I am going to make my remarks brief were used to that in television news with only 22 minutes to cover everything that has happened in the world. You know if Moses received the Ten Commandments today. John Chancellor would go on the air tonight and say good evening. The Lord God Almighty has given Moses Ten Commandments under which we all must live here is NBC News correspondent Carol Simpson with three of the most important ones. As Bob told you I cover the United States Congress. Don't think there are any congressmen here. I know there are some state legislators here. The United States Congress is where I learned the difference between a horse race in a political race in a horse race the whole horse runs. Since you're enjoying these so much I may as well tell you some of the jokes going on around Washington about the political year. Carter's newest fight on inflation will do what even the founding fathers of the Constitution couldn't do that was make everyone equal all poor. Ronald Reagan is proving to be a good inflation fighter and it's not surprising after all. He's the only one who remembers all the old prices. And this is true Ronald Reagan once had a pet dinosaur. I'm going to be non-partisan ears of John Anderson one. He does have a poll which shows him leading. Unfortunately. It was taken on, Fantasy Island. enough I would like to structure my message to you tonight in the following way. I'd like to tell you a bit about myself how I got from a ghetto on the southside of Chicago to National Television in Washington. It was and continues to be a struggle. And I do this because I have found that people are fascinated with television and Communications and find my story fairly interesting. And then because I am a television journalist and a black television journalist, and I've spent the past 15 years of my life covering and reporting news from all over the United States. I thought you might be interested in that perspective of where we as a nation and we as black people may be headed in this new decade of the 80s. My interest in journalism began in high school in Chicago when an English teacher thought that I wrote pretty well and she encouraged me in that direction. I worked on the high school newspaper. So before I graduated I decided that I was going to be a colored Lois Lane or Brenda Starr. We didn't call ourselves black then. Well, my parents thought they were crazy that I was crazy. They had never heard of Journalism. My father was a mailman and my mother took in sewing in our house. They hadn't gone to college. My mother hadn't even finished high school. So excites blind that I wanted to be a newspaper reporter. Well, my mother was a very strong woman and she thought it was all ridiculous. She wanted me first to get a teaching degree. And then if I wanted this crazy journalism thing I could do it later. Well back in the early 1960s just about the only jobs a young college educated black girl could aspire to wear teaching and social work and nursing. So my wanting to be a reporter did sound pretty strange to my folks, but I knew I didn't want to waste time getting a teaching degree. Well my parents and I fought and argued and fought and argued and they could see that I was determined and I thank God for supportive parents who worked hard to see their two daughters go to college and have a chance at what they never had a chance for. So they agreed go ahead if you want this. Well, I was a B+ student in high school. So I applied to Northwestern University School of Journalism. Adele is one of the best in the country. It's in Evanston, Illinois outside Chicago. I was interviewed by the admissions counselor. He asked me why I wanted to go there and I said I wanted to be a newspaper reporter and not heard. It was a good school and it was as simple as that while he was very kind like very patronising very great white father ish. And he patted my hand and said he would level with me. He said if I went there I probably couldn't get a job when I graduated because I was a negro is that the only places I'd be able to work for Ebony magazine or the Chicago Defender? He said I would be much more sensible to go to the Chicago Teachers College become a nice English teacher. I was shattered my heart sank, and I knew what was going to happen. Sure. They'll few days later. I got the letter we regret to inform you that. I can laugh at the story now because I was on the faculty of Northwestern University from 1971 to 1974 by enjoyed telling my students how I wasn't good enough to go there, but we have to teach there. I never told my parents what the admissions counselor said. I was still not dissuaded and only made me want to be a journalist all the more. So I went to the University of Michigan to major in journalism, and I was the only black in the department and out of 60 garage. What time is the only one that didn't have a job at graduation. I was registered with the placement office on campus and I went to all the job interviews and I got the same story from everybody. I had three strikes against me. The inexperienced was black. It was a woman. What's right wasn't anything I could do about those things. Nobody wanted to hire me. I remembered the admissions counselor, and I remembered what my parents told me. And I thought I had wasted four years that I've been too stubborn and too idealistic. But no damn it. I said my chances going to come. So while my fellow graduates went off to their radio and television and newspaper jobs, I went to work at the Chicago Public Library where I had worked every summer from the time. I was sixteen. Had a boyfriend could have gotten married hung up the whole thing. But now it was a challenge. I thought I have prepared myself and I'm going to make it no matter what. The chairman of the journalism department at Michigan felt terrible about my situation and all summer long. He worked on trying to find a job for Carol Simpson. In August he called and said that he had lined up a job for me at Tuskegee