Newspaper Page Text
of Atlanta
THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 1966
$5.00 PER YEAR
VOL. 4, NO. 31..
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
No Publications Cited
SERVING GEORGIA’S 71 NORTHERN COUNTIES
A Small Difference
In Vine City, Black Is White
THIS IS Vine City, a slum section of Atlanta which is generally forgotten by civic boosters, Chris
tian churches and well-to-do Negroes. Its residents do not share in the prosperity -of a growing city.
By CHRIS ECKL
You can tell Hectpr Black is
different from his neighbors in
Vine City. He is white and they
are black.
But that is a very small dif
ference when you live in this
slum area of Atlanta. Black and
his neighbors suffer equally
from the heat of summer and
cold of winter. They knowwhat
it is like to be generally forgot
ten by civic leaders, the Chris
tian churches and well-to-do
Negroes. They know the con
tempt of white men. They know
what low wages, ignorance and
disease do to children and adults.
Black, a 41-year-old Harvard
graduate, moved into Vine City
with his crippled wife and three
children nearly two years ago.
He said conditions have improv
ed in the slum through the ef
forts of the Vine City Council
and grants from Economic Op
portunity Atlanta, but it is still
a neighborhood where Negroes
pay $38 a month for a three-
room dwelling, battle rats and
live in fear of eviction.
The soft-spoken Black admit
ted he did not know prosperous
Atlanta very well. “I am gen
erally disappointed with the
city. While most cities settle
for one or two slums, Atlanta
has Vine City, Pittsburgh, Me-
chanicsville, Summerhill, But
termilk Bottom, Lightning,
. PiunkettQwn and Lynwood* You
don’t hear much about them.”
In fact most Atlantans would
have never heard of Hector
Black if he had not led a rent
strike last winter in the Mark
ham St. area. He was arrested
for trespassing while passing
out blankets to occupants of a
rundown building.
His name was mentioned again
in the newspapers when SNCC
workers called him "white
Jesus” and tried to force him
to leave Vine City. Black said
the "white Jesus” label was
particularly insulting because
"no one considers himself my
follower. Members of the Vine
City Council don’t always agree
with me, nor I with them. We
try to work together."
He became a resident of Vine
City after coming South to join
the civil rights movement and
served as a tutor under the
sponsorship of the Quaker
House. He then stayed after
the classes ended.
Asked how his wife liked liv
ing in Vine City, Black replied:
"My wife enjoys herself, but
finds things hectic.” His three
daughters, ages 7, 6 and 5 don't
notice their surroundings. ‘The
two who go to school are the
only white children in their
school, but they don't think sc
because some of the other child
ren are light.
"When we moved into Vine
City,” Black recalled, "the
people went out of their way to
be friendly. They brought us
supper and we feel at home
here,”
Black sighed and wiped per
spiration from his face and neck
as he discussed the future of
Vine City. "If you talk about
rent control, they call it social-
ism...job training is coming,
but it’s slow ...welfare payments
keep body and soul together, but
THIS IS Hector Black, who lives
in Vine City, to try and help his
neighbors. He says progress
is very slow in the slum area.
that’s about all...I get angry
sometimes when people get
high-handed or lie.”
What can be done to help the
people of Vine City? "We need
money for food and clothes, a
movie projector for the kids,
linens, towels, blankets and
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 2)
Russians Tighten Up On Swearing
MOSCOW (RNS>—The linguists claim the Russians mean
what they say when they speak out against "swearing.’’
Fact is, you now can be arrested, tried and convicted in a
single day if found ‘ swearing” in . Russia.
To swear, most dictionaries indicate, is to make a solemn
promise to God. Or it can mean profane or blasphemous lang
uage taking in vain the name of God.
Well, atheist Russia will crack down if it finds you swearing,
particularly in those cases when your swear words are directed
against a neighbor. Under new law, persons who swear and
insult other citizens can be brought before a court.
Priest Supports i Clergy Lobby 9
NORTH CONWAY, N.H. (NO)--A priest-educator urged the
formation of a "clergy lobby” to work for wholesale reform
of laws regulating the sale and distribution of alcohol.
