The Reformer, February 02, 1969

              URBAN LEAGUE
O-J-T REFUNDED

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Vol 2, No. 15

South Bend, Indiana 46625 15£



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February 2,1969

Churches Pledge Commitment

Urban League Executive Director Cassell A. Lawson
following his announcement of a $120,000 On-The-Job
Training contract with the National Urban League of-
fice. Photo by Milton Herring.

Over the years, Afro-A-
mericans have come to ex-
pect a certain amount of
hypocrisy on racial matters
from public officials. Be-
cause the majority of Afro-
Americans have taken the
teachings of Jesus Christ
at their face value, they are
less forgiving of inaction
in these matters by Chris-

tian church leaders or other
religious leaders.

In a recent memorial
march for the Rev. Dr. Mar-
tin Luther King, Jf. in Mem-
phis, Tennessee, a group of
World CouncilofChurchlea-
ders were told by a black
militant organization to "get
off their tails." In Chicago,
Cardinal Cody of the Roman

Catholic Church is being
challenged by 170 black
priests from around the
country to apppoint black
pastors and to make the po-
sition of the Church more
clear on racial issues af-
fecting Chicago. Rabbis in
New York City are telling
their synagogue members to
examine their consciences

The Urban League of South
Bend and St. Joseph County,
Inc. would like to announce
the signing of a $120,000
ON - THE - JOB - Training
contract (OJT) with the Na-
tional Urban League office.

The new contract, effec-
tive Febraury 1, 1969, pro-
vides for 100 training slots.

The Urban League will
seek to place 10 persons a
month for a 12 month per-
iod.

The new contract wiU in-

Project Director,
Representative,
Advisor, and Sec-

clude a
Field
Trainee
retary.

In our new contract, we
will stay in tune with the
New Thrust Movement in
the Urban League. We will
sit down with the black com-
munity and the relevant em-
ployment organizations to
determine needs, the exist-
ing criteria for selection,
training, and upgrading, and
(Continued on Page 3)

PUBLIC HEARING

Model Neighborhood Program
Feb. 3rd, 7:00 P.M. Hansel Center

Legal Aid Society Organizes Education Program

9

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Vs.

The Legal Services —
Legal Education program in
conjunction with Notre Dame
Law School and Action, Inc.
is planning a program to ac-
quaint residents with various
service agencies in the com-
munity.

The programs will be of-
fered in Southeast, Clay,
Northeast, and LaSalle
Neighborhood centers. The
meetings will be held weekly
beginning the week of Jan-
uary 27.

The topics included are
welfare rights, tenant rights,
township poor relief, and
consumer education, as well
as general information on
law.

Anyone interested should
contact the neighborhood
centers for the dates and
time of these meetings.
Meeting schedules will also
be posted in the neighborhood
centers.

The Administrators of the
Legal Education program
explained it in the following
way:

"Many of the cases com-
ing to our offices center
around problems with pub-
lic welfare agencies. In-
stead of dealing with indi-
vidual cases as they arise,
we feel we can be most
effective in educating in-
dividuals so the problems
do not arise.

"We are proposing a pro-
gram of meetings on Wel-
fare Rights at the neighbor-
hood centers to implement
our ideas. The following is
an outline of what we pro-
pose to cover:

1. General meeting - Open
to any recipient or anyone
interested in any welfare
program. In this, we would
explain our purpose and out-
line to those in attendance
what we plan. Open to any

suggestions of audience.

2.	Discussion of eligibility
requirements for programs.

3.	Discussion of the appli-
cation process and the rights
of individuals in this.

4.	Discussion of agency
budgets.

5.	Discussion Jf a per-
son's rights as a recipient:

a.	Wardship

b.	Fair hearings

c.	Appeals

d.	Caseworker's respon-
sibility

e.	Recipient's respon-
sibility

f.	How to change the laws

g.	How to get assistance
in dealing with agencies

h.	Right's Groups
Tenant's rights
Consumer rights

"From this initial pro-
gram, we hope to cultivate
ideas which might instigate
formation of other interest
and right's groups. We would

also hope to stimulate inter- classes to be taughtbyNotre
est in preventative law (Continued on Page 5)

Step//? fetchit Tells His Story

By Milton Herring
(A product of the Apprentice Writer's Workshop)

Human Relations
Institute Feb. 11th

Mr. Stepin Fetchit as he
appeared following a recent
performance at a South Bend
night club. Photo by Milton
Herring.

Lincoln Theodore Monroe
Andrew Perry, 76, alias
Step in Fetchit—, the incred-
ible man who got his name
from a race horse.

Stepin Fetchit's portrayal
of a shuffling, black, slothful,
eye-ball roUing, crap shoot-
er made him the first Negro
millionaire.

He was the first Negro to
stay in a hotel in the south,
and the first to fly coast-
to-coast in an airplane.

At the peak of his career,
he reportedly had 12 cars
plus a passionate pink Cad-
illac with his name in flash-
ing neon lights, and 16 Chin-
ese servants.

He said, "I lived the life
of long distance phone caUs
and $1,000 suits."

In five years during his

Jreat career, he had allowed
7,000,000 to get through
his hands.

