Newspaper Page Text
The Augusta News-Review, January 4, 1973
■Walking, I
I i I
■ Dignity i ■
Iby Al Irby .
NATIONAL SPIRITUAL DECADENCE SEEMS TO STARE
AMERICA IN THE FACE. PATHETICALLY THE UNITIATIVE
PAYS THIS TURBULLENT CONDITION NO HEED. THE
NATION’S VALUE SYSTEM IS RUNNING SCARED, THEY
ARE BLAMING THE COUNTRY’S APATHY UPON THE
SALACIOUS CONDUCT OF OUR LEADERS. AN EASTERN
CARTOON, RECENTLY CORROBORATED THE SOPHISTRY
OF THIS FALLACY.” A MAN SITTING AT A BAR, SAID,
LOOK HERE, NIXON IS NO DOPE. IF THE PEOPLE OF
AMERICA REALLY WANTED MORAL LEADERSHIP, HE’D
GIVE THEM MORAL LEADERSHIP.”
With the advent of “73” America must make a bold attempt to
revitalize itself spiritually. There will be a concerted effort, this
year of all the major religious faiths to strengthen the moral fiber
of the nation. The national sickness is not just in the central
cities, and ghettoes. Depravity and hypocritical immorality are
rampant in government and even global industrial conglomerates.
This anticipated ecclesiastical project will need dedicated zeal
to put this nation back on a moral even-keel. There is little we
can tell our young people, until there is sincere penitence among
all the segments of our nation. President Nixon attributes this
great spiritual crisis to the failure of upper-middle-class leaders to
adapt the old values to changing times.
A point that touches upon this premise was brought forth in a
recently broadcasted sermonby Rev. C.S. Hamilton of Tabernacle
Church. The perspicacious clergy made this statement in essence:
He exhorted, “that educated blacks should get involved in the
black community action.” This was a pithy suggestion that
certainly should be heeded. Too long has the black “talented
tenth” utilized its skills and training only as tools to become
affluent.
The black communities have become human cess-pools of
glaring iniquity. The embryonic black family ties are just about
impotent. Teen-age gangs are on the up-rise, especially in black
communities. Chicago gangs are receiving grants from certain
“Foundations.” These gangs of young hoodlums are preying upon
senior citizens by simply strong-arming the elder people and
taking their money ard welfare checks. Also ghetto parents are
afraid to send their children to the stores; these human vultures
beat-up kids after robbing them, and dare the parents to report
them to the police.
(PROVE WHO IS THE BADDEST - - AND DIE)
The Watts district of Los Angeles is a typical city, that is
infested with these gun-toting teen-age gangs. In spite of the
millions of dollars spent there for recreation and rehabilitation
since the 1965 riot, this community has become an asphalt
jungle. The gang killings have parents forming vigilante
committees, and organizing armed patrols. The young thugs brag
about their bloody pranks and threaten the relatives of the
victims, if they go to the police. Almost every day someone is
shot; and the worst part is that the bad ones really dig the bloody
mayhem. The killings jokingly are called the baddest.
(THE WHITE COMMUNITIES DO NOT ESCAPE FROM THIS
JUVENILE PI AGUE - CRIME AND SIN ARE COLOR BLIND)
The concern of the nation’s deterioration of it s moral values
are non-racial and bipartisan. Nixon’s enemies agree that moral
and spiritual break down engulf the nation, and they see the
president as its image. The Institute for Advanced Study at
Princeton lambast Nixon’s Prayer Breakfasts as sacrilegious. Dr.
Robert N. Bellah, an authority on the sociology of religon at the
Institute, explodes with indignation at the President’s religious
hypocrisy, when he pretended to be a man of morality, at the
same time he turned his B-52s loose against a tiny country
attempting to flatten it into national obscurity.
Herman Kahn, director of the Hudson Institute Inc., a New
York think tank, asserts in an interview in Intellectual Digest:
“As a nation we have grown fat, indolent, and apathetic, we try
to twist the truth and right to suit our fancy.” The Hudson
Institute has made a heroic effort to determine the character of
the nation as a whole, thus providing many clues to the
decadence. The results were recently published in the “Forgotten
American.” A comprehensive survey of values, beliefs, and
concerns of the majority.
(THERE IS MUCH RATIONALIZING ABOUT THE SORDID
CONDITION OF THE NATION)
The Supreme Court’s Gault decision in 1967 gave juveniles all
of the Constitutional rights afforded to adults, which turned
formerly custodial and guidance oriented juvenile proceedings
into traditional courtroom adversary proceedings. Another High
Court decision greatly increased the rights of probationers. Law
fficials are confused about what to do with youthful hoods and
killers.
