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The Augusta News-Review - June 6, 1974 -
■Walking ■
I Wllh ISSL I
■ Dignity jjo H
by Al Irby J
THE NATION’S LAWYERS FIND THEMSELVES IN THE
MIDST OF THE WATERGATE INFAMY. THEY ARE ONE OF
THE TOP PROFESSIONS CONTRIBUTING TO THE
DISTRUST OF POLITICS, BECAUSE THEY MONOPOLIZE
THE LAW MAKING MACHINERY OF THE NATION. ALONG
WITH OTHER TOP PROFESSIONALS, MANY ATTORNEYS
ARE JUST AS MUCH CRIMINALS AS THE COMMON STREET
VARIETY.
This column seeks to point out the source of the moral and
spiritual deterioration of our 20th century world. It is the street
crime of the youthful permissivness that has incorrigibly
tarnished our nation and the civilized world? All of these things
maybe juvenile symptoms, but the adults, both individuals, and
corporate are the real roots problem.
Most of the leaders of the western world have some kind of
suspicion involving questionable concupiscent and slinky
subtleties. Watergate, ITT, Dairy pay-offs, and a host of other
shady deals are top scandals in our nation today.
Politics, business, medicine, law and many other professions
are challenged in these diffucult days. A few weeks ago, we
explored the medical fraternity. Today we will take a hard and
critical look at the nation’s attorneys, who have played such a
nefarious role in the current debacle of Watergate.
The legal profession is not only being scrutinized by Congress,
but the nation as a whole is shaking its head in reference to the
conduct of the people that mostly make its laws. Lawyers have
long hid behind their lofty respectability, because of the
influence they wield. But today the halo is fading fastly, rocked
by scandal, politicians, and graft.
A gang of lawyers have been caught-up in the current national
malaise, and now the White House tape transcripts have the
nation in a great wonderment. Two top-notch presidential
lawyer-assistants have been charged of exploiting the nation’s law
enforcement establishment for political purposes. It has been
charged that Mr. Nixon hinted of using the Justice Department
and the FBI against his adversaries.
John Ehrlichman, a California attorney, and domestic adviser
to Mr. Nixon talked about using national security as a subterfuge
for house-breaking of another prominent professional private
files. The legal profession has draged its feet when disbarment is
ever hinted in the Watergate affair. They contend that lawyers
have the honor to police themselves.
IT IS BEGINNING TO SURFACE THAT LAWYERS ARE
MERCENARY - Clients are grumbling, and pointing out that
lawyers are charging too much for their services; and are getting
the courts to delay trials so they can gouge more money out of
their clients.
Questions are being raised on whether non-lawyers couldn’t
handle some of the work now done by high-priced attorneys.
Some leading bar associations are monitoring the activities of
some of their members, and allowing non-lawyers to observe this
action. Minnesota, lowa and Michigan are the states that is taking
the lead in this current lawyer-check-up. Illinois and
Pennsylvania’s State Supreme Courts have created special staffs to
investigate and even prosecute crooked lawyers. Complaints
about lawyers have become so prevalent that seven states are
experimenting with ways of retesting lawyer’s honor and
competency. Things have gotten so bad with poor professionalism
among lawyers until there are movements afoot to loosen rules
against non-lawyer practice of law, which are often criticized as
protecting attorneys against competition. Many low-key
non-technical work on title searching, and many semi-legal chores
can be performed by non-legal persons.
Ralph Nader's public-interest law groups are thinking strongly
about private antitrust action against the legal profession’s
restrictions on advertising and other solicitation of business. The
way the rules are now, big law firms grab all the business from
young and Black lawyers. American Bar Association President
Chesterfield Smith and Leroy Jeffers president of the Texas Bar
Association are at odds about Nader’s proposition; Smith is
naturally against, but Jeffers thinks well of it.
Believe it or not, the law profession is in deep trouble with the
once bustling public. James D. Fellers, an Oklahoma City lawyer
who will succeed Mr. Smith as ABA president says he has “never
before seen a time when the profession faced with so many
serious challenges.” The legal profession’s 375,000 members have
always been cushioned by its apparent respectavility, but too
many slicks in the profession have dropped their candy in the
sand.