‘The present legal picture is a hypocritical mish-mash, in
viting corruption among the adults, and leading the adolescent
to circumvent the law, thus often encouraging teenage drinking
excesses,” Father George Hagmaier, C.S.P., said.
“Regulations which differ from state to state, county to county,
even city to city, make no sense. Drinking curfews, age limits,
dry Sundays, type and amount of alcohol for sale, cannot be ef
fectively controlled by law,” the priest said.
Author Criticizes News Report
CHICAGO (NC)—A co-author of a sociological study of the ef
fects of Catholic schooling emphasized here that the study did
not conclude that Catholic schools have failed, their purpose.
Father Andrew-M. Greeley said he regretted that a story in
the New York Times conveyed a false impression.
The New York Times story reported on ‘The Education of
American Catholics,” a study by Father Greeley and Peter H.
Rossi of the National Opinion Research Center of the University
of Chicago. The Times said that the Greeley-Rossi study showed
that Catholic education was wasted on 75 per cent of the students
who received it.
Nurses Threaten Hospital Strike
SAN FRANCISCO (NC)--Nurses at Catholic hospitals in San
Francisco were among those who threatened to walk off the job
here unless they received pay raises of up to $150 a month.
More than 2,000 of the approximately 2,700 nurses submitted
resignations in anticipation of the threatened Aug. 3 walkout,
forcing hospitals to admit only emergency patients.
The hospitals, in a paid newspaper advertisement before the
walkout date, admitted there were "historic iniquities in nursing
salaries’' and agreed the nurses ‘ deserve higher incomes.”
But they said they could offer a $60 a month increase.
England’s 4 Smallest 9 Church
EASTBOURNE, England (RNS)—Lullington church, which has
for ages been celebrated as England’s smallest parish church,
has been found to be the remaining part of an earlier church
destroyed by fire sometime around the 12th Century.
The discovery was announced by an archaeological team head
ed by Alec Barr-Hamilton of Sussex County Archaeological
Society.
FOTRAMA, a wool co-operative, designed to give employment to his parishioners, has
been established in Cochabamba, Bolivia, by Maryknoll Father Gerald Ziegengeist. Fo-
trama sells the sweaters, blankets, ponchos, carpets and other products in suitable mar
kets. Here women knit sweaters for which they will receive about $5 each.
Since Vatican II
Church Changes From ‘No-No’
To ‘Go-Go,’ Students Told
. COLUMBUS, Ohio (NC)—More
than 400 Catholic high school
students from three states were
told here that the "No-No
Church” marked by negations,
laws and formalities has since
Vatican Council II become a
"Go-Go Church” accented by
commitment, involvement and
witness.
Father Raymond E. Lavelle,
assistant pastor of St. Mary’s
church, Lancaster, Ohio, cau
tioned' members of Young
Christian Students, meeting at
the Ohio State Fairgrounds
youth center, to examine their
purpose in life "if no one calls
you a fool, a fanatic, a rabble-
rouser, a rebel, a radical.”
He said, "Christ was called
all of these names in his time.
Christ and Christianity today
must be translated by you into
two words: love and commit
ment. How can you love with
out becoming involved?"
Delivering the keynote ad
dress at the start of the five-
day Ohio Regional Study week,
Father Lavelle charged that an
‘‘unbelieving world lies bleed
ing to death on our sidewalks
from lack of Christian love,
while we Christians are pass
ing them by on our way to
church.” He said that “real
Christian love necessitates and
demands commitment, dedica
tion, and involvement."
The Lancaster priest de
nounced the "part-time,”
"neutral,” . and “Sunday”
Christian. He said that a "truly
dedicated Christian cannot play
the infantile game of *hide and
seek’ or ‘peek-a-boo’ with the
world.” He added that the only
way one can love God is through
his neighbor.
"If you don’t see Christ in
the poor, the aged, the Negro,
in the slums, in your neighbor,
or in your community; if you
don’t see Christ in these per
sons and circumstances, then
you may never see Christ in
eternity, ” he said.
Priests Back
Atlanta Rally
Thirty-two religious and lay
leaders in Atlanta, including two
Catholic priests, have issued a
call for a Hiroshima Day walk
and rally in downtown Atlanta
Saturday.
