Educational Drama

To the Editors:

The Roxbury War Tax Scholarship Fund is a special savings account in Roxbury’s black-owned Unity Bank and Trust Co. It is made up mostly of income tax dollars and telephone excise tax refused by conscientious tax objectors. It is not spent, because experience has shown that in the long run IRS manages to collect through seizing bank accounts, paychecks, or sometimes real property. So the money is held in trust until the Government collects, at which time the Fund depositor can withdraw his account to replace the loss.

It is normally six months, a year, or sometimes more before the Government gets around to collecting. So during this time the Fund is being used by Unity Bank to back loans to black homeowners and businesses. War tax money is being used to help build black economic power in our community.

At the same time, it is also accruing interest. This spring, we plan to use this interest as a scholarship grant to a black student preparing to enter college next year. As IRS seizes these funds, therefore, it is taking community development money away from this part of Boston that needs it the most. And this is what income tax is all about, anyway. In this sense, the Tax Fund is an educational drama.

Information on the Fund can be obtained by writing me at 45 Winthrop Street, Roxbury, Mass. I’ve been refusing taxes for several years, incidentally.

Edward Webster

Roxbury, Mass.