the Louisv-ille Cardinal
Vol. XLV No. 12 Room 117, Otter Hall, Louisville, Ky. 40208
Editor of Ebony
Poinsett proposes
separate black politics
by Aleda Shirley
After listening to U of L's Black
Diamond Chorus singing spiritu~
Monday night,Ebony's senior staff editor,
Alex Poinsett said, ''The power
symbolized by those songs is what gave us
strength to continue for 400 years in this
country - that's how we were able to
make it."
Poinsett said Watergate should serve as a
notice for two points: (l) it reveals what
he termed the "profoundly corrupt
nature of white politics," and (2) it marks
what should be the forming of a new
strategy for black politics.
November 16, 1973
Mr. Poinsett, educated at the
University of Illinois, spoke in Bigelow
Hall Monday on the general topic of
black politics. He has written numerous
articles forEbony and is the author of a
recent volume,B/ack Power, Gary Style, a
political biography of Gary, Indiana.
"Blacks have been the target of the
Nixon Administration since 1969,"
maintained Poinsett. He said that Mr.
Nixon's over-all behaviour is sufficient
"to warrant his immediate
impeachment." He noted that there were
no blacks involved in Watergate and
proudly stated that twenty-three blacks
were on the President's so-called
"enemies' list."
Mr. Alvin Poinsett
"Inflation, unemployment, the Middle
East, the energy crisis - none of these",
began Mr. Poinsett, "can equal the
seriousness and severity of Watergate."
He called Watergate the "greatest political
and moral scandal of this century."
Poinsett cited the indictments of
public officials across America - even
that "would-be champion of law and
order, Mr. Agnew'' - and said this
illustrated the "basic corruptness and
fundamental immorality of white
politics."
As a· solution to the "corruption" he
sees in "white politics," Mr. Poinsett says
black politics must begin from different
premises and not be merely a black
version of the status quo. ''The idea that
through the Declaration of Independence
Photo by Carl Maupin
Lisa Flemilter, an .doptecl Vietaamae orphan, sits with her American sister outside their Louisville home. (Complete story on
v~~-~ orpbaas: see page S.) .
all men were equal is a myth addressed
only to whites." Poinsett lamented the
fact that blacks "are re pre sen ted
disproportionately in good jobs, that they
are under-represented in pofitical coun·
sels," and that society still d~fines the
black as a "social outcast."
' The term, black politics, according to
Poinsett, runs the gammit in definition
from Booker T. Washington to Nat
Turner, from integrationists to
revolutionaries, from the NAACP to the
Black Panthers.
j Blacks are at a disadvantage , said
Poinsett, because "we do not control any
of the six basic power levers that run this
country." He listed these levers as 1)
accumulated wealth, 2) control of any of
the country\ 500 major corporations,
3) control of any facet of the "military
industrial complex." 4) power in any of
the federal or state governmental appa­ratus,
5) control of the crime syndicate,
or finally 6) control of organized labor.
Separate nations
To alleviate this race dichotomy,
Poinsett suggests the formation of
separate black and white nations - not
separate geographically, but instead
separate sociologically, economically and
culturally. This would eradicate the
problem of inadequate communication
and exchange, according to Poinsett.
"The major white parties - Democrat
and Republican - are not interested in
the welfare of black people," stated
Poinsett as he caUed for the organization
of a national black party. In concluding,
Poinsett noted with pleasure the recent
election of Blacks to mayorships in
Atlanta, Los A_~geles and Detroit