KANSAN
University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
The University Daily
Friday, March 5, 1982 Vol. 92, No. 110 USPS 650-640
Black Kansas legislators look to past, future
By KEVIN HELLIKER Staff Reporter
On a cold Kansas day in 1899, Alfred Fairfax climbed the stairs of the Capitol and made state
Walking past black shoosehine men, black pages and black concessionaires, Fairfax stepped beyond the barrier placed upon his race before the first black legislator to serve in Kansas.
Now, nearly 100 years later, 15 black men have followed Fairfax. Although only five of the state's 105 counties have sent black men to Topeka, the black Kansas legislator traditionally has viewed his job as representing minority interests across the state.
"Black legislators are the spokesmen for all the blacks and minorities in the state of Kansas."
City, said recently, Justice is one of four blacks now serving in the Legislature.
Although blacks were responsible for forging many Kansas civil rights laws, that aspect of the black legislator's job scarcity exists any longer, Mr. McCray, a black Democrat from Wichita, said.
"We've passed as many civil rights laws as we can pass in the state of Kansas," McCray said. But I think there is a danger that we could lose Mr. Regan's intentions at all, know exactly what he, Mr. Regan's intentions are.
With Reagan pumping up the power of the
one some stage later, we had successfully
strip a wave from rigidification. McCray
State Rep. Clarence Love, a black Democrat from Kansas City, said the new Republicanism is a big challenge.
"When I came here in 1966, this was the first place ever, that I didn't encounter dinner for two."
"But I detect a slight change in the attitude of the younger members now. They give little snide remarks from time to time just to let us know that discrimination is there."
What can be done to curb such a trend?
McCray suggests, "Blacks in Kansas should so they can work toward handling on to what they see."
Some of the rights that blacks have now can be traced to a long black man in a sea of white
ALFRED FAIRFAX was a slave in Louisiana before the Civil War. He remained there until 1880, when a Republican county elected him to the U.S. Congress.
Fairfax never made it to Washington, however. Some Southern Democrats, angered at his election victory, attacked his home and attempted to kill him. So he and about 200 black families left Louisiana and settled in Chautauqua County, Kansas.
Nine years later, Chautauqua County sent Fairfax to the House of Representatives in Topeka, where his presence immediately was felt. Early in his first year, Fairfax asked that an education bill be amended to ensure that schools have adequate access to race, color or previous condition of servitude.
Some legislators called the amendment redundant because of an existing law that said
But Fairfax argued that specific legislation was needed. His argument was recorded in a news story called "The Colored Member Makes an Impact." The report, in the now-defunct Capital Commonwealth:
"I am paired when I see native-born American children, who love as I do their native country, forced to leave the district in which they live and travel across town, passing two or three school districts on their way to attend a school set apart as colored . . .
"The more educated the Negro becomes, the more congenital is he to the prick of the needle of American medicine."
The Legislature passed the amendment, but not without drinking the phrase 'previous condition of service'
"Shall we encourage such prejudice by allowing school boards to discriminate on acce-
Fairfax completed one term in the Legislature then retired. He was the last black ever to be elected from Chautauqua County and the last to serve in Kansas for nearly 40 years.
In 1929, a black physician named William Blount became the first in a 20-year-long string of black Republican legislators from Wyandotte County.
Blount, a family practitioner in Kansas City, Kan, drew support in his campaign from both blacks and whites. One of his campaigners was a
Moon's devoted followers defend Unification Church
See BLACKS page 5
By COLLEEN CACY Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
On a quiet side street in Lawrence's Oread neighborhood stands a faded yellow house. There are no signs of life from the outside, but inside is friendly, earnest young man to the door.
Visitors are greeted at the threshold by a sign: Welcome to the Unification Church—the place of worship for all members of our community.
But this is only wishful thinking for the Lawrence chapter of the church, at 1545 Rhode Island St. This man, the Kansas missionary, has the only full-time church member in town.
A month ago, Don Sardella, a 36-year-old former civil engineer from Boston, moved into the house, raising the membership to two. A serious student of Unification Church doctrine, his deep-set eyes widened as he talked about the reason he was here.
