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The Curry Report
January 13, 2009
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In This Issue
Black Assistant Coach Says White Wife Hampers Promotion
Will Obama Shatter Negative Stereotypes of Black Men?
Despite Racial Leap, Disparities Linger
Why Blacks are Refusing to Condemn Illinois Gov.
Morris Brown Faces Possible Closure
Obama's New Home was Slow to Accept Integration
Black Assistant Coach Says White Wife Hampers Promotion
 
Curry Headshot



By George E. Curry

NNPA Columnist 

The University of Florida's football team made a statement last week when it defeated the University of Oklahoma 24-14 and was declared national champion for the second time in three years. Charlie Strong, the African-American defensive coordinator who kept the Sooners far below their 54 points a game average, made an even louder statement when he declared that despite all of his success at Florida, he has been passed over for head coaching positions because of his interracial marriage.

"Everybody always said I didn't get that job because my wife was white," Strong told a columnist for the Orlando Sentinel. He added, "If you think about it, a coach is standing up there representing the university. If you're not strong enough to look through that (interracial marriage) then you have an issue."

Strong's assertion caught many by surprise. When you look at African-American sports figures - including Charles Barkley and Tiger Woods - many have White wives. So do many big time Black coaches, including Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears. Interracial couples are so commonplace in athletics that one would be forgiven if he or she thought it was a requirement for Blacks participating at the top echelon of sports.

There is no doubt that interracial couples are less of a social taboo today than they were just two decades ago. According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2003, more than three-quarters of all adults - 77 percent - said it is "all right for blacks and whites to date each other." In 1987, that figure was only 48 percent.

But Coach Strong's allegation speaks to a more subtle point. From the days of the Founding Fathers, White males have never objected to interracial liaisons. You can look at the complexion of any group of African-Americans and see that racial lines have been blurred. White men, ranging from the supposedly enlightened Thomas Jefferson to segregationist Strom Thurmond, have had children by Black women, often against their will. The objection has been to the voluntary union between Black men and White women. That has been particularly true in the Deep South.

Gunnar Myrdal's landmark "American Dilemma," written in the mid-1940s, observed the South's "fixation on the purity of white womanhood."  Myrdal explained, "The South has an obsession with sex which helps to make this region quite irrational in dealing with Negroes generally..."

In the Matter of Color, a book written by retired U.S. Appeals Court Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., notes that if a free Black man had sexual relations with a White woman in South Carolina during the Colonial period, he would automatically lose his freedom.

In 1955, Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy from Chicago, was murdered near Money, Miss. for allegedly whistling at a White woman. Although his killers later bragged about killing young Till, they were never convicted.

Until 1966, interracial marriages were illegal in 16 states. That year, in the case of Loving v. Virginia, which involved a marriage between a White man and a Black woman, the United States Supreme Court invalidated anti-miscegenation laws.

According to the Census Bureau, the number of interracial marriages remain relatively small, increasing form less than 1 percent in 1970 to slightly more than 5 percent in 2000. A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2005 found that more than one-fifth of all Americans - 22 percent - say they have a close relative married to someone of a different race. 

So, what was the reaction to Coach Strong's remarks on the Orlando Sentinel's Web site?

 

Blah, blah, blah. I know that it is so politically correct to support inter-racial marriage as if it's perfectly acceptable, but I am personally disgusted by it, and I know plenty of others are too. I also find it ridiculous that such a disproportionate number of these marriages involve rich and famous black males who are big in the world of music, sports, or movies. Apparently black women are not good enough for these guys once they reach a certain status in the world.

-      Fungus

 

 Wow Fungus. Your name is spot-on. You are a Fungus. I am a successful WHITE male, married to a beautiful, successful BLACK female, with a gorgeous little girl who is 3 and another one on the way. Sorry to disgust you, you Neanderthal, with my choice to marry a beautiful woman of a darker skin tone than Barbie. DEAL with it.

- Freekoffhisleash

 

 Stop complaining, he married that snow bunny and he knew the consequences. He is a self-hating black male, that believed he was too good to marry an educated black women.

-      I'm Glad

 

... We have some white haters, and some black haters that say the dude shouldn't have married a white girl. Maybe Coach Strong should say "Thank you Mr. White man for the job that I have, and I enjoy your smell." White man takes us out the jungle and look how we repay him, by creating rap music, dating white women and voting!

                                                         -      Ol' Balls Coach

 

Maybe we haven't made as much progress in this area as we were led to believe.

