Black Forum

Black Americans must unite in voicing their concerns to presidential candidates if the problems facing Blacks are to be solved, four panelists said last night at an Institute of Politics forum on the role of Blacks in the campaign and in national partisan politics.

"We have to be together," Ronald L. Lester, executive assistant to the deputy campaign director for President Carter, told an audience of about 150 last night. "We have to be able to negotiate from a position of strength," he added.

Lester added that Blacks are playing a crucial role in the Carter campaign, raising money, working in the field and helping make major policy decision.

"Blacks need to be involved on all levels of politics--Republican, Democratic and Independent," Ronald H. Brown, deputy campaign director for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54 (D-Mass.), said last night.

"What people are doing to a large extent is not voting for people, but voting against the alternative," Michael D. Jones, campaign coordinator for Rep. John B. Anderson (R. III.), said last night, adding, "We as Black people have to be more creative. Perhaps what we really need to do is reexamine the system."