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Dk j. DENIS JACKSON
Black Doctor Running
For Lt. Governor
Dr. J. Denis Jackson is
trying to become Georgia’s
first Black Lieutenant
Governor. He is the only Black
running for that office in the
August 13th Democratic
primary.
He said he entered the race
because the “time has come”
for a Black man to be the Lt.
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The Young Adults for 'Ed Mclntyre headquarters.
(L—R) Lester Young, Cindy Benter, Michael
Thurmond and Lillian Marks.
Students
Organize To
Re-elect Mclntyre
A volunteer group of Paine
College students have
organized “Young Adults for
Mdntyre”, in an effort to
re-elect Richmond County’s
first and only Black County
Commissioner, Edward M.
Governor of Georgia.
“For this country to survive
in a world that is
predominantly Black , Black
people must be elevated to
increasingly higher political
positions,” he said, “to show
the predominantly Black world
that Georgia’s heart is in the
right place.”
Mclntyre.
The students, headed by
Michael Thurmond president
of the Paine College Student
Government Association
(SGA), have set up their
headquarters on the Paine
College Campus.
P.O. Box 953
Jackson earned the A.B.
degree in cultural
anthropology, at Georgia State
University, the masters degree
in educational administration,
the M.D. from Meharry
Medical College, and the J.D.
Dr. of Law from John Marshall
Law School.
In his platform he says he is
Common Cause Questions
Candidates On Ethics
Reform
Common Cause/Georgia has
mailed an “ethics questionnaire”
to every candidate tor state
office in Georgia, according to
Ms. Kathleen Sutherland,
project coordinator for the
Augusta area.
The questionnaire asks
candidates whether they are
for or against reform legislation
which Common Cause/Georgia
will be supporting in the
General Assembly in 1975.
“By asking candidates these
specific questions, and making
the answer public, we hope to
give voters a choice between
candidates who support real
ethics legislation and those
who only give it lip service,”
Ms. Sutherland said.
Common Cause Georgia
consists of more than 3,000
members of national Common
Cause who live in Georgia. The
organization is concerned with
combating secrecy in
government and making the
structure of government
operate more efficiently.
In the 1974 General
Assembly, Common Cause was
a leader among organizations
pressing for the passage of
Georgia’s campaign finance
disclosure law. Common Cause
also supported bills in the 1974
General Assembly which would
have:
1) Required professional
lobbyist to disclose the
amounts and sources of their
lobbying income and
expenditures;
for strong labor unions, against
“forced busing to facilitate
balanced integration, and for
quality education in the
neighborhood. He urges more
community involvement for
senior citizens, and a strong
war against courtroom
injustice.
2) Required policy making
state officials to disclose their
sources of income so that the
conflict of interest would be
revealed;
3) Defined and outlawed
conflicts of interest.
Only the campaign finance
disclosure law was passed,
although the Senate passed the
bill to regulate lobbying.
“We’ll be back in 1975,
hoping to get these ethics bills
passed into law. Hopefully,
during this year's campaign,
the candidates will have
learned that meaningful ethics
laws are on the minds of the
voters,” Ms. Sutherland said.
Community
Raised
$20,000
Police Chief James G. Beck
announced Tuesday that over
520.000 have been raised to
get a double kidney transplant
for 1 6-month-old Denise
Tuten, daughterofpolice
officer William P. Tuten.
Beckthanksthe many
volunteers and organizations
who joined with the Augusta
Police Department in this
“most worthwhile endeavor”.
News-Review Won’t
Endorse Lester Maddox
SEE EDITORIAL, PAGE 1
Jerry Butler: TV Talk
Shows Force Blacks To
'Bastardize’ Their Principles
Lots of people know Jerry
Butler, the entertainer. But few
people ever hear about Jerry
Butler, the man: PTA
president, Buddhist, human
being.
Between shows here last
week, Butler talked at length
about Jerry Butler, the man.
“When I first learned about
this engagement ... 1 thought,
‘A whole week in Augusta, Ga.
This is going to be a drag. But
it’s been real nice. I’ve really
enjoyed it’.”
With him on this trip were
his wife, Annette, their twin
sons Randall and Anthony, his
sister-in-law, Dee Dee Sharp
(Gamble), his brother, Billy,
and a brother-in-law, Timothy
Dorsey. Miss Sharp is the sister
of Butler’s wife. She and Billy
perform in his show. They
spent time with one of their
relatives in Augusta, Mrs. Sarah
Dorsey on Milledgeville Rd.
and other relatives in Harlem.
BUDDHIST
There aren’t many Black
Buddhists. But Jerry Butler is
one. After talking to “The Ice
Man” for a few minutes, one
finds that he is not just cool,
he’s also heavy. He says,
“About five years ago, I was
reading Siddhartha and got
very interested in the concept
of Sakya Muni,andthe
philosophy of the Golden
Mean.
“I grew up as a staunch
religious Baptist. My mother
was sanctified. I grew up in a
S pirit ualist Church where
Curtis Mayfield’s grandmother
was the pastor. We were very
religiouspeople,but
so mewhere there was
something about it that never
captured my whole thing. 1
could never fathom that if
Jesus died to save all mankind
then what about all the men
who died before Jesus came? 1
don’t have any argument with
Jesus. He must have been a
very great and wonderful
person indeed. But why he hid
to be made God, I couldn’t
really understand.”
Buddha, he said, is not an
idol god. Nor is he a “pot belly
dude sitting inasquat
position.” Buddha means life.
We accept that there is a
creative force, a “mystic”
force. We don’t know who it is,
what it is or if it is in fact a
person.”
Butler belongs to what is
called “chanting Buddhas”.