Lawyers are reluctant to make changes that will cost them
money; unlike most businesses, the legal boys usually are in a
strong position to block all changes pertaining to them. But
Watergate has put them on a wonder. Os course the ABA
contends that the work of the special prosecutor has saved the
profession's image; but Senator Charles Mathias Jr., a
lawyer-member of the Judiciary panel studying attorneys, says
“many people view lawyers’ involvement in the scandal as a
failure of lawyers nation-wide.”
Four years ago, a special ABA committee headed by former
Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark, concluded that the prevailing
attitude of lawyers toward disciplinary enforcement ranged from
apathy to outright criminal. Only a Watergate could make a
hard-head like ABA president Smith own-up that there is proof
for change.
ABA IS ABOUT READY TO JOIN THE HUMAN RACE -
Under court pressure the legal profession had grudgeingly come
around to being a bit altruistic, by accepting a program of help to
people of small means. This is the so-called prepaid legal-service
plan, which permits groups to share legal expenses.
The bar, like other mercenary professions, is sensing the change
in consumer awakening. Thus, many lawyers believe change is
going to happen, and real soon. James F. Flug, executive director
of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association had this to
say: “The bar can slow change down, or it can speed it up, but
for sure it can’t stop it.”
THE AUGUSTA NEWS-REVIEW
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Page 4
I Speaking 1
||WK . Out |
■kf/* * I
Roosevelt Green, Jr. gg
Black unity is the thing that is needed most in Augusta and the
rest of the country. By Black Unity, I mean the coming together
of Blacks to work for common goals on a short and long term
basis. We should be able to disagree on strategy and tactics while
we work together on the necessary goals of survival in this
country.
Black leaders must learn to stop so much internal bickering and
being jealous and envious of each other. Our common enemy is
those whites in economic and political control of this city, state,
and country who are didicated to the destruction and genocide of
Blacks, and also on a local, national and international basis.
The few Blacks who have “arrived” soon forgot and forget
those Blacks who are hungry and starving in Amerikka. Living in
“Mortgageville” enjoying creature comforts seems to dull our
sensitivity to local and national oppression of our sisters and
brothers. We tend to forget that everything we own is really not
ours anyway because of white economic control of our economy.
We must wake up and support those Black leaders who take a
stand for justice and speak out about our oppression. Ignorance is
not bliss if Blacks and whites do not begin to learn how the few
greedy whites in economic power oppress and control the rest of
us.
Any Black and white leader or citizen who takes a stand
against the evil and corruption in our local and national
governmental systems is in danger of economic reprisals and even
death. Blacks are even turned against other Blacks by the white
press and local economic interests who use law enforcement
agencies as the ultimate weapon of oppression.
The economic and psychological chains of modern day Black
slavery are worse than the physical chains of past slavery. Many
Black leaders feel they must stand by quietly about the
oppression of other Blacks because they have sold out to “the
man.” Modern day Judases and Jacobs as well as Uncle and Aunt
Toms abound in the Black community. Thirty pieces of silver and
the porridge of creature comforts are no substitutes for Black
leaders having strong commitments and programs of progress for
the local and national Black community.
City Council Woman Mrs. Carrie J. Mays deserves the support
of right thinking Blacks and whites in Augusta. Black ministers
and other leaders should support her business efforts in the face
of reprisals from some forces in the white, anti-Black segments of
this community.
Mrs. Mays has spoken out boldly while many of our Black male
leaders have sat back quietly. Her life has been threatened in the
past and her business has suffered because Blacks have virtually
boycotted her business until fairly recently.
Since she is in business as a mortician and only gets to bury
Blacks, there is something wrong if Blacks deliberately fail to use
her services. We have some fine Black morticians in Augusta, but
we are in a tragic situation if one of them suffers a loss of
business for speaking out on the issues that affect the Black and
white citizens of this community.
Let us rally around ti.is courageous Black woman and demand
that our Black leaders support her publicy and privately. Many
whites in Augusta support her public stands on issues and respect
her for her fearless approach. “The only thing necessary for evil
to succeed is for good people to do nothing.”
I am getting rather tired of being indirect about citing how our
local and national Black leaders sell out and forget the interest
and issues of the local and national Black community. This is an
area I plan to devote more time to in the future. Any Black leader
who is afraid or has been co-opted by the white economic forces
must begin to turn over a new leaf or face the anger of other
Blacks.
Young Blacks are not going to tolerate the honey-mouth uncle
Toms and their political ballet dancing while wearing lumber
jacket boots of do-nothingism. Black people are watching Black
ministers, Black politicians, Black lawyers, Black doctors, Black
teachers, Black radio stations, Black newspapers, and others now
more than ever.
