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Vol. 4
Tappan Charges Revenge
Tappan, Huggins In Scrape
Over Bulldozer Lease
City Councilman Aaron
Tappan Tuesday lashed out at
critics who questioned his
“friendship” lease of a
bulldozer he owns to one of his
former employes to do work
on a city contract.
The former employe, Ben
Smith, of Ben ' Smith
Landscaping Co, was paid
SI,OOO a week to work on the
Augusta Canal. In all, the city
has paid over SII,OOO to Ben
Smith’s Landscaping.
Tappan said that he plans to
call a meeting when Mayor
Lewis A. Newman returns
Wednesday to explain his
position.
Eighth ward councilman C.
Thomas Huggins has called for
a grand jury investigation.
Huggins, who is vice-chairman
of the Canal Committee said he
was angry that the matter of
rental of private equipment for
Beaver Dam Creek was never
brought before the Canal
Committee.
“I think that Thomas
Huggins was a little peeved
with me because I didn’t go
along with him when he was
pushing (the late Hugh)
Hamilton for mayor. Then I
didn’t go along with him on
Rights Movement Still Kicking
Abernathy Tells Convention
;■
REV. ABERNATHY
Pan African Congress Established No Mechanism To Implement Policies
DAR ES SALAAM,
Tanzania (NNPA) - Although
the 600 delegates from all over
the world who attended the
eight-day Sixth Plan Pan
African Congress here were in
general agreement as to the
most urgent needs of the
African people, little progress
was made in establishing
mechanisms to implement
policies of Pan Africanism.
As the Congress closed and
this country began the
celebration of its
independence week - Saba
Saba (the seventh day of the
seventh month in Swahili), no
provisionshad been made for
three or four other occasions. I
don’t go along with no man
who wants to go behind a
man’s back.”
Tappan is chairman of the
Canal Committee. He said of
Huggins, “He thinks he ought
to head a committee. The
mayor has never appointed him
as the chairman of a
committee. He has not been
present for the last two
meetings. If he was so
concerned about the canal
committee, why wasn’t he
present?”
Huggins told the
News-Review Wednesday that
his “motives in this matter are
completely unrelated to the
mayor’s race or anything else.
“It simply deals with what’s
right, and what he has done is
not right.” When every thing
comes to light, it will be
apparent to everyone.”
Huggins said he isn’t
bothered at all by the fact that
he has not been appointed
chairman of a committee. “The
real issue is what he has done,
and what he has done is wrong.
What he is trying to do is to
shift the blame from himself to
me”
Tappan said that the
Despite reports to the
contrary, the civil and human
rights movement in this
country is alive and kicking,
says the Rev. Ralph D.
Abernathy, president of the
Southern Christian Leadership
Conference.
The Rev. Mr. Abernathy put
forthe the case for the
movement in a speech last
night at a dinner of the
National Welfare Rights
Organization at the Jefferson
Hotel The organization’s
convention, which began
Thursday the 11th.
“Newsmen, writers and
journalists all over the country
are raising the question: ‘ls the
movement dead?’ Hell, no, the
movement isn’t dead,” said the
Rev. Mr. Abernathy, who
assumed leadership of the
the establishment of a
permanent Pan African
Secretariat to continue to
promote Pan Africanism under
the auspices of Organization of
African States as proposed by
President Julius Nyerere.
Neither was approval given
for setting up a Pan African
Science and Technology Center
to aid in the development of
Africa as recommended by Dr.
Neville Perker of Howard
University.
And the Congress also
failed to establish a Pan
African Information and
Communications Center to
help promote the interest of
P.O. Box 953
committee did not authorize
the work, therefore it
wouldn’t have been the
committee’s responsibility. The
authorization for the work
came through the office of
City Engineer Jim Messerly,
Tappan said. The Black fourth
ward councilman said further
that he didn’t known how
Smith was hired for the job,
but he thought Smith was
hired through Canal
Superintendent Herbert Turner
and Messerly,
Tappan said he agreed to
lease the bulldozer to Smith
for $250 a week.
It was further alleged that
Tappan on more than one
occasion picked up the checks
for Ben Smith whose
landscaping firm did not have a
business license or a telephone
listing at the time the
complainants were made.
Tappan said Smith nqw has the
license.
Tappan denied picking up
the checks. He said he was in
City Hall once or twice and Mr.
Kessler told him Smith’s
checks were ready and he
agreed to carry the checks to
Smith. But he never cashed or
endorsed the checks, he said.
conference after the
assassination of the Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King in 1968.
“Wherever we can find a
welfare rights sister in
Louisiana to have the courage
and tenacity to run against
Russell Long for the U.S.
Senate, then the movement
isn’t dead.”
Abernathy was referring to
Ms. Annie Smart, a Black
candidate from Baton Rouge,
La.
Earlier yesterday, the Rev.
Mr. Abernathy remarked that
he cortSidered the recent
murder of Mrs. Martin Luther
King Sr., mother of the civil
rights leader, a conspiracy to
eliminate Black leadership in
this country. In last night’s
speech, he made the subject
more personal.
Marcus Chenault, the
Africans and people of African
decent in Pan Africanism.
