Campus/Area University Daily Kansan / Monday; February 25, 1991 3 Speaker seeks to free, unify Africa Kwame Toure speaks about African-American issues. Toure spoke Friday to about 500 people at the Kansas Union Ballroom. By Lara Gold Kansan staff writer Everyone should join in the struggle to free Africa and its oppressed people by smashing U.S. involvement in revolutionary said Friday night. "I am an organizer. As an organizer, my task is to raise your level of consciousness to the point of critical mass that you become activestrugglers for humanity," said Kwame Toure, formerly Stokely Carmichael, to about 500 people in the Kansas Union Ballroom. Too many African-Americans lives lost in U.S. military action Toure is the head of the All African People's Revolutionary Party, which seeks to free Africa and it under a socialist government. "An oppressed people will never be free until they live the truth," Toure said. Finding the truth is actively struggling for humanity and recognizing the contributions that Africa have given to the world, he said. The truth also is recognizing that the capitalist system is the root of all evil and that socialism is the only economic system for humanity, he said. "Africans are part of humanity," he said. "Any time you benefit part of humanity, you benefit all of humanity." Toure said his task as a revolutionary was to stimulate people's interest in Africa and encourage them to join in the struggle. Africa gave monotheism, the belief in one God, to the world, he said. Africa contributed to the Ethiopian and Judaism. Christianity and Islam. "Any man and any woman who does not appreciate Africa is an ignorant man and an ignorant woman," he said. Africa's contributions to Christianity are outstanding, he said. But Jesus Christ, who was not European, is always painted white with blond hair and blue eyes in churches. "Jesus Christ could be just about any color, but the one color he can't be is the color he is always painted," he said, to loud applause. Toure said it was debilitating for Africans to bow down to a white Jesus Christ, who is supposed to be the God of creation, his in own image. A white Jesus Christ is an example of the U.S. capital system's way of ignoring African history, perpetuating racism, he said. Toure said Zionism was another enemy to humanity. "Africans have to struggle." he said. "America is a capitalist system. It is a racist structure." "Zionism is a political movement," he said. "It has nothing to do with Judaism." By Lara Gold But Toure said he could not be anti-Semitic because Judaism origi- Kansan staff writer African-Americans have shed more blood defending the United States than any other ethnic group in this country, said Kwame Toure in his speech Friday night. However, they still are treated as second-class citizens, he said. is getting none?" he said, referring to the disproportionate amount of African-Americans fighting in the Persian Gulf War. "How are they going to tell a man he is fighting for oil when he General Colin Powell's assertion that the Army is one of the few places where African-Americans are completely equal to everyone else is not true, Toure said. doesn't have a voluntary army. It has an unemployed army. They joined the army to get out of poverty." "What is the American Army for?" he asked. "Not building bridges. nated in Africa, and he was a proud African. "He is a traitor," Toure said, referring to Powell. "America "No African-American has advanced in this country without shedding the blood of his people." dents on the KU campus need constant political education to achieve unification, he said. U. S. capitalism has fueled Zionism by supplying money to Israel and ignoring the Palestinians' right for a homeland, he said. David Jeanty, St. Louis, Mo., senior, said all students on the KU campus needed to unite to end campus tensions. The African-American stu denied a group of people, the Pales tinians, their human rights. He said Zionism in Israel was like the U.S. capitalist system because it Greg Thomas, Topea resident, said Toure's speech enlightened him about the Arab-Israeli issue. "We don't need a bigger audience, we need more workers, and this includes everybody." Jeanty said. Thomas said. "If the Palestinian's rights are not being upheld, then no one's rights are upheld as sacred," Steve Jacobson, Morton Grove, III, senior, said that Toure could say what he wanted but that he had to respect other people's opinions as well. "I don't think Kwame Toure can define what Zionism is," he said. Zionism is the Jewish people's movement of political struggle to renew and strengthen their ties to Israel. The result was democratic state, Jacobson said. Jacobson said Zionism did not persecute any group's human rights. Residents organizing to preserve landmarks By Vanessa Fuhrmans Kansan staff writer The plowing of the Elkins Prairie last fall and the vulnerability of other county landmarks has prompted some county residents to form the Douglas County Preservation Alliance. "We are being increasingly threatened