The Augusta news-review. (Augusta, Ga.) 1972-1985, November 22, 1972, Page Page 2, Image 2

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The Augusta News-Review, November 22,1972 ■Walking i ■ ■ With tK® ■ I . ■ I iXxwK ■ ■ Dignity ■ WILL THE CURRENT CROP OF PRISONERS TURN THEIR INCARCERATIONS INTO PLUSH “COUNTRY CLUBS?” THE LAMENTED ATTICA IMNATES WERE DUMB. THE SMART CONS ARE GAINING THEIR GOALS THROUGH THE FEDERAL COURTS. BLACK MUSLIMS PLAYED A KEY ROLE IN GOING INTO COURTS OF LAW. Within one hundred years the men behind bars have inveigled themselves from a legal status of slaves to activist amateur lawyers. In 1871, a court in Virginia ruled that prison inmates were “slaves of the states.” But in 1972, prisoners are suing, with considerable success, for steak and wine at meals -- specifically, for Harveys Bristol Cream Sherry. ( RIGHTS TO PROTECT - NOT TO ABUSE ) In a brief period the concept of prisoners rights have made a 180 degree turn in favor of convicted inmates. Inhuman treatments within confinement brought on these radical changes. Tough prison wardens put some “Black Muslims” prisoners through some notorious “Devil Island” tactics, because of the method of their worship services. One of these wardens was Paul Pegelow, superintendent of the U.S. Reformatory at Lorton, Virginia. He locked 40 of these controversial Muslims in solitary confinement for 90 days. They had no beds, and were fed only a slice of bread and water three times a day. They were denied all religious rights. But two of the Muslims had studied a bit of criminal law while in prison, and filed suit, with the help of a young white law student. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in a decision hailed as reversing the tradition of non-interference with prison administrations, ruled in 1961 that prisons couldn’t deny Muslim convicts a reasonable chance to practice their religion. These contentious Muslims broke the dam, and prisoners all over the nation began filing more and more suits. In the past year, they have flooded the courts with what one judge calls a “tidal wave” of prison litigation. Soon afterward in a similar case in New York, Judge Kaufman, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, ruled that you could no more punish a man by denying him winter clothing, soap, toilet paper and a means of disposing of California gangster, won’a SIIO,OOO judgement on the facts that negligence by officials at the Federal Prison in Atlanta had permitted another prisoner to beat him severely. The race to the courts by prisoners was on. So Muslims hold their religious rites, and prisoners at hundreds of penal institutions exchange uncensored correspondence with almost anyone they choose, and they read books aryl that once would have been censored. Few people have spoken out; against these humane changes. Most of the late changes have come in very recent year. As recently an 1952, a federal court held: “It is not the function of the courts to superintend the treatment and discipline of prisoners in penitentiaries’’ - and much of the change should be credited to (or blamed on) those pesky Black Muslims. (MANY PENAL RIGHTS HAVE BEEN WON) While some decisions have removed serious restrictions on freedom of speech and religion, or have wiped out scandalous conditions of filth, malnutrition or abuse. A Federal Judge recently ordered wide changes in the health care provided by Alabama prisons. Many of the suits seem that a Missouri prisoner who sincerely believes in Jesus Christ, and must be allowed to write a letter to the Pope, uncensored. There has developed behind prison’s bars, a new religion, the “Church of the New Song,” and are demanding $16,000 a year for its ministers, the same pay the prison chaplain gets. (THE POWER OF THE PENAL CHURCH) While every one is not eligible to be a minister, they ordain them at will, and the Church of the New Song is spreading to other prisons. There are also prisoners who are suing for steak and wine at mealtime. The Song Church is asserting that partaking of this fabulous gourmet is a fundamental tenet of its faith. They not only want wine for their liturgy annd meals, but want the best-Harveys Bristol Cream. (PLAYBOY MAGAZINE - THE BIBLE) Some inmates in an Eastern Prison are suing for the right to worship the centerfolds of Playboy magazine. All of this is a far cry from the “slaves of the state” theory of 1871, and from the 1952 ruling that the treatment and discipline of convicts was no business of the courts. That ruling was handed down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in a case filed by Robert Stroud the “Birdman of Alcatraz,” who had sought equipment to further his widely praised research with birds. SYMPATHETIC TOWARD PRISONERS, BUT JUDGES ARE LOYAL TO THE PENAL ADMINISTRATORS. Judges still don’t like to lean too heavily on prison administrators even when ruling against them. A federal district court in New York, for example, agreed that a prisoner who had been kept in solitary confinement because of his radical politics had a right to collect damages, but the court excused all the defendants from responsibility except for one prison official who had died before the case got to court. So, no money. EVEN WITH RELUCTANT JUDGES, PRISONERS ARE GETTING A BETTER DEAL. Judicially imposed changes have been implemented so slowly that many judges last year said they were granting convicted