There . re critics of the police and the cour s, but these young
criminals understand the ineffectiveness, and the confusion of the
juvenile systems. The cops can arrest a known killer, and take him
downtown, and he’ll be back on the street the same day.
(TODAY’S KIDS WHO 1 NK THEY HAVE ALL THE
ANSWERS TO LIFE-ALSO jEAL IN DEATH)
The rash of kill gs do not have any set patterns, not against
the school systems, or fights for control of neighborhoods; or
even attempts to corner the flourishing drug traffic. The
situations are similar all over the nation; generally, the larger the
city, the larger the number of gangs, and greater the butchery.
Los Angeles police have recorded 19 major gangs with better than
2,000 members. The names of these honor groups are interesting
and revealing: Brims, Bounty Hunters, Ace Deuce, Godfathers,
Hoover Groovers, Vikings, and Cripples are just a few.
Are we doomed as a civilized society? Maybe the answer and
the solution can be found in the Christ Child, whose
philosophy of “LOVE” has never been seriously applied - not
sitting piously in Church on Sunday, but lived in the everyday
market-place.
BLACK POWER
is in the voting box this year.
Page 2
department of f
BLACK MEMBER OF U. S.
PAROLE BOARD VETERAN
OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE
SYSTEM
“I’ve had enough of prison
life. I want to go home.”
“My wife and children need
me at home. I don’t belong
here.”
“I’ve learned my lesson. I
want to get out of here.”
These are typical of the
remarks Curtis C. Crawford
hears every time he visits a
Federal prison as one of the
eight members of the U.S.
Department of Justice’s Board
of Parole.
On a recent trip to the
Federal penitentiary in
Atlanta, he heard 116 pleas for
parole.
“I can only hear one case at a
time and I judge each case on
its individual merits,” Mr.
Crawford explains. “This is one
business in which two plus two
doesn’t necessarily make four.
There are no set standards by
which you can judge whether
an individual is ready to return
to society because he or she
falls in a certain criteria.”
Regardless of their pleas for
freedom, the inmates have
learned in dealing with Mr.
Crawford that they can’t
“con” the man with the thin
mustache and the affable smile.
Mr. Crawford is not boasting
when he says he has heard
most of the stories prisoners
tell in trying to win their
IB
V
' <
Crawforf
Chances are good that if Mr.
Crawford didn’t hear the plea
as a defense attorney while in
private law practice in St.
Louis, he probably heard it as a
prosecutor. He was trial
attorney in the St. Louis
Circuit Attorney’s office from
1956 to 1964, serving as chief
assistant for two years.
If he missed the story as a
prosecutor or defense attorney,
he got a third chance while
serving as a provisional judge in
St. Louis’ Court of Criminal
Corrections.
“I feel I have a better than
average background to review
parole applications.” Mr.
Crawford says. “I am familiar
with police, FBI reports, and
all phases of legal proceedings.
So when I see a man’s record, I
have a pretty good idea of his
background. I don’t have to
leave too much to assumption
or misconception.”
Os the eight members on the
Board, only Mr. Crawford and
Mrs. Paula A. Tennant have law
degrees. But Mr. Crawford feels
he has another advantage: he is
the only black on the Board.
“I firmly believe that a black
is in a position to understand
the problems of blacks,” he
says.
U.S. Bureau of Prisons
statistics show that there are
some 5,250 blacks among the
more than 21,500 inmates in
Federal institutions.
“You ought to see their faces
light up when they see me,”
Mr. Crawford says. “They
probably feel that a black man
can understand them better,
and to a certain point they are
right. It’s true that blacks
speak English, but out in the
ghetto, you know, we speak a
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different kind of language. If
you are black and you were
brought up there, it helps to
understand their cases.”
Mr. Crawford was appointed
by President Nixon to the
$35,480 post on November 9,
1970. He is the third black to
serve on the Board of Parole.
The other black members were
Scovell Richardson and Homer
Benson, who served from 1955
to 1958, and 1962 to 1969,
respectively.
Mr. Crawford doesn’t mince
words when he says that more
blacks and other minority
members are needed in all areas
of corrections. Pointing to the
Attica, N.Y., prison riot in
1971, he says, “More than half
of the inmates were black, yet
there were few black guards or
counselors. It’s only fair that
we should have more
minorities represented in the
corrections system.”
Mr. Crawford notes that the
Board of Parole releases about
45 per cent of the eligible
inmates, a record of which he
is proud.
“We hear much of some few
inmates returning to prison,
but we don’t hear of the
thousands who make good
back in society.” he adds.
Working toward the
betterment of minorities is
nothing new for the
51-year-old lawyer. Before
being appointed to the Board
of Parole, he was district
director of the Small Business
Administration (SBA) office in
St. Louis. He recalls that four
months before his
appointment, the office had
processed only nine loans. In
the ensuing sixonths, the office
processed 161 “and is still
doing a great job as far as I
know.”
