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School board no closer
in superintendent pick
B Rumored compromise in early =
’96 is off the mark, some say. '
School board members remain
guarded. Some observers hint at
a Jackson deal.
By Rhonda Jones and Frederick Benjamin Sr.
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writers
AUGUSTA
Published reports in the Augusta Chronicle
hint at a break in the current stalemate over
the election of a new
superintendent for
Richmond County
schools, but those close
to the action suggest
thatthe Board is noclos
er to finding a superin
tendent than they were
in September when the
board deadlocked 5-5
along racial lines.
Sources close to the
school board suggest
that Trustee Johnnie
Jacksonisready tocuta
deal, but that could not
be confirmed and Jack
son would not return
phette calls ‘to Augusta Focus.
Jackson, who is black, was unwilling to speak
of a compromise in Septembgr when he threw
his support to finalist Hattie%ashington.
When asked if the School Board was about to
reach some sort of compromise, trustee Kingsley
Riley, who is black, gave a hearty laugh. “As far
as I know, there isn’t going tobe a compromise,”
she said. She doesn’t see what all the hoopla is
over the indecisiveness.
“I don’t think there’s any big deal about the
superintendent seat,” she said, because acting
Superintendent Charles Larke is doing “an ex
cellent job.” She feels that if electing a perma
nent superintendent were “so urgent,” Associ-
See SUPERINTENDENT, page 2
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FOR GGDDNESS SAKE
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Ken Echols, school
board president,
hopes for January
decision.
Your local newspaper sponsored by your local grocer.
December 7-13, 1995 VOL. XV NO. 728
- Xejdl
Meto Auga’ Wek Nper
Allen steals 117th by 48 votes
B Capturing his
home precinct
is enough to give
Ben Allen the seat.
By Rhonda Y. Maree
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
It was by only 48 votes in
one of the poorest election
turnouts, butlawyer Ben Allen
beat former Augusta City
Councilman Melvin Ford in
the race for the District 117
seat in the Georgia House of
Representatives.
Ofthe 16,000 registered vot
ers in the district, only 6 per
cent cast ballots in the Dec. 5
special election to decide who
would fill the slot left empty
after former Rep. George
Brown’sunexplained resigna
tion in October. c
It was 517 vates that spel! :d
victory for Mr. Allen, giving
him the edge over Mr. Ford’s
469 votes.
According to Richmond
County Board of Elections
Director Lynn Bailey, only a
few Board of Education run
off elections saw sorrier voter
participation.
Augusta College political sci
entist Ralph Walker, who, like
Ms. Bailey, predicted a low
15-20 percent turnout, was
School officials seeking
source of racist e-mail
B Racist item posted
on Internet news
groups originated
from University of
North Carolina.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.
(AP) University of North Caro
lina officials believe a racist e
mail message sent from a school
computer account may have
been the work of an outsider.
The message — “Why all blacks
should go back to Africa” — was
posted to at least 10 Internet
newsgroups, which are like elec
tronic bulletin boards, and has
generated outrage nationwide.
Anyone reading the posting
would see that it originated at
the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill.
But the account belongs te a
former student and officials think
it’s likely that the posting was
forged.
“It is possible that this account
was compromised and that the
letter originated from another
institution,” Paul Mitchell,
UNC'’s e-mail postmaster, told
surprised at
just how low
it actually
was.
Wie re
talking
about a state
legislator be
ing chosen
by 6 percent
of the people
in that dis
trict. If
that’s not a
historic low,
€
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ged
Ben Allen
it’s got to be close to it,” Dr.
Walker said.
But the fact that only a small
fraction of voters decided the
“If you can get your
family, friends and
neighbors to vote
in a 6 percent
turnout, you're
* going to win,'"
— Dr. Ralph Walker,
political analyst
outcome doesn’t belittle Mr.
Allen’s win, Dr. Walker said.
“I don’t think it takes away
from his win. What is does dois
when Mr. Allen has torun again,
he will be running as an incum
bent, and that’s one tremen
dous advantage because tradi
tionally incumbents have a bet
ter chance at being elected than
Apparently intended
as a racist joke, the
message is in the form
of a top-10 list, but
includes 11 reasons
blacks should goto -
Africa. It was sent to
newsgroups focusing
on subjects such as
black culture, sex,
games and Rush
Limbaugh.
The Herald-Sun of Durham.
University officials closed the
account which sent the message
on Friday. All UNC faculty, staff
and students may establish an
Internet account through the
university. -
William Graves, associate pro
vost for information technology,
said officials are investigating
the messagebecausethe Internet
account may have been used ille
gally.
“We make it routine to investi
gate any suggestion of inappro
priate or illegal use of our medi
um,” Graves said. “The medium
does the challenger,” Dr.
Walker said.
Headded, “I think he should
be congratulated for winning
an election of this type when
most people didn’t know an
election was taking place.
Even though he only won by
48 votes, that now gives him
publicity. He will be the rep
resentative when he runs next
time. He'll have a year to get
his name in the paper and
work on some bills and get to
know his constituents.”
Having lost at 12 of 16 pre
cincts — including all seven
in the city — Mr. Allen’s win
was largely at one polling site.
He received 258 votes at
Belle Terrace, while Mr. Ford
only received 93. Why the big
win in one place?
