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Sl,r^ ’toiwta NnuH-StatW PAINE COLLEGE CAMPUS A lll* H ' T 4 /» a »» zx /X a Vol. 3 Hundreds Come From Near And Far To Mourn Dr. Pitt; ’“■st ■ - *u M. R • ,*»- J ' it «*«>'•• «►-...■ •■> - W Paine Students stood with body all night Thursday night for public viewing of the remains. People came (from all parts of the country to attend the funeral services of Dr. Lucius Holsey Pitts, the first Black Richardson To Serve As Acting President B Dr. Canute Richardson (L) and Dr. Dan Collins In a special session of the executive committee of the Board of Trustees of Paine College, an acting president and an Interim Committee were appointed to administer the affairs of the College during the time required to search for and elect a new President. Dr. Daniel A. Collins, chairman of the board, announced that Dr. C.M. Richardson has been appointed Acting President of Paine College. Dr. Collins also appointed Dr. Richardson to serve as Chairman of the Interim Committee. This committee, under the guidance of the Acting President will be responsible for the general Supplemental Security Income For The Aged, Blind, And Disabled The Federal Government will make mon tidy cash payments starting in January 1974 to people in financial need who are 65 or older or who are blind or disabled. The new program will take the placed of the present Federal-State programs of public assistnace payments to people who are 65 or older or blind or diabled. But States will continue to provide them with other services, . and some States will add to the Federal payment Until > Federal supplemental security income payments started in January 1974, State and local public assistance offices will continue to make payments in the usual See INCOME on Page 3 NATIONAL BLACK NEWS SERVICE MEMBER president of Paine College. It was an unusual funeral for an usual man. Everybody knew that it operations of the College, also serving on the committee are: James M. Hinton, Jr., W. Coye Williams, Quincy Robertson, Harry O’Rear, and Charles SMith. In other action, the Executive Committee appointed a Search Committee to find possible candidates for the College Presidency and present them to the board of trustees for consideration. Named to this committee were James M. Hinton, Jr., Chairman, Woodrow Geier, Evelyn Berry, C.D. Coleman, Benjamin E. Mays, Dave Mack, Jr., C.M. Richardson, and Daniel A. Collins. Dr. Collins said he expects that a new president will be named by the end of June. P.O. Box 953 num' rwr; -abhß oa ♦ '-rjiRWS would be a big funeral. Miles College, where Dr. Pitts was president for 10 years, chartered two Trailways buses. W Editor’s note: “Be A Man John”. This poem was recently written by Dr. PittsJ ■ Pitts to his 19-year-old son as he left to join the Air Force. John Eugene Pitts ■ read both poems during the funeral. BE A MAN JOHN BE A MIGHTY MAN Life ain’t never easy, « Times may not please ya But Be a man John Be a mighty man. Mike and Ron say: “You can’t take it man” Me and God say, you can! Be a man John Be a mighty man. The General, the Cap’n, The Sarge and Corporal too ‘Spose to make you mad. Don’t do it Be a man John Be a mighty man. Come rain or shine Come spruce or pine Come those who whine Come heartaches at times Be a man John Be a mighty man Today looks kinda dark No sun, no singing lark The urge to stop to park Don’t Be a man John Be a mighty man. In trouble with fear Sometimes a tear Okay, God says I’m always near. The heat and cold The winds that blow The rain and shine Suggest you blow Don’t Be a man John Be a mighty man. The cheering crowd The jeers and sneers Sgt. Andrew D. Waring Sr. Retired Master Sgt. Andrew D. Waring, Sr. died Sunday in the Fort Gordon Hospital. Mr. Waring won the Bronze Star medal while serving in Europe in World War 11. The award was given for courageous service. He is among a very few Augustans to receive this award. He was a former assistant professor of military science and tactics at Hampton Institute. He will be buried with full military honors. A graduate of Haines Institute and Hampton Institute, he was a former acrilite at St. Mary’s Episcopal The Augusta Chapter of the NAACP will meet Monday night March 11th at 7:30 P.M. at the Tabernacle Baptist Church. The Able-Disabled will meet Tuesday, March 19th at 7:30 P.M. at the Georgia War Veterans Home, 1101 15th Street in Augusta, across from the Talmadge Hospital. For more information call (279-0979. Thank! n TOE PEOPLE’S PAPER / Honorary pallbearers. News-Review staff photos by Frank Bowman Nearby hotels were booked solid days in advance of the funeral. Many persons wanting seats The hidden fears Say: Tell 'em to go *+%f**i! Grab bag and go AWOL Don’t Be a man John Be a mighty man MY FATHER My father was strong, My father was weak, He helped everyone Even in his sleep. There were days of toil and strife And even in the midst of All of this my father seemed To be a beacon of Jight. My father was smart My father was bright; He was the greatest In my eyesight. He had it all From rags to riches, From