND THE FAILURE OF AMERICANS TO MAKE A TOTAL COMMITMENT TO SOCIAL JUSTICE. THE REPORT REVIEWS THE NEW NEGRO NATIONALISM, CONGRESSIONAL OBJECTIONS TO FURTHER SOCIAL LEGISLATION, AND THE EFFECT OF THE WAR IN VIETNAM ON ECONOMIC AND LEGISLATIVE PROGRAMS. IT DISCUSSES "BLACK POVERTY' AND GHETTOS, THE NEW ROLE OF BUSINESS IN SLUM ERADICATION, NEGRO-INITIATED SELF-HELP PROJECTS, AND THE EDUCATION OF NEGROES. ONE PART OF THE REPORT OUTLINES A 12-POINT PROGRAM FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION WHICH IS BASED ON THE PREMISE THAT AMERICAN PRIORITIES SHOULD BE SHIFTED TO GIVE THE WAR ON POVERTY AND DISCRIMINATION THE SAME URGENCY AS THE WAR IN VIETNAM. NEEDED ARE ACTIVE PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP, INFLATION CONTROL AND REALLOCATION OF FEDERAL FUNDS, STATE AND LOCAL PROGRAMS AND SERVICES, AND GREATER INVOLVEMENT BY THE PRIVATE SECTOR. OTHER STEPS INCLUDE GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION IN JOB TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMS, REFORM OF WELFARE SYSTEMS, THE CREATION OF UNIFORM STANDARDS FOR BENEFITS, HOUSING, AND EDUCATION, BETTER RIOT CONTROL, AND.PROPER POLICE TRAINING. ALSO, EXISTING CIVIL RIGHTS LAWS MUST BE VIGOROUSLY ENFORCED AND AGENCIES GIVEN ADEQUATE FUNDS. LONGER RANGE GOALS ARE FULL EMPLOYMENT, WELFARE POLICIES WHICH GUARANTEE MINIMUM NECESSITIES, DISPERSAL OF NEGRO GHETTOS, QUALITY INTEGRATED EDUCATION, SOUTHERN DEVELOPMENT, AND IMPROVED HEALTH. THIS ARTICLE IS PUBLISHED IN NEWSWEEK! VOLUME 70, NUMBER 21, NOVEMBER 20 11967. (NH) TICK ftiliPilawasm . THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT. POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION OFFICE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY. THE NEGRO IN AMERICA t e ne A PROGRAM FOR ACT /ON --....T...._-7.......,..W.1.1.10111.1011001FR "PERMISSION TOREPRODUCE THIS COPYRIGHTED MATERIALHAS BEEN GRANTED BY Ale,LUS C TO ERIC AND ORGANIZATIONS OPERATING UNDER AGREEMENTS WITH THE U.S.OFFICE OF EDUCATION. FURTHER REPRODUCTION OUTSIDE THE ERIC SYSTEM REQUIRES PERMISSIONOF THE COPYRIGHTOWNER." q 40 tlet,i)su.),e.e.,k. cif Newsweek A TIME FOR ADVOCACY n reporting the evolution andrevolution of the Negro in The entire project is founded on a number of premises. I America, NEWSWEEK'S approach has always been explora- tory, analytical and descriptive. We haveprobed the twists The first is that America has so far failed to deliver to many and turns of the civil-rights movement, examined leaders new citizens, and particularly to many Negroes, that measure of and old as they flashed and sometimes fizzled across the equality that lies at the heart of the American idea. scene, analyzed the present andpotential response of white America to the aspirations of its black citizens. A second premise is that America has the ability to make that delivery: surely the most prosperous and powerful na- This week, in a special report entitled The Negro in Ameri- tion in history, which concerns itself with poverty, discrimina- caWhat Must Be Done, NEWSWEEK deliberately departs tion and deprivation around the world, can successfully apply from its traditional method of covering the news. In the 22- its vast resources to these widespread ills at home. page section that follows, there isanalysis aplentybut this time there is advocacy as well. The reason for thismarked A third premise is more arguable: that America has, or can change of approach is that the editors have come to believe generate, the will to solve its racial problems. that at this particular time, on this particular subject, they could not fulfill their journalistic responsibility, or their re- For many a long year, Northern whites could look down sponsibility as citizens, by simply reporting what X thinks of their noses at the South, charging that white Southerners suf- Y, and why Z disagrees. fered from such social astigmatism that they could not see the world around them, or even themselves, with any degree of In part we were led to this new approach by the events of clarity. Then, suddenly last summerand a couple of summers last summer, when ghetto streets exploded in violence,fires beforethe fire next time became the fire this time, and flamed the urban skies, an orgy of looting and rioting seized many Northerners came to realize that their own vision was cities across the land, and America was brought face toface similarly impaired. with its central racial dilemma. In part, NEWSWEEK'S newad- vocacy stems from the peculiarlyinadequate and worrisome And what has been the result of this realization? Has it response to those awful eventsthecall for