 

George E. Curry, former editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine and the NNPA News Service, is a keynote speaker, moderator, and media coach. He can be reached through his Web site, www.georgecurry.com.

 

 
 
 
 
Will Obama Shatter Negative Stereotypes of Black Men?
 
Obama Headshot 
 
Tony Pugh
� McClatchy News Service
January 9, 2009
 
WASHINGTON - When gang violence in Chicago exploded in 1992, Jawanza Kunjufu, an education consultant and author, found a church on Chicago's south side and began a mentoring program for troubled black boys.One of the early program volunteers was a tall, lanky community organizer named Barack Obama.
 

"He was very dedicated, easy to work with, a good organizer and a team player," Kunjufu recalled of the idealistic future president.

For two years, Obama helped counsel, tutor and change the way at-risk boys saw themselves and the world around them.

When President-elect Obama takes the oath of office Jan. 20, many are hoping that his historic term likewise will change the way that many Americans view black men - and the way that some black men view themselves.

For years, rap lyrics, music videos and even news coverage have portrayed young black males as urban predators who wear a propensity for crime, violence and other negative behavior like a badge of honor.

That gangsta persona, along with low academic achievement and high incarceration rates, has sown a negative image that, for some, taints the majority of black men for the actions of a few.

Over the next four years, as America becomes accustomed to watching a black man lead the nation, it's natural to assume that some of these racial stereotypes and animosities will subside.

Is it realistic, however?

Robert Entman, a professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University, has studied negative media images of black men. He said that before Obama could break down racial stereotypes, he must lead an economic recovery and deal with race directly - something he's done only under duress thus far.

"It would be a shame if he missed the opportunity to talk about it explicitly," Entman said. "We need more racial dialogue, and he's in a great position to lead it. And I think it's going to take that. I just don't think him being himself will make a big difference in racial attitudes" toward blacks.

That's because many people - white and black - will view Obama as an exception to the stereotype while continuing to believe that the stereotype is accurate.

That tendency is what James Johnson, a psychology professor at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, calls "subtyping." It's simply creating a slightly less negative category to accommodate information that counters the stereotype.

"Many people, especially whites, will subtype Obama. In other words, 'He's not like the average black male,' " Johnson said. "And if you look at him, he's not. He's a Harvard-trained attorney and, let's face it, it'll be very easy to see him as a special case."

It's a phenomenon that even blacks wrestle with, said Courtland Lee, a University of Maryland education professor who's written extensively on issues that affect young black men.

"Among many African-American males that I've talked to, they say, 'Obama got to where he is because he "acts white." ' You can tell them, 'You can be anything you want. We've got Barack Obama in the White House as proof,' and the response comes back, 'Yeah, but he acts white.' "

Johnson agreed. "When I go to schools and talk to young black male scholars, the issues and challenges they face aren't from racism, they're from other black kids who suggest they aren't really 'being black.' To be a 'brother,' you have to be thuggish, so what happens is that many of these kids dumb down to sort of fit in."

Kunjufu, who's written numerous books about raising and educating black boys, said viewing academic success as a goal only for nonblacks was a form of self-hatred.

"The billion-dollar question is 'Will the Barack Obama phenomenon change this concept?' Because I'm an optimist, I'm going to say yes. I think many African-Americans will feel a lot more comfortable pursuing academic interests because of what's happening with Barack Obama becoming president. There's no longer a ceiling anymore. The sky's the limit."

Reaching those heights will require much work, however.

Statistics compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation bear that out:

  • Black males ages 15 to 29 make up 14 percent of all young men in that age group but account for more than 40 percent of prison inmates.
  • The percentage of young black men in prison is nearly three times that of Hispanics and nearly seven times that of white men.
  • Less than 8 percent of young black men are college graduates, compared with 17 percent of whites and 35 percent of Asians.
  • The unemployment rate for young black men is typically more than twice the rate for white, Hispanic and Asian men.
  • Young African-American men die at a rate that's at least 1.5 times the rate of young white and Hispanic men, and almost three times the rate of young Asian men.

Brian Smedley, a vice president at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a liberal research center on issues that affect African-Americans, said the data reflected a crisis among black men that was exacerbated by a lack of opportunity and structural inequality in schools, housing and jobs.

Obama was reluctant to address issues of racial inequality during his campaign, and many think that if he focused attention on the plight of young black men, he'd face cries of racial favoritism.