He also served as director of
the Legal Aid Society of the
city and county of St. Louis.
A graduate of West Virginia
State College, Mr. Crawford
obtained his law degree from
Lincoln University in 1951.
An unsuccessful candidate
for circuit attorney in 1964
and for Congress in 1968, he
admits he loves the political
arena and hopes to return to it
some day. In the meantime, he
says he “thoroughly enjoys”
his job as a member of the
Board of Parole “simply
because I know I can do a good
job at it.”
He and his wife, Joan, have a
son and a daughter.
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
ACTS TO SECURE
MISSISSIPPI PENITENTIARY
REFORMS
WASHINGTON - The U.S.
Department of Justice has
helped inmates of the
Mississippe State Penitentiary
obtain a landmark court
decision for reform of the
institution, Attorney General
Richard G. Kleindienst said
today.
According to a recent ruling
by a Federal district judge in
Mississippi,
racial segregation at the
penitentiary violated the
Fourteenth Amendment and
substandard conditions
constituted cruel and unusual
punishment, a violation of the
Eighth Amendment.
More than 1,3000 of the
1,900 inmates at the
correctional facility are black.
To remedy the , situation,
Justice Department lawyers
will present comprehensive
proposals to the court at a
conference scheduled for
October 16 by the Federal
judge, Willian C. Keady.
The judge’s ruling resulted
from a year-long investigation
of the prison by the Justice
Department after inmates filed
suit against the State of
Mississippi.
West Point, Mississippi; a
tavern in Ft. Lauderdale,
Florida; a restaurant in
Labadieville, Louisiana; and a
case in Saluda, South Carolina.
Signing consent decrees
agreeing to provide equal
service to all patrons were the
owners of the Ft. Lauderdale
tavern and the Saluda case, and
a case in Camden, Alabama,
which had been sued earlier by
the Department.
Based on the voluminous
evidence assembled by the
Justice Department’s new
Institutions and Facilities
Section of the Civil Rights
Division, the court found that
black inmates are discriminated
against in work assingments,
vocational training, and
punishment.
In addition, the court found
that housing, sanitary facilities,
food, and medical treatment
are inadequate and that armed
inmate trusties are used as
guards.
The Justice Department
proposal will deal with charges
in mail censorship, disciplinary
procedures, corporal
punishment, maximum
security confinement, racially
discriminatory practices, and
inmate trusty assignments.
Housing first offenders with
persons convicted of violent
crimes also will be dealt with,
as well as medical and
house-keeping practices.
The Mississippi case was
the Justice Department’s first
effort to obtain reforms at a
penal institution based on
constitutional grounds.
The Justice Department was
also involved in a variety of
other civil rights activities last
month, Mr. Kleindienst said.
CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS
Six law enforcement
officials were charged during
September with imposing a
summary punishment on
citizens in violation of their
constitutional rights.
FAIR HOUSING
A corporation that owns or
manages 17 apartment
complexes containing more
than 600 units in Orange
County, California, signed a
consent decree to expand
apartment rental opportunities
for blacks.
The decree enjoins the
corporation from engaging in
any racially discriminatory
Federal grand juries
indicted the white mayor of
Wellston, Missouri, on a charge
of beating a black man he
arrested; the white chief of
police of Morton, Mississippi,
on charges of shooting a black
college student and beating a
white minister; a white Texas
highway patrolman on charges
of beating a white man he
arrested; and the former chief
of police of Questa, New
Mexico, on a charge of beating
a Mexican-American.
In addition, a white
policeman in Catoosa,
Oklahaoma, was charged in a
criminal information with
blackjacking a white man.
PUBLIC ACCOMMODATIONS
The Justice Department
filed six suits last month to
eliminate racial segregation in
places of public accommo
dation.
The defendents were owners
of a roller skating rink in Plant
City, Florida; a case in Magee,
Mississippi; a truck stop in
housing practice and from
failing to recruit and hire
employees without regard to
race.
The Justice Department also
charged a Chicago suburban
board of realtors and two of its
member firms with violating a
1970 court order designed to
eliminate discrimination
against black home buyers.
A government motion said
the real estate firms honored
racial preferences of home
sellers and steered black and
white buyers to areas in which
their races are predominant.
The Department of Justice
filed a consent decree today
requiring a North Carolina
trucking firm to make
SIIO,OOO in back payments in
an employment discrimination
case.
