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Vol. 3
Laney Principal Took Slain Black School
Superintendent On 'Sentimental Journey’
The slain Biack
superintendent of schools in
Oakland California was in
Augusta last year visiting
relatives who took him to
Athens, Ga. to see the house in
which he was bom, his father’s
grave, and the grave of his
grandmother. It was a
sentimental journey and time
was running out.
Dr. Marcus A. Foster, 50,
was slain on November 6 in a
parking lot as he and his
deputy superintendent Robert
Blackbum left an “unusually
calm” meeting of the board of
education. They were caught in
a shotgun and pistol crossfire.
Foster died immediately
Blackbum reportedly died
later.
Dr. Foster is the first cousin
of Paine College professor Dr.
Justine Washington. (His father
was her mother’s brother ) Drs.
I.E. and Justine Washington
visited the Fosters in Oakland
during the summer of ‘72. In
September, Foster and his wife
Abbie cam to Augusta where
they were given a reception in
the Washington home prior to
the sentimental journey to
Athens.
The trip was the first time
he had seen his birth place. His
family moved to California
| City Council Refuses To |
| Dismiss Stockade Gaurds
I Charged With Negligence
by Robert Oliver
The Stockade committee of
the Augusta City Council voted
not to suspend two guards for
alleged negligence in the death
of 58 year-old Henry O’Bryant
in a meeting Tuesday.
O’Bryant died of a brain
hemorrhage last Sunday and
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Mary Faye Harris, “Miss Paine College” is flanked by runners-up Dorothy Burley (K), Roberta Frails and Student
Government President, Michael Thurmond. Miss Harris was crowned Fridav night by Paine College President Dr.
Lucius H. Pitts. She is the daughter of Mrs. Robert Harris, Sr. of Fritzgerald, Ga.
0 NATIONAL BLACK NEWS SER
MEMBER
when he was a baby.
Foster earned the doctorate
degree from the University of
Pennsylvania. He wrote a book,
‘‘SCHOOL
ADMINISTRATION” which
has been widely acclaimed.
Lucy Laney High
School Principal Dr- LE.
Washington said Foster
mentioned some problems he
was having with a group of
disenchanted Blacks. The
group had voiced opposition to
Dr. Foster’s selection as school
superintendent because they
had nothing to do with it,
Washington said. But Foster
did not appear disturbed by
the opposition, Washington
recalled, “He talked about it as
if it was a ‘light-weight
something’.”
The Fosters have two sons
and a daughter.
A Black group called the
“Symbionese Liberation
Army” claimed credit for the
slaying in a letter stating “This
attack is to serve notice on the
board of education and its
fascist elements that they have
come to the attention of the
SLA and the Court of the
People and have been found
guilty of supporting and taking
part in crimes committed
against the children and the life
the Committee had considered
dismissing the two for not
responding to calls for help.
According to Mayor Lewis
A. Newman, the action was
taken as the committee felt
O’Bryant would have died
anyway. Newman told the
family (five neices) present at
the meeting, “You have my
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Dr. Marcus A. Foster
of the people.”
The SLA letter continues
that other ?f
school officials are planned
“until such time as all political
police are removed from our
schools and all photo and other
forms of identification are
sympathy for the loss of your
uncle. However, most of us
(committee members and
medical examiners) feel that
nothing could have prevented
his death even had he been in
intensive care.
“I think the easy way out is
to fire two people who were
negligent, but with no rules or
THE PEOPLE’S PAPER
stopped.”
Dr. Fruster and the school
board were accused of forming
a “special political police force
to occupy and patrol the
schools in our cities,”
censorship and a photographic
regulations to guide them. I
admit they should have reacted
and we do not condone this,
we take it very seriously.”
The five neices of the late
O’Bryant disagreed as Charlene
Jones, spokeswoman for the
group, said, “We do not concur
with the committee’s decision.
Our uncle was neglected, and
system “patterned after the
system of apartheid in South
Africa.”
The SLA claimed that
students who showed potential
criminal behavior would be
rounded up and detained in
youth camps for indefinite
period of time.
Schools mold young people
into “high style superfly life
and fashion shows,” the release
continues, and “lie to us in an
attempt to perpetuate the
interests of the rich ruling
class.”
