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A 338 NENNEBERGE { ‘ : l'fi\ul)\ l
‘&Gos S QA LIBRARY | \ AUGUSTA GA
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cqg— P AY T ST Serving Metro Augusta,
: S | — South Carolina and The CSRA
April 5- April 11, 2007
Black teen who pushed
hall monitor freed from
juvenile prison
Page 2A
Magic Johnson speaks to
cruise industry about
minority travelers
Page 2A
E{:fi”fl children sched
to appear with
Tonfi Wilson and the
ather of Soul Band
Page 3A
Procrastination kills
African American
dreams
Page 7A
i‘ .' [ '(Au L
[ ‘
Getting in the game
Page 4% &
w.sl W
« A
Compilation Pmm
Page 1B
A Raisin in the Sun
Shines
Page 1B
Charlotte Riley-Webb
artwork «hmd at the
Lucy Craft Laney Muse
um
Page 1B
The Message of the Res
urrection
By MARY SULLIVAN
Page 3A
Local youth demon
strates bravery
Page 6A
Library offers uultl:*:f
TnhaßookOamr
TNDEX_
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Vol. 25, No. 1284
Can Tiger Do It Again?
Focus ils the name of
the game. By the look of
things, one would deeply
believe that Tiger leads
the pack in this field too.
An as the tournament
opens today, people will
be gazing to sece how
intense Tiger is at this
juncture of his game;
considering he has
reached thc ten year
anniversary of his initial
win here in the Garden
City. Yet, as with the
COUISEC Over thc‘ ycars.
Tiger has matured
Other jnurnahsts com-
Correcting justice:
When the system fails
By GORDON JACKSON
Special to the NNPA
Dallas (NNPA) - District Attorney Craig
Watkins has come to dean house, the jailhouse.
Watkins said he h()pcs to be able to right more
wrongs similar to cases like those of the 16 indi
viduals recenty released after DNA evidence
proved they had been incarcerated for crimes
they did not commit.
“I'm going to do the right thing,” Watkins
said, “So that 20, 30, 40 years from now, when
I'm on my deathbed, [ can die in peace, because
I did the right thing. Whar's been happening
here has not been right.
“Everybody thinks that the civil rights struggle
is over, its not. There's a new civil rights struggle,
dealing with criminal justice,” said Dallas’ first
Black District Attorney at a criminal justice
forum, recently hosted by the Dallas-Fort Worth
Association of Black Journalists. Watkins served
on a panel, which also included Joyce Ann
Brown, Curts Wilbert, Tyrone Brown and
James Waller. Randy Mcllwain, reporter for
NBCS, moderated the forum. Of the five pan
elist at the forum, three of them had served time
for crimes they did not commit and one had
been given a life sentence for what's usually a mis
demeanor charge.
RO TR T
b !‘l!ifiéjli"/;?‘”"l e
o |
Ten years after Tiger’s breakthrough, little progress for black golfers
By Eddie Dells
When Tiger Woods won his
first Masters a decade ago, the
waiters, dishwashers and lock
er-room attendants at Augusta
National cheered as loudly as
the fans.
The victory was about more
than golf. It was about breaking
down barriers.
There was symbolism in a
young black man winning a big
tournament at Augusta
National, a country club in the
Decp South that was notori
ously slow to accept social
change — and where blacks
sulalr?:rgcly were considered
employees, not equals.
That one Masters moment
was sure to lead to many more.
Or so the theory went.
Ten years after that break
through, though, there has
been litde progress. Woods will
be the only black player in the
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Watkins stated that with help from the New
York-based Innocence Project, all of the 434
cases of murders, rapes and other felonies he has
on his books would be reviewed for potental
DNA testing. He said that 16 of the 32 cases
reviewed so far have been overturned, including
12 high-profile cases, Wallers and Browns cases
among them.
“Weve got to change the way we look at the
criminal justice system and do certain things to
make sure that we don't have people who look
like us, or any other folks, being labeled as crim
inals for the rest of their lives,” said Watkins.
M. Brown, accompanied by his mother Nora,
rave a distinet sense of how things felt for him.
‘fimwn committed a $2 robbery at age 17, where
no one was hurt. After violaung his parole by
testing positive for marijuana, he was sentenced
to life by a Dallas judge.
“It started sinking in,” Brown said. “I said,
‘Man, I could be here for the rest of my life.™
Browns description of prison life confirmed it
was not a haven of rehabilitation and rebuilding,
but an enclosed jungle of criminal actvity. In
fact, many of his encounters came with the
prison guards.
“They could just say that you threatened
them,” he said. “They dont need any evidence,
See Justice, page 8A
field at Augusta National this
coming week. ‘
“Its a travesty, no doubt
aboutit,” said Pete McDaniel, a
black author and journalist
who has chronided the history
of blacks in golf. “We've got a
S6O billion-a-year industry.
That’s a pretty big pie. Here it is
in 2007 and we dont get a sliv
er of the piec. We get table
aoods on his own has
engendered a surge in popular
ity that has led to about a three
fold increase in prize money,
which derives mainly from
more lucrative TV and spoa
sorship deals. But it has yet to
trickle down.
