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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? Y qamen s §P S g : % “ ,f‘"‘ %- o ‘ g"% Our reviewers tell what’s good and what’s awful. See ART/ines Page 1B ®National/International............cc.cccovverrnnens 2A ®Local/Regional News ............cocoeverunenusnnes A IOPRMONRN o 1 aisiviisviiin ionsid dusmespomisaivispeibasa TR ®Editorial/Opinion ............ccccceevnieienen. 6A-TA BLIVITIG.... oo i imsphomsscsssnssossons BAGBA ®Church News 10i\-11A MR ®Classifieds/Employment .................... 68-7 B LT A AR i ; :_3‘3‘ ‘ i :,Jf"zkii" g ia il f’w b 30 ; . 4 y %’ ‘ R ":‘: ‘ # ‘ »"‘ g ’ 3 F 4 ‘1& 2899 . g # b g : " OREE d q‘f‘ o ‘?w“h';“fi'. ' » 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 4 J .’. '»“ 5 ff‘"z ) ‘ , o - .6;2‘%‘" ! S j . Comm. Freddie Lee Handy presides over the meeting [T .._fi b ] % > ,’ J ! \ v 7 fi“fil : 2 b * ’ o Lol | B | T \r 7 B \'l, F el i 2 . et o ‘ |L - 4 L b ’ 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.