Newspaper Page Text
VOLUME 20 NUIVBER 997
LRy o VNVERSITY Op s 99
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L ‘”M A See DETAILS, page 2A W Brian Rust, -
- L %- sl John Kehoe
- The GOP and Blacks: sl B e
"SRR S | . | Sl Mary Pauline
St I Renalssance or Resistance Ny /H Gallery
See OPINION, page 6A _ o T 3
In this edition, - page Gémglw»llyutunm See 5B .
a rare glimpse of _ -.
local black history - ‘
through images . i us ,;':g{:;,':,,,
See INSERT i : ; . . AUGUSTA GA
Serving Metropolitan & Augusta, South Carolina and the Central Savannah River Area PERMIT 202 _
Data base on
black families
after civil war is
treasure trove
“These records can provide
clues for an estimated 8 to
10 million African Ameri
can descendants living
today who might want to
research their family his
tories.” — Elder L. Lionel
Kendrick, The Mormon
By JANELLE CARTER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON
The Mormon Church published
records Monday from the post-Civil War
Freedman’s Bank for newly freed siaves,
making ancestral records available for
asmany as 12 million black Americans.
The records have been available for
years through the National Archives
but not in organized form. The church,
formally the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, spent 11 years, with
help from volunteer Utah state inmates,
extracting and linking the 480,000
names contained in the records.
The result is a searchable database
on compact disk which includes infor
mation such as family names, birth
locations and names of former slave
owners.
“These records can provide clues for
an estimated 8 to 10 million African
American descendants living today who
might want to research their family
histories,” said Elder L. Lionel
Kendrick, a church official.
The church began the project when
an employee discovered the existence
of the original microfilm records. At
that time, no one had undertaken the
long process of extracting the docu
ments into one database.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas
Democrat, said, “For too long, African-
American history was embodied in un
truth. We were not given an opportu
nity for truth.”
The Freedman’s Savings and Trust
Company was established through a
congressional charter in 1865 —the
same year the Civil War ended — to
help former slaves with their new fi
nancial responsibilities. With 37 branch
officesin 17 states, the bankhad depos
its totaling more than $57 million be
fore it collapsed in 1874 because of
See BLACK FAMILY, page 2A
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SOI'OI‘itV’S national leader
lends clout to Delta celebration
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(Above) A nearly-capacity audience of Delta sorority members packed
the chapel at Paine College to support their national president.
(Top Left) Gwendolyn Boyd addresses Delta Sigma Theta sorors at
Founder’'s Day.
(Top Right) Torch Bearers — Keeping the Delta flame alive are I-r:
Shawnte Long, LaShay Rumph, Sherika Warthen, Naesha Parks and
CaTecia Godbee. The quintet are part of Augusta State University’s Mu
Xi Chapter who became sorors in April 2000. Photos by Timothy Cox
By Timothy Cox
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
While noting that some of her soror
ity sisters are nationally-recognized poli
ticians, Gwendolyn Boyd challenged her
Augusta sisterhood to stay politically
active.
In addressing Delta Sigma Theta’s
88" Founder’s Day ceremonies at Paine
College Sat., Feb. 24, Ms. Boyd, na
tional president of the sorority, told
members political action is a must.
“In light of the recent president elec
tion 2000 debacle, we need to be there
and get the information first-hand,”
offered the electrifying public speaker.
Whether it’s PTA, city council or legis
lative sessions, she continued, it’s im
perative that Deltas remain politically
First African film look at slave trade stirs controversy
By BRAHIMA OUADRAEGO =
Associated Press Writer
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso
Maurauders setting African villages on
fire, capturing their inhabitants for sale.
l Chained men and women, wild-eyed and
desperate, their freedom bartered for rum,
l guns and gold.
The newly enslaved in the film
Adanggaman, by Ivory Coast director
Roger Gnoan M’bala, are African.
So are the slave traders. And that, in
Gnoan M’bala’s eyes, is what makes his
fiim long overdue.
“In our oral tradition, slavery is left out
purposefully because Africans areashamed
when we confront slavery. Let’s wake up
and look at ourselves through our own
image,” Gnoan M’bala said.
The film made its African debut here
MARCH 1 -7, 2001
strong to address the efforts of African
Americans to succeed in a society often
viewed as racially inequitable.
