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The Augusta News-Review, February 8, 1973 -
KWalking 11
H Wrt* l H
M Dignity II
■by Al Irby J
(A THOUGHT ON THE LOCAL HORIZON)
Let’s face it; there are not enough black faces in our city and
county government. The black ratio of our population being what
it is, something should give. Not speaking of black elected
officials, because they were politically castigated, when ward voting
was abolished. One important gadget to conserve the hiring status
quo is the attitude of the city’s personnel office. They play crazy
when blacks apply, for a known position, by acting as if they
know nothing of the job.
A SAVANNAH, GA. BLACK RADIO STATION CUT THE
REPETITIOUS “BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL’CLOWNING AND
BOOSTED ITS REVENUE TO $280,000 LAST YEAR. THEY
LOW-KEYED THEIR GOSPEL MUSIC, AND BANNED THE
SO-CALLED FAITH-HEALER’S ADS. THIS ACTION WON TOP
RATING THE FIRST YEAR, UNDER THE NO-NONSENCE
NEW MANAGEMENT.
A black-oriented radio station WSOK has climbed to the top of
the ratings against tough white competition. WSOK gambled with
a method never before tried by a black station. Benjamin M.
Tucker, a professional jazzbass player with the dash and daring of
an unorthodox entrepreneur, which he really was; because he had
never managed anything.
Tucker facetiously made this comment: “I walked into this
business and caught eleven out-moded competitive radio stations
sleeping.” He took over racial-clowning WSOK station as general
manager, and the entire radio broadcasting community of
Savannah cracked it’s side with laughter, both white and black.
Everybody thought another jiving Northern nigger was coming in
with the same old racial stereo-type format.
A BAN ON ULTRA-RAUCOUS MUSIC - has partly turned off
gospel and hard rock in favor of jazz and semi-classical music,
forfeiting some loot that had been its lifeblood.
The station still plays some rhythm and blues, also a bit a
gospel, but not exclusively and no longer raucously. There has
been expansion in the station’s album collection from 20 to
4,000 - and begun to give listeners jazz, popular songs, black
comedians and classical pieces by black performers and
composers.
TEACHING DISC JOCKEYS TO READ CORRECTLY
News coverage commonly a “rip and read” operation in which
disc jockeys tore off wire copies to read over the air, have been
beefed up considerably. It is really most time, “rip and try to
read.” The flamboyant Mr. Tucker refers to the poor readings and
mispronunciations, before he and his wife began coaching his
announcers in public speaking.
BLACK PRIDE, RATHER THAN BLACK NOISE
A professional newspaper man has been hired as news director,
and the station subscribes to only what the Mutual Black News
has to offer, that appeals to listeners of both black and white.
The local Savannah station has put emphasis on public service,
both on and off the air. For example, it has been boosting a drive
for information and treatment of sickle cell anemia.
The top management of WSOK is not cocky or dogmatic on its
formula of operation, Tucker and his associates contend, that
there are 7,000 radio stations in the U.S. and some 300 of them
cater to black audiences. The vast majority of these
black-oriented stations are believed to be profitable. There is no
one formula for success in this business and the changes and
innovations made at WSOK might not bring success elsewhere.
These many changes came shortly after WSOK was acquired
for $400,000 last January by a group of mostly black financiers,
known as The Black Communications Corp., a New York-based
outfit, headed by Mr. Tucker. This company is composed of
former jazz pianist Billy Taylor and a few other jazz musicians in
the New York area.
BLACK COMMUNICATIONS HAD A PLAN
This group set out to buy up magazines, radio and TV stations
and try to make these media more responsive to the needs and
interests of black listeners.
CHANGED PLANS
“We started out figuring we could acquire a station a year,”
Mr. Tucker says. “But experiences with WSOK, the concern’s first
venture, quickly altered our plans for future acquisitions.
With WSOK providing more headaches than had been
bargained for, the group decided to concentrate on one project
before moving on to the next one. Indeed, for a time last year, it
looked as if this Savannah venture would be the last.
