secretly arrested by the political police of the: Verwoerd government and is now presumably in a Grahamstown’ jail.
A full-time organiser of the Unity Movement and a member of the Head Unity Committee, he was visited by agents of the Special ‘Branch last December. A little later he disappeared.
Frantic pleas to the police by his wife, who is the chairman of the Kingsly branch of the African People's Democratic Union of Southern Africa [APDUSA], an affiliate of the Unity Movement, were not given even the courtesy of a reply.
Gcabashe finally managed to get word out that he had been taken by the Special Branch and locked up in a Bizana (Pondoland) jail under Proclamation 400 (an emergency measure that does away with the rule of law in the Transkei). He had been told that he was to be transferred to a Grahamstown jail.
An elderly teacher of great courage, Gcabashe played an important role in opposing the diabolical system of Bantu Education. The Native Affairs Department, which controls education for Africans, retaliated by making it impossible for him to work any longer as a teacher, He had but two.years to go before his pension. . .
Gceabashe then devoted himself completely to the struggle for liberation. He helped organise the people against removal from Northern Natal to Monalo. When others finally gave up under the fearful pressure, he refused to move, Despite police terror and. intimidation, he continued to work with Dr.A.I.Limbada, treasurer of the Unity Movement now in exile, until Dr. Limbada was banned, gagged and confined, ;
The political police have subjected Gcabashe to all sorts of pressure, from brute force to. inducements and promises of release if he will agree to betray his comrades. He has remained steadfast and unyielding.
"A GIRL JUST LIKE ME"
By Evelyn Sell
America's advertising apartheid has been dented in the last several. years. For many years some soft-drink and tobacco companies used Negro models in Negro-oriented media. Negro magazines, newspapers and posters in Negro neighborhoods have used Negro models also. The startling innovation during the last few years has been the use of Negro models in the white-oriented media of national television commercials and magazines. Some local newspapers have begun using Negro models in clothing advertisements directed toward the general public.
In 1965 some of the large soap producers began using Negro models in television commercials boosting soap products and personal care items, In 1964, for the first time, fifty to sixty department stores across the country used mannequins with Negro coloring and features in window displays. Some government agencies like the Peace Corps, city police departments, corporations and nonprofit charitable agencies have used Negroes in posters and brochures designed to recruit personnel and indicate equal employment practices,
Negro models are being increasingly used in promotional campaigns and in major fashion shows. Negro models were featured ina recent. cultural exchange program that sent American models and merchandise to Russia. Many of the large fashion houses of the United States and Europe are beginning to use Negro mannequins. There were Negro fashion models in the annual fashion show staged by DuPont recently for more than 200 fashion editors,
These departures from the traditional "whites only" world of national advertising was termed a "quiet aspeet of America'ts racial revolution" by the Michigan Chronicle, the largest Negro newspaper in the state. In an October 24, I964, article the Chronicle noted, “White reaction has been small to the new innovation, and mostly favorable. |
"tit just seems accepted,' according to Henry J. Kaufman, an independent ad man. ‘It creates a better degree of naturalness... and besides, a Negro, like everybody else, wants to see how hetll look in a suit of clothes or behind the wheel of his car,!"
In this last remark, the independent ad man reveals one of the major factors involved in the new use of Negro models -- the growing power of the Negro market. John H. Johnson, Negro president of the Johnson Publishing Company, listed some important facts ina speech before some 500 magazine circulation executives [reported in the February 28, 1965, New York Times]. Mr. Johnson told his audience, "At this very moment there are more than 20 million American —
Negroes who control more than $25 billion a ‘year in consumer purchasing power."
Mr. Johnson compared this statistic on the expanding Negro market to other rich sources of American profits and concluded that the Negro market represents a growth potential equal to the whole of Western Europe. He pointed out that without a "real confrontation" with the Negro market, maximum profit is impossible for American business. A weighty point with America's profit-hungry compan- Les. . .
In his talk Mr. Johnson stated that both American advertisers and the Negro market had been victimized by misconceptions about the character and needs of Negro consumers. But these misconceptions were "rapidly dissolving in the crucible of cash-register sales,"
"What we call the American market," lr. Johnson pointed out, "is, in reality, two major markets -~ separated, unfortunately, and, we hope, temporarily, by caste-like barriers of race.".. It is now time for American advertisers to show those qualities. we. think of as peculiarly American -- openness of heart and mind, inventiveness, ingenuity, and above all, a willingness to confront new elements. of a changing situation and to move with the grain of the times. , ."(!)
He urged the advertisers, "In order to sell the customers in this market, we must revamp our entire advertising approaches and enter imaginatively into their lives. Above all else, we must approach them as human beings with human hopes and dreams and aspirations.
Equality in being fleeced ey dns! aust advertising operators
-- that's what is being offered the Negro market by the men who have their eyes on the cash-register sales.
Civil-rights organizations have taken advantage of American business greed in order to push for more opportunities for Negroes. The Congress of Racial Equality [CORE] has threatened to call up nation-wide boycotts of various products if Negroes are not reflected in general audience commercial advertising. During 19635 CORE was negotiating with thirty-six different companies and was able to make agreements for integrated advertising with fourteen of them, These fourteen companies represented an annual $350,000,000 in television advertising.
A CORE representative stated, "Originally we had been pre~ pared to use selective purchasing as a weapon in our campaign but when several companies integrated their advertising without being approached, we knew it would not be necessary." =:
Although advertising apartheid has been dented, it has not been conquered by any means. It still strikes the American eye as something a little unusual to see Negro models in television, news-
papers, magazines and posters. The following incident, reported in the Michigan Chronicle article cited above, is still a sad-but-true commentary on the use of Negro models in national and local advertising media:
"One of the effects of the use of the Negro in advertising is illustrated by the Negro housewife. She said she rushed into her living room when her daughter screamed, 'Mommy, Mommy, come quick! Look, Mama, there's a little girl. just. like me.' She was pointing toa Negro’ child appearing in a toothpaste conmercial,'
There will have to be a lot more pressure and a lot more changes before that little Negro girl will not be surprised by the sight of a "girl just like me."