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January 19, 1995
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Children and parents boy
cott school for MLK Holiday
COLUMBUS, hnd.
(AP) Columbus schoolchildren
and their parents are being asked
to boycott school on the Rev. Mar
tin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and
attend an alternative community
celebration of the civil rights lead
er.
School officials say students
who do so will be passing up a
chance to hear from prominent
national black figures being
brought in Jan. 16 to talk as part
of an in-school celebration of King.
However, the Rev. Charles
Sims, pastor of Calvary Pentecos
tal Church, believes the in-school
celebration falls short of treating
the day as a holiday.
“The education community
should be more sensitive than
anyone else to understanding the
tremendous amount of symbol
ism that is involved in recognizing
the accomplishments of Dr. Mar
tin Luther King,” Sims said.
The day is a national holiday,
and government agencies in Co
lumbus and at the state level are
treating Jan. 16 as a holiday as
well, Sims noted.
“Here we are saying we don't
feel it’s necessary to do this; we
don't see the merit. That’'s what is
so disappointing,” he said.
Sims, the Rev. Carl Russell of
Second Baptist Church and the
Columbus NAACP office are lead
ing the call for the boycott.
The alternative celebration at
Sims’ church Jan. 16 will feature
discussions about King’s life and
beliefs, a protest march to a down
town education building and a
community unity meeting that
night.
On-Line O Connor Talks
About Abortion, AIDS
NEW YORX
(AP) Cardinal John O’Connor
He writes a weekly column for the
archdiocesan paper. And now, he’s
spreading his message in a new
realm—cyberspace.
In what was billed as a first of
Malcolm X’s daughter charged
From page one
Fitzpatrick, 34, was arrested in
connection with a bombing at a
Soviet bookstore in 1977, when he
was 17. He became a government
informer after the attempted 1978
bombing of an Egyptian govern
ment tourist office by fellow mem
bersofthe Jewish Defense League.
“This is the high point of his life,
going around wiring himself,” said
Chaim Ben Passach, one of two
JDL members convicted after
Fitzpatrick taped conversations
of bombing plots.
“He hated black people,” added
Ben Passach, who served 21
monthsinjail for 11 firebombings.
“That was one thing he felt very
strongly about: black people were
very easy to manipulate. But he
never called them black people.
He used the n-word. He despised
black people, loathed black peo
*-
Fitzpatrick, or Summers, was a
rare-coin collector who was ar
of 1993 in Minneapolis, according
to court records. Police say he al
legedly flushed cocaine down a
toilet and shoved two more pack
ets under a rug. He was carrying
identification with both names,
Rights lawyer to defend Shabazz
From page one
nation.
Prosecutors refused to identify
the key witness, but several news
accounts named him as Michael
Fitzpatrick, a childhood friend of
Ms. Shabazz now living as Micha
el Kevin Summers in the witness
protection program in Minnesota.
had telephone conversations with
AUGUSTA FOCUS
its kind event for a Catholic cardi
nal, O'Connor answered questions
for about 45 minutes recently on
service, Prodigy. Responding to
subscribers’ queries, he touched
on subjects from AIDS to the pope
to abortion.
“I feel as though I am on ‘Star
Trek,™ the 74-year-old head of the
New York Roman Catholic Arch
diocese said at one point.
But he predicted on-line ser
vices like Prodigy will have a broad
impact and that “it’s certainly a
way to reach people who never
come to church.”
A man who identified himself
as a homosexual with AIDS, anda
devout Catholic, said he felt per
secuted by the church.
O’Connor said he regretted if
the man felt persecuted but add
ed, “I believe the church teaches
what Christ taught. If I tried to
change that teaching, I would be
lackingintegrity.” Hetold theman
to call him.
When asked about the recent
killings at two Massachusetts
the violence “sheer madness” that
“discredits the right-to-life move
ment.”
Westminster Honors
Egyptian Leaders
NEW WILMINGTON, Pa.