brains to canes And wished man Had the same. He taught the poor He taught the rich; But he taught us all How to use good sense. All in all when trouble Called we cpuld count on Him not to let us fall. He walked with pride From day to day; And even now I can Hear him say: Be strong, young man. Be strong. Church. He is the son of the late J.B. and Annie Lou Waring. Survivors include his wife, Nellie E. Waring; a son, Andrew Waring 11, of Fort Sam Houston, Texas; a daughter, Mrs. Anni Lou Waring, (Boston); two brothers, J. Philip Waring (St. Louis) and Lewellen Waring (San Mateo, Calif.). Funeral services will be held Thursday at 11:00 at St. Mary.s Espicopal Church with Rev' J.B. Burlin officiating. Burial will be in the Cedar Grove Cemetery. William and Dotson Funeral Home is in charge. ; imiiiin inim iiimi mnii r « 4W?L &-* v? jy t Wi ’ ■ Klk BKIMMIIh ■ U SJ.4-4-. in the chapel arrived three hours early for the noon funeral. The only seats available were in the transepts, [ EDITORIAL Lucius Holsey Pitts One of the most striking qualities of the funeral of Dr. Luckis Pitts was the inexplicable air of joy that surrounded it. One jjerson was heard to describe it as a “glorious/ occasion. The feelings of sorrow seemed to have been overshadowed by the feeling that Augusuta and Paine College had been fortunate to have had the benefit of his presence, wisdom, courage and leadership for three years. Dr. Pitts came to Paine College at a time when there was talk that the college might have to close down. Monday, Dr. Daniel Collins, president of Paine’s board of trustees, said that the college has never been in better shape (in all departments) than it is at this moment. Dr. Pitts came to Augusta at a time when race relations were severely strained, and much of the white business community held Paine College responsible lor serving as a brain trust for the 1970 riot. As a result of Dr. Pitts’> ability to put things in tueir proper perspective, many of those same businessmen are now leading the college’s “Build It Back” campaign. Brother Lucius will be remembered for his extraordinary charisma. Possessed with a brilliant mind, he was articulate and could talk anybody out of, or into, anything he wanted. A prominent white businessman who had heard Dr. Pitts speak for the first time remarked, “He knows how to handle people, I mean white people.” Dr. Pitts has been called both a militant and an Uncle Tom. He would not disown either label He recently revealed to tiie Paine College faculty the title of a book he planned to write. The title was to have been “Thank God For Uncle Tom, ‘Cause He Was A SMART Nigger.” Dr. Pitts was a SMART man, and if by chance he at times appeared to be tomming, he wasn’t. He was manipulating. He was not being controlled, he controlled. His faith in God was total. He would sometimes make remarks such as, “We’ve just written .$100,000.00 worth of checks. And I’ve got to come up with that $100,000.00 before Monday morning. But I’m not worried about it. Why? Because my Father loves me, andlle controls all things.” New York Times Editorial Eulogizes Dr. Pitts As ’Miracle Worker’ It was in the fall of 1969. Black and white student leaders were facing each other in open hostility at a national meeting in Washington, and the mood had reached the brink of violence. A tall Black man rose from the sidelines. “Frustrated?” he asked, pointing to the angry Black youths. “Yes, I’m frustrated, too .. And these are my children.” When Dr. Lucius Pitts, then president of Miles College in Birmingham, Ala., sat down, the combination of a preacher’s emotion and a philosopher’s reason had miraculously established peace. Dr. Pitts, who died this week at the age of 59, had been an educational miracle worker all his life. But this seventh son of a Georgia tenant farmer had not been widely known until he agreed in 1960 to assume the presidency of Miles College, a disaccredited and bankrupt institution engulfed in an atmosphere of virulent white supremacy. Less than a decade later, Miles was a going enterprise, its accreditation restored. Dr. Pitts moved on up shore to Paine College in Augusta, Ga., his own alma mater. In 1971, when fiscal disaster threatened all private Black colleges, Dr. Pitts issued a desperate appeal: “I am asking as a Black college president . . . should I throw in the towel?” Once again, he helped build understanding and Lucius Pitts never threw in the towel- not on the dreams of “his children” nor on the larger future of an integrated America. (Reprinted from the New York Times) Augusta, Georgia the balcony or other rooms including the 200 seat odeum where they could view the proceedings via closed circuit television. F • > -gs-g . Smksssxjsw- «»*»'’*" *TwSi2« J--rS - ?s,- . _ JS- i jg • 3Sr j|Rß| GPV* wlmlm I 5 MR, Al uMIr t I ■a v.r««r. Fiiri/wl rim- I ♦ ißa z» L'nl,,/, I f Barawzal 1-1 za Dr. ntts was buried next to the raine College Chapel. He is the first person to be buried on the campus. The main seating area was reserved for the honorary pallbearers: The Paine College Student