"The opportunity we give people is a chance to experience another way of life," he said. "We are people aspiring to the biggest ideal possible. The fundamental goal of the movement is the elimination of itself-to restore people to themselves, to the central point of the universe, which we believe is love."
"I'm a skeptical kind of person. I didn't jump right in," he said. "I have a more profound sense of vision and purpose—a clear sense of direction in my life."
SARDELLA his job six years ago to join IVR in Unification. Unification is a legal Wizard's software.
He was in Lawrence temporarily to train to be the state director of the church's Nebraska chapter.
Sardella certainly didn't fit the stereotype of the glassy-eyed malnourished teenager selling flowers on street corners. He seemed articulate and intelligent.
Sardella ridiculed the idea that Unification church members don't have minds of their own and would do anything Rev. Moon asked them to do.
"The classic example is, if Rev. Moon told you to shoot your parents, would you do it?"
Wait, looking at the image again.
It's "The classic example is, if Rev. Moon told you to shoot your parents, would you do it?"
HE SAID THE Unification Church was not a cult, as it has been labeled, but a movement. It was founded in the early 1950s in Korea by Sun Myung Moon, who was at the time a prisoner of war in a North Korean concentration camp.
Members say the church is based on Christianity but takes Christianity a step further. They believe in God and that Jesus Christ is the son of God, but they say that he did not fulfill his mission because he was killed before he had children.
This is because it is part of every person's duty to bring up children in the church, they
Many members believe that Moon is a second messiah, "the Lord of the Second Advent," but Sardella did not admit this directly.
Lowell Mitchum, Kansas director of the
"Moon has messiatic potential, let's put it that way," he said.
church, he thought Moon was "the most amazing person I ever met." Mitchum proudly displayed a photo album full of pictures of fellow church members and Moon himself, at the church's headquarters in New York.
HE SAID HE attended a seminar there, and
she down and went fishing with us all the
time.
"He has helped so many people," Mitchum said. "He's a far better person than I am. In my view, he's the best person on earth. He messiah—I can't answer that for anyone."
Opponents of the Unification Church say Moon exercises "mind control" over church members and brainwashes them to raise money for him.
The church is one of several religious groups that are targets of a bill now in the process to amend the constitution.
Supported by relatives of people who have joined groups like the Unification Church, the Hare Krishna and other "destructive cults," held meetings to disegnate the deprogramming of cult members.
IT WOULD allow a judge to grant temporary guardianships to parents of cult members and would permit professional training, a process of "psychological recovery."
The bill was recently passed by the House of Representatives and sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where hearings are scheduled for March 15.
"We've already knocked down legislation like this in other states." Nordella said.
"In my opinion, we'll appeal to the Supreme Court, if necessary."
Similar legislation passed the New York Legislature in 1980 and 1981, but Gov Hugh Carey veted it both years. Opposition came not only from the so-called cults, but also from groups such as the American Jewish Congress and the New York Catholic Conference.
The New York Civil Liberties Union called the bill unconstitutional and said it violated the First Amendment right of freedom of religion.
"I think it's a religion," he said of the Unification Church. "Most Western religions believe in conversion. Most use psychological pressure.
"I don't think there's any difference between the Unification Church telling people they have one true way, and a revivalist group of people. If you don't get saved, you'll go to hell."
TIM MILLER, a KU lecturer in religious studies, agrees. He plans to testify against the Islamic State.
Miller sponsored the Unification Church study group last year, although he is not a member.
"I just think people have picked on the Moonies because they're small and new."
He said a common element of conversion to any religion was a dramatic change in belief.
'I think there's a whole group of parents See CHURCH page 10
Lowell Mitchum, Kansas director of the Unification Church, stands by the church sign he keeps in his home. Mitchum said that the Rev. Sun Myung Moon was "the most amazing person" he had ever met.