Institute Tuskegee, Institute, Alabama. The South George Wallace had just been elected governor Boeing segregation now segregation tomorrow segregation forever. But that was the only job I had turned out to be a very good job. I was editor of the information Bureau and I taught journalism this Bob told you I was advised her to the student newspaper. I like the job and I stayed there two years, but I still wanted to be a reporter. So I decided to go to graduate school Shirley. Another degree is going to make me more employable. So I went to graduate school at the University of Iowa and it just so happened that I took a two-hour course in radio and television was the only thing that worked into my schedule. I mean, that's how happenstance see it. And that's when I fell in love with Broadcasting. I auditioned for the radio station at the campus and was the first woman to do newscast on wsui. One of the professors thought I ought to pursue a career in broadcasting said the time was getting right for blacks and four women. I would get a chance to write people would hear my name and I thought secretly maybe someday I'll be famous. But I left Iowa. It was 1965 at the height of the civil rights movement after the riots in Watts. Suddenly Nation discovered that black people were unhappy that they were being discriminated against that they wanted a piece of the action. Suddenly, I was getting job offers from all over my color and my sex which had been liabilities. It suddenly become very attractive. The media needed black reporters to who could go into ghetto neighborhoods and find out what was going on whites were to suspect too conspicuous to scare. Well, I turned down several offers to take a job with wcfl radio in Chicago and I became the very first woman black or white to Broadcast News in Chicago. Wcfl had a big news Department. There was a lot of resentment among my male colleagues. I didn't like the fact that I was hired in the second biggest Market in the country without any previous commercial broadcasting experience. They knew I had been hired because I was black and I was a female but they didn't want to accept the fact that I was better qualified in terms of education and besides I could do the job. But my boss has assigned me the women stories. child care fashion shows celebrities who came to town. These were the things women were interested in. I had to beg for the hard news stories the fires the politics the murders and in the beginning, the only time I got him was when some man was busy, but when I did get them I did them and it wasn't long before I was routinely being assigned the tough ones the big ones and it wasn't long before the guys. I worked with began to think of me as a good lady reporter. But I was looking forward to the day when they would consider me a good reporter who happened to be a lady. I spent five years in radio covering every kind of story you could imagine and then in 1970. I was offered a job by the NBC television station in Chicago. That was a reporter and weekend anchor person and in 1974. I was offered a job as a network correspondent for NBC and if you don't know what that means to a television reporter, it's the ultimate. It's the dream of every local television reporter in the country because no longer. Are you covering events affecting a particular city or a particular region of the country you're covering events that affect everybody in the United States and in the world and instead of being seen on The Local News at 6 and 11 or 5 and 10 here you're seen and heard by people all over the country on the television network news programs. The NBC Nightly News The Today Show Meet the Press are special the convention coverage in those things. 2 / 6 years. I've been in Washington my assignments of taking me to 45 of the 50 states. The White House is Supreme Court State Department Congress. That's how I got from there to here. But let me tell you this. I have experienced both racial and sex discrimination, but more sex discrimination than racial discrimination people find that surprising. But it has been a constant battle in broadcasting and it continues to this day. You have to claw and scratch and beg for everything. You have to be twice as good as a white man as a white female. Throughout my experience. I've had it all but you can't do this because you're a woman. Women don't like to hear other women on the air. You can't be an anchor person because some whites made turn you off because they don't like it. I was even told one time that I didn't sound black enough. But the blacks who sounded black we're told they sounded too ethnic. I quit one job because I was told I couldn't get a raise equal pay for equal work because I was married and had a husband who could support me. But the men I worked with had families to support. I am still try it out today as the double token. The token woman and the token if you'll pardon the expression Niger. I am the first to admit that my sex and color have helped and hurt. And I have probably succeeded because after a while people want reporters who are just good and they have to finally come around to deciding whether they want a good story or the best story. I hope and strive to give them the best story. Where do I go from here? I don't know. Stop being a network correspondent in Washington would be the end. But now I got a new goal and you may laugh. But how about President of NBC News? Or the first black woman to Anchor a network news cast. I might not make it. but I might and the point I'm trying to make is that you have to continue to set goals for yourself. You get lazy you get complacent you get satisfied. What's it's a man's reach should exceed his grasp or what's a heaven for my struggle continues? my struggle as black people continues You know when you're a reporter, you're an eyewitness to history. And I covered many of the marches and demonstrations and rallies and riots that occurred in the late 1960s. It's been 12 years since dr. Martin Luther King