Racist attacks under-reported

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"Birmingham, Birmingham—the finest city in Alabam'." So goes Randy New -man's song. And it's true. But don't be misled. Racism is still rearing its ugly head A recent incident says it all. Kelvin Henry, a Black car dealer, was preparing to move into his new apartment in the all-white Eastwood Projects of Birminghman when he was confronted by 20 to 25 of his white, male neighbors. The next day he returned to find a note inside which read, "Nigger, there's going to be a war."

This threat was then followed by more confrontations. Henry was finally con -vinced to pack his bags. Days later he learned that his apartment had been burned and "KKK" painted in several places on the outside.

NAACP's Southeast Regional Director Earl Shinhoster says that racial violence "is the most under-reported act of violence against an individual." He continued, "Most victims don't report the attacks because they don't believe anything can be done."

Of course, neither Birmingham nor the Southeast in general have any monopoly on racial violence. Incidents such as the vicious Howard Beach attack in New York as well as numerous cross-burnings and hangings in the Contra Costa county of California serve to underscore this fact.

Ku Klux Klan marches are occurring with increasing frequency. Last month in Greensboro, N.C., about 150 white supremacists held a parade through the town. This was the first Klan parade to be held since five anti-Klan demonstrators were killed in Greensboro eight years ago. (Anti-Klan activists far out-mobilized them, however, at a rally held the day before.)

Outrage against these incidents has spread throughout the Black community. On Jan. 24, over 25,000 took part in a Freedom March in Forsyth, Ga., to demand an end to racist attacks. Thousands more marched in New York after the attacks in Howard Beach.

Continued mass mobilizations of the Black community and its supporters are needed to send a message to the racists that "America will not be Howard Beach"-nor the Eastwood Projects of Birmingham. • Soviet Union going today," we neglected to credit Suzi Weissman, author of "The highrisk side of Gorbachev's glasnost" (In These Times, March 25-31, 1987), for back -ground information and formulations used in our article.—The editors

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an intricate web of illegal spying, covert action, dope smuggling, and assassination that has been carried out by the U.S. government for decades. Not testifying today at the Contragate hearings. The histor Christic Institute ic Christic Institute lawsuit has uncovered massive importation of cocaine into the United States.

Christic Institute attorneys, armed with a court order granting the right of 25 years "discovery," are proceeding through the information-gathering stage of the lawsuit. The material they have already presented implicates the Democratic and Republican administrations since Eisenhower in illegal terrorist and genocidal acts.

But what is unique about the lawsuit is not the fact that top U.S. government officials have been linked to organized crime and mass terror against other nations.

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Correction In our June 1987 article, "Where is the