Augusta focus. ([Augusta, Ga.) 198?-current, January 02, 1997, Image 1

Augusta focus., January 02, 1997, Image 1

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Newspaper Page TextJANUARY 2 - 8. 1997 VOL. XVI NO. 784 ,‘,:‘-4 v“wfﬁéx‘_}r“’?;?%";iﬂ#.x * x-—_-’ RN er o AN S % T s Zaoste ‘-td . £ : gD § METRU AUGUSTA'S FINEST WEEKLY NEWSPAPER Race is key factor in vote tor School Board president Article of Analysis and Interpretation By Frederick J. Benjamin Sr. AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer AUGUSTA The first vote in 1997 will undoubtedly set the tone for the rest of the year as far as racial relations are con cerned amongthe Richmond County school trustees. On Saturday, January 4, the trustees will convene to elect a new president. The present leader, Ken Echols, is the choice of Augusta Chronicle editorial honcho Phil Kent. Likely challeng ers are Adna Stein and An drew Jefferson. Mr. Echols is white and Mr. Stein and Mr. Jefferson are black. One can forget at the out set the foolish nonsense from Kent and his stooges about this not being a racial issue. The currentracial codewords when it comes to the school system administration are “liberal” vs. “conservative.” In the eyes of The Augusta Chronicle, if you're white, you're moderate-to-conser vative and if you’re black, you are liberal — period. By that standard, blacks are in capable of even being mod erate. Consider that, when the five blacks vote together on any issue that does not in clude any of the five whites — which happens less fre quently than the daily paper would have one suppose — they are branded as being racially divisive. Yet, when — as they are urging for the Jan. 4 vote — whites happen to vote to gether on an issue, that is not a racial matter. It is, rather, apolitical issue. Only a fool falls for that line of reasoning. INSIDE (-7 / Youls | BLACK | ) By DYING NOBODY SIS CARE Exploring the young black male’s struggle toward the next century. See page 4. @ World/National News .........cccoueuenenines 2 B Local/Regional News .............ccocvvvnienenc 3 B PoDIS 4.0 o< vion s cispasesarsisasipviovossy sil B CAIBURE i i orvinbiriinmmbtiiasss ngiisolky 1. B Church News.........c.cceunmmnnmsmsensissanss 12 W Classifieds site s 8 s Consider, also, the urgency for legislation that would boost the number of trustees from 10 to 11. Ostensibly, the move is to discourage deadlocks that occur from time to time along racial lines. No one is fooled by that. Not the trustees, nor thelegislators who must pro pose and support such a scheme. It’s a racist ploy — period. An 11-memberboard is designed to produce a 6-5 white majority. To fully understand the racial dynamics on the School Board, some recent history must be presented. A couple years ago — in the true spirit of compromise — a gentleman’s agreement was reached among the School Board members which called for them to al ternate Board presidents every two years. A white would serve and then ablack would serve. Before Mr. Echols was élected, Dr.. Justine Wash ington, a black woman, was the outgoing president. Without a thought, all five black members knew that they had to honor their agreement and elect a white president. At the time, Barbara Padgett, who is white, was the frontrunner. Ms. Padgett, however, was not elected. Mr. Echols was elected instead — with full support of the black mem bers. Mr. Echols, however, was not the white candidate fa vored by Mr. Kent and his stooges. Mr. Echols, at the time, was roundly de nounced by The Chronicle for breaking ranks and vot ing with the blacks. Today, however, he is ap plauded as a savior. Mr. Kent,inanintimidatingedi torial this week, is lobbying the whites on the School Board to forget about their Lack of transportation imposes curfew on disabled " %«i@ £ : ' ~ke . i ¢ 7 ;'~ 5 .ﬁ:_-_,/-;,_' SRI TSI TR 2R For those with special transportation needs, it's not so simple to just call a cab. You must make reservations first and then hope you’ve picked the right time of day to travel. Photo by D. Wells By Rhonda Jones AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer AUGUSTA On the evening of Dec. 17 Augusta Focus colum nist J. Philip Waring had a Christmas party to at tend. He never made it, though. You see, Mr. War ing has recently been con fined to a wheelchair and couldn’t find transporta tion that could get him, and his wheelchair, where he needed to be. So that night, the well-known man-about-town stayed home. His story illustrates the plight suffered by many of those with special trans portation needs. Unless RACE MATTERS: Black English debate expands Milwaukee education activist supports Ebonics initiative MILWAUKEE (AP) The movement by edu cators to recognize black En glish as a language is another attempt to reach urban minor ity children, said Rep. Annette Polly Williams. The school board in Oakland, Calif., decided last week to rec ognize black English. Mrs. Williams, D-Milwaukee, said the action is just another attempt to increase academic achievement for urban African- American children. “The community and parents in Oakland made a conscious decision to support their chil dren,” Mrs. Williams said Thursday. “We're saying stop putting down this speech from our children and use it as a way toreach them. Ifyou can’t reach them, you can't teach them.” The Oakland School Board announced last week that it HAPPY NEW YEAR! agreement and block the election of any black mem ber as president. And, though they couch their ob jection to black members on “political” terms, the reason 24-hour notice is given, there are few options. Ageording to David Fields, general manager of Au gusta Cab Company, Inc., the time of day is a big fac tor. “We don’t offer 24-hour a-day service,” he said. “Most drivers are indepen dentcontractors. Once they put in a day they go home, and take the vans with them.” Augusta Cab Com pany, Inc. uses four handi cap-accessible vans, he said, which are on the road roughly from 6 am. to 6 p.m. Mr. Waring’s Christ mas party began at six that evening. Mr. Fields went on to say it is possible for disabled Augustans to get service at “We're saying stop putting down this speech from our children and use it as