Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 16 May 2002 — Page 18

Page 18 • The Muncie Times • May 16, 2002

•VIOLATED, from page 17 Jones had declined to make a comment on the matter because the issue is still in court. Vernon Jordan Says Blacks Are No Strangers to Terrorism WASHINGTON America is now grappling with the kind of terrorism that Blacks have been forced to endure throughout American history, says Vernon E. Jordan Jr., the high-powered attorney and confidant of former President Bill Clinton. "None of this is new to Black people," Jordan said recently in a speech at Howard University's Rankin Memorial Chapel. "War, hunger, disease, unemployment, deprivation, dehumanization and terrorism define our existence. They are not new to us. "Slavery was terrorism, segregation was terrorism, and the bombing of the four little girls in Sunday School in Birmingham was terrorism. The violent deaths of Medgar, Martin, Malcolm, Vernon Dahmer, Cheney, Schwerner, Goodman were terrorism. And the difference between September 11 and the terror visited upon Black people is that on September 11, the terrorists were foreigners. But when we were terror-

ized, it was by our neighbors. The terrorists were American citizens." Though he is better known as a backroom power broker who sits on a dozen corporate boards and is senior managing director of Lazard, Freres & Co., an international investment bank and financial services firm, Jordan was once head of the National Urban League, executive director of the United Negro College Fund and director of the Voter Education Project for the Southern Regional Council. But he is best known for being First Friend to Bill Clinton, playing golf with him and entertaining his family during the Christmas holidays. In his speech at Howard, Jordan was critical of President Bush without mentioning him by name. "Here at home, we have a president elected by one vote in the Supreme Court, a president who did not really and truly become president until September 11. John Ashcroft, who lost his senate seat to a dead man, is an attorney general who spends more time covering up naked statues than he does uncovering naked injustice. "Our national budget has gone from surplus to deficit. The national economy has gone from robust to bust unemployment, recession, layoffs, plant closings, restructurings and bankruptcies

define the national economy, despite positive predictions and an up-turn in the markets. The Catholic Church is experiencing unprecedented turbulence, and confidence in business leaders and corporations is on a downward spiral." Jordan was particularly critical of the Enron debacle, . which he described as "the worst scandal in the history of corporate America." In more ways than one, it represented White-collar crime. "A measure of Enron is that not one Black executive was high enough to have an equal opportunity to participate in the scandal," Jordan notes. Even though AfricanAmericans have been excluded from many corporate boardrooms and suffered indignities because of their race, they have still serve as paragons for Americans, Jordan says. "Black Americans hold America's values dearly," he explains. "At times, it seemed as if we were the only ones who did. When this nation was in the grip of racism and segregation, it was Black people who reminded America of its basic values of freedom and democracy. It was Black Americans who helped America close the gap between its beliefs and its practices." It is a role that's still being served today. "Now that America is warring on terrorism, it is Black people who remind

America that we know terrorism well," Jordan says. "We know that dangerous rhetoric can lead to acts of lunacy that kill innocents. And we know that the surest defense against terrorism is affirmation of America's basic values, the values we have learned in our churches, the values we have fought and died for in America's every war, even in segregated armies." Speaking directly to the students at Howard University, Jordan says: "You are where you are today because you stand on somebody's shoulders. And wherever you are heading, you cannot get there by yourself. "Elf you stand on the shoulders of others, you have a reciprocal responsibility to live your life so that others may stand on your shoulders. It's the quid pro quo of life." Alabama to Probe Loss of Blackowned Land The Alabama Legislature is setting up a task force to study whether state officials illegally took land from some Black residents during segregation. Governor Don Siegelman has signed a resolution to set up a panel to do the probe. The resolution, introduced by Rep. Thomas Jackson, passed in the House and Senate earlier by voice vote Last year, the Associated

Press documented Black land losses across the South in a series of stories. An NNPA NorthStar Investigative Report detailed abuses in the state of Mississippi. "When facts are presented to the governor and he determines there is an injustice in any way, he believes a wrong should be set right," says Carrie Kurlander, Gov. Siegelman's spokesperson. The 10-member tasT force is expected to be organized by July and report its findings to the legislature in March. It does not have the power to return land. Panel members would be appointed by the governor, legislative leaders, the Legislative Black Caucus and the presidents of three historically Black universities: Alabama State, Alabama A&M and Tuskegee. One of the stories featured in the AP series was about Willie Williams, whose family lost two 40-acre plots to the state in a 1964 court case. The state claimed the property didn’t belong to the family, citing a 1906 federal designation of the acreage as swampland. The AP reported that the family held a deed from 1874 and had records dating from the 1950s to show they had paid taxes on the land for generations. Jackson said he had •BLACK LAND, see page 19