Attorney General Richard
G. Kleindienst said the consent
decree was entered in U. S. <
District Court in Greensboro,,
North Carolina, resolving a suit
against Pilot Freight Carriers,’
Inc. <
Pilot operates in 13 states <
and has its headquarters in
Winston-Salem, North
Carolina. It has 2,500 <
employees. <
The Justice Department
filed a civil suit against the 1
trucking company on June 28,
1971, charging that blacks
were discriminated against in
hiring, transfer and promotion
policies.
The consent decree requires
Pilot to distribute the back pay
to some 125 blacks, most of
whom were rejected job
applicants, and to offer jobs to
those who were rejected.
In addition, the company is
required to allow qualified
black employees to transfer to
higher paying road-driving
jobs and to fill future
road-driving vacancies with an
equal number of black and
white employees.
The International
Brotherhood of Teamsters,
Warehousemen and Chauffeurs,
a defendant in the original suit,
is not a party to the consent
decree. Seniority issues
affecting the union will be
decided by the court.
Four New Jersey men were
indicted by a federal grand jury
on civil rights charge today in
the beating of a Black patron
at an all-night diner in Newark
last September 30.
Attorney General Richard
G. Kleindienst said a two-count
indictment was returned in
U.S. District Court in Newark.
Indicated were Robert
Bisaccia, 37, and Nicholas P.
Stefanelli, 30, both of
Belleville; Sam L. Corsaro, 30,
of Nutley; and Louis Fulco,
20, of Bloomfield.
They were charged with
assaulting Robert L. Chavers,
36, at Ed’s Diner. Nine stitches
were required to close a cut on
his forehead.
One count charged them
with conspiring to injure and
intimidate Chavers in the free
exercise of his legal right to use
the facilities of a public place.
The other count charged them
with carrying out the
conspiracy.
The maximum penalty upon
conviction is 10 years in prison
and a SIO,OOO fine on each
count.
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NEW YEAR SHOULD BE NEW BEGINNING
by
Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.
The year 1972 ended in much the same spirit of confusion in
which it began. It was a year that brought few victories to black
people and to other minorities, and some setbacks. It was a year
that saw the nation adrift, without that sense of purpose that has
categorized other, better years in its history.
The mood of drift and confusion was highlighted by a Louis
Harris poll that reported early in December that over four in ten
Americans “still feel largely alienated toward the system under
which they live.” The poll found large numbers of Americans
afflicted with feelings of powerlessness and of being exploited.
Such feelings ran strongest among several key groups in the
population - young people, union members, poor people, and
blacks. No country can afford such widespread alienation, least of
all a country with such tremendous world-wide responsibilities
and impact as the United States has.
But instead of taking steps to relieve the divisions in our
society, many events in the past year only reinforced them.
Instead of concentrating its energies on improving education and
on creating new job opportunities, the nation became obsessed by|
such artificial issues as busing and quotas.
Many of the country’s actions seemed out of touch with
reality. For example, unsubstantiated reports of racial killings by
a black murder gang were headlined for many days a few months
ago. We are still waiting for any evidence of truth to such
malicious allegations.
But while this was a leading topic for the media, the real truth
about racial violence came toward the close of the year, when a
blue-ribbon investigating panel found that two black youths had
been killed at Southern University through the irresponsible
actions of police officers. The next day, New York City’s
Commission on Human Rights reported that there was a
dangerous pattern” of violence against blacks in some sections of
the city.
This confirms what observers have often noted - that the
North is showing signs of adopting some of the pathological signs
of racism it had long charged the South with showing. In 1972,
the biggest outbursts against school desegregation were in
Michigan and New York, not in Alabama and Mississippi.
While the nation seems to be slipping away from its past
commitment to racial justice, the problems are still with us and
are still in desperate need of resolution. I was reminded of how
much unfinished business there is still before us while attending
the ceremonies and symposium commemorating the opening of
the civil rights archives of The Lyndon Baines Johnson Library in
Texas, last month.
There, many people active in the civil rights movement, in law,
the social sciences and politics, tried to assess the accomp
lishments of the 1960’5. Some very great things were done in
those few short years - official segregation was abolished,
significant economic and political advances were made by
minorities, etc. But the atmosphere of the nation has changed so
drastically since that time that it seemed as if we were discussing
an era long past.
As we enter 1973, I believe there will have to be a determined
effort to recapture, if not the specifics, then at least the mood of
the 1960’5. The new year should mark a new beginning, a
rededication to the goals of freedom and justice for all. The
spiritual vacuum must be filled by concern for the problems of
poverty, of racial disadvantage, and social progress.
The reason for the drift and confusion among so many people
is their perception that the society is rigid and unwilling to make
the constructive changes so necessary and so long overdue. We
enter 1973 divided and troubled but firm leadership, a rediscover
of democratic values, and definite action to deal with our real
problems, can help turn that attitude around. It’s time to start
fresh.