unity news
Veritas thanks the United Free Press for the
permission to reprint some of their material. This
permission does not reflect compliance of the UFP
with Veritas' policy.
On the 29th of April Black students marched with
a police permit to a special meeting of the Board of
Education. Friction occurred at the corner of
Milledge and Broad and resulted in police tear-gassing
the marchers. Some store windows were broken along
Broad St. and in the downtown area later that
evening. During the next afternoon police began
random tear-gassing of the Broad Acres area and
arrested many Blacks for unlawful assembly. There
were unwarranted searches, many children were left
without their parents, and several people were
brutally beaten by those charged to uphold the law.
The students were protesting because they felt
that the merger of the all-Black Burney-Harris High
School and the all-White Athens High School would
deny to them a continuation of expressions of Black
heritage. They feared that they would lose Black
teachers, their school name, and the symbols they
had lived with as students. These may seem like small
matters, but these symbols were all-important to the
identity of the Black students. They had visited with
the school board, they had made formal requests,
they were angered by a lack of response. The police
and the city reacted violently to a demonstration
which had begun peacefully.
While meetings were being held concerning the
grievances of the Black students and the brutality of
the police, many students at the University of Geor
gia began to protest the war in Cambodia and the
slayings at Kent State. During the afternoon of the
6th of May, students picketed the ROTC building on
campus and demanded that the university close in
memoriam. In the evening the officers of student
government sponsored a memorial service for the
Kent State Four. At the conclusion of the service
about 250 students marched through town to Pres
ident Davison's house and from there across Milledge
to Baxter and back to the campus. About three
thousand students had joined the march by the time
that it had arrived back at the Academic Building.
They demanded the university be closed, they de
manded to hear the President. Three students were
arrested for burglary.
On May 7, university students obtained a permit
to march a scarce 4% hours before the scheduled
time. From 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. they marched
along the route they had followed the previous
evening. On May 11, Black Monday participants
marched with permit downtown; about 200 gathered
in front of the courthouse, then dispersed without
incident. They also applied for a permit to march on
the following day; but the request was denied due,
said city officials, to the fact that they had not given
24 hours notice. They lacked about one hour of the
twenty-four. On Tuesday, after a rally at Ebenezer
Church, 72 persons, mostly Black, were arrested for
marching without a permit.
In continuation of previous procedures, the police
used tear gas indiscriminately through the neighbor
hood and tear gassed those left on the steps of the
Church. After the arrests, the marchers, who had
been brought to the city stockade were tear gassed
without apparent purpose. Although five fires were
reported in the city that evening, the police gave no
justification for their actions in regard to the
marchers.
On Wednesday, May 13. the National Guard was
stationed at the Fair Grounds, while most students
and protesters turned their attention to Nina Simone,
who was appearing at the university in connection
with the Black Awareness Week sponsored by the
Student Union. On Thursday Hosea Williams spoke to
a mass meeting at Ebenezer Church and prepared the
marchers for a further confrontation the following
day. May 14, when approximately 250 people were
arrested for unlawful assembly.
The sequence of events summarized here never
Milledred in the local newspapers, and some of the
events themselves were never reported This helped to
Summary: campus and civil unrest
produce rumors and confusion. The United Free Press
was conceived in part as a remedy to this situation.
We feel that events such as these need to be as fully
reported as possible.
Help wanted:
community referral service
Veritas thanks the United Free Press for the
permission to reprint some of their material. This
permission does not reflect compliance of the UFP
with Veritas' policy.
There has been a great need in Athens for a
director of social service groups. This need was clearly
defined last spring by a joint steering committee of
the Human Relations Council and the Concerned
Citizens Committee.
Thanks to the awareness of the faculty of the
Institute of Social Work, a study group decided to
accept the task of compiling a referral directory as
their summer project. At present their findings are
being typed and collated into a usable manual.
Amazingly, the Institute of Social Work was unable
to locate representatives for 30% of the social service
groups listed in the last directory published by the
League of Women Voters. The inability of trained
social service personnel to locate information points
up the plight of those who, in the past, immediately
needed help, and proves the desirability of a referral
service.
First, volunteers are needed to fill the gaps in
information and to keep it up to date. Next, this
valuable information must be used. The information
includes services offered, eligibility requirements and
volunteer needs. The joint steering committee needs
office space, volunteer time and a telephone. The
people of Athens have a right to receive this informa
tion and to use the services set up for their benefit.
Volunteers are needed now! There are unending
possibilities with this project. Once initiated and
functioning, it can develop into a volunteer referral
service, a watchdog and an advocate of the people's
needs and rights to community services. Call
5491639 (after 6:00) and express your interest in
the success of the referral service.
WELCOME, STUDENTS!
"rf)*^
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