Ernest N. 'Dutch' Morial inducted into the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame

The late Ernest N. "Dutch" Morial, the first Black Mayor of New Orleans and a former State Court of Appeal Judge, was inducted into the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame in a recent ceremony held in Atlanta, Georgia.
 
Dutch Morial was one of 13 distinguished honorees chosen for their sacrifice and dedication in the struggle to make equality a reality for all people. The induction ceremony was held at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site and was preceded by a program held at Ebenezer Baptist Church.
 
During the month of February, in honor of Black History Month, the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame exhibit will travel to a variety of cities including the New Orleans Metropolitan Area. The exhibit will be on display in the Macy's department store at the Lakeside Mall on February 19.
 
Other Walk of Fame honorees included the Reverend Dr. C.M. Alexander; Danny J. Bakewell, Sr; Dr. Erieka Bennett; Roberto Goizueta; Cathy Hughes; Earvin "Magic" Johnson; Honorable Sam Massell; Father Michael L. Pfleger; and the volunteer service organization Links, Incorporated.
 
During Dutch Morial's early years of law practice, the McDonogh 35 Senior High School and Xavier University alum participated as a cooperating attorney for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's (NAACP) Legal Defense Fund, Incorporated and as president of the New Orleans Chapter of the NAACP. Following his career as an attorney in private practice, he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana in 1965; was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1967; was appointed to Louisiana Juvenile Court in 1970 and was elected Judge of Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal in 1974. He later became the first African-American mayor of New Orleans in 1978 and was reelected to a second term in 1982.
 
Dutch Morial was a longtime civil rights activist whose legacy continues to reverberate across the New Orleans political landscape today. Early in his career, he fought for equal rights by handling many civil rights suits. One suit resulted in the end of racial discrimination policies at Delgado Trade School, New Orleans Municipal Auditorium and several state universities including the Louisiana State University at New Orleans (now the University of New Orleans), University of Southwestern Louisiana (now University of Louisiana at Lafayette) and Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond. As Mayor, Dutch Morial was recognized as one of New Orleans' most effective chief executives and distinguished himself as one of the nation's most prominent urban leaders.
 
Asked recently about her former husband's legacy, Sybil Morial told The Louisiana Weekly, "He just took on one challenge after another. He opened doors and in every instance a Black followed him... He opened the doors and this was an opportunity for Blacks to really be at the table.
 
"He was a very good mayor," she continued. "He had a good balance. He cared about all the people and had a special concern for poor people. He knew how important it was to serve all segments of the community. He had a sense of that, and that was the talent that he had."
 
Founded by Xernona Clayton, the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame is located in Atlanta, Georgia on the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site. It was created in 2004 to recognize civil rights icons. The granite walk, imported from Africa, leads to the visitor promenade at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site. The granite markers depict the actual shoe size and name of each honoree. The International Civil Rights Walk of Fame is one of the most visited tourist attractions in the city of Atlanta.
 
The ICRWF is a lasting memorial that literally explains the path traveled by those whose contributions have made it possible to enjoy a better quality of life and attain a more equitable measure of justice. They are called "foot soldiers" in the struggle for justice and Clayton has stated, "This is a permanent testimony to those who have dedicated themselves to human progress."
 
Over the previous years, the ICRWF has included an array of national and international scholars, statesmen and women, businessmen and business women including: Lerone Bennett, Jr., Marian Wright Edelman, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, Sir Lynden Pindling, Sidney Poitier, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, The Honorable L. Douglas Wilder, former President William J. "Bill" Clinton, former President James E. "Jimmy" Carter, Lena Horne, The Honorable Bernard Parks, Xernona Clayton, the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Hooks, Maya Angelou, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Senator Edward W. Brooke, Stevie Wonder, Harry Belafonte, Congressman John Conyers, Jr., Dick Gregory, the late Mayor Maynard H. Jackson, Jr., the Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, Nancy Wilson, the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, Sr., Julian Bond, Dorothy Height, the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., Congressman John Lewis, the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, the late Justice Thurgood Marshall, the late Rosa Parks, the late Rev. Hosea Williams and Ambassador Andrew Young.

John Hope Franklin, a 'Mighty Scholar', Brought Clarity to Black Struggle in America

WASHINGTON (NNPA) - When historian, author, and scholar John Hope Franklin mounted the stage at the Newsmaker of the Year Awards Gala three years ago, he told the members of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, "I think that I deserve this reward for reasons you may not know."
 
Receiving the organization's 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award that evening, Franklin received extra applause from the Black publishers when he announced that 80 years earlier he had been a carrier of NNPA newspapers, the Chicago Defender and the Pittsburgh Courier, "keeping Black journalism afloat" during the hard economic times of the 1920s and 30s.
 
