New Pittsburgh Courier from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 17

SIGHTLESS SCULPTORS Mrs. Volaria Lee McCaw, the wife of an Agency for' International Development official conducts a class in sculpturing at the Nour Institute for the Blind in Khartoum, Sudan. M.D. Says Bias in Medicare Must Be Prevented By EARL BELLE The quality of medical care availbale and received by many citizens who belong to the Negro race is realtively poor throughout free and civilized society. Unjust medical treatment Is thrust also upon other minorities such as Jews, Puerto Rl cans, Mixicans, sharecroppers, Indians, migrant farm laborers, and Asians.

The poor internal and external health picture of these persons is too common to be ignored. It demands investigation, decisive action and follow up reports. Primarily, theinadepquacyof medical care in many instances can be attributed to racio socio economic factors as well as to the additional burdens and limitations of old age. One of the most decisive actions of the twentieth century was the passage of Public Law 8997 by the 89th Congress in 1965 and history will tell the story of its implementation to benefit every eligible elderly citizen. We maintain that the Medicare Law which provides Hospital Insurance and Medical Insurance will give the elderly minority citizen a sense of dignity, self attainment, equality, and much needed Justice.

Since the Negro constitutes the largest minority group in the United States, we shall analyzed the actual status of the elderly Negro not to justify but to magnify and to emphaisze the plight and financial disabilities of this special group of citizens. Since there are limitations of the Medicare Law this article will attempt to make suggestions for an overall solution to the medical care dilemma of the senior citizen who belongs to one of the previously mentioned minority groups. National figures show that there are presently about 20,000,000 persons 65 years and over in the United States. It is estimated that this number will increase to approximately 24,000,000 by 1972 which will be an increase of over 30 per cent during the previous ten hears period. A vital question in reference to minority groups and Madicare is a 3 follows: can the aged Negro or any of the depressed minority citizens finance his medical needs although the indicated fees are supplemental requirements of the new law? Reliable date indicated that insurance coverage declines with age.

It is estimated that less than 15 per cent of Negroes past the age of 65 have medical or health insurance. This simple statement implies that the elderly Negro cannot afford to pay the rising expenses of medical care. The Medicare Law definitely will give every elderly citizen much needed assistance and protection in his attempt to obtain adequate medical services. The average yearly income of white families in the United States is approximately $5,950 and the average income of the Negro families is approximately $3,490 per year. There is an obvious gap of more than $2,000.

There are very few Negroes receiving adequate employees' pension benefits. However, it must be mentioned that if a pensioner receives $3,000, including Social Security for himself and his wife, he is a few hundred dollars over the maximum eligibility requirement of $2,400 under Pennsylvania's Medical Care for the Aged Program (Kerr Mills Law). The Negro and other minor SMITH, M. D. ities cannot enjoy high Social Security benefits because of traditionally low paying andus stable jobs.

These aged persons use almost three times as much hospital care as younger people and need over three times as much medical care. Nine out of every ten aged persons will be hospitalized two more times during a twelve month period. The average hospital stay for these persons is fifteen days. After a five year survey of aged Negro persons (over 65) the average stay in several hospitals in this area exceeded 21 days. Many of these persoos have no place to go inspite of 1 a i friends, and are eventually transferred to county institutions for custodial care.

These facilities are overcrowded with inadequate medical personnel and facilities. The need for inprovementinthe health picture for the minority citizen is substantiated by the mortality and morbidity figures in Allegheny County and the nation at large. If we omit educational and cultural limitations there are other factors which have prevented persons obtaining adequate medical care. We maintain that the voluntary utilization of the principles of Medicare should automatically improve the health picture of the elderly. One of the major problems for minorities in reference to Medicare is the supplemental charges to the patients for hospital care, outpatient hospital, diagonstic services, medical Insurance and medical bills.

Based on statistics previously mentioned, 50 per cent of the Negroes and others will not be able to pay these charges because of their limited funds. It is recommended that the city or the state through the Kerr Mills Law cover these costs for citizens who are unable to pay. Another problem is the registration of all minorities for this new law. It Is encouraging to note the publicized reports on March 1 indicated that 70 per cent of eligible persons have registered. We have advised and highly recommend the training and utilization of senior citizens for the task of seeking and advising elderly persons to register for the benefits of the Medicare Law.