was murdered. I knew him in Chicago as a reporter. I walked with him through the slums of Chicago 12 years. We still don't know for sure who killed, dr. King. And 12 years later those same slums. We walked through in Chicago are there. Still pestering with poverty crime and Phillip. How much has really been accomplished? I've been run through with you some recent news events of which I'm sure you are all aware. Dateline Miami 16 people dead in rioting millions of dollars in property damage after an all-white jury in Tampa acquits white policeman on trial for the murder of a black insurance, man. Dateline Fort Wayne, Indiana National Urban League director Vernon, Jordan critically wounded by an unknown sniper while in the company of a white woman member of the Urban League Dateline, Florida 100000 Cubans admitted to this country as political refugees by the United States owe hundreds of black Haitians are turned back. Dateline San Diego member of the Ku Klux Klan wins Democratic primary to become candidate for the US Congress representing the nation's most populous congressional district a man who reportedly presided at a cross burning. Dateline, Richmond, Virginia All presidential candidates invited to appear at the conference on a black agenda for the 80s not one shows up each has a previous commitment. Dateline Washington Labor Department reports unemployment at record high level of 7.8% black unemployment twice as high black youth unemployment a staggering 40% Dateline Washington DC Congress approved a balanced budget which was achieved by cutting Social programs to help the poor minorities the young while increasing outlays for defense. I could go on. But you get the picture. and it ain't pretty we have been experiencing rough times and I hate to say this, but I believe rubber times are ahead. And when you couple these recent events with the absolutely discouraging National political scene, there doesn't seem to be much hope. The American electorate is saying it isn't happy at all with the presidential choices. There was a joke going around, Washington. And it goes like this Carter Ronald Reagan and John Anderson are on a boat and all of a sudden it starts to sink in. The question is asked who saved the answer is the American people because the boat sank with all aboard. Isn't that sad that you applauded that that people laugh at that? Blacks are virtually ignored even humiliated by Republicans. totally taken for granted by democrats during this past primary season. I covered George Bush's presidential campaign for NBC. It was not campaigning for black boats. Throughout Pennsylvania, Texas. Michigan-ohio, New Jersey, Colorado main, Maryland I was with him and all of those States the only persons of color at any of those events were usually me or an occasional black technician from some local TV station. What do you think the Reagan campaign was like Black people should be disenchanted after voting 96% in favor of Jimmy Carter who promised blacks jobs, but now there are more blacks out of work than when he took office. Is anti-inflation policies have thrown Black America into a wretched depression, you know the saying when White America has a cold Black America gets pneumonia. Some black leaders say they wouldn't endorse any presidential candidate until they quote saw the blacks in their eyes. Well, they haven't seen them. Steele Rubber and Abernathy and Hosea Williams and Charles Evers have endorsed Ronald Reagan. But it's the feeling of what else can they do? As bad as things are for black folks. are bad for white folks to for All American we can't forget. But cannot forget that. Despite our frustrations and bitterness. This is not the 1960s. These are different times. In the 1960s many white politicians had a commitment to the principles of civil rights. There were important coalitions with Jews and labor unions. There was a lot of attention from the news media. I think about the United States of 1980 Paradox of power. We have come out of a decade in which we have seen the United States in battle with a country Vietnam a fraction of the size and strength of the United States and we didn't win this fight the tragic loss of life and billion spent we have the power to destroy every man woman and child on Earth 10 times. And yet we are held hostage by the oil weapon. We can put a man on the moon and send Rockets to photograph distant planets, but we can't solve the global problem of hunger or even our own problems of hunger right here in the United States. We have the greatest concentration of wealth talent and knowledge technological know-how in the history of the human race. But the American people have no cohesion. No common Direction. No Unity of purpose. Think about the problems the country faces. the energy crisis the threat of a growing Soviet power and Sylvia adventurism abroad the decline of the dollar the decline of productivity the vulnerability to send such as the hostage situation in Iran. the rise in inflation high unemployment Then we've got that conservative mood. That is swept the country. the swing to the right there is a total negativism towards social programs. The attitude of White America is we've done enough. What About Us The me generation taxes are too high. Proposition 13 fever swept the country and a lot of people black and white don't believe expensive social programs can solve ghetto problems because by and large they didn't so don't expect the federal government to pump lots of money into the city's everybody now wants to balance budgets and increase military spending. So what are we going to do about it? What are you and I going to do about it? lot of young blacks justifiably angry hurt frustrated bitter Are talking about riots more Miami's all over the country burn it down. What good did it do? I would get attention. President deplores the violence goes down makes an on-site inspection troops are sent in and TV cameras flock to the scene and people are interviewed about how terrible the situation is and for a brief time social scientists and government experts will study and conclude but then nobody does anything. Time Magazine an old friend of mine Joe Boyce the black bureau chief in Atlanta and he was quoted as saying blacks are like artifacts in a room seldom-used. They are dusted off periodically for a look especially after a riot then replaced in the cabinet doors closed again until the next time. Remember Newark in 1967 devastating right there. Have you been there at the burned-out buildings are still there? 