This was just a scintilla of his acclaimed national and international contributions to Black history by the "dean of Black historians."
 
Franklin died of congestive heart failure March 25 at the age of 94. Accolades in statements from across America in the wake of his passing underscores the fact that his name has become almost synonymous with Black history.
 
"Because of the life John Hope Franklin lived, the public service he rendered, and the scholarship that was the mark of his distinguished career, we all have a richer understanding of who we are as Americans and our journey as a people," said a statement from President Barack Obama. "Dr. Franklin will be deeply missed, but his legacy is one that will surely endure."
 
The Duke University Professor Emeritus of History was best known for his now 60-year-old book, From Slavery to Freedom, described as a landmark narrative which weaves Black history into the context of American history. His historical research is credited with assisting NAACP lawyers, including Thurgood Marshall, with the win in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education desegregation case. At that time, Franklin was a professor at Howard University.
 
Born Jan. 2, 1915, Franklin was raised in the then all-Black community of Rentiesville, Okla. Largely inspired by the humiliations he and other Blacks suffered there - including being put off a train at the age of six with his mother when she refused to sit in a segregated car - he set his sights on telling the story of African-American struggle.
 
"I want to be out there on the firing line, helping, directing or doing something to try to make this a better world, a better place to live," Franklin is quoted on the homepage of a special memorial website set up by Duke.
 
"John Hope Franklin lived for nearly a century and helped define that century," says Duke President Richard H. Brodhead. "A towering historian, he led the recognition that African-American history and American history are one. With his grasp of the past, he spent a lifetime building a future of inclusiveness, fairness and equality. Duke has lost a great citizen and a great friend."
 
A celebration of his life and of his late wife Aurelia Franklin has been set for 11 a.m. June 11 in Duke Chapel in honor of their 69th wedding anniversary. This week, sentiments are being expressed across the nation.
 
"For many African Americans our first introduction to Black history was through Dr. Franklin's book "From Slavery to Freedom". In its pages we found an account of American history that affirmed the dignity of Black people and the nobility of our struggle," said U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. "Today our nation lost a mighty scholar and soldier for justice."
 
Having earned an undergraduate degree in history from Fisk in 1935 and a master's and doctorate from Harvard, Professor Franklin chaired the history departments at Brooklyn College and the University of Chicago before becoming the James B. Duke Professor of History at Duke University. Named in his honor are the John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies and the Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke.
 
Franklin loved telling stories and had a knack for drawing laughter amidst painfully serious topics. The following 2005 account from his 90th birthday celebration at Duke illustrates his focus on change for America:
 
"While others at the event talked about the past and reminisced about his accomplishments, Franklin focused squarely on the future," says the obituary on Duke's website. "He described the event, held the same day as President George W. Bush's second inauguration, as a 'counter-inaugural,' and gave a talk in the form of a letter to a fictional white man he called 'Jonathan Doe.'
 
"He recounted some of the historical inequalities in the United States and recalled some of his own experiences with racism. He said, for example, that the evening before he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton, a woman at his club in Washington, D.C., asked him to get her coat. Around the same time, a man at a hotel handed Franklin his car keys and told him to get his car.
 
"'I patiently explained to him that I was a guest in the hotel, as I presumed he was, and I had no idea where his automobile was. And, in any case, I was retired,'" Franklin said. "Both of these incidents occurred when he was in his 80s."
 
Franklin was among giants who brought acclaim to academic prowess while African Americans are so often lauded for sports and entertainment.
 
"If our society gave as much media play and coverage to persons with great intellectual depth and wisdom as has given to great athletes, then we would know as much about Professor Franklin as we know about Michael Jordan and Willie Mays," said Black Press historian Clint Wilson at the Black Press event. "Dr. Franklin's accomplishments rank in that magnitude among academicians."
 
Franklin is also being celebrated as a giant in the civil rights community.
 
"Dr. Franklin's legacy and work will continue to guide us along our national road to an equal and just society. Throughout his life, he worked tirelessly to make sure that the story of America includes the stories of us all," said Wade Henderson, executive director of The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.
 
Ralph B. Everett, president and CEO, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, called Franklin a "scholar's scholar. He not only created the field of African-American history, he embodied it."
 
Even into his 90s, John Hope Franklin continued to pour into organizations and projects with missions to maintain a focus on Black History. Chief among those organizations is the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, based at Howard University.
 
"Dr. Franklin never wavered in his support for ASALH," said Sylvia Cyrus, ASALH executive director. "Recently he lent his voice to the ASALH project "Freedom's Song" on the Tulsa Race Riots. Through this video, generations will continue to learn from Dr. Franklin, a tireless educator and dignified American."
 