We should strive for 100 per cent registration of the elderly particularly the deprived and low Income group. The Department of Health, Education and Welfare has the basic responsibility to Implement this program of health insurance for the aged In accordance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Historically that section of our country below the Mason Dixon line has been publicized and criticized as the forebearer of all aspects of Discrimination and Segregation In medical facilities and care for the Negro. However, true records of history should profoundly proclaim that bigotry in medical care and medical practice has geographical bo a i because these unjust practices exist in all sections of the United States. It is the moral responsibility for all proponents of the realistic and Idealistic humanitarian approach to total health care which knows no race, creed or color to expose and eliminates these practices not just for today but forever.

Diplomat's Wife Starts Ceramics Class for Blind So children could "see beauty through the use of their fingers" the wife of an Agency for International Development technician started a class in ceramics at the Nour Institute for the Blind in Khartoum, Sudan. The children will long remember Mrs. Valoria Lee McCaw, the wife of Arthur B. McCaw of Omaha, Nebraska for allowing them to create with their fingers. She received cooperation from the Chief Surgeon of the Khartoum Opthalmological Hospital, the headmaster, and the art department at the Khartoum Technical Institute.

Children of the American community raised funds by staging a talent show to buy a transformer for a Kiln donated by Mrs. McCaw. "Valaria has been an asset and a compli ment to me in my career," says McCaw, who is currently on loan from AID to the White House Conference "To Fulfill These Rights." McCaw who from 1952 1954 served as Budget Director for the State of Nebraska, has been with AID since 1956 when he served in Korea as an officer checking the uses of commodities and an assistant program onicer on special projects. In addition to conducting regular classes at the Nour Institute, she trained a Sudanese woman teacher to carry on the program with the 28 students at the school. Despite their sightlessness, Nour students can now make cups, Sudanese coffee pots and bowls, as well as sculpturing heads, by using their own faces as models for correct proportions.

"It was most rewarding," says Mrs. McCaw. "We started out with coil building and when we had completed the basic forms I would let them feel objects. I had them use their own faces as units of measurement." The class consisted of 27 boys and 1 girl, ranging in age from 10 22. i 'SO' jl tar jr.

mm STARTING A TRADITION Mrs. Valaria McCaw, the wife of an American Agency for International Development official, shows her Sudanese counterpart the art of sculpturing. The Sudanese teacher will toke over where Mrs. McCaw has left off at the Nour Institute for the Blind at Khartoum, Sudan. Madison Ave.

"Exec" Serves As Broadway Maverick Producer Clearing away the cobwebs from false misconceptions that a Negro cannot develop the suave sophistication of a Cary Grant type Madison Avenue executive is Raymond League. A TV producer for a century old advertising agency, he has the distinct "honor" of becoming the first Negro producer to produce a play by a white Southern playwright, and it's an off Broadway success at that. League was recently promotec from associate television pro ducer to full producer by the 102 year old International J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, reputed to be the largest in the world. When he was promoted, League had been with the ad agency for less than a year.

In his present Job, League formulates television commercials for topflight clients and does the hiring of cameramen, directors, musicians, and actors. Besides his executive productions with J. Walter Thompson, League has helped In the production of several Broadway and off Broadway plays. Perhaps his greatest personal triumph was a play he produced last winter. In "A Sound of Silence" by Harold WllUs, a white Southerner, a white Southern family finds itself In the middle of a crisis caused by the presence of a young Negro minister Invited to spend a weekend in their home.

League was heralded by the critics for bringing a new American playwrights, to the fold and for bringing first rate drama to off Broadway. Certainly there have been few Negro producers who had produced a play by Negro playwrights, but League Is the first Negro producer to produce a play by a white playwright. As goes the old axiom art knows no color line. A culmination of his efforts were realized when the play, "A Sound of Silence" received the Vernon Rice Drama Desk Award as the best play off Broadway. Armed with a B.