“We chant. Every man chants
for his own peace. We believe
that if there is to be world
peace, it must be on an
individual basis.”
When he started out as a
singer, he was surrounded by
one of the most outstanding
groups in the business - The
Impressions. When he left the
group, they rolled on to fame
in their own right. When the
second lead (Curtis Mayfield)
left, they still maintained their
super star status. And even
after losing their third lead,
Leroy Hudson, the group is
still one of the top groups in
the country.
FAME WAS SUDDEN
“Whenl made “ YOUR
PRECIOUS LOVE”, I wasn’t
Augusta, Georgia
really aware of what a hi
record could do. It was th
most honest musical statemen
I’ll ever make. I wasn’t makin
it for hit record sake. At tha
time, just to have my name oi
a record was enough. But afte
16 years it’s the kind of song
can sing and people respond
Not out of courtesy, it’
because the people are reall)
into what it’s saying. What ■
says is very simple. But tht
emotion that it wells up ■
people is “mystic”.
Butler serves on the board of
directors of INROADS an
organization to help “C” to
“B” Black and latino students
through college and into
professions. All the student
really needs is drive. Tutors are
provided to help him along.
Butler says that Black stars
are not at their best before
white audiences. He is outraged
with the way Black
entertainersare forced to
“bastardize” themselves on
TV. “Audiences like The
Johnny Carson Show are not
geared to Black music. The
conversation is not geared
toward where you’re at, it’s
geared toward where they are
at or where they think you’re
at. So you’re always playing
catch-up. This is why most
Blacks don’t come off good on
those shows.
“I refuse to bastardize my
life style for a few extra
seconds on TV. A lot of Blacks
feel this way and this is why
you don’t see them on the
shows. I refuse to go on
TV and talk about Rolls
Royces and eating water melon
and silly stuff like that. I don’t
like limousines (He drives a
Mercedes). My car is expensive
but it’s not flashy. I don’t live
in a big house. Because I don’t
need a big house to be happy
in. That’s not where my head
is.”
“The fact that you don t see
Miles Davis on TV more often
REALLY says something
about TV. Here’s a man that’s
in the encyclopedia. (Doc)
Setemsen isn’t even in the
encyclopedia. But he’s on TV
every night. I think I’ve seen
Miles Davis on TV once in my
whole life. Quincy Jones is
another one. Thousands of
super talents never come on
TV because they would have to
bastardize their principles to be
an exciting guest by white
standards.”
By now the band in the
SPEAK EASY had been
playing for about 10 minutes.
Butler left the brightly lit
dressing room. Walked almost
invisibly past the bar in the
dimly lit club. As he walked
through the audience on his
way to the stage, the people
seemed not to notice or
perhaps in the darkness they
didn’t realize who he was. He
reached the stage just in time
to rip the mike from its stand
and everybody in the house
new that Jerry Butler had
arrived. Midway through the
show he began to sing “Your
Precious Love’’ and one
woman could not contain her
emotions. Pounding on the
table and stomping on the
floor, she stood up screaming,
“He’s singing it! He’s singing it!
Oh, God-d-d!!!!”
August 1, 1974 No. 19
JERRY BUTLER
Editorial
Won’t Back Maddox
Some people have gotten the impression that the
News-Review is supporting Lester Maddox for governor.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. Some got that
impression from our headline last week which read,
“Black papers to endorse Lester Maddox?” That was a
question, not a statement Some Black papers, according
to their publishers, will indeed endorse Maddox. The
News-Review won’t, not now and probably not ever.
The reasons should be obvious. But since they
apparently aren’t, we’U give a few.
Everyone will recall that Lester Maddox gained
national attention by using ax handles to chase Blacks
out of his segregated restaurant. But what he did in fact
was far worse. His behavior helped stimulate and to
perpetuate an atmosphere that enabled James Earl Ray
to feel that he could kill Martin Luther King and be
regarded as a hero by people like Lester Maddox and
other racists throughout the world. This is the same
Lester Maddox who says that if elected he would take
Martin Luther King’s picture out of the StHte CapitoL
Maddox admits that he is still a segregationist. And he
still handsout souvenir ax handles which he calls “Pick
Rick Drumsticks”. While we admire his honesty, we
aren’t about to endorse what he stands for.
We are fully aware that Maddox is not the only
segregationist running for governor; he is simply the
only one with the possible exception of Ronnie
Thompson with the guts to admit it
Then why are all of those Lester Maddox ads
appearing in the News-Review? (1) He has the right to
place the advertisements. (2) The law requires that if we
allow one candidate to purchase space in our paper, we
must allow all candidates to buy equal space. It is
important that our readers understand that when a
person purchases an ad in our paper, he purchases a
service, and that is all that he purchases. The service is
to get his message in the hands of our readers. It is then
up to the READER to decide whether to accept or
reject that message. Endorsements cannot be bought in
this newspaper. When we endorse, we endorse for one
reason, and for one reason only -- and that is, in our
judgment, the candidate or issue in question seems to
serve the best interest of people in general and Black
people in particular.
There are those who will argue the point of how
much Maddox has done for Black people. To the extent
that he is capable, we believe that Lester Maddox is a
just and honest man. He is simply a segregationist whose
vision is limited by the blinders of a racist society.
But his honesty and showmanship are not enough to
commend him to become the governor of this state or
any other state. Aside from being a symbol of hope for
die-hard segregationists, Maddox amply has nothing to
offer. We think Georgia deserves more than that.
Those who will endorse Lester Maddox have that
right But let there be no doubt in anyone’s mind, the
News-Review is NOT supporting Lester Maddox.