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REPRINTED FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, DECEMBERS, 1968 'Exiles' From Government Heading National Urban Coalition By JOHN HERBERS Special to Th< New York Tlme5 WASHIN~TON, Dec. 4 Some of the ablest innovators and mechanics of the New Frontier and Great Society are to be found two blocks from the White House in the offices of the National Urban Coalition. This private agency has become the vehicle for the special talents and persuasion of John W. Gardner, the former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. The kind of ferment. and excitement that pervaded the Government in the Kennedy Administration and early part of the Johnson Administration is present to a degree within the coalition, which occupies two floors df an office building at 1819 H Street. Many on Mr. Gardner's staff of professionals are, in effect, exiles from the Government and have transferred their hope for a better society from the public to the private sector. A Commitment Sought They show less optimism about the possibility of quick change and less self . assurance than was evident in Washington in the days before the big city riots. But they are finding America to be a little wiser about its urban predicament and are moving to achieve a national commitment in that area. The force that Mr. Gardner has assembled in the last seven months has two main objectives: To organize a massive lobbying effort to obtain the The New York Times John W. Gardner legislation that the coalition considers essential for the cities and to activate local leader.ship, especially the business community, through local affiliates. Mr. Gardner said in an interview that the coalition's annual b\ldget at .the national level was $3.5-million but that the overall cost, including that of 39 local coalitions, would be ,a bout $20-million. The money is provided \)y ccntributions from individuals, businesses and foundations. Three years ago President Johnson described the adverse forces faced by Negroes in the slums as a "seamless web" that would yield only to a total attack The coalition itself is moving in several areas, if only in small ways. School Aid Disputed ·For example, its education qivi'sion, headed by Dr. James Kelly, an associate professor at Columbia University, is supporting with funds and research a lawsuit that ·could radically change the method by which most states allocate school funds, so as to give inner-city schools a larger share. The suit, brought by the Detroit Board of Education against the State -of Michigan, charges that the system of appropriating the , same amount per child in both rich and poor districts is inherently unfair to the slum child. The case, now in a state court in Detroit, is expected eventually to be decided by the United States Supreme Court. Other "problem solving" projects are under way in the fields of employment, education, housing, economic development of the slums, legal services and health-all under the general heading of program development. The coalition was founded by a group of private citizens in August, 1967, after the nation had been raked by riots. It brought together business, religious, labor and civil rights leaders in an effort to reorder national priorities in the urban crisis. Its stated objectives was to bring about expanded Federal �THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, DECEMBERS, 1968 efforts to provide jobs, an adequate income, decent and nondiscriminatory housing and improved education for the poor. There was considerable skepticism about what it_ coul_d accomplish, and for a time 1t appeared that the coalition would disappear for lack· of leadership, staffing and coordination. Mr. Gardner became its chairman the following spring and has been steadily building his staff. "The staff was assembled from two sources: persons who had worked with Mr. Gardner in government and those who beat on the doors to get in ," according to a coalition spokesman. · The latest high-level official to arrive is George A. -Silver, who had been deputy assistant secretary for health and scientific affairs in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and who will head up a health program for the coalition. Dr. Silver was an idea man for the Government ("it would take several trucks to haul away my unused memos," he says) and hopes to be the same at the coalition. Health Crisis Seen In an interview amid packing boxes in his new office, Dr. Silver said there was a crisis building in most communities regarding health services, -due in part to ,a lack of understanding among the classes of people and professional groups involved. He hopes to build "communications bridges" between them. Following is a sample of others who have joined the staff: M. Carl Holman, formerly deputy staff director of the United States Coro.mission on Civil Rights, and now the coalition's vice president for program development. Bryiµi Dliff, who was on the public affairs staff of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and is now vice president for communications. Lo~ll Beck, who was on the staff of the American Bar Association antl is executive director of the Urban Coalition Action Council, the coalition's lobbying arm. A visitor gets the feeling that if Mr. Gardner were to leave, the coalition might fall apart. This is due in part to the fact that he has the respect of liberals because of his commitment to Federal action, and of conservatives because he is a Republican with a wide following in