Further, the Congress did
not set a date for its next
meeting, or agree to meet in
either Guyana or Jamaica
which extended invitations.
The previous Congress met in
1945 in Manchester, England.
The U.S. Delegation
included few well known
supporters of Pan Africanism
such as C.L. R. James,
historian of Trinidad; and
activist Stokeley Carmichael
who failed to to attend because
they disagreed with the
Augusta, Georgia
According to Tappan, part
of the problem stems from the
fact that Smith vouchers have
the wrong address. “He lives at
821 Gwinnett St. They tried to
make it look like Ben Smith
never existed.”
Asked about the implication
that he might be using his
office for his own benefit,
Tappan asked, “Why have an
office if you’re not going to
use it for your own benefit? He
said he saw no conflict of
interest.
Tappan further explained
that he sent Ben Smith to
school. “I paid two years for
Ben Smith to go to South
Carolina State. He had a
football scholarship and I paid
all of his other stuff. He’s a
good boy, he never had a
chance, his daddy never did
nothing for him, so I try to
help him. Wheft he got out of
school he came down her and
gave him some work to do.
Then he came up with this
landscaping idea so I told him
I’d help him all I could. He did
a couple so little jobs; then he
got this job and I gave him a
little deal.l don’t care how
much money he makes. All I
murder suspect, “said 1 was
No. 3 on his list. I said, ‘You
are in jail; you can’t get me,”
he told the integrated audience
of about 300.
He told me his buddies were
on the outside and they were
going to get me. But I said, ‘I
don’t care.’
The Rev. Mr. Abernathy
scattered accusations against
President Richard M. Nixon
through his speech. In referring
to Mr. Nixon’s recent foreign
travel, he said, “1 want the
record to show that we want
the problems solved in the
Middle East-but not at the
expense of solving problems in
the Middle West. We want
peace with Russia—but we
want peace with poor people,
one fifth of the population.”
From St. Louis Post Dispatch.
delegate selection process.
And no American delegate
was a government official. This
put the. group at a decided
disadvantage in dealing with
African Ambassadors, United
Nations spokesman and heads
of state.
Other problems cited by
Americans were their lack of
sophistication and expertise in
dealing with international
forums, language barriers
which reduced the
effectiveness of their lobbying,
and the emotional rhetoric by
such speakers as Owusu
Sadaukai and Imamu Baraka
rather than documented
want is $250 a week. And
that’s what he pays me. The
bulldozer is mine. It don’t
belong to no funny thing. It
belongs to Aaron Tappan.
That’s the name on it.”
Mayor Lewis A. Newman
said Friday, “The city is not
overpaid or taking any loss that
I can find. I investigated this
when the rental amount came
up at our finance meeting. The
price shocked me just as the
price of meat does, but
apparently the going rental for
this equipment with an
operator is $25 an hour. It
adds up to SI,OOO for a
40-hour week. Whether or not
Mr. Tappan’s ownership
constitutes a conflict of
interest I don’t know.”
Penland Mason, seventh
district councilman and a
member of the Canal
Committee, said he was “real
upset” about the situation and
would' like to see a'meeting of
the Canal Committee “as soon
as possible.”
“There are questions that
need to be answered,” Mason
said.
Mason said that any hint of
impropriety reflects poorly on
the entire council.
LWV Back
OEO
Funding
The League of Women
Voters of the Augusta Area has
sent a letter to Mayor Lewis A.
Newman and all city
councilmen requesting funding
for programs presently
conducted by the Office of
Economic Opportunity. The
letter is in reaction to
newspaper reports that Mayor
Newman and Councilman B.L.
Dent refused to consider
correspondence from citizens
requesting funding for the
OEO as valid.
The letter reads in part:
“The League has been a
vigorous supporter and
benevolent critic of programs
initiated by the OEO since its
inception. The concept of
citizen participation, carefully
nurtured in OEO programs, is
one which the League supports
with vigor wherever possible, as
well as the existence of the
OEO itself as an advocate for
the poor. We hope that you
will fund programs now
existing and enlarge them
where necessary.”
position papers on African
conditions.
Congresman Charles C.
Diggs, chairman of the House
Subcommittee on Africa, and
the House District Committee,
was scheduled to attend, but
sent regrets. Other American
elected officials reportedly
avoided the Congress allegedly
because of the anti-U.S.
position of nlany of the
delegates.
Even Beverly Carter, Black
U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania,
said he was not invited and did
not participate in any other
sessions or social affairs after
the opening ceremony.
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(L-R) State Rep. Julian Bond, Arthur Stewart, Rep. Ben Brown, Rep. Betty Clark
Joe Jones, Willie Mays, (rear) Arthur Shaw, City Councilwoman Carrie J. Mays, Charles
McCann, Charles King, Judy Carter and Jimmy Carter.
Carrie Mays, Julian Bond
Want Busbee For Governor
Black State Legislators
Julian Bond, Ben Brown and
Betty Clark were in Augusta
Tuesday for some four hours
of discussion with Black
leaders. They sought support
sos their ■’* candidate ' for'
governor - George Busbee.
