Vel Phillips Papers (Teaching, Box 3)

to learn about the men who like Vel Phillips tryed to help and show the light to their people. To my own personal opinion none of the black leaders can surpass the fortitude and vigilance of the greatest of black leaders, Malcolm X. He not only preached and taught the idea of equality for all men, he worshipped it and nobody could be so devoted. The stereotype image that black is bad and white is good became evident to me even more after meeting Ms Phillips. It amazed me that even her own sons were involved with this manifestation that has developed since anyone can remember. For this type of feeling to be so deep rooted within the people of our nation, I can see why even children, who are unawere of racism are touched also by the discrimination that exists. It was interesting to find out also that Ms Phillips knew so many important and prominent people in black politics. Her opinion of these people certainly must be regarded as being justified. As far as giving the negros the "edge" over whites because of the events that have happened previously in American history. I drastically disagree with such an idea. This is not considering all men equal and this is waht must be done if we are to wipe out ill feelings amongst us. It became obvious to me that its not always the white man that has kept the blacks down but simply his own ignorance of the fact that he is not inferior and had the same rights as anyone else. These are in essence what the black leaders were trying to tell the blacks but I guess its hard to break a feeling that has lasted so harshly for so many years. I do not like the idea and the feeling the class gave that white and black man are so different because I truly believe they aren't and shouldn't be considered as such. All in all I guess this class just made me think a little more seriously, truly more seriously on what can be done about this profound problem of racial discrimination.

for me to find a copy; however, I did xerox my chapter.

Our talks with Vel Phillips covered the topic of "Black Politics". We learned some of the blacks ideas (goals) and feelings. I found out the true meanings to some titles, such as "Uncle Tom" or "Ceremonial Negro Leader." This told me also when and who these titles can apply to. We discussed four men who are well known blacks in politics. I thought it was very interesting reading about these men because I didn't have any realization of black politics or black political power. The thing I learned about best was Vel Phillips. I felt it was very interesting listening to her talk to us and tell us her views on different topics.

I don't think I'll change much of the January term setup but I would change some plans for this course. I would have liked to have talked more about Vel Phillips and William Law. We didn't really learn about the people who came to visit, only their fields. I thought the

Mike Platt

a great profit on a [illegible] they must be the only ones making it and it must be a item that the public wants. This great profit however is only a temporary thing because when other companies start to produce it then competition starts again and lowers the price of it. A good example of this is the new trend in [illegible] calculators. [illegible], one of the first ever, the texas instrument model S.R. 10 when the unit first [illegible] it was one hundred and fifty dollars now its down to ninty because of competition.

The things that Vel Phillips brought out that stick in my mind were that there were black politicians in the eighteen hundreds. Also today the black people comprise about twelve percent of the population and only one percent of all politicians are afraid of the blacks and in the most have tried to overlook them and their voting power. That idea that the black vote [page cut off]

the election that got John Kennedy into office.

Blacks have been oppressed by state government and because of this they were forced to turn to the federal government for help. Today there are blacks in federal government but they are still almost entirely excluded from state positions. There were two major periods of change in the economic condition of the blacks, the first was his emancipation in 1863 and the subsequent receipt of American citizenship. The other was his participation in the new deal of the 1930s. Throughout history the republicans initiated breakthroughs in appointing blacks to high positions but recently the democrats have done this.

All the black firsts however have not raised the black to an economic political or educational level with the white. As of 1960 18.6% of all whites earned less than $3,000 a year but 40% of all black families earned less than $3,000. Black unemployment has risen as white unemployment has dropped, right now black unemployment is two and [page cut off]

also black workers have been concentrated in the unskilled and low paying jobs.

[illegible] are also hard on blacks, for example in Washington D.C. with a population of 66% blacks only 13% of the representatives were black. The depth of racial discrimination in the northern Virginia area surrounding the pentagon is also evident by the overwhelming number of white [illegible] families, living in the area, as compaired to the small trickle of black military families. Of the 12,000 military families living there only 93 or 8% were black. I still disagree with Vel Phillips on the point where she states that the college entrance tests were against the blacks. I dont understand why she dosnt agree that all Americans should know English because last time I heard it was still the national language and I think that people should have some idea of how it works. The only complaint I have about January term is that they should have given up our [illegible] for next semester early in January so we could change things in it because its [illegible]