The rally will commemorate
the victims of the atomic bomb
ing of Hiroshima and will pro
test U.S. involvementi Viet
nam. Priests signing the call
for the rally were Father Leo
nard F.X. Mayhew, associated
editor of The Bulletin, and Fa
ther Matthew Kemp.
The walk will begin at the Old
Post Office on Forsyth Street at
11 a.m. and proceed toEbenezer
Baptist Church where the rally
will begin at 12:30 p.m.
Vatican Daily Blasts
‘Vulgarized’ Reports
About Birth Control
VATICAN CITY (NC) — The
Vatican City daily has taken
exception to what it has termed
“vulgarized” newspaper ap
proaches to the "grave pro
blems of matrimonial mo
rality,” including birth limi
tation.
L’Osservatore Romano’s
editorial was signed by
Federico Alessandrini, one of
its two assistant editors. It did
not name the publications it was
referring to, but it was general
ly thought that among the ar
ticles aimed at was a series
published in the Milan, Italy,
daily, Corriere Della Sera. In
it an unidentified theologian was
quoted as saying that Pope Paul
VI might rule favorably on the
use of a contraceptive pill for
up two years after the birth
of a child without violating the
laws of nature.
L’Osservatore Romano's
editorial opened with the state
ment: "For some time now in
Italy and elsewhere newspapers
and weeklies have been vul
garizing the grave problems of
matrimonial morality which the
Church has already placed once
more before the conscience of
Christians in one of the major
documents of the ecumenical
council, the Constitution on the
Church in the Modern Worldfc
The editorial continued:
"New statements are expected
and the articles to which we
refer try to anticipate them—
not to say condition them—
by describing anguished expec
tations and reporting indis
cretions, ‘revelations’ and de
clarations which have not been
properly understood and per
haps even worse reported.”
L’Osservatore Romano
disclaimed any intention of add
ing fuel to the fire, but said
‘‘this campaign for the limi
tation of births is bound to pro
vide food for a few considera
tions.” The first of the con
siderations offered was that of
a religious and moral nature.
The editorial said the recent
publicity given to the problem
is one that presents itself as
being a mediator in the name of
common sense, "which regards
relations between the Church
and the world as an adaptation
of the Church itself, of its tea
ching and of its morals to a
mentality which is Christian in
name but perhaps no longer so
by the inner and profound con
viction of reason and will . . „
"It is stated, even authori
tatively, that a fixed and per
manent morality does not exist.
It is said that there exists in
stead a relative morality which
changes with changing times,
customs and what is called
common feeling. It is useless
to point out that ethical rela
tivity is neither Christian nor
human, yet there are people who
ask the church to accept it and
to start on a way which the
Church could not take without
being unfaithful to itself and its
mandate.”
The editorial noted that "We
do not know atthis momentwhat
the answers will be to the grave
problems concerning Christian
marriage. We know - - and it
might be good to remember it
—that journalistic agitation has
no weight at all on the teaching
of the Church in matters so vital,
so deeply felt and which at times
cause suffering.”
The second consideration of
fered by the Vatican City daily
was that concerning more ge
neral social and human aspects.
It noted that population growth
and economic resources have
been discussed on the interna
tional and national planes "on
a negative aspect, that is to say
the limitation of births,” only.
The encyclical of Pope John
XXIII, Mater et Magistra, which
states that the solution to the
population problem is one of
economic development and
social progress.
The editorial declared: "We
fear that expediency is consi
dered more the remedy and that
too many interests of a self
ish and even nationalistic nature
are at work*
Young Adults Set
Delegates Meeting
Permanent delegates to the
Young Adult Congress, sched
uled for Sept. 24-25, will meet
Sunday, Aug. 14 at 3:30 p.m. at
the Cathedral Center to elect
officers for the convention and
delegates and alternates to the
committees.
Jim Altwies, chairman of the
steering committee, urged
young adults to contact their
pastors if no meetings on the
congress have been held in their
parishes.
NATIONAL NEWMAN CHAPLAINS—Father Philip J.
Branon (left), Burlington, Vt„ is the new president of the
National Newman Chaplains Association, and Father Ray
mond Kriege (right), Milwaukee, Wis,, is the new chaplain
of the National Newman Student Federation.
ST. JOSEPH'S'In
firmary holds gra
duation ceremonies
at Sacred Heart.