University of Virginia Library

Panel Discussion Ends Black Culture Week

By Rob Pritchard
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

As a finale to Black Culture Week, the
University Union and the Black Students
for Freedom, will sponsor a four-member

panel discussion tonight at 8 in Gilmer
Hall Auditorium.

E. Locyell Dyat, the Director of Urban
Affairs for WTOP-TV in Washington,
D.C., will moderate the discussion, "Is
the Black Revolution a Myth or a
Reality."

Members of the panel include Charles Koen,
Lawrence Smith, Howard Fuller, and William
Wright.

A graduate of Mid-Western Seminary, Mr.
Koen took his degree in theology, and has been
involved in community action throughout his
career. He has been a co-worker with civil rights
leader, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and also worked
in Brichinridge, Ky. with the Job Corps
program.

Mr. Smith, of Washington, D.C., has taught
urban affairs through George Washington
University and in the public school system
there. Using the community as a classroom, he
has set up courses in urban affairs, and is
presently a specialist in government consumer
affairs.

The third panelist, Mr. Fuller, received a
master's degree in social work from the
University of Wisconsin, and is a representative
of Malcolm X University in Durham, North
Carolina.

Mr. Wright, who spent nearly two years as
an unemployed "bum" in Washington, D.C., so
that he could gather information for a book, is
the director of Unity House and a part owner
of the Stadium Car Wash which was established
a year ago to provide work experience and
opportunities for Washington's Jobless and
underemployed.

"The basic idea," explained Mr. Wright
about his car wash, "was to get people to use
this place as a stepping-stone." He feels that
more corporations like his own could be
developed and then turned over to the
employers, thereby training themselves and also
other members of the "underclass." "This
makes a lot more sense to me than all these
poverty programs," he added.

Another highlight of the Black Culture
Week, which was held yesterday, was the drama
by Martin Duberman, "In White America." This
play, produced by The Western High School
Drama Group, was a vivid presentation of
"what it has been like to be a Negro in this
country."