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Black Church
0 Builder
By Rhonda Y. Maree
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
For centuries the black
church has been revered
as a cornerstone in its
community — a place of
solace and support for its
people.
But as time progresses
and the community’s
needs change, some local
black churches have fal
tered in their responsi
bilities, some business
people charge.
“Just look around at all of these churches
being built,” said Butch Gallop, marketing
manager of Southeastern Technical Services
Inc., the parent company of Southeastern Se
curity Systems Inc.
“Who do you think is building them? It sure
_isn’t black contractors,” he said.
According to Larry and Debra McCord, own
ers of McCord and McCord Design/Build, it is
typical of black preachers to overlook black
contractors when rebuilding or restoring their
churches.
“Hardly anybody calls us to even give us a
chance,” Mrs. McCord said. “It seems like
whenever a project approaches the million dol-
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JUNE 1-7,1995 VOL. XIVNO. 702 |
FOCUS:
Metro Augusta's Finest Weekly Newspaper
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lar mark, they just shy away from black contrac
tors.”
That was the situation with Beulah Grove
Baptist Church, the McCords said. Currently
constructing a $2.2 million sanctuary, Beulah
Grove gave the project to Paul and Associates
Inc., a white-owned company based in Texas.
“None of these fellows in the area who have all
of this expertise bothered to pick up a phone to
call me to let me know what they could do,” the
Rev. Sam Davis said. “All these guys came out
of the woodwork after we had secured Paul and
Associates.
“Just like Paul and Associates knew about the
project and contacted us, they could’ve done the
same thing,” Dr. Davis said. :
Because they are financially supported by a
vastly majority black congregation, the McCords
and other black business owners say black
churches should make a special effort to do
business with them.
“The church draws money from the communi
eans taking up
study of Black Americans
B Europeans are
doing something
about their fascina
tion with African-
American culture.
By Susan Linnee
Associated Press Writer
PUERTO DE LA CRUZ
European scholars are delving
into a new field —the study of
black American life and its con
tributions to the culture of the
United States.
A growing band of European
academics consider the likes of
poet Jean Toomer, abolitionist
leader Frederick Douglass and
playwright August Wilson as
important contributorsto Amer
ican culture.
“There is an enormous amount
of skepticism among European
students about what America
represents in the world,” said
Maria Diedrich, a professor of
American studies in the Uni-
Your local newspaper sponsored by your local grocer.
Black husinessman to
serve black churches
Byßhonda Y. Maree
As part of its con
tinuing commitment
to the black commu
nity, Southeastern
Security Systems Inc.
recently launched a
community reinvest
ment program that
ty for five to 10 years, and then in one lump sum, ‘
they take it out of the community by giving their
business to whites,” Mrs. McCord said. “We don’t
want to be given anything, we just want a fair
chanee to do the job.”
Fred Calloway, president of Southeastern Tech
nical Services and Supplies Inc., said the situation
is no different than that with Augusta and Rich
mond County governments and their history of
slighting minority-owned businesses.
“It seems ridiculous to go to the county for
businessif we can’t even go to our own people,” Mr.
Calloway said. “They preach black this and black
that, but it all seems a little hypocritical when you
really look at it.
“They’re not thinking beyond building a big,
beautiful church. They shouldn’t just think about
building the walls, but think about building the
people and the community,” Mr. Calloway said.
See CHURCHES, page 3
versity of Munster in Germany.
“But at the same time there is
fascination with the country,
and much of this has to do with
African-American culture.”
The organized study of black
culture hasbeen afixtureat many
U.S. universities since the social
upheaval ofthe 19605. But Euro
pean academics have until re
cently worked mainly on their
own, isolated from colleagues
both in Europe and the United
States.
There are some differences in
the European approach.
Whileblack books, poems, plays
and music often are examined in
depthinthe contextofblack stud
ies programs on U.S. campuses,
European lecturers are making
them part of English literature
or American studies programs.
And while such studies are
dominated by black scholars in
America, the researchers in Eu
rope are nearly all white.