"Anything he does that looks in the eyes of white America like he's helping black people is going to backfire politically," said Lee, of the University of Maryland. "That's just the reality of it.

Smedley and Kunjufu think that Obama can do so without a backlash, however.

"If he frames it as an issue of expanding opportunity to all and directing resources and opportunities to communities that are most disenfranchised," Smedley said, "he could do that in a way that could enjoy broad support across the country, because opportunity is such a deeply held American value."






Despite Racial Leap, Disparities Linger

 
Black and Whire hands
 
 
By Raj Ghosal 
(c) Raleigh News and Observer 

January 6, 2009

 

CHAPEL HILL - When Barack Obama takes office Jan. 20, the United States will mark an incredible milestone. Had Obama's parents lived in some parts of the country when they met in 1960, their marriage would not even have been legal, due to state laws against interracial marriage. Americans should be immensely proud that the child of an interracial white/black marriage is attaining the presidency a single generation after the end of legal segregation.

 

It is important, however, that we be careful about what lessons we take from this milestone. Assuming that an Obama presidency signals that racial equality has been achieved would be a serious mistake.

In many significant ways, racial minorities, especially African-Americans, remain disadvantaged in American society. A wide array of social science research over the past decade points out some of these disparities:

* African-Americans are still discriminated against in the job market. A 2003 experimental audit study by Princeton University sociologist Devah Pager found that white applicants who admitted to serving time in jail for a drug-related felony got called back for job interviews at a higher rate than black applicants with no criminal records. That same year, two Harvard University economists found that applicants with "black-sounding" names like Lakisha and Jamal had to send in 50 percent more applications than identically qualified applicants with "white-sounding" names to get the same number of callbacks.

* The average black family has less than one-fifth the wealth of the average white family. Even a black family making $50,000 a year has, on average, about half the wealth of a white family making $50,000 a year. This is not because black families save less -- they don't -- but because wealth accumulates over generations. Black Americans have been legally entitled to the civil rights needed for equal opportunities to pursue wealth for a mere two generations. This unequal legacy results in black families having fewer resources to help send their children to college, perpetuating a cycle of inequality.

* Beginning in the 1980s, the number of Americans in jail began to skyrocket. This increase was largely driven by more African-Americans being incarcerated as part of the escalating war on drugs. Despite a wide array of evidence that whites and blacks use drugs at similar rates, African-American men are now arrested for drug crimes at three times the rate of white men and incarcerated for drug crimes at 10 times the white male rate.

* Even in matters of life and death, the law is not color-blind. A 2006 study by Stanford psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt and her colleagues showed that how stereotypically "black" a convicted killer looks has a significant effect on whether that person is sentenced to death, with dark-skinned African-Americans receiving death sentences most often.

What does this all mean? The persistence of racial disparities in a country that has elected a black man to its highest office suggests an important lesson. We should celebrate the ongoing decline of racial bigotry but should not confuse this with the end of either subconscious or systemic racism.

Subconscious racism -- negative beliefs about minorities perpetuated through our media and other social institutions -- may help explain why black Americans are still denied equal opportunity at work. Some experimental research (Google "Implicit Association Test") suggests that most white Americans have subconsciously negative views of blacks. Even white Americans who do not think of themselves as bigoted might hire an underqualified white job applicant over a qualified black applicant if they have internalized common negative stereotypes of African-Americans.

Meanwhile, systemic racism, encompassing things like racial wealth inequality that has been passed on for generations and the much harsher sentences meted out for crack possession than powder cocaine possession, continues to perpetuate racial inequality, even as overt bigotry wanes.

There is room for disagreement among reasonable people about how these problems should be addressed. For example, some analysts believe that affirmative action based on socio-economic status is the best solution to the racial wealth gap, while others argue that this kind of race-blind affirmative action would not do enough to address ongoing discrimination.

However, there should be no debate over whether racial inequality persists and remains a significant force even after Obama's win: It does. As we celebrate how far we have come in less than half a century, we should not forget that we are still a society that falls short of the ideal of equal opportunity for all.

All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be published, broadcast or redistributed in any manner.

 

Raj Ghoshal, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at UNC-Chapel Hill, teaches courses on social inequality and race.

 





 

Why Blacks are Refusing to Condemn Illinois Gov.  
 
