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Artßeat, p. 17 INRAL
NAACP leadership questioned
B Top man criticized for
missing important event and
playing fast and loose with
organization’s bylaws. .
Rhonda Jones
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
On Saturday morning, June 24, a train rum
bled past Pullman Hall, where the Augusta
Chapter NAACP held its Eighth Annual Life
Membership Breakfast, and where Senator
Charles Walker gave the keynote address. The
train grew louder, closer, shook the walls asif to
punctuate the Senator’s words of advice to the
leadership of the civil rights organization. He
spoke of dedication and pride, and of forging a
new society in which the African-American com
munity has social, economic, and political inde
pendence. He spoke of leaving behind “emotion
alism” in favor of efficient strategy. But Augus
ta chapter president Thomas Edwards was not
present to hear those words.
Mr. Edwards contends that a prior obligation
to attend the National Conference of Black
Mayors is what kept him from the meeting, and
that the obligation “had to do with” his job. “I do
business with them,” he said.
But sources within the organization suggest
that there is a growing unhappiness with Mr.
Edwards’ leadership.
“First off, it didn’t have to do with work,” the
source said. The problem lies in the fact that Mr.
Edwards didn’t notify anyone of his plans not to
attend the breakfast, according to the source.
Mr. Edwards would not comment on that state
ment.
Problems run deeper, others suggest. A local
officer told Augusta Focus that some members
are not happy with Mr. Edwards.
“I would say there are some people that have
not been happy with his performance,” the offic
er said, citing unpaid bills and unmailed public
service announcements. There were not many
people at the breakfast meeting Saturday, the
officer said, because “the information didn’t go
out.”
“Too many people are looking for Tom to do
something. And when he doesn’t doit, they have
to run back and do it, and by then it’s too late,”
the officer added.
Mr. Edwards has also disregarded the organi
zation’s procedure, by appointing Terence Dicks
as Third Vice President, instead of having him
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See Artßeat
page 17
”,, ik Te T e Z g ;
JUNE 29 - JULY 5, 1995 VOL. XIV NO. 706
FOCUS
Metro Augusta’'s Finest Weekly Newspaper
go through the election process, according to the
officer.
“Terence Dicks is not — and I repeat, is not —
an elected officer of NAACP,” the officer said,
contending that former president Dennis Will
iams denied that Mr. Dicks even requested that
his name be on the ballot.
According to NAACP by-law, when the presi
dent steps down, the vice presidents are each
promoted. When Mr. Williams stepped down in
May, Mr. Dicks became Second Vice President,
a move the officer refers to as “illegal.”
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“Ed Mcintyre holds forth in
his weekly radio program
entitled Inside The Fox.
Too often, though, Mr.
Mcintyre’s commentary is
self-serving and vindic
five.”
City bus chief says — | ‘,
Saturday buses will stop
By Rhonda Y. Maree
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
Although city officials have vowed that budget cuts
will not hurt services, riders of the Augusta Public
Transit are likely to see an end to Saturday service
as soon as August 5.
According to Transit Department director Bill
Revelle, city council ordered him to lay off 17 of 81
workers on his staff, including 11 drivers.
See BUS SERVICE, page 3
RAGE MATYERS
Race, skin tone make
& L
differenceinemployment
“If you're a dark-skinned black male, there are substantial costs in
terms of gaining access to jobs in the labor market.”
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.
(AP) Race and skin tone
both make a difference in who
gets jobs in the United States,
a preliminary report says.
While the odds of finding a
job rise and fall based on edu
cation, job training and crimi
nal record, men who are black
and dark-skinned have the
toughest time, the Multi-City
Study of Urban Inequality
found.
“The dividing line in Ameri
can society is still race-based,
not class-based,” according to
the report.
The Ford Foundation and the
Russell Sage Foundation, both
of New York, paid for the $6
million study, one of the most
comprehensive demographic
surveys in a generation.
The findings will be formally
presented at a September con
ference at the Russell Sage
Foundation.
“What these data suggest is
| ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION |
ED McINTYRE:
The man inside the FOX |
By Frederick ). Benjamin, Sr.
Edward M. Mclntyre will cer
tainly go down in history as one
of the most controversial local
politicians. His meteoricrise and
subsequent fall from grace is
matched only by his single-mind
ed longing to be back in the lime
light and calling the shots.
Over the past decade he has
been haunted by a host of ghosts,
among them the angry voter. So
while Mr. Mclntyre deals with
the frustration of polishing his
tarnished reputation, he must
that race still matters and, more
specifically, skin tone matters,”
said James Johnson Jr. of the
University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, the report’s co-au
thor. “If you're a dark-skinned
black male, there are substan
tial costs in terms of gaining
access to jobs in the labor mar
ket,”
The report is based on inter
views conducted in 8,600 house
holdsin Atlanta, Boston, Detroit
and Los Angeles, and on inter
views with 4,000 employers.
