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8
August 17, 1995
Two Olympic race
relations messages
n a recent overnight special field
Otrip to Atlanta, I found the same
subject as did some 200 other media
personnel from around the nation. This
was plenty of suspicion, tension and lack of
down-to-earth honest communication on
race and politics on the overriding subject
of the house-redistricting of the Georgia
General Assembly.
We rumbled through the corridors and
floors and hallways of the big building, and
outside as well. The point of this column,
however, comes from standing outside. A
small group of white and black college
students had previously been marching
and demonstrating with signs which said,
“End racism. Don’t turn back the clock on
our lone three districts ...” One-third of
Georgia is African-American, why not just
three out of the 11 house and two senate
posts? (13 total seats.)
The spearhead of this group was an eld
erly black gentleman whom they referred
to as “the old preacher.” He extolled the
young people to look back at history, eval
uate where we are today and plan and
evaluate for the future.
He said every aspect of history will show
that almost every aspect of laws and regu
lations to subdue African-Americans since
the Civil War were not passed by the Geor
gia Republican Party, but mostly by white
democrats, especially from rural areas.
This elderly religious leader said for us to
remember the grandfather clause and the
white primary, which kept millions of non
whites from voting for many decades. And
the poll tax and atlarge voting, which were
diabolical devices which again kept mil
lions from enjoying the franchise.
The old man raised another question.
“Why was it,” he asked, “when questioning
inlater years after federal courts had struck
down these horrible devises, when one
would simply mention them to some white
neighbors, they showed signs of great em
barrassment or guilt, others would turn
red or look away, and still others would say
to you ‘Just go to hell’?”
The aged man — who claimed that he
once lived and preached in Albany, Ga. —
said: “I know the deep Southern Georgia
political leader like the palm of my hand.
He controls all aspects of local public life,
and now during this present crisis has the
Letters
Charles Murray, the co-author of the
book The Bell Curve is a modern-day luna
tic. What right does he have to
unintelligently measure the basic genetic
intelligence of African-Americans? Is he
trying to play the role of God?
Is this man knowledgeable of the fact
that an IQ test doesn’t measure human
intelligence? It does measure a person’s
educational aptitude based upon attained
educational knowledge and diverse social
experiences. That’s the function of an IQ
test. In spite of the general consensus
about IQ testing, these tests by far cannot
measure human intelligence.
Mr. Murray’s sick and negative implica
tions about African-Americans’intellectu
al inferiority is a racist form of degrada
tion. He actually wants these individuals
to think of themselves as being less than
human. His book is a disturbing, notori
ous, debilitating and cancerous piece of
trash that’s humiliating for mankind.
African-Americans have shown time af
ter time that there is nothing intellectual
ly, academically or technically beyond their
Since 1981
A Walker Group Publication
1143 Laney Walker Blvd.
Augusta, GA 30901
724-7855
yhige
AUGUSTA FOCUS
On a recent overnight special
field trip to Atlanta, J. Philip
Waring found the same subject
as did some 200 other media
personnel from around the
nation: suspicion, tension and
lack of down-to-earth honest
communication on race and
politics on the subject of redis
tricting of Georgia.
unmitigated crass to ask our few black
elected officials (to step down) so they can
take office again under the guise of ‘fight
ing republicans.’
“I say to our young people to whom I am
talking that they should urge our black
elected officials to generate courage and
move over to the GOP as Newt has offered.
“And I'll tell you something else. The best
thing which has happened to our Georgia
community over the past 15 years is the
positive effects of ‘new blood’ — new busi
ness leaders, educators, leaders of civic
and medical associations, coupled with new
students who have returned to our state,
even in South Georgia.”
He asked what we should tell the mil
lions of visitors coming in next year. Will it
be on the message of Dr. Martin Luther
King and Dr. Billy Graham and his South
ern Baptist convention, which highlights
the voice of non-violence, peace, fairness
and diversity? Orshall we have to tell them
that we have just negatively “turned back
the clock” in race relations? And may we
run this by Gov. Zell Miller, Billy Payne
our Olympic chief, and the business com
munity of Atlanta?