Government Association official. The Board of Trustees, the Class of 1941 (Dr. Pitts’ class), clergymen of the Sixth Episcopal District of the CME Church, general officers of the CME Church, college presidents, the Paine College faculty and staff, the Miles College faculty and staff, Alumni Association officers, The Greater Augusta Chamber of Commerce, the Augusta-Richmond County Human Relations Commission, the Human Relations Council and clergymen of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. Active Pallbearers were the Rev. Charles Stokes, Willie Clyde Jones, L.H. Whelchel, Jr., James Russell, Horace Dawson, Charles Clark, Luther Williams, and Burney Lester. The body lay in state in the chapel all night Thursday night for the public to view the remains. The casket was closed just prior to the funeral. Paine College students rotated shifts standing with the casket. The Paine choir set the tone for the funeral, singing “Good News” and “A’in A that Good News”. The funeral, like Dr. Pitts’, conversation, was a blend of seriousness and good-natured humor. Mayor Lewis A. Newman spoke of “Brother Lucius” as a “community welder”. Dr. Pitts “walked farther and made deeper footprints across this city than any man I know of. Augusta is much richer because Lucius Pitts walked with us for three years,” he said. Dr. Richard Arrington, Director of the Alabama Center for Higher Education, said Dr. Pitts had the ability to excite people about their own potential and to make them believe in themselves. Dr. Arrington who was a colleague of Dr. Pitts at Miles College in Birmingham, Ala., said of Dr. Pitts’ , impact on Birmingham and Miles College, “He turned the city and the college around. He made a city of injustice a city of decency. He made open admissions respectable, and was committed to helping Black people walk proudly in American society.” Dr. W. Coye Williams, academic dean at Paine College described Dr. Pitts as “A man who simply said ‘Come Dream with Me of things that CAN be.’ ” Among the most eloquent of the star studded speakers was Dr. E. Clayton Calhoun, who served for 14 years as president of Paine College, and resigned in 1970. Dr. Pitts, Calhoun said, lived into life Frank Yerby’s words in the Paine College Hymn < a “unity of hearts” and “differences be set at nought between the white and Black”. Dr. Pitts, Calhoun continued, “teased us out of our stupidity and laughed us into dreams.” Emphasizing his faith in God in a sermon in Miami, Dr. Pitts, March 7, 1974 No. 51 according to Dr. Calhoun, illustrated his point by saying that “No matter how low 1 am, MY Lord, MY Lord will lift me up. Even if the Southern white man is standing with his heel upon my neck, my Lord will lift me up. Following the sermon, Dr. Calhoun, according to Dr. Pitts, ran up to him shaking his finger and said, “Lucius, darn your hide, don’t you ever do that to me again.” To which Dr. Pitts replied, “Ain’t no white man, gonna shake his finger, in my Black face, unless he knews I love him.” Concluding his remarks as he began them. Dr. Calhoun said, “Whatever you say of Lucius Pitts and me, say this: “that we are brothers. And if you have to put a Black or white to it, that’s your hang up and not ours.” The funeral, which was scheduled to run about 45 minutes, lasted nearly two hours. But it was marked by laughter and not by tears. Only twice did handerchiefs appear in large numbers, once when Dr. Pitts’ younger son, John Eugene, spoke of his father and read a poem his father recently wrote to him entitled, “Be a Man, John, A Mighty Man”. Young Pitts then read a poem he wrote to his father. He spoke unemotionally. Doris Terry of Miles College almost shattered the composure of the mourners with her soulful rendition of “1 Believe”, which Dr. Pitts often called on her to sing. Otherwise, the funeral was kept on a relatively light note. Bishop C.J. Johnson, in eulogizing Dr. Pitts, likened his death with that of a young man whose old car had broken down a long way from home. The young man telephoned his father who told him don’t worry about it. Junk the car. You have my credit card. Go to the nearest airport and come on home. Few people knew that Dr. Pitts had a pacer in his chest to keep.his heart beating properly, that he was blind in one eye, that he had diabetes, high blood pressure and had suffered two heart attacks. But picking up on this point, Bishop Johnson said that last Monday night, Dr. Pitts’, old body broke down. And God told him, ‘Don’t worry about it, junk that old body. You’ve got my credit card. Go to the nearest airport and come on home’.” “Well, what about my college?” “Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it. Just get on a plane and come on home.” Others appearing on the program included Vernon Jordan, director of the National Urban League, Rev. Gene R. Dean, Dr. Pitts’; pastor; Michael Thurmond, president of the Student Government Association of Paine College, Bishop P. Randolph Shy, and the Rev. Isaiah Scipio, Jr., general secretary of the Board of Missions of the CME Church. (C 20 >)