sident of the Greater Little Rock Ministerial Association, said: This may Ire looked back upon by future historians as the turning point for good of race relations in this country. 10. Memphis and the Triumph of the Spirit THERE had never been a moment like this one. Time stopped. Everything stopped. And every man and woman living at that terrible time would be able to tell you until the end of their time what they were doing and where they were on Events in African-American History Thursday, April 4, 1968, when word came that Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. The response in Black and White America was tumultuous. Performances, plays, meetings, baseball games were cancelled, and men and women walked aimlessly through the streets, weeping. There were tears, rivers of tears, and there was also blood. For Black communities exploded, one after another, like firecrackers on a string. Some 46 persons were killed in uprisings in 126 cities, and federal troops were mobilized to put down rebellions in Chicago, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. lb counteract this fury, and to express their sorrow, Americans of all races and creeds joined forces in an unprecedented tribute to a Black American. Resident Lyndon B. Johnson declared a national day of mourning and ordered U. S. flags to fly at half-mast over U. S. installations at home and abroad. On the day of the funeral Tuesday, April 9 more than 200,000 mourners followed Kings coffin, which was carried through the streets of Atlanta on a wagon, borne by two Georgia mules. Eighteen years later, the spirit and the truth of Martin Luther King Jr. triumphed when he became the second American citizen (with George Washington) to be celebrated in a personal national holiday. 137 Article 30 -------------------------- BLACK AMERICANS: THE NEW GENERATE Generational Shift of Black Leaders Detroit s Best Days Are Still Ahead, Say City s Young Black Activists Keith Henderson Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor DETROIT Detroit has the largest proportion of African-Americans of any major city in the United States. Nearly 80 percent of its residents are black. The same black mayor, Coleman Young, has run the city for the past 20 years. His tenure has been a constant struggle to rescue Detroit from the economic decline caused by shrinkage in the US automobile industry. Twenty-five years after riots scattered many white residents to the suburbs, the city is typically described as a shriveled core surrounded by relative prosperity Crime in Detroit is endemic; gun-toting youngsters regularly kill each other. According to some of its most prominent young leaders, however, Detroit is not inexorably collapsing in on itself. They have a determined optimism about the city that defies the statistics about population loss and unemployment, as well as the boarded-up store fronts, weed-filled lots, and other daily reminders of decay. The Rev. Wendell Anthony, a United Church of Christ minister who was recently elected president of the De Publishing Soc^ety^T^ghts^rese^vecT r/S^a<7 Science March 8,1993, pp. 9-12. 138 troit branch of the National Associa tion for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), says "Detroit has not seen its best days." The "media image" of the city, Mr. Anthony says, does not account for the substantial talents and abilities of its citizens. Anthony's point is bolstered by Melvin J. Hollowell, Jr., a lawyer in his mid-30s who puts in 12 hours or more of pro bono (unpaid) work for the NAACP each week. Mr. Hollowell's firm Lewis, White & Clay is the largest black-owned law firm in the country, he says, with 35 lawyers at its Detroit headquarters and in Washington. While his professional specialty is bond counseling for cities, Hollowell's passion is clearly civil rights. He is currently shepherding a discrimination lawsuit against the carinsurance industry through the state courts. I believe people should be charged based on how they drive, not where they live," he says. The case plunges into what Mr. Hollowell calls "the new civil rights arena." Such cases "will make us get into the guts of how things work," says the attorney. He sees banking practices, which put hurdles before black homeowners or businesspeople who want loans, as another part of this "arena." Hollowell has an eye on the politi- cal arena, too. He is "in tl become US attorney in E like many other young bl sionals "Buppies" Holl his wife live in the city, grew up. Their five-year-tends a private school called Nataki Talibah. Li the Detroit public schools sizes African culture. From the one-story, gol angle of his Fellowship McNichols Road, Anthor own African-flavored 5 grams Isuthu and Inton (African) terms for comin hood and womanhood, grams, which include youngsters aged 6 to 18, mium on helping the c serving the community. Despite the low incon Detroit residents, the cit American community ma impressive fund raising, the local NAACP with 2 bers, by far the largest bi US holds a Freedom F for some 10,000 guests, which attracts wide cor port, brings in more tha: for scholarships and ott programs. But that shoul start, says Anthony. "If Freedom Fund dinner, W' a grass-roots breakfast." 