(AP) Westminster College has
awarded honorary doctoral de
grees to two Egyptian religious
leaders for encouraging under
standing among Christians and
Muslims in their homeland.
The Grand Mufti of Egypt,
Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, and
the awards at a campus convoca
tion last week in New Wilmington,
about 65 miles northeast of Pitts
burgh.
The Grand Mufti is Egypt’s
highest authority on Islamic law.
Two years ago, he was the first
Islamic clergyman to address the
congregation of an Egyptian
church.
“God gives people the gift of
faith to move them forward not
backward,” the Grand Mufti said
in accepting the award from col-
police said.
He was supposed to appear in
court Tuesday on the drug charg
es, but the hearing was postponed.
Ms. Shabazz is scheduled to ap
pear before a federal magistrate
on Wednesday. She is free on un
secured bond and plans to plead
innocent, according to her court
phone conversations with
Fitzpatrick about the murder plot,
and made a partial payment on
the contract after moving here
from New York City in September
with her son, Malcolm.
Farrakhan’s colleagues said Fri
day that the gcvernment’s charg
es could be an attempt to divide
the black community.
“The question that must be
raised by the black community
today is whether or not in the light
of our 440 years of suffering at the
hands of our oppressors, we can
reasonably believe that the Unit
ed States Department of Justice
desires to protect the life of Minis
ter Louis Farrakhan,” said Ava
Muhammad, an attorney for the
Nation of Islam.
Farrakhan wasn't at the news
conference. Ms. Muhammad said
he planned to make a statement
Fitzpatrick about the murder plot
and made a partial payment on
the contract after moving to Min
neapolis from New York City in
September.
While some former associates
have denounced Fitzpatrick as a
racist and “set-up artist,” an ex-
FBI agent who says he recruited
Fitzpatrick as an informant de-
Dan Scott, who lives in the At
World News
lege President Oscar E. Remick.
The Grand Mufti issues offi
cial opinions for Egypt’'s 54 mil
lion Muslims on Islamic practices
and interpretations of the Koran.
Habib, who invited the Grand
Mufti to make the speech, has
served since 1980 as the president
of the Protestant community in
Egypt and is the official represen
tative of Protestant churches to
the government.
“Peace is the main goal of all
religions,” Habib said.
Baptist Leader: We re Not
Afraid of Gingrich
GREENWVALLE, S.C
(AP) The descendants of slaves
freed by Abraham Lincoln will
fight to keep the Republican Par
ty from killing social programs
important to blacks, the president
of a black Baptist group says.
“And I'm here to tell Brother
Gingrich and the Republican Par
ty and any other ultraconserva
tive, white or black, that we not
only tasted freedom but we know
how poweroperates,”said the Rev.
Henry J. Lyons, head of the 8
million-member National Baptist
Convention USA Inc.
He made the reference to new
U.S. House Speaker Newt
Gingrich, a Georgia Republican,
in a talk last week at the Baptist
Educational and Missionary Con
vention of South Carolina.
After the speech, Lyons said
he would write to Gingrich and
President Clinton.
“He is still the president, and
I intend to let him know that the
National Baptist Convention
stands strongly behind him, but
then we are going to hold the
Republican Party accountable,”
Lyons said.
Lyons said he was worried
that Republicans would take mil
lions of people off welfare, while
spending billions of dollars on
defense projects.
“To me, I interpret that as,
‘Blacks, get further back,” he
said.
He called excessive defense
spending “a different kind of wel
fare” that props up the defense
industry.
Tuesday.
As a girl of 4, Shabazz watched
her father being gunned down in
front of a crowd of supporters in
New York City in 1965. A year
later, three Black Muslims were
convicted of the murder.
Farrakhan was a disciple of
Malcolm X, but later became a
rival in the struggle to head the
Nation of Islam. Malcolm X’s wid
ow, Betty Shabazz, said as recent
ly as last year that she believes
Farrakhan was involved in his
murder. Farrakhan has denied
any role.