Focus team to be honored
The Augusta Black History Committee
(ABHC) announces its intention to honor
this unit with its group award later during
the Autumn of 1995.
Mrs. Lillian Nelms Johnson, ABHC sec
retary and 1978 co-founder, said that the
Focus staff had demonstrated high profes
sional competence, hard teamwork, cour
age and initiative in building a great organ
of communication.
comprehension. Past as well as present
African-American scientists, scholars,
mathematicians, physicists, inventors,
doctors, architects, lawyers, chemists, psy
chologists, technologists, and engineers,
who have contributed immensely to our
American culture, have proven that they
can excel at anything provided they’re not
denied equal opportunities.
It’s sad that some Tomish African-Amer
icans have been brainwashed into believ
ing and accepting these stereotypical and
inferior myths brought out about intelli
gence in Mr. Murray’s book.
Mr. Murray’s perception of African-
Americans is out of touch with reality. He
just doesn’t get it. There are several
expletives that I could use to describe his
book, but it would be out of character
because of my religious principles. There
fore, I have concluded that The Bell Curve
book is equivalent to a pile of horse ma
nure.
Edward Maner
Augusta, GA
Editorial
Charles W. Walker *
Publisher
Frederick Benjamin
Managing Editor
Dot T. Ealy
Marketing Director
Rhonda Jones
Copy Editor
Rhonda Y. Maree
Reporter
Jimmy Carter
Distribution
Derick Wells
Art Director
Sheila Jones
Account Representative
Regina Floyd
Account Representative
Lillian Wan
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BY MEYER
Justice delayed 115 years
! ustice can be delayed,
IJbut it can never be
i denied. It may take
' more than a lifetime, but
ijustice cannot be denied.
| Take the case of Johnson
| Chestnut Whittaker.
.\ Born a slave, Johnson
Whittaker was appointed to
' West Point in 1876, near
'the end of the Reconstruc-
Ition Era, when blacks had
| grabbed ahold of political
'power in the South.
| Whittaker was one of the
| first black cadets at West
Point and found himself os
tracized by his white class
| mates, who seldom even
| spoke to him. He received
"threatening letters.
Lateonenight, duringhis
| senior year, Whittaker was
| awakened by three cadets
f‘ whoburst into his room and
| attacked him. The masked
' men tied his legs to the bed
| and slashed his face, ear
and hands, saying they were
doing him like they do hogs
| inthe South. They smashed
' a mirror over his head and
. burned pages from his Bi
| ble, which had been his sole
1 companion and solace dur
| ing his months of harass
’ ment. They left him uncon
| scious and bleeding.
Changing sea in politics, policy
e are witnessing a
w sea change in
American politics
and domustic policy.
From the seismic congres
sional elections last fall, to
thedistressing U.S. Supreme
Court rulings earlier this
summer and the regressive
decision by the California
Board of Regents to eradi
cate affirmative action.
From the sharp budget
recessions this year, we see
the prospect of the federal
budget being balanced onthe
backs of poor and working
people.
From the threatened re
moval of the welfare safety
net beneath poor children
and their mothers who can
not find work, to the incred
ible and unconscionable pro
posals to slash both federal
taxes for the wealthy and
federal income supplements
for low-wage workers.
The sheer breadth, pace
and audacity of these chang
es boggle the mind.
“Three generations of the family of
Johnson C. Whittaker were present last
month at the White House, when President
Clinton returned the Bible and gave the
gold-plated bars of a 2nd lieutenant to
them. After 115 years,” notes Bernice
Powell Jackson, "a grievous wrong had
been righted.”