As she acknowledged sorority sisters
Alexis Herman (former labor secretary);
Carol Mosely Braun (former Illinois
Congresswoman) and Patricia Roberts
(former Washington, D.C. mayor), the
president told her sisters, “Deltas need
to be there. We’ve become complacent
but last year’s Presidential election
should have taught us to show up be
cause the struggle continues.” She also
noted racial profiling, drug abuse, teen
pregnancies, child abuse and HIV oc
currences as reasons the sorority must
remain proactive. Sorority members
came from the various southern uni
versities including Spelman, Univer-
See DELTAS, page 3A
Monday at the 17th edition of the bi
annual pan-African film and television
festival known by its French acronym
Fespaco. :
“There is no taboo in cinema. It’s up to
us to talk about slavery, open the wounds
of what we’ve always hidden and stop
being puerile when we put responsibility
on others,” Gnoan M’bala said.
Shown previously in Europe and North
America, the film stirred controversy.
Black viewers at the Toronto film festival
challenged its accuracy; white viewers at
the film festival in Venice, Italy, were
shocked.
On the faces of the standing-room-only
crowd at its African premier, however,
there seemed to be only sadness.
“It ils simply true,” said Da Bourdia
Leon of Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Cul
ture and Art. “We need this kind of film to
State lawmakers
seek protection
for consumers
BSenator Walker seeks legislation that
would keep managed care patients from
being overcharged.
By Maynard Eaton
AUGUSTAFOCUS Capitol Reporter
ATLANTA
Consumer protection legis
lation led the way and carried
the day under the Gold Dome
this week. In the Senate, Ma
jority Leader Charles Walker
[D-Augusta] championed abill
that cuts costs for customers
of managed health care pro
granis, Here is how Sen.
Walker explained the bill.
“It prohibits physicians who
have managed care contracts
from balance billing their pa
tients,” he told reporters.
“They have a contract with a
managed care company who
says they will pay the physi
cian S6O for a given proce
dure. But the normal billing
rate might be SBO, so what
some physicians are doing is
charging the patient that ex
tra S2O. The managed care
contract, however, says the
patient makesa five or $lO co
payment and nothing else.
Study: civic work,
happiness linked
INDIANAPOLIS
(AP) Exchangingchit-chat
over steaming coffee at the
local diner. Helping out at a
churchyard bake sale. Rais
ing a voice at a school board
meeting.
These simple interactions
are the kinds of pleasures
money can’t buy, and a new
study says they may be more
important than money to
people’s happiness.
The nationwide survey
conducted by Harvard Uni
versity and the Center on
Philanthropy at Indiana
University examined “social
lEH 30 B
“Theother thingthebill does
is require physcians to notify
patientsoftheresults of what
ever teststhey’vebeen ordered
totake. How many times have
you been to the doctor and
they take tests but you never
hear anything from them? Of
course, you are glad you did
not hear from the doctor, but
Iwonder how many times they
look at or study the results.
Gas relief?
Good news for beleaguered
natural gas consumers. The
Georgia Senate unanimously
approved Senate Bill 217 -
called “Gas Bill of Rights” leg
islation for natural gas con
sumers - which is designed to
provide customers with more
information and more access
to the marketers. This bill,
andasimilar onein the House,
is the result of a barrage of
consumer complaints about
high home heating bills and
See LAWMAKERS, 3A
capital”—the connectionsthat
bind people together and
strengthen the places they
live.
Reseachers found that ar
eas where residents had high
civil involvement were hap
pier than those with more.
wealth but less community.
participation. :
“Social capitalisreally a very
strong predictor of individual
happiness and quality of life
in a community, much more
so than financial status,” said
Robert Putnam, a Harvard
See HAPPINESS, 3A :
show our children this part of our history,
that it happened among us in our own
society.”
“Although I feel sad, I think it is good
that this kind of thingis being told today,”
Leon said.
ProducerstoutAdanggaman asthefirst
African film to look at African involve
ment in the slave trade with the West.
Set in the 17th-century in West Africa’s
Gulf of Guinea, the film shows the African
king Adanggaman selling his subjects to
Dutch slave-masters in exchange for li
quor and guns.
M’bala calls it a “fiction” with “histori
cal facts.”
Historians concur with the theme of
extensive African involvement in captur
ing and transporting Africans for sale to
See SLAVE TRADE, page 2A