STAFF BALKED AT COMPANY’S STANDARDS
The first staff meeting that Tucker called after his drastic
reorganization, the disc jockeys balked when he told them to stop
shouting Black!, Black!, Black!. They were told, that the minute
they open their mouths, people knew they were Black. He also
stopped all of the nonsensical blabbering, that is the “Hall Mark”
of most black radio stations.
(DECORUM WAS THE KEY WORD)
Black staffers resented the laws layed down for behavior
outside the studio. They were told that all employees must
refrain from standing on the corners half-drunk, and talking loud.
Sure, touch bases with the community; find out their needs and
problems. But give them something to look up to and respect.
They showed their resentment by dragging their feet on the job,
but company’s policies held firm.
Five blacks finally resigned, four were dismissed, and the black
sales manager walked out. Nevertheless, eventually the sun began
to shine. Thirty minutes after the sales manager walked out,
Scipio Collins, a black native of Savannah and veteran of 18 years
in radio sales and announcing, walked in. He had come home to
be with his ailing mother, and was looking for a job. He started
off for $75 per week, but now he is earning $ 1,000 a month.
COLLINS WAS HEAVEN SENT
When Collins came aboard, he had his work cut out for him. As
part of its new image, WSOK had begun refusing to continue
running ads for easy credit sources, high-interest loan companies,
faith healers and the like. But new business wasn’t coming in so
fast, to replace the trash ads.
Benjamin Aronson (by the way Jewish) the station’s
accountant kept hounding Mr. Tucker to go out and get new ads,
for those that the station had turned down; but Tucker kept
insisting he couldn’t until he had the station the way he wanted
it. WSOK won’t be resting on its laurels, because one challenger
to its number one rating is hard working Station WEAS-FM.
BLACK POWER
is in the voting box this year.
Page 4
TO BE
EQUAL j f 3RI
By / ►
Vcnx»" E. Jordan, Jr. / L
LYNDON JOHNSON’S LEGACY
Lyndon Baines Johnson is gone, but we must be forever
grateful that he walked among us. He was, beyond any shadow of
doubt, the President who held the aspirations of black citizens
closest to his heart.
It was Lyndon Johnson who stood in the well of Congress and
proclaimed “We Shall Overcome,” and he did his very best to
overcome the bitter heritage of inequality and discrimination that
holds all of us -- black and white -- chained to conflict and
confrontation when our spirits should soar as eagles in a bright
sky.
He sought to construct a “Great Society,” but that society fell
far short of greatness. It faltered in the mud of war that was his
single failure, and it faltered in a backlash that still runs rampant.
But if he could not, in the short space of five years, construct
a Great Society, he did take this country a long way into a
Second Reconstruction. His policies helped shape the decade of
the sixties; a period that saw black people emerge as a moral force
in the nation, a period that saw black people take giant steps
toward equality.
By one of those queer, eerie strokes of chance I was writing a
letter to him on the day he died, a letter thanking him for his
hospitality during my participation in the Civil Rights
Symposium at the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas in December.
That was the last time I saw him, and I am grateful that he had
the opportunity to witness the outpouring of affection and
admiration at that occasion.
People from all spectrums of the civil rights movement, his
Administration, and the judiciary were there to help unveil the
civil rights archives of the LBJ Library and to pay tribute to the
accomplishments of the sixties.
It is fashionable to downgrade the achievements of that
decade. But we ought to take time out from our concern for what
has been left undone and pay tribute to what had been achieved.
Packed into that decade, and especially during the Johnson
Administration, was a series of federal actions that, taken
together, broke the back of legal segregation, shifted some power
to minorities, reordered the way people thought about domestic
issues, and created a body of law and custom that will be, for the
most part, irresversible. The result was to create myriad new
opportunities for black people and to bring to minorities a sense
of self-confidence that will continue far into the future.
The country entered the sixties wedded to racism and left it
with a whole new attitude toward equal rights and democratic
values. And the Johnson Presidency was primarily responsible for
that change.
