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Now the Congressional Black Caucus, under the capable leadership of their Director, Barbara Williams, have begun to put together issues networks of interested Blacks to gather their expertise, their differings abilities to apply pressure, and their bodies - if need be- to reinforce the Black prescence in Washington's legislative halls and in the White House.

The Caucus - by itself - could never have fulfilled this role. Their numbers now reduced to only 15 after the defeat of John Lewis in Atlanta last spring, their geographical locations preventing them from representing all of us, their main jobs of representing their constituents first above all have made them less than effective in giving representation to the entire American black community.

Now each reader of this column - and each interested American, for that matter - has a chance to join the Caucus in creating a machine that, properly greased, can generate either hundreds of thousands of telegrams or hundreds of thousands of votes or marching feet to bring pressure wherever our interests are threatened.

Whether your interest is health care, or labor legislation, or even the Panama Canal, the Caucus can use you.

If you are lucky enough to live in one of the cities - Los Angeles or Berkeley, California; St. Louis, Missouri; Chicago, Illinois, Memphis, Tennessee; Houston, Texas; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, New York, New York, Detroit, Michigan, or in the Dsirtict of Columbia, then you can contact your member of the Congressional Black Caucus to find out how to join the Caucus network.

If you live elsewhere, just write:
Ms. Barbara Williams
Director
The Congressional Black Cuacus
House of Representatives