The Reformer, May 25, 1969

              MA YO Elects Officers

JL TkAVEC

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PUBLIC LIBRARY OF SOUTH BEND
122 WEST WAYNE STREET
SOUTH BEND, IND. 46601



REFORME

Vol. 2, No. 25

South Bend, Indiana 46625 15?

May 25, 1969

Working Poor A Tragedy

Newly elected officers of MjLY.O. are from left to
right; Dwight Macon, vice-president; Sherry Barr,
treasurer; Ruby Daniels, secretary; and Dennis Ran-
dies, president. The purpose of M.A.Y.O. (Metho-
dist Advancing Youth Organization) is to promote bet-
ter human relations and social justice.

On Tuesday, May 20th, the
Urban League of St. Joseph
County sponsored a commu-
nity forum on "The Working
and Nonworking Poor."

The following Urban Lea-

gue position paper outlines
the problem.

Probably the most obscure
and least clearly understood
poverty problem in the U.
S. is the problem of the

Youth Community Holds fashion Show

On Saturday, May 10,1969
at 2 p.m. the Youth Com-
munity of the Urban League
of South Bend and St. Joseph
County, Inc. presented "The
New Thrust in Fashions."
This affair was a scholar-
ship benefit sponsored in co-
operation with the Frances
Shop. Proceeds will be pre-
sented to the Urban League
Scholarship Fund.

The show presented both
Youth and Adult models,
male and female. Serving as
Models were members of the
Urban League "family"--
that is, persons who serve
on some of the various com-
mittees that make up the
local league. Also modeling
were several members of
the Frances Shop Jr. Haven
Board.

Hosts and hostesses at
the affair: Larry Harvell,
Dave Nowak, Linda Mc-
Dougal, Ellen Shafer, Paula
V agner, Rhonda Clayton,
Tom Lyon, Jeanette Denny,
and Robbie Manierre.

Miss Sharon Banks, Youth
President, served as Mis-
tress of Ceremonies and
Miss Ruth Gruber of the
Frances Shop served as
Commentator.

Mr. Raymond Kerr, Miss
Carolyn Woolridge, Mrs.
William Demps, Mrs. Alonzo
Wynns, Mrs. James Scott,
Mrs. Paula Johnson, and
Mrs. William Ellison all of
whom are members of the
Adult Advisors Committee,
assisted the youth in various
positions at the affair.

Summer Program
Grant Announced
by Brademas

WASHINGTON, D. C.,
THURSDAY, MAY 15, 1969
A $30,000 grant has been
awarded to South Bend for
special summer programs
for underprivileged youth by
the Office of Economic Op-
portunity, Congressman
John Brademas (D-IND) an-
nounced here today.

The Federal funds have
been granted to ACTION,
Inc., South Bend's commu-
nity action program.

"This grant means that
i, 780 South Bend young
people will have the op-
portunity to enjoy organ-
ized recreation activity
such as sports, field trips
and cultural programs as
well as receive help in loca-
ting summer jobs and par-
ticipate in special ed-
ucation programs this sum-
mer," Brademas said.

The funds will be admin-
istered by Mr. James Gen-
try, the director of ACTION,
Inc. and will serve South
Bend for three months be-
ginning in June.

Pictured here are some of the participants in the Urban League's Youth Com-
munity Style Show held May iOth in the auditorium of the Frances Shop. Left to
right: Mr. Bob Morence, Art Director of the Frances Shop; Mrs. Frances Dixon,
Education: and Youth Director of the Urban League; Mr. Pete Donaldson, member of
the Health and Welfare Committee; Miss Verline Wilson, Youth Community; and
Mr. Herbie Smith, Youth Community. Kioto by Milton Herring.

Christian Churches Unite on Tax
Reform

The National Council of
Churches and the U.S. Cath-
olic Conference have joined
in recommending that Con-
gress eliminate the special
tax exemption of churches in
regard to unrelated business
income. The action was taken
in a joint statement, ap-
proved by the General Board,
which endorsed two pro-
posals for tax reform af-

Negro Heritage
at Layman Chapel

Mrs FitzgeraldSmith(left)
and Dr. Rita Cassidy (right)
examine a Ghanaian fertility
doll. This and other art and
literature were part of the
"Negro Heritage and Cul-
ture" program held at
Layman Chapel, C.M.E. on
Sunday, May 18th. Photo by
Milton Herring.

fecting the churches.