Mrs. Mays said she made her
I r |.
MRS. WILLIE MURRAY
Mrs. Murray,
72, Finishes
Manpower
Program
Mrs. Willie M. Murray, 72,
was the oldest pupil to be
awarded a certificate for
completing the requirements
for adult Basic Education,
Level 111 Part II of the
Richmond County Adult
Education and Manpower
Training Center on May 30th.
Robert W. Hopson was her
teacher.
Dave Mack, Jr., assistant
superintendent, was the
speaker of the hour.
Mrs. Murray is very active in
her church, Williams Memorial
CME. She is president of the
General Missionary Society.
She serves on Steward Board
No. 2. and is wry involved in
every phase of the church’s
program, according to her
pastor, the Rev. Gene R. Dean.
Conflict existed in other
North American delegations as
non-government
representatives competed with
government officials, especially
in the West Indies, for Congress
seats with the government
delegation usually winning.
While there were differences
in delegation effectiveness and
in ideology regarding class and
color, with class rather than
race prevailing, there was
general agreement regarding
the most urgent needs of the
African people.
There were: (1) To end
foreign domination in Africa,
July 8 , 1974 No. 17 (Seepage 4
decision to support Busbee
after hearing Bond and the
other “pros” who work with
him and other candidates on a
day-to-day basis. Ben Brown
said that 11 of the 16 Black
legislators in the Estate House
are supporting Busbee.
Bond and Miss Clark cited
Editorial
UNVEIL STATUE OF MRS. BETHUNE
The simple, dignified 10-foot bronze statue of Mrs. Mary
McLeod Bethune, which was unveiled in Washington last week by
Secretary of the Interior Rogers C.B. Morton before a crowd of
30,000, represents the monumental legacy that the great lady has
handed down to Black Americans and indeed all Americans.
Sculptor Robert Burks, who also created the John F. Kennedy
bust in the Center for the Performing Arts, captured the legacy
theme by having Mrs. Bethune, Franklin D. Roosevelt-given cane
in hand, extend to two Black younsters her last will and
testament.
During the unveiling <ceremony , award-winning actress Cicely
Tyson read the legacy with tears in her voice. Mrs. Bethune, she
said, has left us Love and Brotherhood, Hope, and the Challenge
of Developing Confidence in One Another, a Thirst for
Education, Respect for the Use of Power, Faith, Racial Dignity,
and a Desire to Live Harmoniously with Our Fellowman.
But more than this, Mrs. Bethune, by her outstanding example
of climbing out of a South Carolina cotton patch to become
advisor to four Presidents, is still setting thousands of Black
youths on the road to success.
The great lady not only founded Bethune-Cookman College
and headed it for nearly half a century, but she also directed the
Black Division of the National Youth Administration that gave
millions of young people bootstraps with which to lift
themselves, organized the unofficial “Black Cabinet” through
which the views of the Black leadership of America could be
filtered into the White House, served as an advisor to Presidents
Coolidge, FDR, Tnman and Eisenhower up to her death at 80 in
1955, and founded the 800,000-member National Council of
Negro Women.
NCNW, now headed by the able Dorothy Height, is to be
heartily congratulated for its 13-year struggle to raise $400,000
for the creation of the statue which now stands in Washington’s
Lincoln Park facing one of Lincoln freeing a slave. NCNW even
had the National Park Service to turn Lincoln’s 98-year-old statue
around so that the Great Emancipator faces the great lady. Hers is
the first statue of a Black and of any woman, white or Black, to
be installed in a public park in the nation’s capital. It helps to
relieve the monotony of military statuary with drawn swords, and
provides great inspiration for all Black Americans.
But the statuary in Washington still lacks the presence of a
Black MAN. It seems easy for America to name bridges and
highways and avenues and schools and other public buildings for
Black men. The $18,000,000 Martin Luther King Library in the
nation’s capital is certainly a great monument. But Black youth,
especially boys who drop out of school at the drop of a grade
point, need the embodiment of Black MEN in statuary to fully
inspire them.
What Black men’s organization will do what NCNW has done?
Get a Bill through Congress and raise enough funds (not to build
a club house or take a ship cruise to Bermuda) to install a statute
of a Black MAN in Washington. How about it?
(2) to rid the continent of
neo-colonialist regimes in
dependent Africa, (3) to
liquidate foreign military bases,
(4) to consolidate and unify
the peoples of Africa, those of
African descent, and all peoples
on the continent, (5) to solicit
political and material aid for
the liberation movements in
Africa and other areas.
(6) to define revolutionary
Pan Africanism as a basic
QUESTIONED
numerous instances in which
Busbee has befriended them
when other white legislators
wouldn’t even talk to them.
They also cited many instances
where Busbee has fought for
legislation tavorable to Blacks
but unpopular with the
candidate’s white colleagues.
strategy of anti-imperialism,
anti-neo-colonialism, and
anti-racism in the struggle to
promote equality, democracy,
and a socialist society, and (7)
to exclude all racial, tribal,
ethnic and religious
considerations in the
development of a Pan
Africanism which will enhance
the cause of all oppressed
peoples of the world.