the business community. The emphasis is on getting business leaders and others with "clout" in their communities involved. John Dean, a Negro who had been southeastern director for community action programs under the Office of Economic Opportunity, is overseeing the formation of local coalitions in the same area. It is a slow, difficult task, he acknowledged, but the first step is to interest business and other community leaders in establishing a coalition. The blacks, he said, are no longer interested in meeting just with the white liberals who mean well but have little power. "They want to meet with the people who can get something done," he said. Mr. Gardner believes the greatest failure has been at the community level, As Secretary of Health, , Education and Welfare, he was assured by his own staff and other leaders in some communities that there would be no riots just before the riots broke out. In some cities white leaders still do ·not know who the real Negro leaders are. Performance Varies "We have talked a great game of community leadership, but we haven't lived up to it," he said. "The Federal Government can only give the communities the pieces [in grants 1and program s], and it is up to them to put the pieces together." The performance of the local coalitions has varied widely. Many are still in the formative stage. Th e Minneapolis Coalition is cited as the good example. It' has sponsored such things as "Anti-Racism Weck" for the education of suburban whites. White leaders ventured into the slums and were exposed to such remarks as: "Did you see wliat the honkies did? They raised $5-million for the Minneapolis Symphony." Stephen Keating, president of Honeyw~ll. Inc., and chairman of the coalition, withstood outrage and in sults· in "confrontations between the powerless and the powerful." But cities like Minneapolis, New York and Detroit are exceptions. Some cities whose Mayors are members of the national steering committeeChicago, P:ttshu,·gh and Phoenix-did not even have coalitions as of last month. Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago has said his Democratic organization provides the same service, and in cities like Atlanta progressive leaders who have traditionally met in private and decided what is best for the community are reluctant to give up that preroi;:ative. Because of the coalition's emphasis on private initiative, Mr. Gardner is hopeful of having the cooperation of the incoming Nixon Administration. Members of the steering committee are to meet soon with the President-elect, and Mr. Gardner already has held meetings with several of Mr. Nixon's advisers. He is pleased with the list of persons he has been told Mr. Nixon is considering for the Secretaties of Health, Education and Welfare and Housing and Urban Development. But there is skepticism within the coalition about the use of tax credits, which Mr. Nixon has proposed in an effort to enlist private enterprisr in rebuilding the slums and providing employment. Mr. Gardner says the proposals must be made more specific and studied carefully before his organization will decide on their merit. NEW SYMBOL of Urban Coalition makes "U" and "C" the links of a chain. Sandgren & Murtha, Inc., designed it. �THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1968 N ew York Coalition Scoring Its First Dramatic Gains in Slums By SYLVAN FOX A grimy foundry in Harlem changed ownership recently, and with the transaction, all the 'talk about giving Negroes a " piece of the action" took a small but profound step toward reality. The foundry, at 402 West 126th Street, was sold by its two white owners, Frieda Boga-rod and Ernest Kruezer, to the Harlem Commonwealth Council, a Negro economic development corporation. Behind the sale lies an important part of the story of what the New York Urban Coalition is all about; fo r it was with t he help of the coalition-a group of some 160 business, labor and community leaders who believe life in New York's slums can be improved by private e,ffortthat the deal was accomplished. The story of the coalition also 11ies in the help it gave to a Negro man who wanted to open a shoe store in Harlem. And it lies in the dedicated activities of the city's street academies, which seek to salva•g e high school dropouts from lives of ignorance and degradation. Not An 'Illusion' It even lies in a little vacant lot on 118th Street and Park Avwue, which in a few months will become the fi rst of dozens of miniparks created with coalition aid. "We're not under the illusion that the private sector can turn the city around," said Saul Wallen, the president of t he New York Urban Coalition, as he reviewed its first-year accomplishments. "But we can have an impact." Except for the trumpeting of its slogan - "Give a damn" -the coalition has operated quietly during the year, possibly because it did not seek publicity for its first tentative steps and avoided controversial areas until this week. But on Monday the coalition purchased newspaper advertisements strongly backing school decentralization under the headline: "If it works in Scarsdale, it can work in Ocean Hill." The text of the advertisement included a decentralization resolution approved by the group's board of directors after some vigorous private debate. Officials of the United Federation of Teachers said yesterday that the union was preparing a statement "rebutting some distortions" in the advertisement. A Dramatic Step The sale of the Acme Foundry to the Hal'lem Commonwealth Council is, perhaps, the most dramatic tangible step