Just to list the bills he fought for and programs he initiated
would take more space than this column has. What other
democratic country undertook in so short a period of time such
social innovations as were contained in the Civil Rights Act of
1964, which eliminated discrimination in public places and in
employment; the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which
revolutionized southern politics and assured blacks the vote the
Fair Housing Act, which barred discrimination in housing;
medical aid for the aged, model cities programs, anti-poverty
programs, and a host of other actions that helped millions of
people.
It is ironic that Lyndon Johnson died on the very day that a
cease-fire agreement for Vietnam was initialed in Paris. That war
was his undoing, and the financial and moral demands it made
effectively ended the social reforms he championed. That war was
a tragedy, both for the men who wanted history to remember
him for his domestic accomplishments, and for the nation, which
desperately needed social reforms and domestic peace.
I am confident that, long after the sour taste of the Vietnam
adventure vanishes, history will record with awe the domestic
actions of the Johnson era, and will serve a place of greatness for
this bold, great man.
educational opportunity;
destroys the work ethic by
eliminating or reducing
manpower and job training
programs and by not
supporting an increased federal
minimum wage level; weakens
the judicial system by
appointing judges who “in the
main show themselves
unresponsive to the needs of
those who suffer the greatest
injustices;” and dilutes the
efficacy of federal civil rights
acts through budgetary
cutbacks or lax enforcement.
These factors, Wilkins
explained, create a “vicious
circle” which entraps blacks
and other minorities and
prevents them from achieving
full equality of opportunity.
This circle could be broken,
however, he added, were it not
for the fact that “our system
of checks and balances has
never seemed in greater
jeopardy. The President has
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Wilklins - Cont. from P. 1
demonstrated contempt for
Congress and its power. He
even refuses to spend the
money Congress has
appropriated for essential
programs.”
To Counteract the effects of
Administration cutbacks,
Wilkins said, the Congress
“must rise in protest.” He
added that the Conference
would dedicate itself anew to
programs which assure equal
opportunity for blacks and
pledged the cooperation of its
members to those Congressmen
“who pursue these same
objectives.”
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INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY DAY FOR
AFRICAN PRISONERS ON MARCH 30-31
By Florence Tate
Washington - NBNS - A
coalition of national black
groups and organizations and
individuals are sponsoring an
International Solidarity Day
for African Prisoners of War on
March 30-31 for the purpose of
focusing worldwide attention
on the existence and plight of
black political prisoners in this
country as well as in southern
Africa, Guinea-Bissau and
other parts of the world.
At a press conference here,
Chokwe Lumumba, an official
of the Republic of New Africa,
is national chairman of the
Solidarity committee said
demonstrations will be held in
Jackson, Mississippi.
“Mississippi was chosen as
the site because of its symbolic
meaning as far as the brutal
oppression of black people is
concerned,” said Lumumba
who further stated that any
other U.S. site could have been
chosen as well.
“But Mississippi epitomizes
the historic injustices visited
upon black people in this
country,” added the Solidarity
Day chairman.
Lumumba cited the
well-known murders of
Emmett Till, Medgar Evers,
Ben Chaney, Herbert Lee,
Vernon Dahmer and the
“countless of other brothers
who have been brutalized,
lynched, and murdered in
Mississippi.”
He also spoke of the August,
1971, pre-dawn police attack
on RNA headquarters in
Jackson in which the RNA
members were wounded by
police bullets.
Os the five RNA members
arrested after the shooting
spree which resulted in the
death of a white policeman,
Lumumba said that “four are
in prison and Brother Imari
Obadele (president of RNA) is
in jail.”
“All of these brothers are
charged with the death of one
policeman by one bullet,”
emphasized the young RNA
officer.
Also participating in the
press conference were Irving
Joyner, director of community
organizations at the
Commission for Racial Justice,
one of the co-sponsoring
organizations, and the Rev.
Ben Chavis, who is free on a
$50,000 bond on charges
stemming from his political
activities in Wilmington, North
Carolina.
