Special Program Grants Approved
Diocesan Press Service. June 5, 1968 [66-2]
GREENWICH, CONN. -- More than a half million dollars in grants to indigenous community organizations representing the interests of poor minorities in the United States were approved by the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church meeting here at Seabury House May 21 - 23.
The 28 grants totaling $553, 457 was the largest group of grants to date under the Church's General Convention Special Program approved last fall in Seattle and providing a total of nine million dollars to be spent over a three-year period to ease the poverty and racial crisis in America.
The proposal for the grants, which had previously been approved by the Church's Screening and Review Committee, was made to Executive Council by two persons representing indigenous community organizations who are also members of the committee.
They were Mrs. Jose Sanchez, of Los Angeles, Calif., a member of the Afro-Mex Coalition, and Harold Hart-Nibbrig, also of Los Angeles, a member of the Black Congress, who fielded questions from members of the Council.
A provision of the Special Program requires the participation of representatives .of the communities which the program is expected to help.
Leon E. Modeste, director of the Special Program, also participated in the presentation of the grants, which were unanimously approved by members of the Council.
Dr. Charles V. Willie, professor of sociology at Syracuse University and a member of Executive Council, was one of the participants in a lengthy discussion of the grants, who said at one point that a solution of the race and poverty problem would be reached in three steps -- through "confrontation, conciliation and cooperation. "
"The Special Program, " he said, "is providing the opportunity to confront. This will lead to conciliation. "
"Then there will be cooperation," he declared.
He said that the middle and upper class American people place great importance on "words and ideas" whereas the lower class American places importance on "works and action. " Both are necessary, he said, for a solution of the crisis America is facing.
Charles M. Crump, an attorney of Memphis, Tenn., earlier had suggested that a solution to the race question lies in the establishment of "dialogue" between the white and black communities, to which Mr. Modeste disagreed.
Mr. Modeste said that "not verbalization, but actual behavior" is the best kind of "dialogue," and that the Episcopal Church "has made a start. "
"We are being talked about on the streets," he said. "This is the best kind of dialogue. We're putting ourselves on the line. You can't beat that kind of dialogue."
Mr. Crump at a later point in the discussion called attention to the existence of racism in the suburbs.
"We've got to change the hearts of people in the suburbs and the people between the ghetto and the suburbs. The toughest nut to crack is the middle class white who is so close to the ghetto that he feels threatened by the ghetto. "
Mr. Modeste, who described the goal of the Episcopal Church program as being an effort to "give power to the powerless," said the grants would be paid to organizations on a quarterly basis, and that each project would be evaluated with the consent and agreement of the organization involved.
A list of the grants follows:
Mount Vernon Community Parents, $25, 000, Mount Vernon, N. Y.; West End Community Council, $15,000, Louisville, Ky.; Diocese of California, $1,250; East Harlem Housing Office, $10,000, New York City; Reality House, $13,000, Harlem; Community School Board, $50,000, Boston, Mass.; East Side Voice of Independent Detroit, Mich., $25,000; American Indian Center, $28,945, Sioux City, Iowa.
St. Paul's School, $12,000, Brownsville, Tex.; Puerto Rican Educational Project (PREP), $35,000, Jersey City, N. J.; North East Area Development, $6,000, Rochester, N. Y.; Woodward East Project, $18,000, Detroit, Mich.; Day care facilities, $21,600, Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Migrant Farm Workers Project, $2,222, Washington state; Community Organization Members Build Absolute Teamwork (COMBAT), $5,000, Steubenville, Ohio; Vine City Foundation, $30,000, Atlanta, Ga.; Community Assembly for a Unified South End (CAUSE), $10,000, Boston, Mass. ; Migrant Ministry in California, $30,600, Delano, Calif.; East Side Springfield Concerned Citizens, $27,500, Jacksonville, Fla.; Black Radical Action Project, $47,360, Indianapolis, Ind.
Southwest Georgia Project, $50,000, Albany, Ga.; Mantua Community Planners, $16,260, Philadelphia, Penna.; United Council for Black Dignity, $5, 000, San Francisco; West Berkeley, Calif., Ministry, $3,000; Youth Council, $8,080, Jersey City, N. J.; Afro-Mex Coalition, $43,000, Los Angeles, Calif.