Franklin was active in numerous professional organizations and served on a string of national commissions. They included the editorial board of the Journal of Negro History. Over the years, he served as President of The American Studies Association, the Southern Historical Association, the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, and the American Historical Association.
 
He also served on the National Council on the Humanities, the Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, and the President's Advisory Commission on Ambassadorial Appointments. His weighty contributions also extended abroad. In September and October of 1980, he was a United States delegate to the 21st General Conference of UNESCO. He also served as Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions at Cambridge University, Consultant on American Education in the Soviet Union, Fulbright Professor in Australia, and Lecturer in American History in the People's Republic of China.
 
Among his dozens of awards are the NAACP's Spingarn Medal, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
 
He is survived by his son, John Whittington Franklin, daughter-in-law Karen Roberts Franklin, sister-in-law Bertha W. Gibbs, cousin Grant Franklin Sr., a host of nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews, other family members, many generations of students and friends.

Tough choices for tough times

In many poor neighborhoods, one is likely to notice satellite dishes and expensive new cars.

According to Target Market, a company that tracks black consumer spending, blacks spend a significant amount of their income on depreciable products. In 2002, the year the economy nose-dived, we spent $22.9 billion on clothes, $3.2 billion on electronics and $11.6 billion on furniture to put into homes that, in many cases, were rented.

Among our favorite purchases are cars and liquor. Blacks make up only 12% of the U.S. population, yet account for 30% of the country's Scotch consumption. Detroit, which is 80% black, is the world's No. 1 market for Cognac. So impressed was Lincoln with the $46.7 billion that blacks spent on cars that the automaker commissioned Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, the entertainment and fashion mogul, to design a limited-edition Navigator replete with six plasma screens, three DVD players and a Sony PlayStation 2.

The only area where blacks seem to be cutting back on spending is books; total purchases have gone from a high of $356 million in 2000 to $303 million in 2002.

This shortsighted behavior, motivated by a desire for instant gratification and social acceptance, comes at the expense of our future.

The National Urban League's "State of Black America 2004" report found that fewer than 50% of black families owned their homes compared with more than 70% of whites.

According to published reports, the Ariel Mutual Funds/Charles Schwab 2003 Black Investor Survey found that when comparing households where blacks and whites had roughly the same household incomes, whites saved nearly 20% more each month for retirement, and 30% of African-Americans earning $100,000 a year had less than $5,000 in retirement savings. While 79% of whites invest in the stock market, only 61% of African-Americans do.

Certainly, higher rates of unemployment, income disparity and credit discrimination are financial impediments to the economic vitality of blacks, but so are our consumer tastes.

By finding the courage to change our spending habits, we might be surprised at how far the $631 billion we now earn might take us.

This new phenomenon, according to Shortchanged: Life and Debt in the Fringe Economy, experienced "almost exponential growth during the mid-1990s." In 2001, the "fringe economy" accumulated $78 billion in gross revenue. These fringe businesses make their money off the poor by charging them exorbitant interest rates or bloated or hidden fees because their customers lack good credit, bank accounts or other options.

The growth of these businesses has coincided with a swing in the country's wealth. In 1970, roughly the bottom third (or about 96 million) of Americans earned 10 times that of the top 1%, Karger writes. By 2004, though, the top 1% (29,000) made as much as the bottom third of Americans.

Today, 53% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and 56 million don't have bank accounts. The robust fringe economy has also come at a time when household debt is increasing rapidly, when many banks are increasing minimum payments, late penalties and interest rates on credit card debt, and when bankruptcies, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute, skyrocketed more than 400% from 1975 to 2003.

Where once pawn shops were perceived as havens of the thief, gambler or crackhead, and rent-to-own stores were used primarily by college students, today they are frequented by the working poor. Karger notes that the average payday loan customer is a woman ages 24 to 44 with a high school diploma and earning less than $40,000 a year. With such a tight budget, one unexpected event becomes a crisis.

While more consumer discipline is in order, many poor are beyond this point. Stagnant wages and increased costs of housing, transportation and food are huge contributors to indebtedness. The poor need more protection. Among the possible steps:

• More government regulation is required in policing shady schemes, inflated interest rates and fees on loans and services, and unfair mortgage lending.

• Mainstream financial institutions should be encouraged to make credit cards more difficult to get and work with customers on ways to pay off their debt.

• Consumer-interest organizations need to help educate the financially illiterate.

Karger likens the hold the fringe industry has on the poor to the grip landowners had on black sharecroppers after slavery. When it comes to exploitive practices, the poor are always the first victims.

Yolanda Young is author of On Our Way To Beautiful.