by irresponsible development," said Dennis Domer, president of the Lawrence Preservation Alliance. "The Elkins Prairie was kind of the last straw for me." Domer, who is an associate dean of architecture and urban design at the University of Kansas, said the alliance would be a confederation of existing historical societies in Lawrence, Baldwin and other county communities. Its role would be to protect historical and natural landmarks that are not protected by city ordinances. "History doesn't end at the city limits," he said. Marci Francisco, Lawrence resent, dent, said the plowing of Elkins Prairie was a perfect example of ecological and natural destruction. Not only was the prairie plowed, but wagon-wheel ruts left by pioneers traveling on the Oregon Trail also were destroyed. "There are times when nature and history come together," she said. Perhaps the alliance's biggest goal is to establish a county historical preservation ordinance, Domer said. Although Lawrence already has such an ordinance, no county law protects historical structures. Domer said the alliance would have a proposal by mid-April to present to the Douglas County Commission. But the alliance will have to be politically active in more ways than one if it wants to be successful, Domer said. Members will have to lobby persistently to put structures on the national and state historical registers before they are in danger of being demolished. "we will have to get much farther in front of the demolition ball this time if we want to be successful," he added, "we must be proactive, not just reactive." The alliance also will make recommendations to the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission for its development plan, Domer said. "I would not want the Douglas County Preservation Alliance to go on record as being so naive as to be against development," he said. "We can balance individual property values with public health and welfare. When people are more knowledgeable, those interests are easier to balance." Bluford fought for admission to school; 50 years later she received degree By Tracev Mlodozeniec Special to the Kansan Standing in the enrollment line at the University of Missouri in 1939, 27-year-old Lacile Bluford saw all kinds and colors of people from all around the world. All kinds of people Except African-Americans. Bluford knew what to expect when she suddenly was approached and escorted out of line and down the hall to her office's office. She was not at all surprised. Because of the "separate but equal" doctrine in effect in Missouri, the university would not admit African-American students to its program. But Bluford refused to take "no" for an answer. Despite at least 11 other attempts at enrollment, however, she repeatedly was denied admission to her university's graduate program in journalism Bluford, who earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas in 1932, was ready for the conflict. Backed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Bluford suddenly found her desire for justice leading her to the courthouse. In court, she was accused by the university of acting in bad faith. She did not want to attend graduate school at all, the university said. She simply wanted to break down the law "Sure that's what we were trying to do," Bluford said more than 50 years later. "That's exactly what the NAACP was about all the time." Bluford lost her case in court, but her efforts led to the formation of a journalism school at Lincoln University. She is also the university for African-Americans. Her efforts also helped pave the way for the 1954 Supreme Court ruling that declared the "separate but equal" mandate invalid. Bluford, publisher and editor of the Call, a weekly newspaper in Kansas City, Mo., attributed the 1954 ruling to persistence. She said the NAACP relentlessly applied pressure to the University of Missouri to admit African-American students by backing student court cases. The oldest daughter of a college professor, Bluford said she remembered attending NAACP conventions with her father when she was voicing. Later, in the late 1940s, Bluford participated in numerous boycotts and protests in Kansas to desegregate downtown stores and restaurants. Since then, Bluford, now approaching 80, has concentrated her efforts on fighting racial inequality in the community through the pages of the Call. For the past 50 years, Bluford's newspaper has addressed African- American and interracial issues and has spoken out against prejudice. Bluford said her efforts to combat racial injustice were not yet finished. "Someday people will just be people," she said. "And we can treat everybody the same." Bluford has received many awards for her accomplishments, including one honor that even the University of Missouri admits is 50 years overdue. In 1989, the university presented Bluford with an honorary doctor of humanities degree during the school's 150-year commencement ceremony in an effort to rectify its past mistakes. 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