a day of national been a newly discovered urge to face the racial problem and prayer; the appointment of a commissionto make its final re- do something about it? In some segments of societymost port, quite possibly, in the middle of the riotsof 1968; the notably in and around the precincts of big businessthe an- subsequent hardening of positions by white andblack alike. swer has been a heartening "yes." But in other segments And in part, NEWSWEEK'S role as advocate grows out ofthe re- most notably the Congress, which tends to reflect the way sults of two months of intensive reporting from coast to coast. the national wind is blowing (or at least how the politicians read it)the answer has been a disturbing "no." Since late summer, a task force of editors, writersand re- porters has been touring the country, visitingthe "experts"on What makes this particularly disturbing is that NEWSWEEK'S campus, at every levelof government, in editors are convinced that in order to corporations and foundations, in church deal with the racialcrisiseffectively, and state alike. They started with a ques- there must be a mobilization of the na- tion: what to do? And they came back tion's moral, spiritual and physical re- with the conclusion that nobody really sources and a commitment on the part of knowsnot the planners, not the police, all segments of U.S. society, public and not the educators, not the politicians nor private, to meet the challenging job. To the clergy nor the pressnot, indeed, the get this kind of commitment, the editors Negroes themselves. believe there must be strong and un- flinching political leadership from the top. NEWSWEEK'S most ambitious editorial project culminates this week in this spe- will agree with parts of NEWS- cial report. It includes a review of the manyWEEK'S program;few withthe scattershot programs now being attempt- whole. We do not pretend to have all the ed; it reports on the multiplicity of proj- answers, and we may be proved wrong ects now on the drawing boards, and it on some of those we do propose. But we mirrors the conflicts and confusion that hope that this Program for Action will mark the efforts of the nation's best think- stimulate thoughts and deeds that will ers to come to grips withthe problem. not only point the way to a more peaceful The special report concludes (page 20) racial prospect, but will finally bring those with a Program for Actiona comprehen- eighteenth-centurytruths,whichall sive set of solutions to the racial problem Americans supposedly hold self-evident, that gnaws at the very soul of America. into twentieth-century reality. Osborn Elliott, Editor 1 .1.0.111.- 111904 _am_ /mad Drawings by by Hobert Weaver WHAT MUST BE DONE The Cold Fact Is That the Negro in America Is Not Really in America s America went to the polls last week, there was a special will control City Halla black-white choice that will in- Acrackle of crisis in the autumn air. creasingly haunt the cities into the 1980s. The real issue is not In the midst of a corrosive war in Vietnam and a skittish in- just whether Negroes can get elected, but whether they can flation, the ugly issue of race became the dominant concern of be brought into full participation in the society. The returnson the election season. After four summers of fiery rioting, color that question are not yet in. Asense of fatalism grips much of polarized the voters into black and white blocs in three major the nation's white and Negro leadership. They knowsome- northern cities. The resultsthe election of Negro mayors in thing must be doneand done quicklyto make equality real Cleveland and Gary, Ind., and the defeat of a white back- for blacks, and particularly for the restive blacl underclass. lasher in Bostonwere hopeful signs. But they were too close They doubt that the nation is ready to do it: for comfort. The elections were a stark reflection of the racial The problem is urgentas the exploding cities and the in- confrontation building for a generation in the heart of urban cendiary rhetoric make inescapably plain. But most of the America. And they did little to allay the growing fear that talk about the racial situation is profoundly pessimistic. "We the nation is drifting inexorably toward a showdown between face an almost universal sense of impotence," says one Wash- its white majority and its black minority. ington thinkerand his glum observation is shared in govern- The narrow victories of Negro mayoral candidates Carl ment offices and academic cloisters, in ghetto storefronts and Stokes in Cleveland and Richard Hatcher in Gary, Ind., and white middle-class living rooms.