criminals probation because there was no decent prison to send them to. What may be the most important prisoner’ rights case of 1972 arose when officals at the Wisconsin State Prison routinely read the mail of an inmate, Juan Morales, and detected strong hints that Morales and his sister-in-law were having an affair. They struck this girl from his mailing list, in fear it would incite more trouble. Morales carried it to the court. Federal Judge James Doyle, ruled that the state can’t deprive a prisoner of any civilian rights unless it can show a compelling government interest in this differential treatment. “He held there was no justification for intercepting Morales’ correspondence. BLACK POWER is in the voting box this year. Page 2 Institutionalized white racism is a very broad subject that can only be dealt with briefly in this column. A summary and additional insights into this critical problem were promised last week and therefore it is hereby rendered. The more one studies this subject the more one gets “freaked out” by it’s dimensions. The definition of white racism that was printed in last week’s column was correct except for one word. Racism is the belief of one ethnic group that it is superior to another or other ethnic groups - and not economic groups as has printed in the previous column. White racism comes in two basic forms - Overt and Covert. It is both individual and institutional and is a basic fabric of our American society. It is practiced by individual whites against individual Blacks and by the larger White community against the Black community. Blacks have been and are systematically victimized by whites in general who represent the American majority ethnic group. The basic problems of Blacks are white problems in that whites control the resources and means for Black progress. White experts on the problems of Blacks blame those problems on Blacks rather than the white system that created and maintains the problems. The failures of Blacks are blamed on Blacks rather that the white racist system that controls the destiny of Blacks. For example, the welfare problems of Blacks are tied directly to the economic institution of this society since “free enterprise” exist only for the poor with socialism being granted the rich and super-rich whites. Black people have been historically excluded from the free enterprise system in a very negative fashion. The Black consumer has been “ripped-off’ by white financial institutions who maintain “white" and “Black” financial dealing resulting in Blacks paying more for less in terms of “creature comforts.” White loan companies and ghetto stores have gotton rich by exploiting the powerless Black consumer. White banks have been slow to loan money to Black individuals and businesses since they are regarded as poor credit risks. The label of “poor credit risk” does not take into consideration the economic plight, of Black Americans since financial assistance is granted only when white standards are met and exceeded. A great deal of attention should be given to the subeducation of Black children and the miseducation of white children. White oriented IQ tests, ability grouping, and teacher attitudes all serve to oppress Black school children. Lowered teacher expectations of Black children by racist white teachers lead to poorer actual academic performance by those Black children. For example, the majority of tests that Blacks have to take for school and i employment requirements are designed ±>y whites for whites and generally administered by whites. The miseducation of white children is so tragic that it staggers the imagination. American history has generally excluded or left Blacks out of the text books except when sterotypes are presented. White children are educated to believe in such garbage as “the white man’s burden” and “manifest destiny.” In other words, white children are taught overtly and covertly, directly and indirectly, that non-whites are the white man’s responsibility to educate and “civilize” into white and European culture that is supposed to be superior. Further, white Americans believe that it is their “manifested destiny” to be superior to and control the rest of the world. Any child would be a fool to believe that Columbus discovered America with the Indian America (native) standing on the banks of the sea watching him go through his discovering “ego trip.” Non-American and especially African cultures have often been shown to be highly developed and moralistic cultures. Present day American history does not adequately deal with the genocide if (l)native Indian Americans and the development of white racism in this country. Much of what has passed for American history is basically super patriotic racist propaganda. Black heroes of American history have been largely overlooked unless they were safe heroes like Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver. Great Black leaders like W.E.B. Dubois and Malcolm X have never been included in those racist text books. And, incidentially, Dick and Jane were always the white characters of our first grade texts with neither of the two having any Black kids or children to join them in play activities. The administration of “justice”to Blacks has been and is racist “to the bone.” Policemen are like “occupation troops” in Black communities with them (the police) brutalizing and killing Blacks at will. Blacks killing