Betty Shabazz spoke at a tribute
to the Rev. Martin Luther King
Jr. in Atlanta on Friday, but did
Thursday, she said she believed
her daughter was set up.
A longtime family friend, the
Rev. Vernon Shannon of St.
Catherine AME Zion Church in
New Rochelle, N.Y., said the in
dictment was “out of character.”
“It is my suspicion she was
framed or set up,” Shannon said.
“If she did this on her own, I am
sure it was in response to a
longstanding anger within her
selfover the untimely death ofher
father. It may have been an effort
to vindicate the death of her fa
ther.”
lanta area, said in Sunday’s Star
Tribune that Fitzpatrick called
him hours after Ms. Shabazz al
legedly said she wanted
Farrakhan killed.
“He is telling the truth,” said
Scott, adding that he notified the
FBI, which began the seven-month
investigation that led to Ms.
Shabazz’s indictinent.
U.S. Attorney David Lillehaug
has refused to comment on the
3 Goati
GOP plans raids on affirmative action
From page one
“Doing away with federal af
firmative action would be dev
astating,” says Anthony
Robinson, president of the Mi
nority Business Enterprise
Legal Defense and Education
Fund in Washington. Predict
ing fierce liberal oppesition to
such a push, he warns, “You're
talking about eliminating a lot
of progress we have made for
some abstract notion of color
neutrality.”
With his veto power, Presi
dent Clinton could still frus
trate any attempt in Congress
Handy employee
sues for back pay
From page one
denies any knowledge of the law
suit.
Mr. Handy told Augusta Fo
cus there “has never been a prob
lem” with Mr. Murdock’s pay. He
refused to comment any further.
Mr. Murdock said he was paid
on time only once during his two
month employment at the sta
tion.
“Anytime you work two weeks,
you're going to always be three
or four days into the third week
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to roll back affirmative action —
a veto that many conservatives
would most certainly relish turn
ing into a campaign issue in 1996.
But the movement is more com
plicated than a liberal/conserva
tive ideological split. Some blacks
have long opposed affirmative
action, arguing that such poli
cies typically do little for the poor
while calling into question legit
imate minority achievement.
And a growing number of intel
lectuals are beginning to wonder
if criteria based on pure econom
ic need might better serve mi
norities and women than prefer
ences based on race and sex.
Whatever the case, there is
before you get paid for the prior
two,” Mr. Murdock said. “You're
never going to get paid on time,
and Handy’s always got 1,000
excuses for you.”
Prior to Mr. Murdock’s quit
ting the urban adult contempo
rary station, which is 1230 AM,
he said Mr. Handy instructed a
newly hired assistant to order
him to take a month’s leave until
“business built back up.”
Mr. Handy must repay a
$53,000 bank loan he used to
purchase the property that hous
es his station by March 2, 1995.
nothing Mr. Clinton or liberal
Democrats can do about the
grass-roots groundswell of
white opposition to affirma
tive action, especially among
white males.
“It really burns you butt,”
says Randy Pech, the man who
brought the case currently be
fore the Supreme Curt. He
sued the government after his
firm lost a federal contract to
install highway guardrails in
Colorado to a Hispanic-run
company with a higher bid.
“We're a small family-owned
company,” he says. “We don’t
discriminate. Why should we
be punished?”
King from page one
Up to 700 marchers walked
through downtown Memphis,
Tennessee, stopping at the
Lorraine Motel, now the National
Civil Rights Museum, where King
was assassinated by a sniper on
April 4, 1968.
Monday was a holiday through
out the United States honoring
King’s memory, but King’s eldest
son, Martin Luther King 111, said
in Dallas that he hesitates to call
it a day of celebration.
“Somehow we perhaps have got
ten caught in a holding pattern
and many of us think that we are
free,” King, 36, told the crowd of
about 1,000 at a breakfast.
He said the United States’ social
ills, including drug abuse and ur
ban blight, demonstrate that “we
have not arrived, so we cannot
celebrate yet.”