the coalition has yet made toward changing things in the depressed black and Puerto Rican communities. The Harlem Commonwealth CouncH was organized 18 months ago' by Roy Innis, now the national director of ~he Congress of Racial Equality and a fil'm believer in black economic development. Mr. Innis is also •a member of -t he New York Urban Coalition, w hich is the local arm of t he National Urban Coali,tion. His simultaneous role in both groups made it natural fo r the Urban Coalition and the Harlem Commonwealth co·uncil to cooperate, and when Miss Bogorod and Mr. Kruezer informed the coalition they wanted to sell their fo und·ry, the w heels were quickly set in motion. The ,price the foundry owners !tad set was $45,000 .p lus about $70.000 ·in cash on hand, accounts receivable and inventory. The coalition marshaled the needed assistance to complete the deal. Allen Herzig of Kidder, Peab9dy & Co., the investment banking firm, did a financial analysis of the foundry. Stuart Goldman, a WaH Street lawyer, handled the legal work involved in the purchase. The Abex Corporation, a manufacturer of control i:quipment and the owner of several foundries, agreed to provide technical aid and ar.ran-ged for the new president of the foun-dl:y, Rozendo Beasley, to attend a training course given by the American Foundrymen's Society. Loans Are Granted Through the efforts of the coalition, the Morgan Guaranty T,rust Company lent the Harlem Commonwealuh Council $50,000. The coalition's Venture Corporation-one of two economic development corpora~ tions it has established to help black and Puer.to Rican ·business enterprises -put up $20,000, and the Episcopa'i Diocese of New York provided a loan of another $20,000. Under its new ownership, the foundry employs 27 persons and does a gross business of $500,000 a year. But Negro ownership of the plant, while an important step, is just the fi rst, according to Mr. Beasley, a dynamic, mustached 33-year-old business administration graduate of Michigan State University. When the foun dry has paid off its $95,000 debt, he explained, 'the Ha~lem Commonwealth Council plans to sell shares to Harlem residents at a price they can afford to pay. "Our aim is economic development," he said, "spreading the equity within the community. That's what we're shooting for." THE N EW YORK TIMES, T HURSDAY, DECEMBERS, 1968 As a corollary objective, he ing number of high school munity Association, which has been working on a neighborsaid, the Harlem Common- dropouts. wealt,h Council hopes to prove Recently the New York Urban hood rehabilitation program. that Negro businessmen can run Coalition moved in, convinced The community association an en teiiprise so successfully ·businesses to invest in the edu- bought the lot and commisthat investment will be at- cation of high school dropouts, sioned plans for the minipark. tracted to other black-operated and won pledges from 15 com- It is expected to be completed businesses. panies of $50,000 a year each in early spring. These are a few of the coa"A lot of fi nancial institu- to support a street academy. tions say the re are no busi- Twenty-three are now in opera- lition's activities. There are others. In the South Bronx, the nesses in ghettos worth invest- tion or soon to be opened. New York Urban Coalition has ing in," Mr. Beasley said. "We 'Beautiful Communication' given the United Bronx Parents, wan t to prove that is wrong. A lot of financial institutions say Among the companies re- Inc., $50,000 1:o conduct a there isn't enough black mana- cruited by the coalition t o sup- training program, now in gerial talent available in the port street academies are Mc- progress, on school decentralighetto. We want to prove this Graw-HiH, American Ak lines, zation. After serious internal wrong, too. Pan Am, International Business debate, the coalition strongly "Our main function is to get Machines, Time Inc., Celanese endorsed the ,program. Col'poration, Sinclair Oil ComNews Jobs Filled in there and make dough." Cooperation between the Har- pany, Union Carbide, First NaLast summer, with coalition lem Commonwealth Council and tiona.J City Bank, Chase Man- financial help, 20 Negro and hattan Bank, Burlington Mills the New York Urban Coalition Puerto Rican young people athas also led to the establish- and American Express. tendetl a course in radio and At the McGraw Hill Street ment of a shoe store under television journalism at the CoAcademy on West 64th Street, Negro ownership at Lenox Avlumbia University Graduate enue and 134th Street. The five teachers work with 30 School o-f Journalism. All have 'rru-Fit Stride Rite store, which youngsters. McGraw-Hill found been ,placed in news jobs. ls owned by Al Jackson, opened the site for t:he academy, proThe coalition has committed vides teaohing mater-ial, puts up $150,000 in September. for four h ousing ,projthe money that is needed to Mr. Jackson, who had 'been run the school and conducts ects that needed money to go the manager of a Miles shoe regular conferences with mem- ahead with their construction store in Harlem, was chosen bers of the academy staff to plans. It has provided $20,000 from among eight possilble discuss the work ibeing done to the East Harlem Ski•lls owners whose names were sub- there and to sound out the Training Center, whioh is conmitted to the Green Shoe Com- teachers on how educational ducting a training program in pany by ' the Harlem Common- materials and textbooks can be vhe printing t rades for at least 200 Negroes and Puerto Ricans. wealth Council. The Green