Ill. Rep. Milton Patterson 
Illinois Rep. Milton Patterson 
 
By Mary Mitchell
Columnist 

� Chicago Sun-Times

January 10, 2009

 

African Americans who are supporting impeached Gov. Blagojevich aren't ignorant.

Nor are these voters more tolerant of corruption than other people.

It should come as no surprise that African-Americans like Milton Patterson are remaining loyal to a politician like Rod Blagojevich. Patterson cast the lone vote against impeaching the embattled governor.

 

In fact, the lone vote against impeachment that was cast by state Rep. Milton Patterson probably best reflects the will of his constituents.

Patterson represents the South Side community that includes Englewood.

"I went by my own gut feeling, simple as that," Patterson told a Chicago Sun-Times reporter.

"If the government is going to indict ... let them do that," he said.

Since the criminal complaint against Blagojevich was announced, the mantra in the African-American community has been the governor is "innocent until proven guilty."

Indeed, I've been dodging shoes for just suggesting that Blagojevich should be held to the same standard as police officers and teachers.

After all, community activists have demanded that police officers accused of abusive behavior be taken off the street. And parents would not tolerate a teacher in the classroom who has a cloud of sexual misconduct hanging over his or her head.

But African Americans are a fiercely loyal group when it comes to supporting those in political leadership.

I know that is a sweeping generalization, and someone is going to yelp at me for making it.

But it is rare for the black community to turn its back on a politician who is viewed as "inclusive."

Former President Bill Clinton is a case in point. During the Monica Lewinsky scandal, African Americans were among his most ardent supporters.

Takes tough stands

Although Blagojevich was often at odds with House Democrats, few black elected officials have publicly blamed the governor for the ongoing scandal.

But he has had run-ins with black elected officials over the budget and has been accused of reneging on promises he has made to provide funding for pet projects.

At the same time, Blagojevich didn't pass up an opportunity to show ordinary black folks that he is a friend.

When fire destroyed the landmark Pilgrim Baptist Church, within days, Blagojevich announced that the state would provide a $1 million state grant to help to rebuild the "non-church" portions of the building.

With his trademark dramatic flair, Blagojevich donated $1,000 of his own money toward the rebuilding while attending an event at another black church.

It wasn't unusual for Blagojevich to jump into the pulpit at a black church and join in the gospel singing.

We saw that same Blagojevich on Friday, when he appeared at a press conference with a lineup of ordinary citizens who have benefitted from his health reforms.

The obvious exploitation was shameful.

But Blagojevich has also taken some tough stands on controversial issues involving race.

For instance, in 2006, he came under fierce fire for his appointment of Claudette Marie Johnson, the chief of protocol for the Nation of Islam, to a state panel combatting discrimination and hate crimes.

He refused to back down.

Politically honest

Friday, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan seemed to be returning the favor.

In a radio interview on WVON-AM (1690), Farrakhan pointed out that Illinois has a "culture of corruption" but declined to condemn Blagojevich.

"I would say that if in America, a man is innocent until proved guilty by a jury of his peers, it is sad that even the criminal complaint took on a circus atmosphere of destroying a man," Farrakhan said.

"Regardless to what you think, if you think this is a nation of laws, then the process should be allowed to work itself through before judgment is arrived at."

Frankly, Blagojevich is a brilliant politician, and like all brilliant politicians, he knows how to manipulate the emotions of voters.

You also have to consider the relationship between the black community and the criminal justice system.

Too many black families have been nearly bankrupted trying to defend loved ones against false charges.

Too many black families have been destroyed because a loved one has spent decades in prison on a wrongful conviction.

Patterson, the lone dissenter, said he isn't "comfortable" casting an affirmative vote for impeachment.

Patterson's vote probably wasn't politically correct.

But there's no question in my mind that it was politically honest.

  


 

Morris Brown Faces Possible Closure

 
Morris Brown College
 

By Alice Gordon

� The Atlanta Progressive News

January 7, 2009

 

 (APN) ATLANTA -- On Saturday, January 3, 2009, Morris Brown College held their second fundraiser in two weeks in order to pay a water bill to the City of Atlanta.

The City of Atlanta has stepped up its aggressive collection of water bills across the city in recent weeks, with the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless another institution also threatened with water turn-off.

Judge Henry M Newkirk has allowed the school, having paid off over $160,000 in recent payments, to continue water services until February 17, 2009.

At that point they must pay the remaining $380,000 water bill.