The study was designed to eval
uate the impact of Reagan- and
Bush-era policies on individuals
and families in urban America,
examining inequality in terms
of both geography and ethnicity.
“We know there was a growing
gap between the haves and the
have-nots in the 1980 s,” said
Johnson, a Greenville native who
is a professor of business, geog
raphy and sociology at UNC-CH
and director of the Urban Enter-
“That’s kind of bad when the president won't
follow the by-laws to that extent,” the officer
says.
According to Mr. Dicks, he was elected to the
position of Third Vice President, in the winter
1994 NAACP elections. “I would not hold that
position if [ were not elected,” he said.
He said that then-president Dennis Williams
neglected to put his name on the ballot and,
because of his mistake, called for a voice vote.
See NAACP, page 3
PART TWO
be content with letting his record
do most of the talking. It is a
record that has lost much of its
lustre as one peeks beneath the
surface.
Mr. Mcllntyre’'s crowning
achievement, he will tell you, is
the Augusta riverfront develop
ment. A constant annoyance to
Mr. Mclntyre is that his arch
enemy, Charles DeVaney, gets
the lion’s share of the credit for
the riverfront development. Af
ter all, it is Mr. DeVaney’s name
See MCINTYRE, page 6
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L____,fi,-_____,_fi___j;_____ Hom =.3
Bus riders can expect Saturday service to
be eliminated. Photo by Jimmy Carter
prise Corps at the Kenan-Flagler’
Business School.
“We needed to see to what ex
tent that was true and who were
the winners and losers in the
process,” he told the Raleigh
based Philanthrophy Journal of
North Carolina.
Among 2,000 men interviewed
in Los Angeles, being black and
dark in skin tone reduced the
odds of working by 52 percent
after taking into account educa
tion, job training and criminal
records.
Only 8.6 percent of white men
in Los Angeles were unemployed,
compared with 23.1 percent of
black generally and 27 percent
of dark-skinned black men. The
jobless rate was 20 percent for
light-skinned black men.
For example, 19.4 percent of
dark-skinned black men with 13
or more years of schooling were
unemployed, compared with 10.3
See RACE, page 9
\M-—\M*
MR. Bog HENNEGERGER
GEORGIA NEWSPAPER
UNIVERSTY OF GA
ATHENS GA 30602 12/31/99
TR
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Sports ‘ ;
Focus [ “
High Court
racial districts
B Unfavorable rulings on race
influenced Congressional districts
have civil-rights advocates on edge.
By Richard Carelli
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON
Anxious civil rights advocates fear devastating setbacks
for black voters in two Supreme Court decisions expected
this week on the use of race
in drawing election dis
tricts.
These cases “will play a
major role in determining
whether the country turns
back the clock and disen
franchises a whole segment
of society once again,” said
Ira Glasser, executive di
rector of the American Civ
il Liberties Union.
Decisions that find fault
with black-majority con
gressional districts in Geor
gia and Louisiana would
signal “the dismantling of
efforts to open access to the
electoral process,” said
Jacqueline Berrien of the
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
Neither Glasser nor Berrien predicted that the court will
declare those districts unconstitutional. But that possibil
ity spurred the recent compilation of an ACL[S report
called “Reaffirmation or Requiem for the Voting Rights
Act?” The report was distributed with a letter headlined:
“Is it Over?”
Civil rights advocates say the Voting Rights Act of 1965
began a quiet revolution that altered the face of American
government.
The law abolished rigged literacy tests and other devices
used to exclude minority voters. It also banned broadly the
use of voting laws to discriminate against minorities.
Thirty years ago, the South had only 72 black elected
officials. By 1976, that number had climbed to 1,944.
Today, there are nearly 5,000, according to the ACLU.
Now, the high court is being urged to limit legislators’
power to fashion districts with a significant percentage,
' See DISTRICTS, page 2
STATE
‘Rebel swastika’
to greet visitors
to ’96 Olympics
B Former Atlanta Mayor delivers
impassioned attack on state flag.
By Marc Rice
Associated Press Writer
, ATLANTA
One of the least favorite issues for organizers of the 1996
Olympics —the Georgia state flag — was revived Friday
by one of the men who helped bring the Games to Atlanta.
Former Mayor Maynard Jackson was delivering a fairly
standard speech extolling
Atlanta’s virtues as an
Olympic city when he
launched into an impas
sioned attack on the state
flag, which offends many
black people because it in
cludes the Confederate bat
tle emblem. Jackson, who
is black, is a longtime oppo
nent of the flag.
“It'sanextraordinarycity — Maynard Jackson
that will welcome this di
verse world, this world where two-thirds of its people are
colored people, coming into this Southern city smack in the
See STATE FLAG, page 9
BULK RATE
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
NO. 302
AUGUSTA, GA
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Cynthia MCKinney's
11th District will be
affected by subse
quent ruling. The
district winds through
Augusta.
“A state flag that
is like flying the
Confederate
swastika — con
stant reminder of
negativism and
hatred.”