It hasntt even led to any other
black playi on the
fidln fact, there are only a hand
cuhtirfiin s:l minor leagues of
pro golf, not really hoping they
can be the next Tiger —
nobody dreams of that — but
thinking they might get to join
Tiger on the Tour some day.
One of them, Tim O’'Neal, is
starting his third straight year
on the Nationwide Tour, the
step below the PGA Tour.
“There’s no extra pressure on
me,” O'Neal said. “Not atall. |
think of mysclf as another play
er out there trying to make it to
the PGA Tour.”
Another, Andy Walker, was
on the NCAA championship
team at Pepperdine in 1997
and is now on The Gateway
Tour in Arizona.
Stll another, Kevin Hall, was
the first black golfer o eam a
scholarship at Ohio State. He is
deaf — someone who easily
could capture bthc nations
imagination — but is sdll try-
T
a p .
‘"flwy’rcw?mfing. Things
Another set of King documents
headed for auction block
ABLANTA (AR) - A
faded green folder contain
ing documents once
belonging to slain civil
rights leader the Rev. Mar
tin Luther King Jr. is set to
b(‘ auctioned ()fi
But a spokesman for the
King estate says the papers
belong to the estate and
wants the auction halted.
For nearly 40 years, the
collection sat in the basc
ment of a friend of King's.
Shc said she gnt the papers
as part of a debt settlement
with the now-defunct radio
statton WERD, which
shared the building that
housed the King-led South
ern Christian Leadership
Conference in Atlanta.
The documents include
handwritten notes and
typed speeches, letters to
and from King, statements
and position papers. All the
documents are from the
carly-to-mid-19605, auction
organizers said, but they
have not yet been authent
cated or appraised.
Auction organizers expect
the documents to bring-at
least $250,000. The April
15 auction is being hosted
by Gallery 63 in Atlanta.
“These papers are Library
of Congress stuff,” Paul
Brown, the gallery's owner,
said on its Web site.
“They need to be archived
In a museum, in a moisture
and light-controlled envi
ronment. Ideally, I would
dont happen overnight,” said
Gary Player, who was encour
aged when he saw blacks flock
ing to watch Tiger at the Presi
dents Cup in Players native
South Africa in 2005.
Player guesses it will be sever
al years before a big influx of
blacks hits the PGA Tour.
Indeed, the powers that be in
golf would like to believe a base
of players is building — a grass
roots group of kids who mighe
have picked up their first club
at one of Tiger's charity dinics,
or at a driving range built by
First Tee, ;:'c“?gundadon fund
ed in part by the PGA Tour and
aimer:t getting underprivi
leged kids onto the golf course.
But it will take a while to find
out.
“I think one, it takes ime,”
Woods said. “And two, its
about building a bigger base
and having more kicfa Like |
said, its a pyramid effect. The
FIFTY CENTS
ment that he has become
a ‘real man’.
The course has under
gone significant transfor
mations. It has been
lengthen 500 yards,
chan red six hulcs, wi(h
new tmck tces, New trees
and some bigger, deeper
bunkers since 1997. K'c(
as Tiger explained in his
Tuc.\‘éa)' press confer
ence, experience and wis
dom are important. This
would explain to many
of us why Jack Nicklaus
has six titles.
See Tiger, page 9A
hl\( 0 See rhcm go to a
muscum, where they can be
shared. But | have no con
trol over who the high bid
der will be or how much
they will offer.”
News of this auction
comes just months after the
King family sold a collec
tion of King's papers to the
city of Adanta for $32 mil
lion.
But Isaac Newton Farris,
president and chiet execu
tive officer of the King Cen
ter, told The Atlanta Jour
nal-Constitution he had no
idea this latest set of papers
existed untl Monday. He
said he would try to stop the
auction.
“There 1s no such thing as
a separate collection,” Farris
said. “Unless somebody has
documentation that (King)
has given them this, the
King estate owns that.”
However, experts tamiliar
with intellectual property
law say that depending on
how the woman — who
wants to remain anony
mous — got the papers, she
might have the right o sell
them, although the Kings
could stll control the con
tent.
“The main thing to keep
in mind 1s the distinction
about who owns the physi
cal property and who owns
the intellectual property,”
said Doug Isenberg, an
Atlanta attorney and past
See King, page 10A
more you go through junior
golf locally to the state, to
national, then to amateur, col
legiate, mini-tours, pro, then
eventually out here, youre just
dwindling it down.”
According to a study by the
National Golf Foundation,
there were 1.3 million adult
black golfers in 2003, which
would equal about three per
cent of all adult players. More
difficult to gauge is the number
of young black players being
brought into the f? ld, and how
many are devoting themselves
to the game, whether thmugh
First Tee, a local course or a pri
vate club.’
What is certain is that
because blacks are, on average,
poorer than whites — accord
ing to a study by the National
Urban League, among others
— they dont have as much
Sec Golfers, page 10A