Yesterday, January 06, 2009, the school barely avoided one of its buildings, Jordan Hall, being auctioned off. The school has fallen behind on its construction bonds, but the court agreed to give the parties another month to see if they can come to an agreement.

Meanwhile, the school raised $125,000 in just four days leading up to the recent rally, much of it from individuals, which was considered cause for optimism.

The alumni and staff are optimistic because the rally on Saturday raised $25,000.

"This is not a problem; it is just a challenge they are having right now in regards to the water bill," Dr. Vivian El-Amin Johnston, Vice President of Student Affairs, told Atlanta Progressive News.

"The Board of Trustees is very committed and optimistic about being able for pay off their debts. There is an 11-step process for getting back our accreditation and we have completed 10 of them. The last step has to do with financial accountability and we should be able to reapply for accreditation in 2009," Rhonda Copenny, Board of Trustees, said in a phone interview.

Yet, the school owes $32 million to its creditors. Much of that accumulated after the school became ineligible to provide students with federal student grants and loans.

Money for the school has been coming from tuition and private individuals.

"I am giving support because they are financially strapped. Me and my little group tried to raise money to help them out," Don Phillip, a rock producer at the event, told APN.

"Basically people need to come together as one and help out each other. By us coming out here we are giving people hope and faith that it can be done," Lil' Buck Smith, a rap artist, said.

In a recent rally by the Georgia Black Legislative Caucus held at the Georgia Capitol, State Sen. Emmanuel Jones and Rep. Calvin Smyre pledged $5,000 each to held Morris Brown.

However, these are desperate financial conditions for a college of this stature.

Morris Brown was the first college in Georgia started by African Americans in 1881. It offered all levels of education until it became a University in 1913. One of the things that distinguishes Morris Brown from many other historically Black colleges is that it was started not only for Blacks, but by Blacks.

It had a mission to educate the poorest, most underprivileged Blacks.

Now this mission cannot be accomplished without restoration of government funding or accreditation.

Prior to losing its accreditation, it was one of the four historically Black colleges in the Atlanta University Center, along with Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, and Spelman College.

Graduates include civil rights leaders Hosea Williams and Rev. CT Vivian, and four-time gold medal Olympian Angelo Taylor, who has himself donated $10,000.

Another graduate is former State Sen. Donzella James, who, as previously reported on Atlanta Progressive Blog, may be re-seeking her State Senate seat. The seat will likely become vacated by its current occupant, State Sen. Kasim Reed, due to his expected run for Mayor of Atlanta.

"Everyone seemed to work well together," James recalled. "Everyone was always willing to help, get someone to help tutor you, people to help study together. It was always like, what do you need help with? Okay, come over here."

"Most campuses, people dared ahead in their own work," James said, adding at Morris Brown, "Everyone seemed to have a lot of camaraderie with other students. I go on some of the campuses and people barely look at each other. At Morris Brown, it was like hi, hi, hi."

Many say the disastrous problems of Morris Brown date back to the administration of former President Delores Cross and Financial Aid Director Parvesh Singh.

They lost the accreditation of the school in 2002 due to financial problems, shortly after it was discovered the officials engaged in fraudulent government billing for students who were not enrolled and for those who dropped out.

The school was $6 million in debt in 2001.

Losing the ability to get government loans combined with lost accreditation has exacerbated the financial problems of the institution.

"Most of time when a school loses its accreditation, it's not because of some management problems, but because students are not learning and they're not educating students," James said.

"They had a strong enrollment, a strong graduation rate," James said.

James says the college was always at a disadvantage because it would make arrangements for students who were unable to pay for the full cost of their education.

"The financial problems came because many students couldn't get there and they always tried to find ways to get them there," James said.

"They worked with you on your finances. It would be ironic they later would lose their accreditation over money. They allowed so many people there who couldn't afford to go. They reached out to people and allow them, they were always ready to work something out to assist people in getting to school," James said.

Morris Brown also took in students who were less academically prepared and could not get into other colleges.

"A lot of people didn't make it [at other schools], they had to have an A average, they had to make so much on the SAT or they wouldn't even be looked at," James said.

"We know that we are looking for large corporate support. We are looking for large faith-based support. This is the beginning of a movement," Stanley Pritchett, President of Morris Brown College, said.

"How can a college sponsored by the African Methodist Episcopal Church be lacking in faith based support? How could corporate support have taken this long to solicit?" asked a staff member who asked to remain anonymous in an interview with the APN.

Some attribute current problems to conspiracy.