S. Degree In psychology from Howard University, League worked for the State Department In foreign service taking an assignment In Liberia, West Africa at a time when Negro State Department personnel was rare. He worked with Ebony magazine in the Chicago office as an assistance advertising manager gaining a great deal of Negro marketing experience, and he opened a smart public relations and advertising consulting business on Michigan Boulevard In the exclusive North Shore of Chicago. The press agency role marked Raymond's first personal Introduction to the theatre. He worked with the Ossie Davis Ruby Dee successful play, "Pur lie Victorious' andeventu ally closed his "P.R." office and produced the play in Philadelphia.

Feeling the need for a more through apprenticeship in the theatre, and in order to function as a Broadway producer. fa wfQmm (If 4 i 1 'V: Si nFFiriAl FXHIRITION The wife of on American Agency for International technician, Mrs. Valaria McCaw, two Pittsburgh profes exhibits work done by her students at the Nour Institute sional men looked a little for the Blind in Khartoum, Sudan, to Luigi Adok (center) out of place when they and Imrihim Yusef Suliman (right) members of the Sudan pntPVPfi a cuino intr tm Supreme Council NEW YORK CITY Singers Jerry Butler, Gene Chandler and The Impressions once tried to buy J.B. Blayton's Negro owned radio station in Atlanta, but were turndown. Since they formed their Entertainers, business firm they're interested in putting their loot In real estate and have a big deal cooking here in the Mildred Boone, Grand Basi leus of the Zeta sorority, isn't telling her sorors the big secret that ain't a secret anymore.

She's getting married in June in an Atlanta church to the "man in her life." She's a hospital official in Petersburgh, Jazz singer Babs Gonzales and wealthy Detroit businessman Ed Wingate concluding a business deal which wil see the entertainer taking over Wingate's record Rhythm and blues singer FonteUa Bass sick in Chicago. She had to cancel a Philadelphia theatre date to rush home to her medic who ordered her hospitalized for threatening to picket the swank boardwalk hotels in Atlantic City over the lack of Negroes in supervisory positions on the staffs. Most of the Soul Brothers work at menial Pearl Bailey's autobio graphy "The Raw will not deal with the bias she ran into In her early theatrical life, but with the good things that happened to her. She and hubby, bandleader Louis Bellson, will vacation in Africa next month at the Negro Festival In Dakar when he plays there as a member of Duke Ellington's Los Angeles' Tommy Tucker, owner of the Playroom cafe, and his attorney, Johnny Cochran, jetted in to negotiate a $1.7 million business deal. But when you see Tucker ask him if he likes The Shaw Booking agency, the largest in the nation handling Negro talent, was sold to wealthy businessman Don Silvera.

His first move was to fire officials Larry Myers and Jack Whittemor. Moving up In the firm is veteran agent Foots Thomas, a former saxman with Cab Calloway's Remeber that wild Screaming Jay Hawkins? Missed from the scene for a few years he headlined at the Apollo theatre last week with his Hawaiian wife, 4: VI Ginny, who adds beauty to his act. He left for a four month gig in London, Paris and Apollo audiences really got a taste of the blues this week when 13 Crcr HmmuWifhorctwin Bobby (Blue) Bland. Jimmv Reed and Muddy Waters took over the stage for a battle of vocal still think pretty Damita Jo is the most underrated singer on the stage today. She has enuff voice for five chicks who think they can sing.

Plus the fact that she does nothing wrong when performing. Youngsters striving to become a show business success should study her UN biggie Ralph Bunche and the White House's LBJ exchanging cordial notes over the recent appointment of Andrew Brimmer to the Federal Reserve Harlem Republicans ask if GOP National Committee chairman Ray Bliss is really sincere in making a bid for the Negro vote then why doesn't he fire Clay Clairborne from the staff. Clairborne was indicted by a New Jersey grand jury last year for being the alleged mastermind of a plot during the last presidential campaign that was calculated to embrass the Rev. Martin Luther King. Bliss will never convince Negroes, they say, until he purges Clay from his staff, not just transfer him to a less sensitive Forget about those threats being voiced by Marguerhite Mays to sue those two West Coast dept.

stores for "false arrest." We learnfrom reliable sources that the true facts, if ever reveled, could embrass a lot of people, including the glamorous Mrs. Courler newsgal Evelyn Cunningham working with Jackie Robinson In his campaign to reelect Gov. Rockefeller. Her radio interview job was ingeri ted by Betty Florida showman and performer Doctor Cool and his wife still having domestic troubles. His latest letter to his friends was mailed from a West Palm Beach jail where she had him confined on assault That's all for this week, folks.