In 1944, his high spend-
ing caused him to go bank-
rupt. During the summer of

1968, CBS News was so eager
to set times straight with
their "Black America" ser-
ies that they ignored one of
the first lessons in journa-
lism—and that is to go to
the source first.

CBS brought out Stepin
Fetchit's image of the lazy,
crap shooting, eye-ball roU-
ing, foot shuffler as the av-
erage Negro. Step Fetchit
disagreed. He said "It was
not Martin Luther King who
emancipated the ModernNe-
gro but me. CBS portrayed
me as if I were a villain.

Stepin prefers to think of
himself as a 'Representa-
tive of Christianity" and as
an American. On separatism
he says "It doesn't make
sense for those who want
to be equal to be separate."
It leaves the Negro in the
technical slavery."

"I don't know anything a-
bout Africa, I am an Ameri-
can. I was born an Ameri-
can and I am an American."

Mrs. Rosemary Mitchell (Center) of the Legal Aid

Society of St. Joseph County discusses the legal educa-
tion program with staff members of the Southeast Side
Neighborhood Center. Another meeting is scheduled
for February 5th, 4:00 p.m. at the LaSalle Neighbor-
hood Centej. Photo by Milton Herring.

When Step was at the peak
of his career, he said: "The
Negro had no civil rights."

"I accepted inferior parts
on the condition that there
were small redeeming fea-
tures to show all men we're
created equal. *

"I often stole the picture
and was acclaimed a star".

So now the only thing Step-
in asks CBS for, is equal
time to clear his name. " He
created his own flim image,"

said his lawyer. "He's not
stupid or lazy or foot shuf-
fling, but a very fine, clean,

outspoken comedian from the
yester-years who broke the
unwritten law of a period
when American movies al-
lowed the Negro only unim-
portant and inferior parts."

Today Fetchit still re-
sides in the Lake Meadow
neighborhood of Chicago's
South Side.

"I talked to Step, a man
that looks only half his age,

two weeks ago at a night
club In South Bend, where
he was performing his com-
edy routine.

How is he now?

« My financial status,'' he
said, "is that I'm indepen-

on practices which may
cause racial tensions.

So as to leave no doubt
about the positions of Chris-
tians and Jews on racial is-
sues facing St. Joseph Coun-
ty and the Northern Indiana
area, 250 representatives
from worshipping communi-
ties in the five northern
counties met g.t Notre
Dame's Continuing Educa-
tion Center on Thursday
night, January 30th, to com-
mit themselves and hope-
fully, their communities, to
brotherhood of all men
through "Project Commit-
ment."

Project Commitment is a
program for organizing
churchmen for interracial
justice founded three years
ago in Detroit by Joseph
Hansknecht, chairman of die
Roman Catholic Detroit
Archdiocesan Human Rela-
tions Committee. Both the
Detroit Project and another
started in Cincinnati are ec-
umenical among Christians.
The St. Joseph County Proj-
ect is the only one of its
kind, so far, in the United
States, to include represen-
tatives of the Jewish relig-
ion^

•The meeting held Thurs-
day-evening was the result
of discussions and planning
by concerned area citizens
over the last year and one-
half. The present leadership
of Projcct Ccnnr.itecut in-'
eludes: Mr. James P. Dane-
hy, General Chairman. Mr.
Danehy is a co-founder and
past president of the Catholic
Interracial Council, and
presently chairman of the
Human Relations Commis-
sion of the local Catholic
iiocese. Mr. Robert O. La-
ven, Vice-Chairman. Mr.
Laven is a City Councilman
representing the third dis-
trict. Mr. Bowen Kerrihard,
Executive Officer. Mr. Ker-
rihard is presently Program
Director for the South Bend
office of the National Con-
continued on Page 7)

A 20-minute skit "Let's
Get Basic" will be presented
at the 20th Annual Insltute
sponsored by the Women's
Council for Human Relations
Tues., Feb. U, from 9:30
to 3 p.m., at Temple Beth-
El, 305 W. Madison Street,
• South Bend.

Young people appearing in
| the skit and understudies will

dent and I don't need any- I
thing. I'm a poor man but |
a happy man."

Not too poor though.

He wore a leopard skin
"tux" and a gold ring with
a diamond the size of a
silver dollar.

But, nevertheless, Stepin
Fetchit is from another era.
Teenagers, Mack or white,
don't know of him. While I
was watching his show, a
white patron, about 40, told
me, "You can't really be-
gin to understand what a
great man this is or enjoy
him like I can. He's some-
thing out of the past."

be Tom Weissert, Willia
Weymon, Tina Woods, Bruce
DeBoskey, Sue and Dave
Dickerson, Judy Driver, and
Gregory Lauer.

Short talks wiU be given by
four young people during the
morning session on the gen-
eral theme "Youth Tells It
As It Is." Mrs. Guy Cur-
tis, program director, has
announced that four speakers
have been chosen— Mark
Rapalski, Val MaxweU, Joe
Rubin and David Hill.

Rabbi Elliott D. Ro-
senstock of Temple Beth-El
will give the invocation and
welcome. Next, a ten-min-
ute program of music- will
be given by the Washington
High School Glee Club di-
rected by Marilyn Green.
A special guest at the In-
stitute will be Congressman
John Brademas.

Reservations for the noon
luncheon to be served be-
tween the morning and after-
noon sessions should be
(Continued on Page 3)

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