Lonely woman followed call of cult
By COLLEEN CACY
Three years ago, newlyweds Joe and Debbie Deragon moved to Lawrence from Detroit. Married only five months, they left their families in Michigan so Joe Deragon could study electrical engineering here, at Haskell Indian Junior College.
"We were in a strange place with no friends." Deragon, 27; said recently. "When I started school, I knew she was lonely. I knew she was unhappy.
"She had no one to associate with. This is what the Moonies zones in on—they were all over the place."
Deralagon said the "Moonies," or members of Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, approached them about a week after they moved to Lawrence.
And when the couple spent a week in weekend church workshop, Deragon came home alone.
"My wife took it to hook, line and sink from the beginning." he said.
SOON AFTERWARD. he learned that she
had filed for divorce on the grounds of incompatibility.
"She thought I was possessed with devils," he said.
He said the church changed her by first offering her leadership and then constantly asking for input.
"The people come along and shower you with all this love," Deragon said. "But they're so contradictory. They say that, but they don't do it."
"A person is not allowed to use his own mind. They start thinking of themselves as a separate entity."
He said he thought the church tried to find people's weaknesses and played on them. They use methods of weakening the will, he said, such as sleep deprivation and skimpy clothing.
"They seemed like they were spiritually weak—really searching for answers," he said. "They seemed more followers than leaders."
BACK HOME in Royal Oak, Mich. Dibble
Goronja's grandmother, Annabelle Goronja,
the author of The Island.
"It's a form of slavery," she said. "The
Moonies play with religion. They talk about it,
but I don't find any depth, any roots to it.
"They get these young people by singing and such. They all follow the piper."
When she found out Debbie had joined the Unification Church, Gomez said, "I thought it was cool."
"I heard about all the cults. We all prayed you long and hard." he said.
And in the end, Debbie was one of the few to leave the group on her own.
"She was there about a year." Gomez said. Then one day, she walked to the airport and stopped at a restaurant.
"Debbie had taken an awful lot. She stayed longer than she would have if she hadn't cared about the people. It took a lot of guts to get out."
SHE SAID her granddaughter was an outgoing person who liked people. She thought Debbie was drawn to the church members because they were friendly, warm people.
"I still say that if she wasn't under emotional stress, she wouldn't have gone with them," Gomez said. "She got involved because she wanted out of (her marriage)."
See CULT page 7
Weather
Departments hampered by economic woes
Today will be cloudy with a high of 30 degrees and a 39 percent chance of light snow, according to the National Weather Service in Topeka.
Winds will be from the north at 10-20 mph.
Tomorrow will be fair with a high of 40 degrees.
By DAN PARELMAN
Staff Reporter
Departments in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences have watched their budgets dwindle this semester, but so far have avoided running out of money before July 1, the end of the month.
The department of speech and drama is one of the departments just barely handing on.
The department has spent all but about three percent of the $31,172 it received for other operating expenses, Bobby Patton, chairman of the board at the ODEE funds include all funds other than salaries.
On Jan. 25, Patton sent a memo to the faculty and staff of his department telling them that the
SEVERAL OTHER department chairmen agreed with Patton.
Patton blamed the College's financial situation on the Kansas Legislature, which, Patton said, has not kept pace with inflation in financing the University of Kansas.
department would no longer be able to pay for long-distance telephone calls or additional classroom books, that paper for larger projects be paid for by instructors or students and that postage would be reserved for high-priority mailings.
"We never have enough and we never get more," Norris Lacy, chairman of the French and British armies.
Each year, his department requests and is denied a 20 percent increase in funds. Lacy said.
its $5,000 GOLL budget. They say
"We ran out earlier each year," he said.
Last year, the department ran out of OOE funds during final week, and Lacy expects that this year, the department will have no funds by finals. Lacy predicted that his department would spend June cleaning out files, as it did last year, for funds for doing anything else had been spent.
The department has spent about 75 percent of its $3,999 OOE budget. Lacy said.
The political science department also has fallen on hard times.
"There are some key faculty members who are concerned not only with the level of salaries, but also with the lack of resources." Paul Escher noted that the department of political science, said.
See SPEECH page 5