Whittaker accused three
of his classmates of the at
tack but West Point admin
istrators said that he had
made up the story and in
jured himself in order to
win sympathy, because he
was expected to fail a phi
losophy examination and
thus be expelled from West
Point. The doctor who ex
amined him testified that
he was faking, that he had
cut himself, and ahandwrit
ing expert said he wrote the
threatening letters himself.
As a result, Whittaker was
court-martialed and ex
pelled from school.
The next year President
Chester Arthur overturned
the court-martial, citing
faulty evidence. But the
same day, Secretary of War
Robert Todd Lincoln rein
R e e e e e
*The global realignment of work and
wealth, and the virtually controlled eblbs
and flows of people, capital and products
across borders have rewritten all the eco
nomic rules,” says Hugh B. Price.
What'’s worse, they’re so
numerous and enormous
that they risk numbing our
minds and deadening our
instinct to doanything about
it—out of utterdisbeliefand
despair.
As the millennium ap
proaches, ours is a society in
search of its soul, in search of
itself.
All the assaults on the pro
grams and support struc
turesthat minorities and the
poor had come to rely upon
have left us worried, wary
and rudderless.
That’s whylintend towrite
in some future columns about
vision and values, and not
solely about interventions
and projects.
Visit the Augusta Focus booth at the Augusta Black Expo 1995
on Saturday, August 19th, from noon to 6:00 p.m.
For more details, please see page 7.
stated the expulsion, say
ing that Whittaker had
failed his oral philosophy
examination. Despite hav
ing finished nearly four
years of courses, Whittaker
never received his commis
sion.
Despite all this, Johnson
Whittaker went on with his
life and taught, practiced law
and served as high-school
principal in Oklahoma City.
He later taught psychology
at South Carolina State Uni
versity in Orangeburg,
where his son later became
president. It is there that
Whittaker’s Bible, whichwas
seized as evidence at his
court-martial and kept all
these years at the National
Archives, will be deposited
by his family.
Three generations of the
I argued in my National
Urban League keynote ad
dress a year ago that there
are fundamental economic
and political changes under
way.
The global realignment of
work and wealth, and the
virtually controlled ebbs and
flows of people, capital and
productsacross borders have
rewritten all the economic
rules.
Technological change and
easy corporate access to low
cost labor abroad have fun
damentally altered work and
wages here at home.
As the New York Times
reported last month:
“0f124 million people who
were working in May, 1995,
family of Johnson C.
Whittaker were present last
month at the White House,
when President Clinton re
turned the Bible and gave
the gold-plated bars of a2nd
lieutenant to them. After
115 years a grievous wrong
had been righted. Three
generations of a family who
might have become embit
tered and hate-filled had be
come educators and served
in World Warland with the
all-black Tuskegee Airmen
in World War 11. “We can
not undo history,” said the
president. “But today, final
ly, we can pay tribute to a
great American and we can
acknowledge a great injus
tice.”
President Clinton also
quoted the words written
by Johnson Whittakerinthe
front of his Bible during his
second year at West Point.
They read, “Try never to
injure another by word, by
act, or by look, even. For
give as soon as you are in
jured, and forget as soon as
you forgive.” Justice can be
delayed, bi.: justice cannev
erbedenied. Evenifittakes
115 years.
Rest in peace, Lieutenant
Whittaker.
eight million — two million
more than a decade ago —
moonlighted, or held two or
more jobs simultaneously. Of
22 million part-timers, four
and-a-half million wanted
full-time work and could not
get it, and their wages have
been falling since 1973.”
America must regain its
moorings, and we as a people
must adjust ourcompass set
ting to take account of new
realities.
We must gear ourselves for
the future, not stay mired in
the mindset and strategies of
the past. Otherwise, the world
will pass us by without a mo
ment’s glance over its shoul
der in guilt. Join me in the
weeks ahead as we reflect to
gether on whereye/ go from
here.
Mr. Price is president of
the National Urban League.
This week’s edition of To Be
Equal isoneofa series taken
from the keynote address to
the National Urban League
Conference in Miami, Fla.