Blacks are given “light” if any prison sentences since the larger white community does not value the Eves of Blacks. Drugs are permitted widespread usage in the Black community until whites join in the “slow death.” Whites control the structures of justice and they feel free to exercise their radical, cultural, and economic biases against Blacks in legal and judicial systems. There is a critical need to reorder the representation of Bh cks in all levels of government to insure due consideration of problems peculiar to Blacks. The denial of the right to vote by Blacks in the South has kept many racist white politician in office. It is no wonder that president Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon sought to weaken in the 1965 voting rights bill recently. Blacks will defeat those white politicians who are strongly racist in their political behavior if adequate power is given the Black electorate. White Christian behavior in America has been historically racist and used to oppress Blacks from slavery days to the present. The average white minister who takes an unpopular stand on race had I Speaking | I CcS K From I I duJH Athens 1 By jH Roosevelt (keen, Jr. THE AUGUSTA NEWS-REVIEW PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY Mallory K. Millender Editor and Publisher Mailing Address: Box 953 Augusta, Ga. Phone 722-4555 Second Class Postage Paid Augusta, Ga. 30901 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Payable in Advance One Year in Richmond County ...». $5.00 tax incl. 6 Months $2.50 tax incl. Ohe Year elsewhere $6.00 tax incl. ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT Classified Advertising Deadline 12 noon on Tuesday Display Advertising Deadline 12 noon On Tuesday News Items Printed Free ' LETTERS TO EDITOR Editor Augusta News-Review Augusta, Georgia Dear Editor: Let me take this opportunity and medium to express my sincere thanks to you for keeping me informed of the happenings in Augusta through your publication. I have witnessed the quality of the Augusta News-Review over the past several months and am really impressed by the progress that is being made in the reporting and coverage. I look forward to each Monday when your paper arrives at my desk. It receives first priority over mountains of work and the Washington Post. Things seem to be happening in Augusta. The activities of the newly • created Human Relations Council are of particular interest and it is my hope that the new mayor will demonstrate the kind of leadership that is necessary to move Augusta to the forefront of the nation in concern over human rights and dignity. The potential is there. Indeed, it has always been there. Os significant interest also is the election of Dr. Justine Washington to the Richmond County Board of Education. Unfortunately, one of the anomalies that exists in our society is the unwritten policy that prohibits professional educators from assuming better keep the motor running in his car as he leaves his church or social club. Blacks were taught religion not as a means of salvation, but more as a tool of social control. The Indian American resisted all efforts to christanize him and this helped to lead to his oppression and virtual genocide. The killing of Black students at Southern University in Baton Rogue, Louisiana is just one more example of efforts to exterminate Blacks. White policemen across the country are eager to use their federally funded arsenals of weapons on Black citizens who are regarded as militant or “out of their place.” We can expect more such killing of Black citizens as Blacks contunie to seek liberation from white racism and oppression. The killing of six Black men in the Augusta civil disorder of 1970 has never been fully explained or dealt with by Black or white leaders. This is also true of the killing of Black students at Jackson State College in Mississippi. This writer could write on continuously about the many . dimensions of this problem. There is a critical need for sensible Blacks and whites to begin to deal honestly with the problem of white institutionalized and individual racism. This country had just elected a president in a landslide (or mudslide) manner who did not bother to even personally campaign in Black communities. Blacks who supported his re-election are generally high income Blacks who will be pleased with the political crumbs of a certain number of Black political appointments while the masses of Black people’s problems grow worse in this rich and affluent country. It is not enough for Blacks to use rhetoric for Black power programs will be more beneficial. By Black power this writer means strength in Black unity and organization to deal with white racism on a forthright basis without “selling out” or being co-opted. Whites must support the gaining of meaningful Black power by letting Blacks control their own destiny. All five basic institutions of this society must be examined critically and honestly if progress will be achieved. The family, political, economic, educational, and religious institutions must be restructered and completely “overhauled” if this issue is to be handled short of violent revolution. Liberation, then peace 9 * Brethren, Like, Where ore y& collard greens ■ ft .IfLrLfrn; You Need j—. The NAACP The NAACP \/ Need You Join Today AUGUSTA BRANCH NAACP 1223 Gwinnett Street Augusta, Georgia 30901 I wish to become a member and enclose $ I enclose $ as a contribution. NAME ADDRESS CITY, STATE, ZIP- Annual Membership $4.00, $6.00, SIO.OO, $25.00 and up. Youth Membership (under 17) $1.00;(17 to 21) $2.00. Life Membership $5.00. Memberships of $6.00 and up include a year's subscription to The Crisis Magazine at $2.00 responsible policy making positions on local and state boards. It seems to me that their input is vitally necessary and important, particularly at a time when we are grappling with issues that could well decide the fate of public school education. It is heartening to notice that the electorate of Richmond County is becoming aware of this fact. As you are aware, my immediate professional concern is with the strengthening of Black colleges. The present picture in Washington does not appear encouraging. Indeed, the outlook for higher education in general is not immediately promising. However, the situation for Black colleges is compounded given the past poor track record they have enjoyed in receiving support from federal and private sources. President Pitts is providing excellent leadership at Paine College and needs the support of the entire Augusta community to move the institution into the mainstream of American higher education. The need has never been more apparent in the history of the college. Keep up the good work. Sincerely Leonard E. Dawson Associate Director Moton College Service Bureau 2001 S. Street, N.W. Suite 601 Washington, D.C. TO BE EQUAL / MMO -—/► By I ► Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. >/ b ZUMWALT SETS NAVY ON COURSE by Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, Chief of Naval Operations, put it on the line to an unprecedented assemblage of top Navy brass recently. Spurred by simmering racial unrest that reached its peak with the dock-side sit-down of 129 sailors from the Aircraft Carrier Constellation, the Navy’s chief said, in effect, that the service’s officers would have to “shape up or ship out.” All of the services, to a greater or lesser degree, are trying to implement equal opportunity programs. The Navy, which was one of the slower of the armed forces to integrate back in the early 1950’5, has especially come a long way. Under Admiral Zumwalt’s direction, huge steps were taken to make the Navy first, instead of last. In a series of what became known as “Z-grams” the Admiral established realistic programs to attract minorities to the Navy, make re-enlistments and living conditions attractive for them, and directly attack discrimination in a service arm characterized by predominately Southern-white officers. Recent incidents, capped by the Constellation affair, made Admiral Zumwalt reach the conclusion that those orders of his simply weren’t being enforced. So he and Navy Secretary John H. Warner brought together 80 or 90 Navy admirals and commanders and Marine Corps generals for what can only be termed a “roasting.” Admiral Zumwalt’s remarks have been made public by the Navy, and they ought to be required reading not only for Defense Department officials and armed service officials, but also for every government official and businessman who thinks he’s on top of the racial situation in his office or business. The Admiral began by pinpointing the destructive impact of self-deception, the kind that results when paper regulations are put forth, but not enforced. He clearly identified the reason for the Navy’s current racial dilemma -- “the failure of commands to implement those programs and with a whole heart.” After running down a list of various ways in which his previous directives had been sabotaged by lower-level officers, he announced a seven-point program to end racial discrimination and said compliance would be checked out by the Inspector General’s office. It was pretty clear to all who heard him that an officer’s future in the Navy will now be tied to how well he performs on the equal opportunity front, as well as in his other professional duties. Anyone who condones discriminatory practices or who violates “either the spirit or the letter” of the new Navy policy Was put on notice that action would be taken against him. “Equal means exactly that, Equal,” said the Admiral. And he emphasized that what he was advocating was not a break with Navy traditions, but a return to what he called “our oldest and most proven tradition, command by leadership.” ■ • - I believe Admiral Zumwalt’s session with these top officers rates more than just a footnote in some textbook of the future about how the Navy was fully integrated; it deserves to be followed and copied by business leaders and officials at all levels of government. There too, nice sounding orders are neatly set out in staff memoranda and in speeches by company presidents, only to be ignored or resisted by others farther down the line. “The old man can’t mean it,” is the most common response. More energy, time and money is spent in trying to avoid implementing those statements of policy than to comply with them. The time has come for across-the-board implementation of all equal opportunity programs, private and public. Company presidents, government officials, union leaders, and others ought to take a leaf from Admiral Zumwalt’s book, call their top staffs together, and lay it on the line -- shape up or ship out. fc SUBSCRIBE E TODAY Bp the news-re view PXXKXM3 IAUGUTA, (KXOANNS 414 Qty ----- One year (in county) SSjOO One year (out of county) MA>