improved. The coalition has obtained, in Shoe Company put up about 90 "We've become, in a sense, conjunction with the National per cent of the needed investa laboratory for them," David Alliance of Businessmen, ment, Mr. Jackson the rest. Rathbun, a 26-year-old teacher The New York Urban Coa- at the academy, said of Mc- pledges of 19,000 jobs for hardlition helped Mr. Jackson refur- Graw-Hill. "There's a very core unemployed, and already bish the store, provided Jegal healuhy, beautiful kind of com- has filled 9,000 jobs. The National Urban Coalition assistance in the p reparation of munication." was formed in August, 1967, by his tax and insurance papers At 118th Street and Park a .group of private citizens who and is providing managerial 1 and technical assistance through Avenue, a sma:ll lot lies vacant. were convinced that private Next to it stands an a1bandoned business, laibor and community its Development Corporation. five-story building slated for· leaders could make a significant Companies Back Academies demolition. In a few month:;, it contribU'tion to improving life Another aspect of t he New is hoped, the site will be trans- in the nation's slums. John Gardner, the formr r York Ul'ban Coalition's wol'k is formed into a minipark. Again, the New York · Urben Secretary of Heal~h. Education evident at a street ·academy at 259 West 64rh Street, where 30 Coalition has been the catalyz- and Welfare, heads the national youngsters who have dropped ing agent behind the project. organization, and Mayor Lindout of high school are getting Last summer the Ama:lgamated say and Andrew Heiskell, an education. Clothing Workers of America ohairman of Time Inc., are coThe first street academies gave the coalition $40,000 for chairmen of its steering committee. were established by the New the construction of miniparks. York Urban League several The coalition turned about years ago to dea1 with the $27,000 of this money over to problem created by the grow- the Upper Pal'k Avenue Com- (cont. back page) �THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1968 (continued) Slow, Substantial Gains The New York Urban Coalition was or,g anized last October with Christian A. Herter Jr., vice president of the Mobil Oil Corporation, as its chairman, and Mr. WaHen, a labor mediator, as its president. At first, progress was slow , It still does not come at breakneck speed, but Mr. Wallen attribut.es this to the organization's "democratic character" and to the complexity of the problems i-t conf.ronts. Yet there have been some substantial gains in this first year-both of a tangible and an intangible nature, Mr. Wallen says. "One of the major accom- plishments," he said as he sat the other day •in his 35th-floor• office at coalition headquarters, 60 East 42d Street, "is maintaining a continuing dialogue between blacks and Puerto Ricans, business and labor. We don't have anything like that anywhere else in the city. "_And we've built an organizat10n and conducted a publicrelations campaign that articulated the concern of the white estaib'lishment about ghetto problems. "A year ago, when the coalitfon was founded, it was an idea. Now we're starting to emerge." The coalition, which has 48 full-time clerical and professional ernployes and about 100 volunteer workers, r.aised $4- million in a fund drive this year. It hopes to raise between $6-rnil'lion and $IO-million next year, Mr. Wallen said. A third of its income has been earmarl;{ed for Mayor Lindsay's sumn1er program. But short-term racial peace is not the main objective of the New York Urban Coalition. "I can't say we can take any credit for keeping the summer cool," Mr. Wallen said. "As a matter of fact, that isn't even our purpose. "We hope to involve the private sector in some of the basic problems of preventing urba·n blight, and that's going to transcend the summer. It's a long-term, long-pull proposition." Businessmen Are Urged to Join 'Frontal Assault' on Cities' Ills Special lo The New York Timcs PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 4 - chairman of the Urban CoaliThe nation's urban problems tion, an organization of busiare too great to yield to "hap- n_ess, labor, civic and civil hazard and limited solutions"; r!ghts lea?ers formed to help they require a "frontal assault find sol_u~1ons to the problems _ of the c1 ties. that will not work without busi- Mr. Heiskell was the speaker ness participation," Andrew at an alumni dinner of the UniHeiskell, chairman of Time versity of Pennsylvania's WharInc., said in a speech tonight. ton School of Finance and Businessmen, Mr. Heiskell Commerce, held at the Bellevuesaid, must find ways to intensify stratford Hotel. He was fy their interest, broaden their awaTded the Wharton ~old perspectives and enlarge their Medal, pres~.nted annually s1_nce commitment to the nation and 1_950, for personal contnb~its people. t10n to _the progress of Amen. . can business." Businessmen, he said, ca~ no Mr. Heiskell told the group lo?~er affo1:d to be _spe:1ahsts. ~hat perhaps the single most Our society, which 1s now 11:npormnt thing corporations largely urban," he declared, could do was to encourage the '.'will not continue to function young men who work for them 1f those of us in the priva~e "to find out about the problems sector do not become pubhc of the community and to bemen as well." come as expert at some aspect" Mr. Heisk~ll Is chairman of o_f them as they are at producUrban America, Inc., and co- t1on or marketing processes. The Urban Coalition 1819 H Street, N.W. • Washington, D. C. 20006 