A prepared statement read
by Joyner called attention to
the “attempts underway to
convict H. Rap Brown, Max
Stanford, Brother Imari...”
In response to a question
asked by Newsmen Lumumba
said he was not anticipating
any kind of confrontarion
from Mississippi authorities
during the Solidarity Day
demonstrations.
“We have been in touch with
Mississippi authorities and we
expect to be treated with
civility.” “This will be with
reluctance, of course, not what
the racist Mississippi
government would like to do.
“But they know that the
eyes of the world will be on
them, and we fully expect that
they will be cooperative,
Lumumba said.
Joyner said one of the issues
to be discussed at workshops
during the Solidarity weekend
will be whether or not all black
people in prison are to be
considered political prisoners.
“We know that there is some
confusion and misunder
standing about the term as it is
used by radical white groups,”
said Joyner.
“Some of them (radical
white groups) say that white
Ford Motor workers are
political prisoners because they
get bored with their jobs, when
our brothers and sisters cannot
even get jobs, so it’s clear we
are not talking about the same
thing when we say ‘political
prisoners,’ ” Joyner
emphasized.
Thirty-one state committees
have been formed and will be
responsible for coordinating
local rallies, demonstrations,
seminars, and other activities
to inform local black
communities about the
importance and significance of
Solidarity Day.
The Solidarity Day Support
committee includes:
Congressmen Charles Diggs,
Ron Dellums, and John
Conyers; Imamu Baraka,
Mayor Richard Hatcher; Owuse
Sadaukai; Rev. Ben Chavis;
Rev. Charles Koen; Dick
Gregory; Ossie Davis; and State
Reps. Julian Bond of Georgia
and Lloyd Barbee of
Wisconsin.
Also Dorothy Taylor and
Sam Wright, both state
representatives and attorneys
Howard Moore, Edward Ball
and Haywood Burns.
National organizations in
addition to the Commission for
Racial Justice and the RNA,
who are endorsing the effort
are the African Liberator
Support Committee; Congress
of African Peoples; Congress of
Racial Equality, National
Conference of Black Lawyers;
Black Panther Party; Youth
Organization for Black Unity
and Cairo United Black Front.
Several embassies and
African liberation groups are
expected to also endorse the
event shortly.
For further information
contact the National Prisoner
of War Solidarity Day
Committee at 12854 N. Gallatin
Street, Jackson, Mississippi or
call (601)355-7495.
Life Style Os
Disadvantaged
Explored
The culture and life styles of
the disadvantaged and the
characteristics of disadvantaged
neighborhoods was explored
Thursday (Feb. 8) at the
continuing Career Guidance
Institute being held at Augusta
College.
Sponsored by AC, the
Richmond County school
system, and the National
Alliance of Businessmen, the
Institute will convene at 9 a.m.
in the College Activities center.
The all-day seminar which is
held at AC every other
Thursday, includes lectures and
discussions in the morning
followed by field visitors to
local business and industry
during the afternoon hours.
Thursday’s speakers
included Dr. John M. Smith,
assistant professor of sociology
at AC; Walter Smith, assistant
to the vice president of the
Georgia Power Co. in Augusta;
and Roscoe Williams, assistant
dean of students at AC.
The institute will enable
teachers, counselors,
administrators and employers
to develop, expand and
implement practices which
reflect a greater understanding
of career opportunities and a
sensitivity to the needs of
disadvantaged youth relative to
career guidance and
preparation, said Dr. James M.
Dye, project director.
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MMiiiji
Thankful Baptist Choir
I hk wSo TESTS'
Sorors Pose With National President
«■* ***%
t., . «-I
Ms. Benbow Signs Autographs
IHRRi ajkT ■ ~
Count? Commissioner Ed Mcintvre Greets Soror Louise
Riddick And Ms. Benbow At Airport
F Ji
Soror Hernia Blount plants kiss”and presents plaque to
Rev. Essie M. Mclntyre. Rev. Mclntyre and Dr. Justine
Washington (1) were named Women of the Year.