THE RISE OF BLACKS
IN POLITICS IN CALIFORNIA
Ed. Note: Ms. Warner is an adminis¬
trative assistant to Lt. Gov. Mervyn
Dymally.
There is no doubt that the number
of Blacks in California politics has
risen in recent years. In Congress are
Yvonne Burke, Ron Dellums and
Gus Hawkins. In Sacramento are two
statewide Black officials: Lieutenant
Governor Mervyn Dymally and State
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Wilson Riles. The state Assembly has
six Black members, the Senate two.
And two of California’s major cities
have Black mayors — Tom Bradley
in Los Angeles and Lionel Wilson in
Oakland.
But what does this rise in Black
political success really mean? As with
most questions, the answer depends
on your point of view. Black political
progress cannot be measured in a
vacuum. It is important to relate it to
other factors, such as national trends,
the history of Blacks in politics, and
the current state of the minority popu¬
lation. Here are some statistical per¬
spectives:
Compared to the nationwide
by Mary R. Warner
scene, Blacks in California are faring
well. (See the accompanying box).
This seems especially true because
the national figures are heavily
weighted by the southern states,
which account for 53 percent of the
national Black population and 60
percent of all Black elected officials.
Only five states outside of the South
have more than 150 Black elected
officials: Illinois (281), Michigan
(251), New York (186), California
(177) and Ohio (159). (Statistics are
from the National Roster of Black
Elected Officials compiled by the
Joint Center for Political Studies,
Washington, D.C.)
California is the only state with
three Black members of Congress
and two Black statewide elected offi¬
cials. Only four other states have
even one Black statewide elected of¬
ficial: the lieutenant governor of Col¬
orado, the secretary of state of Michi¬
gan, the state treasurer of Connec¬
ticut and a U.S. senator from Mas¬
sachusetts.
The distribution of Black elected
officials in California differs signific¬
antly from national patterns as well.
Nearly half (48.3 percent) of all Black
officials across the country are munic¬
ipally elected; the figure in California
is 27.7 percent More than one-third
of California’s Black officials are serv¬
ing on boards of education; nation¬
ally the figure is less than one-fourth.
At the county level, there are propor¬
tionately eight times more Black offi¬
cials on the national scene (8.8 per¬
cent of all Black electees) than in
California (1.1 percent). Here again,
national statistics are strongly influ¬
enced by the preponderance of Black
(Continued on Page 3)
UJIMA
Volume 2, Number 1 LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY December, 1978
UJIMA
Welcomes New
Black Faculty
by Faith D. Childs
An Historical
Perspective Of
Black Schisms
by Michael L. Sloan
The Cause of Most Problems: Schisms Within the Black Race
Dr. JOHN DAVIS
The new Director of Afro-
American Studies, Dr. John Davis, is
a Sociologist. Dr. Davis completed
his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees at
UCLA, where he also taught Sociol¬
ogy for several years. Before assum¬
ing his present position at LMU,
Dr. Davis was Assistant Director of
Minority Affairs at the USC Medical
School where he developed an in¬
novative high school program called
Med-Cor.
John plans to improve the
academic exchange between Black
faculty and students through pro¬
grams in the academic component of
Afro-American Studies. He believes
that Afro-American Studies must be
sensitive to the needs of Black stu¬
dents. As a beginning, he is opening a
lounge for students in Huesman Hall.
The lounge will be a place where stu¬
dents can come to relax, rap, and
gather information concerning psy¬
chological, philosophical, and histor¬
ical developments in the Black com¬
munity.
Aside from his aspirations and re¬
sponsibilities as Director of Afro-
American Studies, Dr. Davis is teach¬
ing three courses this semester. He
has many new ideas, but they can
only become a- reality with the sup¬
port and assistance of the Black stu¬
dents and faculty. John’s office is lo¬
cated in Huesman Hall, Room 46,
and he welcomes students to come
by for academic or personal discus¬
sions or just to say “hi.” The door is
open to all students.
DR. BRENDA WALL
Dr. Brenda Wall, a native of
Portsmouth, Virginia, has joined the
faculty at Loyola Marymount Univer¬
sity as an Assistant Professor of
Psychology. Dr. Wall received her
Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at
George Washington University in
Washington, D.C. Prior to that she
attended Howard University where
she received her Masters Degree in
Afro-American Studies and also
taught for two years.
Dr. John Davis
As a Psychologist, Dr. Wall’s par¬
ticular interests are in Neuropsychol¬
ogy and the problems associated with
alcohol. Before coming to LMU Dr.
Wall worked at a community mental
(Continued on Page 2)
Racial segregation and racism
have historically been phenomena of
power. To be a political force in
America, Blacks must develop the
same political techniques placed on
majority rule and minority right. The
Black must confront the problems of
the period of slavery as he looks to
the past for a cultural tradition and an
identity buried in an unrecorded
American history. The disturbing
paradox is that he is not a legitimate
member of either distinct culture, the
African or Anglo-Saxon. Further, the
racism that has characterized the ra¬
cial and ethnic relations between
Black and Caucasians has man¬
ifested itself in growing schisms within
the Black race, the Black family, and
the individual Black himself. There
are divisions based upon color, edu¬
cation, geographic residence, the
method of striving for Black Aware¬
ness and Nationalism, and even the
name used to classify the race. These
schisms are potentially destructive to
racial and ethnic unity because they
are patently divisive and frustrating.
Without racial unity, there is little
power, thus diminishing the collec¬
tive ability to produce the influence
and force to attain a chosen end.
There was a difference in oppor¬
tunities afforded various types of
slaves to acquaint themselves with
the behavior of their masters and
model their own conduct in terms of
their conventions. This difference de¬
termined a division of power within
the race. Even today, color differ¬
ences play a role of importance
within the Black community. This has
been demonstrated as important in
the selection of mates. It follows a
well defined pattern that lighter-
colored women tend to marry
darker-colored men. Two possible
explanations of this began with the
differences between house servants
and field hands during slavery and
the biological fact of color itself. Psy¬
chologically, an under privileged
minority has a tendency to set up
goals according to some characteris¬
tic of the dominant population
among whom it lives; in the case of
the Negroes, an absence of heavy
pigmentation. The other is the histor¬
ical experiences of the Black since his
arrival in North America. It holds that
the lighter-colored Black, socially and
economically more favorably
situated than his darker brother, is the
offspring of the White master, that he
is a descendant of a manumitted
mulatto who, in his capacity as house
servant, came into closer contact with
the Whites and achieved an earlier
(Continued on Page 3)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Profiles . Page 2
Blacks in Politics . Page 3
Editorials . Page 4
Thoughts and Reflections . Page 6
Sports . Page 7
* ority.™ ■ . .
