American Notes Blacks

The Reagan Administration has long contended that black leaders do not represent the views of the black community as a whole. Last week that argument got some support. A poll in Public Opinion magazine, the journal of the American Enterprise Institute, indicated that a majority of blacks do not support liberal prescriptions favored by most of their leaders.

More than three-fourths of the 105 black leaders polled favored affirmative- action preferences in hiring and college admissions; by the same percentage, the survey's 600 black citizens rejected the notion that race should be the main criterion. Leaders heavily favored abortion, busing to achieve school integration and a ban on school prayer, while large percentages of all blacks opposed those views. Benjamin Hooks, executive director of the N.A.A.C.P., claimed that despite the survey's findings, most leaders were in tune with the sensibilities of the black community. The split indicated in the poll holds true for attitudes toward the man in the White House. Nearly a third of all blacks said they liked the way Ronald Reagan is doing his job, while only 13% of black leaders felt that way.