The support of city council woman Mrs. Mays is just one area
that Black Augustans must observe. The forces that oppose sister
Mays are also opposed to the progress of all Blacks as well as the
enlightenment of the larger white community. If she can be wined
economically and politically, it can happen to any of the rest of
us.
Black unity and the working for common goals is a must for
survival in this hostile white society. If more Blacks would speak
out and support those who have the courage there would be no
need for some whites to feel or believe that if one is silenced, the
rest will suffer quietly.
Let us tell our Black leaders we support them and let the white
community know that our leaders have our support. The
anti-Black forces in this country will continue to kill our Black
leaders like the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and
Malcolm X if we continue to suffer peacefully.
The best solution for us is to educate ourselves about our
political and economic institutions and act accordingly. Examine
the record of any Black or white politician and see how he has
voted on issues affecting Blacks and poor whites. Find out who
has the most wealth in a given community and you automatically
know who has the power and influences on issues affecting that
community.
Register and vote on local and national issues after studying as
much as you can for yourself. Listen to those who want you to
vote a certain way and make up your own mind. We need to
sweep out of office most of the politicians now serving and work
to abolish the seniority system in the Congress.
It is a mistake for Blacks to be committed to any one national
political party. We must vote for the men and women and not the
party. We cannot afforf to be in any Black or white politician’s or
political party’s hip pocket. Anything in anyone’s hip pocket gets
sat upon and subjected to a pressing situation.
HARAMBEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Essence Os Augusta
Augustus Miller
There are two types of disappointment - the disappointment
that works and the disappointment that wrings its hands. The
may 14th consolidation referendum should serve as an example
to those who supported the bill and to those who did not. The
voters who voted against the bill should be disappointed because
the charter commissioners took their awareness too lightly. Those
who were in favor of the consolidation measure are now wringing
their hands because they have again for the second time in 3 years
taken the voters of Richmond County for granted.
A combined government of Richmond County and Augusta
will someday exist. However, it will not come about until a plan,
easily understood in laymen terms, is presented to the entire
voting population of this county.
According to the vote tally, those persons who would be most
affected by passage of any type of consolidation proposal voted
against House Bill Number 2062.
In the near future, another consolidation bill will be before the
voters of Richmond County and the city of Augusta. The next
bill will probably be as weak as the last two. It would be well that
churches, civic groups, community leaders, organizations, and
individuals start today getting people to think, not only to
registering, but to actually vote. Then the final count of total
votes cast for such an important bill will not be slightly over the
20,000 mark, but considerably higher.
AFTER 20 YEARS. WON MUCH, BUT MUCH HAS BEEN UNDONE
r Ul'fer t i BOA
Wanted: Secure American Black Women
(GU(£ST COLUMN)
by Berlin Richard Myers
It’s noon, the height of the
lunch hour. The cafeteria is
packed with people. A
composed, beautiful and
elegant American Black
businesswoman is sitting in a
government cafeteria waiting
for her lover. In the distant
crowd, she catches a glance of
him coming through the
cafeteria door. Her lover, a
very handsome, tall
distinquished-looking
American Black gentleman,
enters the cafeteria with a
“plain looking” American
white woman, whom the
elegant Black woman
recognizes as one of her lover’s
co-workers. Still in the
distance, they seem to be
engaged in a business
conversation. Suddenly they
both laugh and the “plain
looking” white woman touches
the Black man’s arm. Instantly,
this composed, beautiful and
elegant Black woman's pulse
speeds up; she becomes tense
and nervous. Anexiety stirs
within her. According to Calvin
C. Hernton, in his book SEX
AND RACISMS, “she is
experiencing an undefined
threat to her ego as a sexual
creature.”
Why? Hernton says that
“American Black women have
been denied the right to be
BEATIFUL, LOVING, and
IDOLIZED by Black and white
men alike; as a result. Black
women have a pent up rage
against white women and
against a sociosexual morality
that denies them that right.”
Herntoi’ continues, “Some
Black men proclaim that Black
women are too dominating,
too demanding, too strict, too
inconsiderate and too
masculine. The Black men
profess that they are being
castrated.” Too often this last
statement is the flimsy excuse
used to defend an “illicit”
affair with a white woman.
Well, what can one expect!
Historically, Hernton points
out that “American Black
women have had to fend for
themselves as if they were men.