Diedrich heads the Collegium
for African American Research,
a new association of European
“It seems ridiculous
to go to the county
for business if we
can’t even go to our
own people. They
preach black this
and black that, but
it all seems a little
hypocritical when
you really look at
B"
Fred Calloway,
black businessman
involves giving securi
ty systems to area
churches.
Cleveland Jones,
Southeastern vice
president,said the pro
gram targets black
See SECURITY, page 3
academics. The group recently
helped put on a conference in
the Canary Islands that drew
European and American profes
sors who study black culture.
As youngsters after World War
11, Diedrich and other Europe
ans first encountered black
America through jazz programs
on U.S. Armed Forces Radio.
For Josef Jarab, rector of
Palackeho University in
Olomouc, Czech Republic, lis
tening tojazz allowed him “tofly
tofreedom” duringthelongyears
of Communist rule in Czecho
slovakia..He was later influen
tial in adding courses on the
music and literature of black
Americans at his university.
Today, they teach the culture
of black Americans to a genera
tion of students whose knowl
edge of the United States comes
mainly from television, black
inspired popular music and the
movies.
Ekaterini Georgoudaki, at
See CULTURE, page 2
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1996 OLYMPICS
i
Georgia county
£ w
rejects Somali
&
Olympic team
Olymic Committee disappointed
in ban on African athletes.
By Larry Siddons
Associated Press Writer
A Georgia county’s decision to ban the Somali track
and field team from training there for the 1996 Summer
Games was disappointing and contrary to the Olympic
spirit, a top International
Olympic Committee offi
cial said Tuesday.
The Chamber of Com
merce in Barrow County,
arural area about 35 miles
northeast of Atlanta, vot
ed Monday night to pro
hibit Somali athletes and
coaches from training
there because of resent-
ment over attacks on American soldiers in the African
nation.
U.S. forces were sent to Somalia in 1992 to try to
quell bloody fighting between rival warlords.
“It strikes me as not being in the spirit of the Olympics,”
said Dick Pound, an IOC vice president. “It’s a little
disappointing. And it seems not in keeping with what the
Olympics is all about.”
In addition to being a vice president, Pound heads
the lOC’s oversight panel on the Atlanta Games and is
one of the committee’s most powerful members. In a
telephone interview from his Montreal office, he stressed
that neither he nor the IOC was taking an official
position on the Barrow County move.
“On a scale of problems from one to 1,000, it’s not that
high on the list,” he said.
Nevertheless, Pound said, the situation was a slap at
the Olympic goal of international peace and understand
ing through sports.
“It’s too bad,” he said. “One would have hoped it
would not have landed on the Olympic Games.”
The Somalis were directed to Barrow County by the
Georgia Olympic Training Alliance, a division of the
state Department of Industry, Trade and Tourism.
The agency matches foreign Olympians with proper
facilities in communities that volunteer to host them;
See BAN, page 2
*
So. Baptists
to slavery issue
B ‘Healing’ is needed in order
to evangelize within the African-
American and minority communities,
convention attendants told.
RALEIGH
(AP) The descendant of a North Carolina slaveholder is
among those urging the Southern Baptist Convention to
acknowledge for the first time that it was founded because
of slavery.
Proponents are trying to get a vote on a resolution to that
effect — with an apology to “our brothers and sisters of
African descent” —at the annual meetingin Atlanta of the
15.5 million-member convention.
The Rev. Jere Allen, executive director of the church’s
Washington association, said the denomination has to
face the slavery matter to succeed in evangelizing among
blacks and other ethnic groups in the nation’s cities.
“We need this for our healing,” he told The News &
Observer of Raleigh. “As a corporate body, we need to
begin to admit this and repent of it in our own lifetimes.”
In 1845, Baptists from across the nation met in Augusta,
Ga., and debated whether slave owners could be mission
aries. Northerners objected, but Southerners said no one
could question a call from God. The church split.
Now, Northern churches generally belong to the Amer
ican Baptist Convention, Southern churches tothe South
ern Baptist Convention. Most predominantly black church-
See SOUTHERN BAPTISTS, page 14
Barrow County
resentful over
Somali conduct
toward American
Gl’s during 1992
rescue effort.