a way to reach them. If you can’t reach them, you can’t teach them.” — Rep. Polly Willioms planned to promote the under standing of black English, or Ebonics, to connect with stu dents learning standard En glish. The district plans to recog nize Ebenics as a separate lan guage with African roots and to seek federal funding to support the plan. Mrs. Williams — who is rec- HIGHLIGHTS is apparent. It has nothing to do with political philoso phy. It is race. ‘ Inthe minds of the racists, See RACE, page 3 night — if they give his company at least a day’s notice. Augusta Public Transit also has four wheelchair accessible vehicles, which gotoeachdisabled person’s house. But, again, riders have to give prior notice* ADA (Americans with Dis abilities Act) coordinator Vicki Dewberry — who de vises the routes, which change day-te-day — has to have all reservations by 2:00 the previous after noon. -And, she said, a po tential rider has to fill out an application and have a doctor’s certification that she or he is either physi cally or mentally unable to use the regular bus sys tem. The APT disabled trans portation system has other, built-in, limitations as well. According to Ms. Dewberry, the disabled buses exist only to provide service comparable to that of the regular bus service —roughly 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. or 9 p.m., dependisig on the route. When asked what would happen if a disabled per son needed the APT ser vice to go somewhere late at night, she replied, apolo getically, “You wouldn’t be able to go.” See DISABLED, page 3 ognized as one of the founders of Milwaukee’s choice plan, in which low-income children at tend private schools at the state’s expense — said the Ebonics movement is another attempt by parents and edu cators to reach urban minor ity children whose needs have not been met by traditional public education. Mrs. Williams said she agrees that African-American students need to learn stan dard English but argues that their way of speaking should not be negated in the process. “Right away they’re labeled as stupid,” she said. “A child never gets away from that la bel. “Let them be bilingual and trilingual,” she said. “I speak standard English, and I also speak street.” See EBONICS, page 2 " The Truth About Ebonics The Media hasn’t been telling the whole story See Page 8 Something fishy in Dallas Tony Cornish on the troubles in ‘Big D’ See Page 9 mther copes with death of second son B Millie Williams has lost two sons to the streets, but she trusts in God to see her through the pain. Frederick J. Benjamin Sr. AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer AUGUSTA Few people can lecture Millie Williams about the pain of losing a child. In the past two years, she has lost two sons — both to sense less shootings. Her son, Alfonso Will iams, 21, will be buried on Thursday. He was shot seven times early Sunday morning and died shortly after. Ms. Williams has been through this before Two years ago, another son, Themas Williams 111 died in similar fashion. He was 20 years old at the time. “I know the Lord will help me through it,” Ms. Will iams said. Two men have been ar rested for the shooting of Alfonso. To compound the tragedy, two of the alleged assailants are family friends. . “He knew all of them — they were friends,” Ms. Wil liams said. “They ate at my house a lot.” This week, police arrested Johnny Brown, 24, and Rufus Willis Gantt 111, 18. Gantt was charged with malice murder and posses sion of a firearm during the commission of a crime. Brown was charged with malice murder. Jackson recants Oakland criticism By Martha Irvine ASSOCIATED PRESS Writer SAN FRANCISCO After many telephone talks with Oakland school officials, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Thursday he is softening his position on the district’s plan to incor porate black English into its curriculum. “Reaching out to find our youth where they are and building a bridge is the thing to do,” Jackson said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from his home in Chicago. Last week, Jackson harshly criticized the Oak land school board’s decision to recognize black English, saying the district shouldn’t be teaching students to “talk garbage.” Last Thursday, Jackson BULKRATE U.S. POSTAGE PAID NO. 302 AUGUSTA, GA Ms. Williams described what happened the night Alfonso died. “We were sitting in the front room and Al was play ing with his nieces,” Ms. Williams said. Ms. Williams lives in an East Augusta neighborhood with her daughter and her two chil dren. Al lived there also. Alfonso went out to talk to some of his friends. It was early—about 1:30a.m. last Sunday morning. “It all happened so fast. We heard the shots and Al stumbled back into the house,” Ms. Williams said. “He came in and said, ‘I been shot.” You could see the wounds where he had been hit. I just got him in and layed him down,” Ms. Williams said. “He kept saying, ‘I can’t believe he shot me,” accord ing to Ms. Williams — he was very calm and kept talk ing, despite the severity of his wounds. Although witnesses sug gest that Alfonso argued with his attackers, police have not revealed a motive in the killing. The investi gation is ongoing. According to Augusta po liceinvestigator John Fran cisco, few details can be con firmed. “Anything we say would be premature. Although we have projectiles, no weapon has been found,” Mr. Franciso said. Alfonso Williams leaves behind two children — a boy and girl, ages two and three. : “Lately, he wanted to settle down and get mar ried,” Ms. Williams said. said he originally thought Ebonics would be taught much like Spanish. “It’s not a language. It is at best a dialect and not a very representative dialect at that,” Jac‘ksoq sati;i_.' 4 But school efficials; ) have stood mum the matter, said they never intended to teach Ebonics, a combination of the words ebony and phonics. Instead, they said teachers will be trained to use black English as a way to teach standard English. “The district just wants its opportunity to outline what it’s legislative intent is and was,” said Darolyn Davis, a spokeswoman for the Oakland schools. “There was clearly a rush to judg ment.” , See JACKSON, page 2