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VOLUME 19 NUMBER 947
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(Above) H. Rap Brown as the heod of SNCC in 1967. AP Photo
By Fredevick Benjamin Sr.
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
. AUGUSTA
In the spring of 1965, a young student activist sat
across from a high government official in Washington,
D.C. Ameeting had been convened to discuss grievances
within the black community. When it came time for the
young man to speak, he de
parted from the cordial tone
Ana'”is & of the meeting up to that
i point and said, “I'm not
|||tel'pl'etatloll happy tobe here and I think
it's unnecessary that we
have to be here protesting against the brutality that
Black people are subjected to. And furthermore, I think
that the majority of Black people that voted for you wish
that they had gone fishing.. Which side is the govern
ment on?”
The government official was the president of the
United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson, and the young
student became known as H. Rap Brown.
Brown, in his lack of respect for authority, was in
lockstep with the prevailing mood of youth at that time
who were battling to keep their balance in a decade
steeped in the music of John Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix and
Bob Dylan — a decade turned upside down by the
excesses of J. Edgar Hoover — chief of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation.
Thirty-five years later, Brown emerges as Jamil
Abdullah Al-Amin and, until Monday of this week, was
afugitive charged with shooting two Atlanta policemen.
He is currently is custody in Alabama where he was
apprehended this week and is awaiting extradiction to
Georgia. Because deputy Richard Kinchen, 35, has
died, Al-Amin will almost certainly be charged with
murder. At best, Al-Amin will do a lot of time just for
putting the police through changes, but, at worst, he
could ultimately join Mumia Abu-Jamal on death row.
Ifthat happens, his complete absorption into the Ameri
can cycle of violence will have been completed. His
Americanization will have been completed.
See AL-AMIN, page 2A
Cabbies cope with fuel hikes
Timothy Cox
UGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
! ADGUSTA
i With gas prices so high, the average Joe has a choice:
make the trip and pay, or stay at home. For taxicab
who make their living on a road which requires
the choeice is not so simple.
Currently, rising gas prices are affecting drivers at both of
's cab companies; Radio Cab and Curtis Cab. Al-
Radio Cab, a top official is considering a price hike that
affect consumer fares if costs do not subside by fall.
“If there are no decreases in gas prices by September, |
we'll have no choice but to go to the county and ask for
rate hike,” said David Fields, general manager at Radio
also known as Augusta Cab Co., Inc.
Is county legal staff diversified?
No, says commissioner
See page 34
Servi.ngvMFOplun — ‘Astfluth~ Carolina and the Central Savannah River Ares
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Jamil Abduliah Al-Amin, center, stands in court
in Atlanta in this Aug. 8, 1995, file photo. The
former black militant once known as H. Rap
Brown was apprehended in Alabama, Monday,
March 20, 2000. Two Fulton County deputies
were shot in an exchange of gunfire as they
tried to serve a warrant on Al-Amin. One
officer has died. The surviving officer named
Al-Amin as the shooter. Al-Amin has main
tained his innocence and has called the inci
dent o government conspiracy. AP PhotAndrew innerartty
“We try not to affect our customers with any type of
surcharge. And most of our customers are people who
either can't afford a car, or can't afford the upkeep on a
vehicle,” explained Fields. “They depend on us and we
don't like making decisions that hurt them. But, if the
prices don't drop, there's nothing else we can do but talk to
the county,” he said.
“It’s hitting us real hard right about now,” said a Curtis
Cab employee who prefers to remain anonymous. “Nor
mally, I can work 12 hours and put $9 in my tank. Now,
that same 12-hour period will cost me S2O. The public can
see what's going on. Something needs to be done.” Some of
company in an agreement similar to a subcontractual
arrangement. Only a small number of Radio Cab drivers
See FUEL COSTS, page 2A
MARCH 23 - 29, 2000
Not in my
neighborhood
®Local truckers seek right to
park cabs in residential areas.
By Eileen Rivers
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUST 2
Local truck drivers failed to convince Rich
mond County commissioners to change the
ordinance prohibiting them from parkingthen
cabs in residential neighborhoods.
But truckers say the enforcement of thi:
law is geared toward people in lower incom«
areas — making this fight more about a power
struggle, than keeping Augusta neighbor
hoods safe, or their roads clear from the dan
gers of large vehicles, accordingto Cory Green,
who has been driving an 18-wheeler for U.S
Express for the past two years.
“[Former] Mayor Larry Sconyers has sev
eral trucks parked in his front yard that have
over three a:{es,” Green, a resident of East
Boundary, said. “A clear violation of the
Bill expands Peach Care program
By Eileen Rivers
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
Afamily of four can now earn up to $40,000
a year, and still be eligible for Georgia's
Peach Care program, which has already pro
vided health insurance to more than 60,000
of the state’s previously uninsured chil
dren.
“Just one year ago, 60,000 children had
never heard of Peach Care for Kids,” Senate
Majority Leader Charles W. Walker (D-
Augusta), who presented the newly passed
bill in the Senate, said. “Now this bill will
provide access to affordable health care to
an additional 11,000 children of working
parents in this state.”
The other side of judge Mablean
By Eileen Rivers
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
She calis herself an “entertainer,” instead of
ajudge, describes divorce as “the best people at
their worst,” and for 21 years, before she be
came known as Judge Ephriam, treated law as
“a divine ministry, one in which you dole out
more than legalize,” as family attorney Mablean
Ephriam.
“We owe them [clients| more than just divid
ing assets and issuing court arders,” Ephriam,
presidingjudge over TV's revised Divorce Court,
said. “There are some out there that just don't
do the whole thing.”
But being a “judge” (her decisions are legally
binding, but in actuality she has never been
sworn in as a judge) wasn't something she
sought, but was instead “divine destiny.”
“I never wanted to be a judge,” Ephriam said.
“I just wanted to be an attorney, but this just
happened. Fox was looking for someone to do
the revival of divorce court, and | was looking
for something new to do with my life.”
Although her segue into television sounds
simple, on many levels it wasn't, and she had to
overcome a lot of the insecurities that “continue
to plague women in the African-American com
munity today.”
*“I had low self-esteem,” she said, describing
the doubt that ran through her mind before the
television interview. “I was getting ready for
this interview, and my hair wasn't done, and |
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GOOD NEIGHBORS? The owners of
these trucks feel they should have the
right to park in their driveways, but the
law says, no. Photo by Fileen Rivers
ordinance, but nobody's done anything about
that. It'sall about the power, if youdon't have
See TRUCKERS, page 13A
Thebill, which passed in the Senate March
13, increases the amount of money a family
can make within the program from 200
percent to 230 percent above the federal
poverty level — a category an estimated
22,000 children in Georga fit into, accord
ing to Walker
Previously, the most a family of four could
earn was $32,000
The bill does not, however, change the
monthly premium parents pay for the insur
ance: $7 .50 per month for one child ages 6-
18, and sls a month for two or more chil
dren. Parents with children five and under
do not pay a premium
Approximately 120,000 of Georgia's chil-
See PEACHCARE, page 2A
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Mablean Ephriam. Photo by Eileen F
ran through all the negative stereotypes that
we as black women hold ourselves back with:
dark skin, short hair, big nose. But I didn't let
any of that stop me.”
And the interview that she almost didn't go
to, changed her life, she said during a March 18
speech at the scholarship gala hosted by the
Augusta Conference of African-American At-
See DIVORCE COURT, page 15A
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