Leigh Touchton Response to Valdosta Daily Times Opinion Column! (They got it wrong again)

October 15, 2009

TO:  Valdosta Daily Times Publisher and Editorial Board!

I take issue with the Wednesday editorial from The Valdosta Daily Times.  The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and NAACP have always been multiracial organizations.  Never have either organization insisted that Black children can only be taught by black teachers.  Both organizations have consistently maintained that our society is pluralistic and diverse and that all races have equal rights and should have equal access to employment, housing, and education.

Never have SCLC or NAACP demanded an all Black school system, instead we have demanded that our teachers and administrators reflect the diversity that is representative of our society.  It is obvious to us that Dr. King's dream has been denied insofar as employment and education int he Valdosta City School system.

In a school system with over 80 percent Black children, approximately 5 percent of their teachers and administrators are Black.  Virtually all of the Valdosta aCity School teachers and administrators are White.  The superintendent is White.  The only two Black administrators have no authority over other people.  The do not een merit a secretary while their White counterparts have secretaries.

White administrators have been hired whose qualifications are inferior to those of Black candidates.  A White principal was hired whose application package did not meet the standards set in place by the VBOE while Black candidates were held to those same standards.  The VBOE consists of five White members and four Black members, with districts drawn in such a way to ensure a White majority even when the city population is predominantly Black. 

The longest serving board member is Black but has been repeatedly passed over for consideration as chairman.  In a school system that is approximately 80 percent Black, nearly 95 percent of the students sent to ISS/OSS/alternative school are Black.  The VBOE under the leadership of Dr. Bill Cason has obviously been practicing racial discrimination in employment and education.

The editorial Board at The Valdosta Daily Times looked at these numbers and concluded that the SCLC and NAACP were being racist for complaining about obvious racial discrimination.  Such an opinion should never have passed editorial review at your newspaper.


LEIGH TOUCHTON
Valdosta Secretary
Valdosta-Lowndes County Branch NAACP

Dr. Patrick George, Open Letter Responds to Valdosta Daily Times Editorial-----against the SCLC, NAACP, Brothers United, ICU, and others.....

October 14, 2009


AN OPEN LETTER TO THE VALDOSTA DAILY TIMES

Dear Valdosta Daily Times Editorial Staff,

I am writing in response to your recent editorial about the Lowndes/Valdosta SCLC and whether its actions are encouraging racial segregation in Valdosta and Lowndes County.    Your editorial is included at the bottom of this letter.

Although I have appreciated the recent work of the VDT, I am sad to say that your comments are misguided and inaccurate, both in terms of Dr. King’s work in the SCLC and our collective racial history.   They also deny the fact that this community does not have to “return to segregation.”  It is already highly segregated.  That reality is evident in terms of where people live in Valdosta/Lowndes County, where they worship, where their kids go to school, what classes kids attend when they do go to school together, who controls area schools, who will graduate, and finally, who will go to college and who will go to jail.  It is also true in terms of the income levels of different racial groups in the area and who has wealth here.  It is true in terms of who runs any significant institution or organization that exercises power in this community, including the Valdosta Daily Times.   If you would like current demographic data on this reality I will be glad to provide it to you.  So we don’t need to return to anything.  We are already there, Although changes have certainly occurred, we remain a highly racially segregated community.   I encourage us all to stop pretending that we are not.

Turning to your other comments, first, let’s be clear, integration and desegregation are two very different things and your editorial fails to make that distinction. It is also a mistake many white people make.   “Integration” was not the goal of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. because he knew it meant Black Americans would no longer control how their children were “educated” and who would be in charge of educating them.  Again, integration was not the goal of Dr. King or the justice movements of the 50’s and 60’s.   What people sought was “desegregation.”  Desegregation efforts were about equal access, equal resources, equal power, and equal control.  What instead happened, and it happened here, was “integration.”  Consequently, Black, segregated schools were closed and Black children were shipped to schools that did not want them and who had no real ties to their segregated communities.  Furthermore, skilled and successful Black administrators and educators from those schools were not hired in mass by these white systems.   Put simply, after years of struggle whites conceded, they “gave in” to integration not equitable desegregation.  As a result Black folks gave up significant control over how their children would be taught and who would teach them.  They also relinquished control over whether or not their educational experience would instill in Black children a sense of worth, pride, value, and place in this nation.   As a result, integration and educational “success” became a matter of “passing” in a white dominated and controlled system.   That educational model remains in place today.

What’s more, and contrary to your romanticized account of our racial history, we need to be clear that Black and White people did not lovingly sit down together in the 50’s and 60’s to earnestly create school systems that would serve all children equally.   White people did not want that or allow that to happen.  What whites instead conceded to was again “integration,” which is simply another word for “assimilation.”   In other words, white America said, “O.k., you’ve complained long enough, we’ll let ‘you’ come to school with ‘our’ children.  We don’t really want to but we will.  Now be like ‘us.’   Learn ‘our’ history, do it our way, and we will ‘tolerate’ you, ……as long as we remain in charge.”  With this historical process in mind, is it any wonder our school systems are failing all across this nation? 

