WASHINGTON -- President Reagan recently has been making a determined effort to win over blacks with dramatic personal gestures. His goal is to offset some impressions, created by budget cuts in social programs, that he is not concerned with the poor and disadvantaged.
He made a surprise visit to the College Park, Md., home of Mrs. and Mrs. Philip Butler, who were harassed by a cross burning after they moved into an all-white neigborhood, received crank calls and had garbage dumped on their lawn. Reagan said he wanted to tell them that 'this kind of thing doesn't happen in America.'
He also upgraded the role of Melvin Bradley, his black adviser in the White House, and hired another black, Woodrow Wilkie Gunn, a former Pepsico executive, for his domestic policy staff. And in a sudden turnabout, the administration decided to support a strong extension of Voting Rights Act.
The cuts in welfare and other benefit programs were not the only acts that diminished Reagan's image in the eyes of blacks.
The real crunch came when Reagan, on Jan. 8, approved a Justice Department decision that would have given tax exempt status to schools that restrict black enrollment or practice racial discrimination. He was forced to retreat under a firestorm of criticism from black and white leaders.
During a quiz session with students at Providence St. Mel High School, an all-black private catholic school in Chicago, Reagan was asked to reveal the last political decision he had made 'that didn't get the results you expected.'
'I have a beaut I'd like to tell you about,' a relaxed Reagan told the student assembly.
'I was under the impression, and maybe I was wrong. I didn't know there were any court cases pending. But I was under the impression that the problem of segregated schools had been settled -- that we have desegregation.'
He said that he had been getting complaints even before he became president that Internal Revenue agents were 'harassing some schools even though they were desegregated ... and threatening to take away their scholarships' if they did not speed up scholarships for minority students.
'And that one went wrong,' he said, 'and this is the first time anyone's ever publicly asked me to try and explain what I was doing.'
Presidents have a lot on their minds, to put it mildly, and sometimes their memories may be a bit faulty. But since Reagan also told the teenagers: 'Don't let me get away with it. Check me out. Don't be the sucker generation,' it was thought a check might be enlightening. It was.
A check of the record showed that last Dec. 22 aides told Reagan in a memo that Rep. Trent Lott, R-Miss., had written regarding pending court cases concerning the tax exempt status of church schools. They said that the Supreme Court had agreed to review the case of Bob Jones University against the United States 'and urges you to intervene in this particular case.'
Reagan wrote in the margin of the memo, 'I think we should.'
As for no one ever asking him to publicly explain his actions in the matter, at a news conference on Jan. 19, ABC correspondent Sam Donaldson asked Reagan about the decision regarding tax exemptions 'of certain schools that clearly gave aid and comfort to racial discrimination.'
'My question is: What happened?' asked Donaldson.
'Sam,' said Reagan, 'no one put anything over on me. No, Sam, the buck stops at my desk. I'm the originator of the whole thing, and I'm not going to deny that it wasn't handled as well as it could be.'
Reagan won only 15 percent of the black vote in the contest with Jimmy Carter.The high unemployment, particularly among blacks, has widened the gap. Public opinion polls indicate his remaining support is dwindling. To broaden his base of support, Reagan has embarked on a fence mending campaign and he is taking stronger stands in support of minorities.
