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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 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 Countyss.oo tax incl. 6 Monthss2.so tax incl. Ohe Year elsewheres6.oo tax incl. ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT Classified Advertising Deadline 12 noon on Tuesday Display Advertising Deadline 12 noon On Tuesday News Items Printed Free 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.” WANTED NEWS BOYS Good Pay CALL News—Review Office 722-4555 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. f SUBSCRIBE I TODAY |I_J THE AUGUSTA NEWS-REVIEW Ji P. O. 80X953 AUGUSTA, GEORGIA 30903 NAME ADDRESS RjJ; CITY One year (in county)ss.oo || —' One year (out of county) $6.00 • k 5 years (in County)s2o.oo |||| 5 years (out of county)s2s.oo 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.