"The pipes underground are busted. The City hasn't fixed them. They are going to try to sell this property to developers," General Larry Platt, long-time civil rights activist and resident of Palmer House, said.

"There's a lot of beautiful prime land and buildings on the campus of Morris Brown. It's just been said some of the major corporations, like Coke and Ted Turner... have been trying to buy that for years and years, right there where the dome is. They tried to use some imminent domain on the campus for MARTA some time," James said.

"It's right next to Vine City. It borders it," James said.

Broader changes in US society over the last century have also contributed to the woes of this school.

Civil rights legislation opened options for Black students and this reduced some revenue for historically Black colleges.

Also, the amount of government money for all college education was sharply reduced under the Reagan Administration.

"I don't think it is just the African American colleges. I think Caucasian colleges are also struggling to a degree. The entire economy is struggling. Whole cities are bankrupt and the City of Atlanta is trying to collect on its bills," Dr. Johnson added.

For now, Morris Brown is reopened for the Spring 2009 term. They currently have about 100 students enrolled, James said.

While Morris Brown students are still not eligible for federal financial aid, the Georgia legislature last year allowed students there to again receive the statewide Hope Scholarship, towards their education.

(This article contains additional reporting by Matthew Cardinale, News Editor)

 

 
 
Obama's New Home was Slow to Accept Integration
 
Washington DC at Night 
 
 David Lightman

� McClatchy Newspapers

January 7, 2009

 

WASHINGTON - Not too long ago, Barack Obama would have found when he moved his family to Washington that his daughters couldn't attend the same schools that white children could. They couldn't try on clothes or shoes at most local department stores or eat at downtown lunch counters. They couldn't see a play at the National Theatre or a movie just a block or two from the White House.

If a family pet died, it would have to be buried at a blacks-only cemetery.

"The owner stated that he assumed the dogs would not object, but he was afraid his white customers would," said a 1948 report on "Segregation in Washington."

Washington was largely a segregated city until the mid-1950s, a place where new students at Howard University were "briefed on what we could and couldn't do," recalled Russell Adams, who's now a professor emeritus of Afro-American studies.

"If you go downtown, don't try to eat," he said. "And don't try to buy stuff you didn't need, like shoes."

The major reason for the segregation was less geography than politics and custom. Congress ruled the city, and the key committee chairman or members were often white Southerners who boasted back home about their ability to keep the races separate. Sen. Theodore Bilbo, D-Miss., a member of the Ku Klux Klan and the author of "Take Your Choice, Segregation or Mongrelization," headed the District of Columbia panel from 1945 to 1947.

Washington didn't have the widespread Jim Crow laws that ruled much of the Deep South; in fact, when the district briefly had home rule after the Civil War, laws gave blacks equal rights in public places. The laws were forgotten, however, and the city "operated as if there were Jim Crow laws," said Jane Freundel Levey, a historian for Cultural Tourism DC.

Blacks could get served at lunch counters and cafeterias, but they had to stand to eat. At the leading department stores, clerks "turn their backs at the approach of a Negro," the 1948 segregation report found. Most downtown hotels wouldn't rent rooms to blacks.

Some laws and rules separating blacks and whites were on the books. Schools were segregated. The segregation of federal offices - as well as restrooms and cafeterias - became widespread during the Woodrow Wilson administration, starting in 1913. In some post offices, partitions were erected to keep the races apart at work.

Union Station, National Airport and the city's streetcars and bus lines were integrated, however.

Housing covenants barred blacks from many neighborhoods, often squeezing them into substandard housing. A survey included in the 1948 segregation report found that black families were nine times as likely as whites to live in homes that needed major repairs.

The Washington Real Estate Board Code of Ethics put its view in stark terms in 1948: "No property in a white section should ever be sold, rented, advertised or offered to colored people." The Supreme Court declared such restrictive covenants unenforceable that year.

The barriers began to break down in the years after World War II, but slowly.

Actors' Equity pressured its members not to perform at segregated venues, such as the city's historic National Theatre.

"We state now to the National Theatre - and to a public which is looking to us to do what is just and humanitarian - that unless the situation is remedied, we will be forced to forbid our members to play there," the group, which represents thousands of actors and stage managers, announced in 1947.

The National, the city's premier live stage, closed in 1948 rather than integrate and showed movies instead. It reopened as a live theater four years later, under new owners who were willing to desegregate.

