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VOLUME 17 No. 836
Scholastic Inc.’s Bill Cosby series
delights new readers * See page 1B
Murder of deejay
stuns colleagues
®Body found in Burke
County identified as
Foxie air personality
by Mark Oliphant
AUGUSTA FOCUS Correspondent
AUGUSTA
When WFXA broadcasters re
ported that the body of a young
black woman was found over the
Christmas weekend, they had no
idea that the tragicdiscovery would
strike so close to home.
Staffers at the popular radio sta
tion at first did not link the re
Mack statements lead
to threat of legal action
®Local organization
frustrated by perceived
public “attacks” made
by a city department
head.
By Frederick Benjamin Sr.
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
The feud between the head of a
city department and a community
organization seeking a city con
tract escalated this week when the
group threatened legal action un
lessthe city official retracted nega
tive statements made to the news
High school coach
denies painting
racist graffiti
®Coach maintains he was framed.
. VIRGINIA BEACH, Va.
(AP) A black former high school basketball coach
charged with defacing a school with racist graffiti
held a press conference to insist he was innocent and
charge that he had been framed.
~“Someone had to be named, someone had to be
tagged. I am that person,” Glenn M. Veasy, 26, said
during a Christmas Eve press conference at his
home. “I am innocent and feel that way strongly.”
- Veasy — who had coached for First Colonial High
School — said he buckled during an “enormous
interrogation” by police, and he made statementshe
shouldn’t have made.
Asked if detectives thought they had a solid case,
police spokesman Lou Thurston said: “Most defi
nitely. The investigation was extensive, and detec
tives gathered a tremendous amount of evidence.”
Veasy was charged with painting racist messages
directed at himself, his basketball team, and First
Colonial administrators.
The graffiti was first discovered at the high school
Dec. 1. Three more incidents followed the first van
dalism, including one at First Colonial on Tuesday,
the day Veasy was arrested.
" In an interview given shortly after the first inci
dent, Veasy said the vandal was “someone who has
a problem that we have an abundance of black
players on the basketball team.”
- During Wednesday’s press conference, he read
from a two-page, handwritten statement, and broke
into sobs.
- “To my players, keep playing hard,” he said. “My
thoughts are with you always. ... To the real crimi
nals, you hav;;ndled my co;_chmg career, al;d f:on%
career in the school system. You’ve mu alot fr
me, but you can’t take my spirit.”"
- He said he was told to resign as First Colonial’s
basketball coach. But school spokesman Joe
Lowenthal said Veasy’s r»signation was voluntary.
Workd: Mysterious disease is killing Kenyans - Page 20
Religion: Balm In Gilead offers salve for AIDS scourge- Page 10A
Augusta Focus
~,“ N D“IQY
g 0 “Nicole
& ¥ Dia
& ; § mond”
E - really
Irene
Shields, a
divorced
- mother of
. B W three.
ported death with the fact that
one of their on-air personalities
did not show up for work on De
cember 27.
media about the group’s financial
management.
In a recent article which ap
‘peared in a local entertainment.
weekly tabloid, Keven Mack, head
ofthe city’s Community and Neigh
borhood Development depart
ment, appears to suggest that the
Laney Walker Development Cor
poration had a very unfavorable
audit recently. A comment attrib
uted to Mr. Mack suggests that
the audit uncovered a “mess.”
LWDC president Cedric Johnson
is concerned that the statement, if
not corrected, could be harmful.
“It damages the integrity of the
Laney Walker Development Cor
poration and its board members,”
“We reported the story Sunday
not knowing it was Nicole,” says
Fattz. “We realized it was her af
ter we called the violent crimes
department at the Richmond
County Sheriff’'s Department to
get a positive identification of the
body. From that point on, my
Monday morning wake-up show
became wrecked!”
The body of 31-year-old Irene
Shields, better known to listeners
of Foxie 103.1/100.9 FM as Nicole
Diamond, was found on 801 l Wee
vil Road Sunday morningin Burke
See DEEJAY, page 3A
Mr. Johnson said on Tuesday.
That day, Mr. Johnson and a
contingent from the neighborhood
development organization can-,
fronted Mr. Mack. They presented
Mr. Mack with a letter voicing
their concerns about the poten
tially damaging statements and
gave Mr. Mack 24 hours to issue
an apology and a retraction. |
According to Mr. Johnson, Mr.
Mack said he had nothing to apolo
gize about because the newspaper
had misquoted him.
