Black Leaders Rebuke Reagan for TV Remarks

President Reagan, in a television interview to be broadcast today, takes a jab at prominent but unnamed black leaders, charging that they “are doing very well” by “keeping alive the feeling that they’re victims of prejudice.”

Asked about his low standing among black Americans, Reagan blames “this editorializing comment (by black leaders) that somehow I’m on the other side” of the struggle for civil rights.

Aggravates Dispute

Reagan’s comments, in his final days in office and on the weekend of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, aggravated a dispute between the President and prominent blacks, a controversy that has festered through his eight years in the White House.

The remarks drew immediate criticism from some black leaders, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who said that Reagan “may be the worst civil rights President we’ve had in recent memory.”

In his interview on the CBS-TV program “60 Minutes,” the President did not defend his civil rights record in the White House, but he instead referred to his earlier days to demonstrate his support for civil rights.

“As a sports announcer, when blacks were denied the right to play major league baseball, I was one of the little group in the nation that editorialized constantly that they shouldn’t be, that they should be allowed to participate in sports,” Reagan said. “As governor of California, I appointed more blacks to executive and policy-making positions in government than all the previous governors of California put together.”

Won’t Give Names

CBS correspondent Mike Wallace asked Reagan if he were referring to such black leaders as Jackson or Benjamin L. Hooks, executive director of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, but the President demurred.

“Well, you name the names. I won’t,” he replied.

Responding in an interview on CNN Saturday, Jackson said that Reagan’s challenge to “the integrity of civil rights leaders is a diversion. . . . He really has been a rich man’s President, with gross insensitivity toward basic civil rights for those who have been historically denied.”

Cite Rebukes, Record

While the President has blamed his troubles with blacks on prominent civil rights leaders, many blacks say that Reagan’s personal rebukes, combined with his Administration’s civil rights record, have earned their enmity.

“This is totally uncalled for. Rather than provide some positive leadership on civil rights, he (Reagan) has chosen to make this kind of nasty comment about prominent blacks who have devoted their entire careers to promoting civil rights,” said William L. Robinson, dean of the District of Columbia Law School. “I think it is unworthy of a President to denigrate people of this stature by a snide suggestion that they are in this for personal financial gain.”

Reagan’s remarks recalled for some his 1983 comment implying that King may have been a communist sympathizer.

After the Senate voted overwhelmingly to honor King with a national holiday, Reagan said he would reluctantly sign the legislation. But he also praised the “sincerity” of Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N. C.), who had argued that the Senate should not approve the holiday until it could examine sealed FBI files on King. Helms said the files may show King was a communist sympathizer.

“Well, we’ll know in about 35 years, won’t we?” Reagan said at a news conference when asked about Helms’ assertion.

“That kind of remark, about a true black hero, has typified his presidency for many blacks,” Robinson said.

Anger Traced to Carolina Case

In 1982, the Reagan White House aroused the anger of civil rights activists when it moved to reverse a 12-year-old Internal Revenue Service policy so as to grant a tax exemption to Bob Jones University in South Carolina, a private institution that excluded blacks. However, the Administration was rebuffed by the Supreme Court on an 8-1 vote.

The Reagan Administration also opposed an extension of the Voting Rights Act, moved to dismantle court decrees desegregating public schools and fought against affirmative action for minorities and women. In each instance, the Administration’s efforts were rebuked by Congress or the Supreme Court.