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Since we last met – it was a hell of a year – many friends departed this earth; President Nixon left abruptly after we finally heard those tapes; the new administrator who replaced him began by telling us about a bottom line – before finally admitting that we were in a depression.

Politically, Black Mayors and City Officials found themselves locked into shrinking or no budgets and great unemployment. All were called upon to show their mettle as administrators and to act affirmatively on their problems with urban living.

It was the year we lost Nixon and gained forward who finally concluded our 30 years police action in Vietnam.

It was the year Duke Ellington, the internationally famed music giant and St. Louis-born Josephine Baker who left this country to make it in Europe, left us with the heritage of their art.

It was the year Frank Horne, one of Ma Bethune's Black Cabinet, and of housing fame; Adolph Holmes of the Urban League; John Morsell of NAACP, the brilliant Max Yeargin; William Kilpatrick of Masonry lore and George Meares, former National Prexy of Omega Psi Phi passed.

It was also the year Kiah Sayles, everybody's friend and Leroy Rodman and Edna Morgan died. And it was a year in the publishing field when knives were plunged deep into the backs of a few of us.

It was a year the Whites in Atlanta seated that the Blacks had the political clout but they had the economic clout: and were suggesting that both factors get together.

It was a year in which a demonstration project on how to eradicate urban blight was launched in New York City.

It was the year President Ford and Administration in the H.U.D. agency change horses in the middle of the stream to accept the resignation of Dr. Gloria Toote, the lady who commissioned the Manhattan Washington Heights Stabilization Maintenance Project. However, Hilda Stokely, its executive director and Borough President Percy Sutton, its sponsor and their crew continued on.

It was the year Percy Sutton, the Manhattan Borough President, did a 26-week TV interview show with guests like: Senator Ted Kennedy, everyone's choice for President; Robert Moses, the man who built New York; Paul O'Dwyer; Mary Ann Krupsak, the first female lieutenant governor in New York and Congressman Charles Rangel. The boys on the corner hailed Percy's show as another step toward exposure as he, the Manhattan Borough President, was making up his mind to run for a higher office in the City of New York.

It was the year old friends and peers got together to honor Dr. John W. Davis, the grand old man of Masonry and educational pursuit and promoter of many social causes and Joe Yancy of Pioneer Club fame. This tribute to Joe was long overdue as was the one for Hal Jackson, the radio legend of his time.

It was the year "the Wiz" the Broadway musical play ran off with 7 Tony awards: namely best musical;best score — Charlie Smalls best supporting actor in a musical, ten Ross; best supporting actress in a musical, Dee Dee Bridgewater; best director of the musical, Geoffrey Holder; best costume designer, Geoffrey Holder; and best choreographer, George Faison.

But it was also the year, despite the fact that the owners accepted and made Frank Robinson, a Black man, the first Black major league baseball manager, the white owners in professional basketball, which owes so much to the Black stars, continued their charade, by hiring a white politician to control their National Basketball Association. The alibi given was that the Black assistant commissioner was too young and it seems that the owners, who like money, want to keep it all in the family, so they hired a known politician to replace the departing commissioner. They thought the politician would be in a position to help them maintain their "status" as well as confuse the peering eyes of Congress, as they seek to continue their way of life.

It was the year Black Publishers took the Department of Defense to task for not including them in the Department spending and Minton Frances, our man in the Pentagon, came up with some new rules on sharing the wealth with Black publications, even including this one.

It was the year a man, who had been living out of a suitcase for three months, finally stopped long enough to address a National Black convention.

The man arrived in San Francisco on the day the federal government indicted Mr. Connolly and sentenced the former lieutenant governor of California.

During a pre-speech press conference, the man spent the time defending his boss's administration, saying "as more of us get more educated, the better it will be for all including Blacks, Poor Whites, and women."

Then, all of a sudden, a Black female reporter asked him, point-blank, "Why are you here at this convention?" Then all hell broke loose.

In answer to the direct question, the man said he knew the head of the local branch of the organization; that he was a member of the Flint branch of the Urban League for 25 years and had his membership card to prove it. Most of all, he had been invited to speak and he accepted.

Less than 10 days later, the speaker, Vice President Gerald Ford, was appointed President of the United States.

DELEGATE, 1975
MELPAT ASSOCIATES • Producers
2225 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10037

MEL PATRICK, President and Publisher
HILDA STOKELY Exec. Vice President
ANN PATRICK Secretary and Treasurer

(212) FO 8-5559

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