13 years later. I was there two months ago. Like ghosts no businesses have returned. No new housing was built. nothing Washington DC in Chicago in 68 Riot torneria is just block upon block of vacant Lots. So what do you think would happen if the cities went up in flames? within office the most conservative Congress anyone can remember with the Resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan With a white electorate impatient with black demands, there will be no forgiving no federal programs. There would be martial law. Do we then just try to forget about the problems just go on about the business of survival and hope everything will come out. Okay? No, because if we do that we make it we may wake up one day and it's 1940 again. All the progress eroded and that has started to happen already and you know that if a national vote were taken today on school desegregation. Most people would probably vote against it. If you don't believe it, believe it. The arguments will be energy cost fuel to run the buses cost too much. Or the rights of the states over local Affairs. It'll be couched in that kind of language. But it would be against it. So we cannot close our eyes. So what do we do? Well, let me be real radical and suggest participation in the political process. participation in the life of our communities in schools and a quest as a people for excellence. You know why we have a conservative Congress. voter apathy especially black voter apathy When was Minnesota's primary? September how many of you voted in the Minnesota primary how many? Of the eligible voters are registered voters 22% Black voters it was probably 2% in the last off your election. with scores of governorships Senate seats congressional seats up 38% of eligible voters went to the polls. only 12% of eligible black voters and only a fraction of blacks who could have voted or even registered. Senator Sam Ervin said if men and women of capacity refuse to take part in politics and government they condemn themselves as well as all the people to the punishment of living under bad government. We have the government we deserve. we haven't Do you realize that they are speculating that less than half? The American people will go to the polls in November. For the first time in history less than 1/2. May I please take this opportunity to urge all of you? to vote on November 4th It is being said that people are turned off. But do you realize that the candidates that we have running for president today were picked by only 10% of the American people because people didn't vote in the primary and everybody's going around. How could we end up with these choices? Because you didn't vote the people didn't vote. And black people what I think of the lives that were lost in the South to gain voting rights for black people. It is unconscionable. I was in Grand Rapids Michigan 2 weeks ago covering Barry commoner's independent citizens party campaign for President. We happen to go to a potluck supper and there was a white man in a wheelchair named Walter Craig. And he had been shot. He is in a wheelchair now he's been paralyzed since 1961. And he went South part of the freedom rides and then later fighting for voting trying to get blacks registered to vote and that man is in a wheelchair today. And we are not taking advantage. Of this great privilege this great Duty. I'm going to cut this short going I get real worked up about this. So let us stop depending on Schools and Government. and politicians and Welfare programs to do everything for us. We have to do some things for ourselves as a people. We ought to support with our time and our money those black organizations that are trying to make a difference and double ACP here in Duluth. Doesn't matter which one you help. You don't have the money. You've got the time if you don't have the time, you've got the money. But at least help those organizations that are trying to help us. I'd like to close with my favorite story of a blind man and his seeing eye dog. There was a lady who was came to a busy intersection and had a red light and she was waiting at the curb for the light to change and she is standing alongside a blind man with his seeing eye dog and all of a sudden she's the seeing eye dog lead the blind man into the intersection. The light is still red. And the car goes whizzing by almost hits the blind man, and he makes it back to the curb light is still red dog leads the blind man again into the street this time. They got halfway across their almost struck by a truck and brakes are screeching and car horns are blaring and the blind man and his dog finally make it to the other side of the street the woman watching. This was horrified. She finally got her green light and made it to the other side of the street just in time to see the blind man reach into his pocket pull out a dog biscuit and give it to his dog. Well, she couldn't believe it. She said pardon me, sir. I don't like have no business fighting and but your dog almost got you killed carrying you across the street on a red light. Why are you rewarding him? You're reinforcing his bad behavior. The blind man smiled at the woman and said lady. I know what I'm doing trying to find out where the dog's head is so I can kick his behind. I think we all need to find out where our heads are and some of our behinds need kicking to. So let us work as Langston Hughes said for the nation that has yet to be but yet must be God bless you all and thank you so much.