Up the street, blacks couldn't go to many movie houses. First-run films were screened in a strip of theaters along or adjacent to F Street Northwest, then the city's major commercial street, while theaters on U Street Northwest, the heart of the black community's commercial district, showed the same films to black audiences.

Many hotels welcomed blacks only if they were from other countries.

"Our visitor's best chance (to get a hotel room) would be to wrap a turban around his head and register under some foreign name," the 1948 segregation report said. "This maneuver was successfully employed not long ago at one of the capital's most fashionable hotels by an enterprising American Negro who wanted to test the advantages of being a foreigner."

Things began to change in 1950, triggered when 86-year-old Mary Church Terrell, a civil rights activist, tried to get served at Thompson's Cafeteria on 14th Street Northwest, about two blocks from the White House.

In an affidavit, Terrell recalled her experience:

"The manager told us that we could not be served in the restaurant because we were colored," she said, and she left the restaurant along with three friends and went to court. Terrell targeted other restaurants, and she won a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 1953 that segregated eating-places in Washington were unconstitutional because the "lost laws" of the Reconstruction era were still in force.

Still, blacks often were made to feel unwelcome.

Carolivia Herron remembered going to Woolworth's lunch counter as a little girl, and the server immediately asked her whether she wanted some watermelon. No, Herron replied, she wanted a grilled cheese sandwich.

A black woman who wanted to try on a hat in a department store would be given a hairnet first; whites wouldn't. Blacks weren't allowed in fitting rooms and usually couldn't try on shoes.

Blacks and whites attended separate and supposedly equal schools until the Supreme Court's May 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. Patricia Tyson went to the all-black four-room Military Road School, five miles from the White House.

Teachers signaled the start of class by ringing handbells, and the students were in awe of what Tyson recalled was an "electric bell" up the road at the white school.

The racial barriers gradually collapsed, though two glaring exceptions remained.

Glen Echo Park was the region's premier amusement park, where people could take the long streetcar ride on a hot summer day, swim in the Crystal Pool and dance the night away. Blacks were excluded until 1961, however.

Sports stadiums weren't officially segregated, and baseball's Washington Senators got their first black player in1954, seven years after the sport was integrated. The owner, though, was seen as cool to black players.

The Senators moved to Minnesota for the 1961 season, and owner Calvin Griffith reportedly told a local Lions Club in 1978 that he'd chosen that location "when we found out that you only had 15,000 blacks here." And, he said, "We came here because you've got good, hardworking white people here."

Football's Washington Redskins didn't have a black player until 1962, and the team's fight song, "Hail to the Redskins," included a line urging the players to "fight for old Dixie."

Today, fans are urged to "fight for old D.C."

 


Speaking Engagements
Microphone
 
January 13-16, 2009
Wall Street Project
New York, N.Y.
 
February 6-8, 2009
Anchorage, Alaska
 
April 25, 2009
Barber-Scotia College National Alumni Association
Concord, N.C.
 
May 8-9, 2009
Knoxville College Board of Trustees
Knoxville, Tenn.
 
June 4-7, 2009
Urban Financial Services Coalition
Dearborn, Mich.
 
June 10-14, 2009
100 Black Men of America
New York, N.Y.
 
June 21, 2009
Old Storm Branch Baptist Church
North Augusta, S.C.
 
June 24-27, 2009
The PowerNetworking Conference
Atlanta, Ga.
 
July 18-21, 2009
National Speakers Association Convention
Phoenix, Ariz.
 
August 6-9, 2009
National Association of Black Journalists
Tampa, Fla.
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Books by George E. Curry 
 
Emerge
 
The Best of Emerge Magazine
Edited by
George E. Curry
 
"This whopper of an anthology perfectly captures black life and culture...This retrospective volume is journalism at its best: probing, controversial and serious...Although Emerge was devoted unequivocally to African-Americans, Curry's vision and editorship of this book will instruct, provoke and sometimes entertain or inspire any reader."
- Publishers Weekly

AAction
 
 
 The Affirmative Action Debate
Edited by George E. Curry

"... Collects the leading voices on all sides of this crucial dialogue...the one book you need to understand and discuss the nation's sharpest political divide."
 


 
Gaither
 
 
 Jake Gaither: America's Most Famous Black Coach
By George E. Curry

"Curry has some telling points to make on the unlooked for effects of court-ordered desegregation."
- The New York Times
 
"... an excellent example of sports writing."
- Library Journal