One would eliminate the
exemption of churches from
taxation on unrelated com-
mercial activities. The sec-
ond would eliminate abuse of
debt financing to acquire
commercial income prop-
erty.

The joint statement was
presented to the Ways and
Means Committee of the
House of Representatives
which is currently studying
tax reforms. It recom-
mended that such revisions
should 1) provide adequate
procedural safeguards to
prevent governmental in-
volvement in the internal
and financial affairs of the
churches; 2) preserve the
present exemption of
churches from taxation upon
passive or investment in-
come; 3) protect from taxa-
tion the traditional function
of churches; and 4) provide
a five-year grace period for
the divestiture of existing
unrelated business activi-
ties.

In its own separate state-
ment, the General Board fur-
ther urged that employees—
both lay and clergy- of re-
ligious organizations should
not enjoy special privileges
in regard to any type of taxa-
tion. "If a clergyman re-
ceives a cash allowance for
housing," said the state-
ment, "that amount should
be taxed as part of his in-
come ... If he owns his
own home, he should not
enjoy any reduction in prop-
erty taxes."

Also recommended were
voluntary payments by
churches "in lieu of taxes"
to municipal governments to
defray the costs of the ser-
vices they receive.

More
Inside

working poor. Having a job
in this country doesn't guar-
antee a living wage, yet one
of the most cherished of
American illusions is that
poverty is the end result of
laziness. Too many Ameri-
cans believe that poor people
are poor because they don't
want to work. The facts,
however, are to the contrary.

The figures show that in
1966, 32 percent of all poor
families were headed by peo-
ple who worked fulltime -
which not only says some-
thing about the poor but
about the people who hire
them - as well as about
wage scales and employ-
ment practices. Another 25
percent of poor families
were headed by people who
worked part-time. In other
words, almost 60 percent of
the poor are in families
the head of which works all
or some of the time. Of
the remainder, the vast
majority are either too
young (children) or too old
(the aged) to work.

We in America, cannot
escape the fact that despite
a prolonged period of con-
tinuous economic growth, we
still have more than 30 mil-
lion people living in poverty
in this country, the bulk of
them in families that can be
classified as the working
poor. Only a short time ago,
most of us believed that
emerging general prosperity
would solve the problem but
it has now become obvious
that it will take more than

Calif .Establishes
Black America Day

SACRAMENTO, Calif., -
The California assembly
voted May 8th to designate
the birthday of the Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr., Jan.
14, as Black America Day
in California. The bill was
sent to the Senate on a vote
of 47 to 10.

Pictured here is Dean
James R. Dumpson, former
Commissioner, New York
Department of City Services,
and now Dean, Fordham Un-
iversity School of Soc-
ial Work. Dean Dumpson
spoke twice at the St Jo-
seph County Urban League's
Community Forum on "The
Working and Nonworking
Poor" on Tuesday, May 20th.

great general prosperity to
free these citizens from the
bonds of poverty. We have
discovered that the economic
and social rewards of
general prosperity fall as
unevenly among us as did the
scarcer rewards of the past.

The problem of the work-
ing poor is particularly a-
cute in the black community.
White men cling to the myth
that the black man is poor
because he is lazy. The stat-
istics quoted above apply to
the poor population as a
whole but the fact is that
among the black poor, the
percentage living in families
headed by a working man is
much higher than among the
white poor. The problem of
the working poor, then, is
very particularly a problem
of the black man. In South
Bend, there are an estimated
9,000 families living in
poverty, 2,000 of them black.
The median income for South
Bend is, roughly, $6,682 per
annum as compared with
(Continued on Page 5)

The South Bend-Mishawaka Chapter of the National Conference of Christians and
Jews held its Forty-first Anniversary Dinner cm Wednesday evening, May 21st at
the Indiana Club. Pictured here are this year'sthree Brotherhood Award winners and
the guest speaker at the dinner. Left to right Mr. Van E. Gates, Award winner;
Mr. Don McNeill, guest speaker and former popular radio announcer; Mrs. Helen
S. Arnold, Award winner; and Mr.Louis Piser, Award winner. Photo by Milt Herring.