Major Robinson, Box 101, Audubon Station, New York 10032, N. Y. fc7 I HITCH A WAGON TO A STAR So goes the dream of many men but Raymond A. League is no dreamer. He does not have time.

A television producer for an established advertising agency, League produces off Broadway and Broadway plays in his spare time, many of which are slated for success. THE COURIER March 26, 1966 PAGE SB People in the News BY WHITKLAW MarBRIDE Those ofay guys are up to their old tricks again at a Pittsburgh club that caters to members of both sides. Any gal who looks like she wants a good time is solid bait. The cats want action and in most instances they aren't worried about looks Those two middle aged dolls were looking good and talking that talk the other yawning as they closed down a Pittsburgh club. While they were having fun, they made it known to a couple of young hipsters who had eyes, that it was strictly hands off.

A short Pittsburgh strutter must have had his nose opened the other morning. Anyway, when he made a quick getaway with that sad looking babe he caught most of the cats unaware. They couldn't see her as being up to his general standards "'toC 1 ivk club the other morning. One had the nerve to whisper to an acquaintance, "Don't mention you've seen me A famous name in the entertainment world didn't waste all of her time while appearing in Pittsburgh. One of the towns smoothest and most notorious playboys spent plenty of hours in her company.

We can't helP but wonder whether some oi tnose loving stares she was giving the cat were for real A long pony tail wearing Pittsburgh chick has begun losing some of OOINES PHOTO her glamour. While she is still one of the best stacked gals in town ner face has begun showing signs of wear and tear. At the same time, her language, especially in public, needs to be cleaned up. Things are said to be mighty warm at an East Coast radio station since a member of the race has been handed a promotion. For one thing, some of his fellow employees are said to be hot over the upgrading.

Rumor also has it that the soul brother, after his upgrading, had words with an ofay at the station over what records to play Quite a storm may be brewing between two political bigwigs in Pittsburgh. While everything is hush, hush now, the clouds have started gathering and things may break loose at any time. A certain New York bigwig may not be in the good financial shape he is trying to make people believe. He is currently in debt to numerous people, including one doctor he is now barely speaking to because he owes the guy so much loot Then there Is the story about a well known Pittsburgher who has been handed his walking papers by one of the sharpest gals on the stem. According to rumor she ditched that cat because she's worried about her reputation.

Now ain't that a gas! A lot of people were i sed when they put the lid on a popular Pittsburgh bar for 30 days. Seems every hing wasn't quite up to par all because a dynamic gal was pouring the corn at the spot. Her pals are hoping something can be worked out and in a hurry A substitute "Go Go" girl had i a lot of peo L.i sK" WHISTLE BAIT Jonei McKenney of Pittsburgh has enough obvious to cause whistles wherever she goes in the Steel City. She is also good medicine for the patients she serves as a nurse in a Pittsburgh hospital. Her measurements are 34 23 36 She is 22, and No doubt about PUT TOGETHfcK Die chuck wnenever JocK'e naseirig come into sight i tne traffic in Pittsburgh comes to a stand ling theoth stjM Jocie( who works for the penna er morning State Department is an avid Johnny Mathis as she per fan.

Most guys would like singing to her formed her tune gomes photo duties at a well known club. The gal had wrinkles in her belly that made her look anything but glamorous. ANOTHER KICK The Winston Salem State College choir is currently on a tour of Eastern States. Directing the group is Dr. James A.

Dillard Numerous members of the Class of 1941 at South Carolina State College returned to the campus to hear classmate Dr. Frank P. Lloyd of Indianapolis speak at the observance of Founder's Day at the college Morris Brown College of Atlanta, Ga. has been accepted for membership in the American Association of College for Teacher Education. The school was admitted on the basis of continuous achievements in teacher education..