Let’s also be clear that “integration” in Valdosta/Lowndes County was not embraced and it involved a multi-year struggle.   It also was certainly not enthusiastically “heralded” as a way to “level the playing field of education” by white people here.  The opposite actually occurred.  It was resisted locally and had to be federally imposed here in1968-1970, a full 14-16 years after Brown versus Board of Education declared segregated schools unconstitutional.  I encourage you to revisit the archived pages of the Valdosta Daily Times if you doubt what I say.    In fact, not only did Valdosta and Lowndes schools drag their feet when it came to complying with federal law, many white citizens here joined forces and created the Valwood School in protest.  Lowndes County schools were not only sued by the federal Department of Health Education and Welfare, they had to lose  $350,000 in federal funds (Fall of 1968) before they fully complied with federal desegregation law.  With that history in mind, it’s a bit ironic that today we have students attending schools and watching football games in stadiums named after people (e.g. J.L. Newbern and Sonny Martin) who weren’t real excited about Black children attending school with white children.   I don’t know about you but it may be time to change the name of that stadium and a few schools?

As for whether the local chapter of the SCLC has “distorted” Dr. King’s dream and objectives, I encourage you to do more study on Dr. King’s life, philosophy, and movement strategies.  If you do, you will find that he knew there could be no real racial reconciliation and racial harmony without equal control and power.  He knew that no real relationship could ever occur when there is a gross imbalance of power between individuals or groups.  He knew there could be no true “beloved community” if one group felt the need to control another.   He knew we could not “get along” with one another without real justice and equity.

Allow me to offer one more comment on our history and people’s contemporary references to Dr. King.   I find it curious when people now evoke and use the name of Dr. King, or reference his “dream,” to criticize current day social change efforts like the Lowndes/Valdosta SCLC.  This tactic suggests that Dr. King was appreciated and listened to by white people when he was alive.  It suggests that he was not a pain in their side.   This was not the case.   Though some courageous white folk did walk along side Dr. King, most despised him, many called him a “communist” (sound familiar?), and many even celebrated the day his life was ended.  So let’s not forget that when he and others were working to advance the cause of racial justice in this nation they were hated, criticized, judged, and dismissed as “trouble makers” and “outside agitators.”    It is only now, now that he is physically gone that people love him and romanticize his memory.  It is only now that people inaccurately reference him as the model all should use for social change.

In closing, as for the shame you think some of us should feel for wanting a change in our failing school system, please know I don’t feel any.  However, I am sad that drastic measures sometimes have to occur before anything gets the attention it needs. 

At the same time I do feel shame and embarrassment.  I feel ashamed that in 2009 we still have so far to go.  I feel ashamed that the leadership of the only newspaper here clearly doesn’t know their civil rights history or their local racial history yet they think they should speak to both?  I feel shame that for decades the Valdosta Daily Times effectively censored and/or failed to report on the ongoing racial inequalities that plague this community, particularly as they related to our local schools, residential patterns, jails, and businesses.   In fact, many of your advertisers have been the driving force behind the racial segregation we see today?   I feel shame that for decades many of the people I love in this community have sat aside and been silent as injustice has unfolded.  I feel ashamed that we are a community that consistently finds unlimited time and resources for athletics and but our committed educators go without the resources and supplies necessary to educate our children.  I feel ashamed that we can somehow fire a football coach because they lose a few games but we have educational leaders with extensive failing records, over multiple years, and it’s unreasonable to ask for their resignation?   I feel shame that when people and groups work to bring about Dr. King’s Dream of real racial reconciliation and real racial justice they are criticized for “going about the wrong way” by people and organizations that typically ignore these same problems.   Such criticism, without honesty, action or alternatives, simply serves to maintain the status quo.  Or as Dr. King put it, “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.   He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”  Finally, I am ashamed that over the course of the next 16 years best estimates show that 10,000 Black students will not graduate from Valdosta City Schools and many of us don’t seem to care. 

So please know, I do feel shame, not for the reasons you think I should, but I do.  With my shame in mind, I invite you, the editorial staff of the Valdosta Daily Times, to do more to make others aware of our local history and the current, ongoing challenges our community faces.   Please know that you have my full support and assistance in that effort.   It is time we as a community dialog, make others aware of what is unfolding here, and collectively work for a better, more just future. 

My thoughts and prayers are with you all.

Mark Patrick George  PhD

P.S.  In the spirit of love and with all due respect, I offer a few words from Dr. King.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.

Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.

The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be... The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.