“Mr. Allen and his wife grew
up there, they have family
who still live there, and they
gotochurch there,” Ms. Bailey
said.
Dr, Walker «reed that Mr
Allen’s close ties to the Belle
Terrace community put him
on top.
“If you can get your family,
friends and neighbors to vote
in a 6 percent turnout, you're
going towin,” Dr. Walker said.
Dr. Walker and Ms. Bailey
blame the poor turnout on
such factors as a lack of pub
licity and interest and too
See BEN ALLEN, page 2
is not the message, and our re
sponsibility is for the medium.”
Other campus officials, though,
said they are just as concerned
about the content of the posting.
Apparently intended asarac
ist joke, the message is in the
form of a top-10 list, but in
cludes 11 reasons blacks should
go to Africa. It was sent Nov. 29
to newsgroups focusing on sub
jects such as black culture, sex,
games and Rush Limbaugh.
“It’s intolerable, stupid and
every other negative adjective I
can think of,” said Frederick
Schroeder, UNC’s dean of stu
dents, who received a copy of
the posting Thursday from an
outraged Internet user in Cali
fornia. “This does not represent
the members of this university
community.”
UNC Student Body President
Calvin Cunningham said he was
outraged by the racist message.
“I can’t fathom why someone
would write this — it’s overtly
racist,” Cunningham said. “That
type of e-mail has no place in an
academic institution.”
See E-MAIL, page 2
Milieovuedeer. 0 s«,m?
GEORGIA NEWSPAPER ;fifJAGE
UNIVERSITY OF GA “—NO. 302
ATHENS GA 30602 1253199 J AUGUSTA, GA
Threats of
® ®
violence in
Savannah
FBI enters probe
See Story on Page Two
Election of
black mayor
jostles genteel
Southern city
By Joan Kirchner
Associated Press Writer
| —
! SAVANNAH
| Three days after this re
i gal coastal city elected its
‘ firstblack mayor, the cam
! paignmanager warned the
’ staff: beware of all packag
| es delivered to the office.
‘ No one had threatened
violence but “we can’t take
any chances,” he said.
In a majority black city
thathasthrived on all-white
social clubs, segregated
neighborhoods and sepa
| ratedebutanteballsforeach
| race, residents are adjust
| ing to the latest shattered
| racial barrier.
} “It was long, long over-
I due, but changes are hap
[ pening in Savannah,” said
‘ W.W. Law, a black histori
i anwholed thelocal NAACP
| chapter for 26 years. “Now,
| as the world’s eyes look to
[ Savanniah, there will be an
1 African American at the
| helm and that’s as it should
be.”
The city is in the national
spotlight as site of the 1996
Olympic yachting events
and setting for Midnight in
the Garden of Good and
Evil, John Berendt’s best
selling account of a murder
inthe historic home of a gay
antiques dealer.
Before black newspaper
publisher Floyd Adams Jr.
narrowly beat white incum-
McKinney, Lewis
support Clinton on
Bosnia troop mission
B Georgia Republicans continue
to oppose deployment. Nunn seeks
clarification. McKinney returns from
fact-finding mission in Bosnia.
Story compiled from staff and
wire reports.
WASHINGTON
Only two members of the
Georgia Congressional Del
egation support President
Clinton’s decision to deploy
U.S.troopsina peace-keep
ing mission in Bosnia. Con
gresswoman Cynthia
McKinney and Congress
man-John Lewis, both Dem
ocrats, are early advocates
to the administration’s de
cision to send 20,000 Amer
ican troops into war-torn
Bosnia to help enforce a
U.S.-brokered treaty.
Lewis, an Atlanta civil
rights veteran who has de
voted hislife to nonviolence,
said the U.S. has “a moral
obligation to be part of the
multinational effort to en
force the peace, stop the vi
olence and stop thekilling.”
- PBISE
45 JA ADAMS:
RV Crossover
white
A vote was
£ 7 i the key.
bent Susan Weiner last
week, Savannah already had
witnessed the admission of
the first black to an elite all
white yachting club, the
birth of a civil rights muse
um financed by local tax
dollars and the lifting of a
longstanding federal court
order to desegregate the
schools, all within the last
two years.
The rotund, bespectacled
Adams, an alderman for 13
years, knows he owes his
256-vote victory margin to a
small white crossover vote.
“They have faith in me that
I will work hard and J won’t
cause them any harm or
damage,” he said.
Georgia’s oldest city (pop.
140,000) has long suffered
subtle bigotrybut neverra
cial violence, thanks to its
veneer of Southern gentili
ty.
“Savannah never had a
black lynching,” said col
lege professor John
Duncan, who teaches a
course on city history.
See SAVANNAH, page 2
McKinney, just back from a
congressional fact-finding
tour in Bosnia, expressed
optimism this week that the
peace process would succeed
with NATO backing. Repre
sentative McKinney and 14
other members of Congress
went on a two-day delega
tion tour organized by Re
publican Congresswoman
Susan Molinari of New York.
While in Bosnia, Rep.
McKinney and the rest of
the delegation met with lead
ing figures in the Bosnian
conflict to receive assuranc
es that they would abide by
the terms ofthe peace agree
ment initialed in Dayton.
NATO troops will be sent
only after the warring par
ties have signed the final
accord. That is expected to
happen soon.
See BOSNIA, page 2