“It is clear that Dr. Foster
and sideman, deputy
superintendent Robert
Blackburn, represent the rich
ruling class and big business
and not the children and youth
of our communities,” the letter
from the revolutionary group
goes on.”
The school officials were
attacked for instituting
programs “aimed at the
control, imprisonment,
execution of Blacks and other
minorities.”
SLA concludes the letter
with the, slogan: “Death to the
Fascist Insect that preys upon
the life of the People!”
Authenticity of the letter is
supported by its statement
as a 100 per cent disabled
veteran who should have been
taken to the hospital, we feel
he could have at least had a
chance.”
City Councilwoman Carrie
Mays and Bth Ward
Councilman Thomas Huggins
also did not concur with the
decision.
Mrs. Mays stated, “It is the
system’s fault if they vote to
reprimand and not to suspend
the two guards. With voting
like this, things of this nature
will continue to occur.”
The five neices, Doris
Brightharp, Rena Harper, Cleo
Crawford, Charlene Jones and
Joan Bush, appeared visibly
shaken by the committee’s
decision.
■■Register I
■ And
■ Vote B
NAACP MEETS
The Augusta Chapter of the
NAACP will meet Monday
November 26th at 7:30 p.m. at
the Tabernacle Baptist Church.
Notice
The CSRA Business League
Annual Awards Banquet will
be held on Friday November
30, 1973, at 7:30 p.m. in the
Richmond Hotel
Speaker for the occasion will
be Dr. Bryant George of the
Ford Foundation. Tickets are
on sale for $6.00 each.
For more information or
tickets, please contact the
CSRA Business League at 624
Greene Street or call 722-0994.
Augusta, Georgia
Foster’s execution by “cyanide
bullets” two days before
California authorities
announced that bullets fired in
the attack were hollowed out
and replaced with cyanide, a
•’eadly poison.
Dr. Foster had come to
Oakland from the Philadelphia
school system in 1970. He had
formed citizens committees to
advise the schools and took he
lead in negotiating an end to a
potential strike by he city’s
teachers.
Oakland police said Dr.
Foster and Blackbum were in
the parking lot of the school
system’s administration
building when three Black
youths wearing ski masks
opened fire with a pistol and a
shotgun.
Authorities said they had
never heard of the
“Symbionese Liberation
Army”, before. Webster’s
Third International Dictionary
defines a symbion as a state of
different organisms living
together.
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OIC GRADUATION
Augusta OIC graduates are shown during graduation ceremony at Paine College on
Friday. Mayor Lewis A. Newman was the speaker. Other platform guests included
City Councilwoman Carrie J. Mays, OIC board chairman Joe Scott and Rev. J.S.
Wright. _______
Notice
Mr. James S. Trowbridge,
District Manager of the
Augusta Social Security Office,
advises that beginning
November 19, 1973, the
Augusta office will be open to
the public at the New Federal
Building, 816 Walker Street.
The telephone number remains
the same - 722-7733. The
office is on the second floor of
the building.
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November 2K1973 No. 36
Julian Bond To Speak
At Paine Sunday Night
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Julian Bond
'Tire Augusta Black Caucus
announced this week that State
Rep. Julian Bond will speak in
Augusta on Sunday at 7:30
p.m. in the Gilbert Lambuth
Fort Gordon Wife Os
The Year Sought
A search is underway at Fort
Gordon for the military wife
who will represent the post in
Army-wide competition in
March.
The 1974 Military Wife of
the Year program kicks off for
the eighth straight year to find
Chapel at Paine College.
The program will be billed as
“Usher Rhodes Night”. Rhodes
is a “man-on-the-street” that
the Caucus feels “deserves to
be honored”.
the five military wives who
best represent the one and a
half million wives of men
serving in the Armed Forces.
The Fort Gordon selection
will be made December 14 and
all nominations must be
submitted by December 7. The
Army Wife of the Year will be
honored with the four other
service wives at a Washington
awards banquet next May.
Official nominations forms
are available from the Fort
Gordon Information Office,
the Officers Wives Qub or the
Noncommissioned Officers
Wives Club. Any Army wife at
Fort Gordon is eligible for
nomination.