Along and unprotected, both
socially and psychologically,”
they have had to be the very
torches that guided the Black
family through the dark abyss
of American racism.
Many Black women have
vehemently accused Black
men, in public and private, of
abandoning them for white
women. They thoughtlessly
indict Black men - even those
who are even seen innocently
speaking to the most squalid of
white women, for as Hernton
says “betraying the Black race
as a whole and Black women in
particular. They contend that
Black and white men idolize
white women,” by placing
them on a pedestal and paying
undue homage to them. On the
other land, Hernton retorts
that, “ while white and Black
emn don't idolize Black
women, becuase they don’t
have sharply chiseled greek
facial features, they do lust for
her. The very anatomy (legs,
breasts, buttocks) of of Black
women is viewed by the
majority of American men, as
objects of open sexual lust.”
Hernton states that, “Some
Black women of professional
status consistently complain
that professional Black men
too frequently search among
white women for wives. Since
white men do not marry Black
women, and poorly educated
Black men are neither
acceptable nor accepting, Black
women of superior
achievement have their peculiar
frustration to contend with.”
In reality, he says, “the
tiniest amount of research into
the records of the past fifty
years would ascertain the
truth. In other words, the cold
statistical facts are that Black
men have never and will never
be marrying white women in
droves.”
What is really happening
here? Hemton explains that
Black women who become
upset when they see Black men
with white women are reacting
out of a race-sex
jealousy-emotional syndrome.
Page says that some of the
reasons at the core of their
irritation may be that, “(1)
they harbor an unconscious
feeling that the mixed couple’s
relationship is sexually more
rewarding than their own
relationship; (2) human
feelings - we always feel
unjustly rejected when we
want someone and that person
k TODAY w
■M A I GREEN I
IstampsJ
THE AUGUSTA NEWS-REVIEW
P.O. BOX 953 AUGIJSTA, GEORGIA 30903
NAME
(Tj ADDRESS
RU, CITY
one y ear count y) $5.00
One year (out of county)s6.oo
fW a 5 years (in County)s2o.oo
5 years (out of county)s2s.oo
turns us down; (3) the
American society refuses to
recognize Black women as
symbols of beauty; thus it has
given them a depraved image of
themselves; (4) SOME Black
women who hid behind the
banner of race pride or unjust
rejection, in essence, are not
really angry about that at all.
Their anxiety and bitterness
usually stems from the fact
that they are rarely successful
with men of either race
UNDER ANY CONDITIONS;
(5) fear of competing with
white women may be
generaged by their INABILITY
TO COMPETE SUCCESS
FULLY WITH WOMEN OF
THEIR OWN RACE; (6)
predominantly, the women
who become most alarmed
over interracial marriages are
SINGLE or, they are VICTIMS
OF UNHAPPY MARRIAGES
THEMSELVES.”
Finally, whether you agree
with Calvin C. Hernton’s book
SEX AND RACISM or not, it
must be kept in mind that
statics prove, beyond a doubt,
that Black men are not
abandoning Black women for
white women.
Also, times have changed for
the better, in that American
Black men are in a better
position to provide for and
protect Black women ; as a
consequence, Black women are
no longer alone and
unprotected. Some Black
women have already started to
help their Black men eradicate
the odious forces in our
country that deny American
Black women the right to be
BEAUTIFUL, LOVING, and
IDOLIZED by Black and white
men alike.
As for the American Black
women who become anxious
over seeing a Black man with a
white women, they should first
examine their own intimate
relationships and then ask
themselves guestions such as:
(a) am 1 uptight about that
interracial couple or am 1
uptight about that Jive Ass
Dude that I’m dealing with?;
(b) am 1 accepting myself as I
am and trying to better what
I’ve got going for myself? (c)
am 1 so damn insecure in life
that I’m going to waste my
time worrying about something
that isn’t any of my business?
In clsing 1 would like to say,
as an American Black man and
writer, that American Black
woman cannot wait for others
to initiate this change of
national attitude. They have to
be the AVANT-GARDE OF
THEIR NEW IMAGE
MAKING CAMPAIGN. They
must with confidence tell the
country to “kiss my
posterior,” in a quiet lady Jikct
manner. They must say v
repeatedly, in their daily
actions, to disrespectful whites
and Blacks alike, “I AM ME,
BLACK, BEAUTIFUL,
INTELLIGENT and most of all
SECURE.