1993 by The Christian Science He worries about a gap between Lent leaders in the community Ce mass of people struggling to Lafloat in Detroit's e^^ Ice To solve the city s problems, irony says, "we must work in joaJitionwith others" businesspeople government, people of all races. But the prerequisite for progress, he yys, is a drawing together of the city's black population itself. Institutions of government may have to change. Keith Butler, another prominent young black minister before he became the first Republican elected to Detroit's City Council in decades, says the city has to lighten its tax burden before it can hope to retain the businesses it has, much less attract new ones. Also, the crime problem has to be attacked with a larger, revitalized police force, Mr. Butler says-some-thing that could be possible, he adds, if inefficiency were rooted out of city government. 30. Black Americans Butler hopes for a changing of the guard in City Hall this year. After 20 years, he says, the Young administration "has run out of steam." Anthony defends the mayor, while noting that "within any group, you always have another generation coming up." "I don't like the old-guard, new-guard split," he says. "There's only one guard, guarding against racism and deprivation, regardless of age, gender, or ethnicity." The Rising Generation of Leaders Comes From Diverse Backgrounds James H. Andrews Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor BOSTON When Benjamin Hooks retires this month as executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (N A At I ), fe event will mark another milestone in a generational shift that is taking place in black leadership in the United States. Those mentioned to succeed him-including Randall Kobmson, executive director of Trans Africa, and Jesse Jackson are half a generation younger than Mr. Hooks, who is 68. 1 looks belongs to a generation of black Americans who wrought a historic civil rights revolution in the country. Now, many major figures of that generation either are gone (Thur-gd Marshall most recently) or like Hooks are what Washington Post columnist Juan Williams calls "graying revolutionaries." As their ranks thin, a new genera tion of African-Americans is assuming positions of leadership not only in civil rights organizations, but also in politics, business, academia, and the arts. While black scholars agree that this transition is occurring, they point out that the leadership structure in black America is changing in other respects as well. "The civil rights movement embedded reforms in political and legal institutions," says Prof. Ron Walters, by Income (In percent) Je NAACP, the Notionol Urban League, 7^ and CORE ore useful to blacks.' 90 86 87 of1'ob the NAACP, the ^m^ung for black civil rightsf' sat 65 62 57 W-W 10-15K 15-30K 30-50K 50K+ a GANNOT NeWSMK*. im 33 WHO SPiAKS FOR How Hoda regard the National Association for the Advancement ot Colored People (NAACP), the National Urban league, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLQ, and the Congress of Rosai Equality (CORE): . , Rich or poor, block Americans be-lievethat the major avi![rights organizations are useful to Wa 5 < Jd do a good job to donation. (See charts ot left.) But many AfricamAmencons, especially younger ones, believe that help blacks get jobs and to bdd unity within the block communrty. (See charts at right.) Responses by Age (in percent) -What type of job are the NAACP, the National Urban League, SCLC, and CORE doing in making sure blocks get decent employment? Poor 62 Good 3= 39 4445 41 "What type of job are Je J National Urban league, SOC and CORt do. g in building unity in the black communrty? Poor 61 59 57 ,0 18^4 25-34 3>54 55- Total . , of 1 211 black Americans SJdforlhe Detroitligand Gannett News Service, Nov. 1b". ____________ 139 6. AFRICAN AMERICANS chairman of the political science department at Howard University in Washington. "Consequently, black leadership has shifted in part from ministers and civil rights activists to government officials." Arvarh Strickland, a professor of history at the University of Missouri, Columbia, similarly notes that whereas the earlier black leaders came heavily from churches, today many leaders are coining from business and the professions as blacks have found greater opportunity in those fields. "The leadership spectrum has broadened," Dr. Strickland says. Some black scholars say that, in contrast to many generational shifts, younger black leaders today largely share the perspectives of their predecessors. "The ideas [regarding the place of blacks in America] being brought forward by younger leaders are not that different," says political science Prof. Ron Brown of Wayne State University in Detroit. "Incorporation is still the goal." According to Professors Brown, Walters, and Strickland, such developments as blacks' growing focus on African culture, the creation of magnet schools designed to appeal to black students, and the growth of black suburbs do not betoken a retreat from the goal of integration. "Blacks, like other groups, enjoy being with their own people," Walters notes. "But they still want free access to all aspects of the American culture and economy." But if younger African-Americans generally share common ideals with their elders, many young that black leaders should what less on civil rights a economic and social issu education, and drug e charts.) While the civil rights lea doors for black people American life, Mr. Wi their triumphs also "slov ment of the next genera leaders. . . . The new ge been inhibited from p forward for fear of appe travene the honor due leaders." Today, however, with of the guard, younger A icans are putting their on