I submit that an individual who breaks the law that conscience tells him is unjust and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for law.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

I want to be the white man's brother, not his brother-in-law.

and finally……

If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.

SCLC, NAACP, Brothers United, and Issues Concerning Us (ICU) Valdosta Daily Times Wrong Information!

October 15, 2009


TO: Editors, Message Boards, Blog http://medianeeded.blogspot.com/
and beyond

The Valdosta Daily Times Column by the Managing Editor Kay Harris and Publisher J.H. Sanders on October 14, 2009 shows the narrow mind set, incorrect information and perhaps fueling the race issue in order to discredit the messenger and local organizations in order to blur the vision of the general public---away from the real issues.

I agree with Rev. Dr. Martin L. King Jr. quote you published saying, “I HAVE A DREAM THAT ONE DAY ON THE RED HILLS OF GEORGIA, THE SONS OF FORMER SLAVES OWNERS WILL BE ABLE TO SIT TOGETHER AT THE TABLE OF BROTHERHOOD.”

However the editor and publisher is 100% wrong in spreading venom that the (SCLC, NAACP, Brothers United, and Issues Concerning US (ICU) have distorted the work of Rev. King by saying that whites cannot educate Blacks and Blacks should only be with Blacks?

How have Kings Words been distorted and used in such a hate-filled diatribe against another race as indicated in the Times Column? Why make such FALSE accusations to the general public? Why did not the editor and publisher address the real issues and disgraceful statistics: http://medianeeded.blogspot.com/2009/10/rev-floyd-rose-asks-valdosta-city.html, at Valdosta High School that was so eloquently presented before the Valdosta City School Board? Why did you not mention the 1971 Court Order from the U.S. Justice Department and if it had been complied with since the school has received federal funds? Why omit the extremely low number of Black Teachers in employed etc. Why do the times continue to stir up confusion when there is not need for it? Why and why did you NOT ask why local television stations NOT cover this historical and controversial meetings? Why? What are you trying to do? Let us be real!

Why would you say, “Shame on those who want to turn back the clock, to undo all of the true good that has happened in the last 40 years, and to rip apart the dream of equality that so many have worked so hard to create?” How have Black and White Right people in Valdosta tarnished the dream of Dr. Martin L. King Jr. for which he lived, suffered, and was murdered for?

I ask the publisher and editor to prove their FALSE accusations against local organizations, Black and White Right people in support of Superintendent Bill Cason resignation for NOT allowing Valdosta City School Children to watch President Obama speech on live television.

Moreover, the Times are in NO position to remind anyone of Kings Dream. We are

Living the dream every day and receiving the same condemnation from the media as Dr. King did while he lived.
http://community.freespeech.org/george_boston_rhynes_address_to_valdosta_mayor%2C_council_and_beyond%21_%28city_council_meeting%2C_may_5%2C_2005%29

So please don’t play games, unless you are willing to publish the truth on the field of play. The times quoted one of Dr. King’s famous quotes but here is a few more you may want to publish in the paper;

“Rationalizations and the incessant search for scapegoats are the psychological cataracts that blind us to our sins. But the day has passed for superficial patriotism. He who lives with untruth lives in spiritual slavery. Freedom is still the bonus we receive for knowing the truth. ““…..and that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal.”

“Now it isn't easy to stand up for truth and for justice. Sometimes it means being frustrated. When you tell the truth and take a stand, sometimes it means that you will walk the streets with a burdened heart. Sometimes it means losing a job...means being abused and scorned. It may mean having a seven, eight year old child asking a daddy, "Why do you have to go to jail so much?"

Now since the times editor and publisher apparently have so much hatred and dislike for our 44th president I too will QUOTE Dr. Martin L. King Jr. “We’re not going to win this battle of hate and terror by hating other folks. Hate does not help the hater and it does not help the person who hates. There is something about hate that hurts the hater. Somebody must have the power to transform through love.

You just hate somebody and you are as uncomfortable and as frustrated as the person you hate. There is something about hate that keeps you from standing up straight. And when you hate you cannot see straight. When you hate, you lose your power of objectivity. When you hate somebody, you cannot see them. When you hate strong enough, the ugly becomes beautiful and the beautiful becomes ugly. A good speech becomes a bad speech, and a bad speech becomes a good speech.

When you hate strong enough, hair pins begins to sell for $1.000 and diamond rings for five cents, because that is the wrong price tag on things. Something about hate, that does something to the hater and so our way must be the way of love.” (Martin Luther King Jr.,)

Therefore it is incumbent upon every real patriotic AMERICAN to fully understand. “That hate is a weapon of mass destruction, so don’t participate, and hate will ultimately destroy itself. G.B.R.



GEORGE BOSTON RHYNES (G.B.R.)
Retired United States Armed Forces Veteran
A concerned citizen and brother of humanity