But Johnson, however, re
minded Mack that he had made
similar statements in the past. In
See LAWSUIT, page 3A
Seen Amistad yet?
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Our reviewers tell
what’s good and
what’s awful.
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Page 1B
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Arden Ewin, center, confers with two of her sixth grade math students Thursday Dec. 11,
1997 at Booker T. Washington Middle School in Baltimore. Ewin, 23, a native of San Diego, is
a participant in the Teaching for America program, which recruits enthusiastic college
graduates to teach in rural and urban schools where furnover is high and positions would
otherwise go unfilled because of low pay and poor working conditions. (AP Photo/Tyler Mallory)
Commissioners dump
Southern Bell in budget scrap
By Frederidk Benjomin S,
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
There was no loyalty, no love and
no friends when commissioners
tackled budget issues in Tuesday’s
marathon session.
Thecutswereflyingleftandright,
but when all was said and done, the
biggest loser of the day was South
ern Bell which saw its contract with
the county fall by the wayside in a
flurry of cost-cutting promises by
Tuskegee airmen instructor
receives state’s highest honor
By Mark Oliphant
AUGUSTA FOCUS Correspondent
Retired Colonel Ernest
Henderson Sr. received The Or
der of the Palmetto from South
Carolina Governor David Beasley’s
office recently. Henderson was
honored for being the first Afri
can-American licensed commercial
pilot in South Carolina and the
flight instructor for the fabled all
black 99th Pursuit Squadron, bet
ter known as the Tuskegee Air
men during World War 11.
Col. Henderson ranks thisaward
at the top of the many awards and
recognitions he has received dur
ing his 80+ years.
“I must say receiving the Order
of the Palmetto is the greatest
award I received,” Henderson told
the crowd in attendance in a cer
emony held in his honor two weeks
ago in Columbia.
In the 19405, Henderson taught
flight tactics to black airmen that
were instrumental in the 99th’s
unblemished record in combat.
The unit holds the distinction of
not losing a single aircraft to en
emy fire during the war.
Henderson’s most notable air
battle achievement involved one
of the 29th’s P-51 prop planes
downing a German jet which was
far superior in speed.
"I was in Tuskegee and we got
word. It was a German
Messerschmidt. After that, they
didn’t use them anymore,” said
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Comm. Freddie Lee Handy
presides over the meeting
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Col. Ernest Henderson Sr. of
Columbia, SC.: instructor to
the famed Tuskegee airmen
Henderson.
Surviving Tuskegee airmen
would be first to bear witness to
ward Henderson's insight, clever
ness and zeal in teaching key flight
patterns and battle maneuvers
that enabled them to
outmaneurver the Nazi airmen in
dogfights.
All members of the Tuskegee
Airmen also received the same dis
tinguished award that evening.
A marble monument was erected
by the state dedicated to the
Tuskegee Airmen last May in
rew
NO. 302
AUGUSTA, GA
upstart rival KMC. -
Commissioners also agreed to
pass a one-cent increase in hotel/
motel taxes and a 3 percent in
crease in rental cars.
Commissioners Freddie Lee
Handy, Ulmer Bridges and J.B.
Powell voted against the 1-cent tax
increase.
The commissioners voted also to
eliminate the Amendment 73 dis
cretionary fund saving $60,000.
The $94 million budget received
tentative approval.
Walterboro, S.C.
No doubt being an African-
American soldier during the sec
ond world war had its deep pitfalls
with the blatant racism that pre
vailed most thickly in America
duringthat period. African Ameri
cans were not desired in the mili
tary, especially to hold a presti
gious distinction of being an Afri
can-American pilot.
Despite their stellar perfor
mance in Europe, recalls
Henderson, African-American sol
diers still were not embraced as
equals when they returned to this
country. Even if he was a member
of a squadron that, according to
fellow Tuskegee Airman and na
tionally-renowned racism expert
Dr. Leon Bass, led the liberation of
Jews confined in Nazi concentra
tion camps from the dreadful ov
ens of mass destruction,
Henderson and fellow African-
American WWII heroes returned
home as second-class citizens.
“If we came back from fightinga
battle for our country, we should
be able to return gaining full re
gect as first class#citizens,”
enderson said to his former stu
dents and comrades.
“Our pilots didn't fight then for
glory or medals. We just wanted to
serve our country. We were still
concerned about doing our best.”
Many of the retired colonel’s
medals, awards and precious mem
oirs have been donated to the state
museum in Columbia for display.