Newspaper Page Text
Augusta’s Jessye Norman
Honored During Visit Here
THE PEOPLE’S PAPER r
yI j P.O. Bo X 953 Augusta, Georgia October 17, 1974 No. 30 20C
Black Caucus Chairman
Charges Ford With
Incitement To Violence
Congressman Charles B.
Rangel (D-NY), Chairman of
the Congressional Black
Caucus, today charged that
President Ford’s Wednesday
press conference statement
that he deplored the violence
which has occured in Boston
over the issue of busing for
integration, but that he
disagreed with the court order
requiring the busing “is an
irresponsible statement in
which the President gave tacit
support to the rioters by
agreeing with their cause.”
Rangel said he and the
members of the Congressional
Black Caucus were “shocked
and outraged that less than 24
Jessye Norman
Kitchen Chore Spawns
Internationa] Opera Star
The mayor has proclaimed
Thursday 4 'Jessye Norman Day”
in Augusta.
Since she won her first
competition here at Mt.
Calvary Baptist Church, she has
made winning away of life.
From the great opera houses of
Europe to places like
Nicaraqua and Argentina, she
knocks the critics dead.
Tonight she will perform at
Paine College, kicking off the
school’s Lyceum series and
climaxing Black Womanhood
Week.
Miss Norman is frequently
asked about the “relevancy” of
opera and how and why she
chose to sing opera instead of
rock, spirituals or jazz.
Is opera relevant to Black
people? She said,
“Absolutely, I was standing in
front of Carnegie Hall (where
she gave a concert with the Los
Angeles Philharmonic last
week) and there was a picture
of me. And a little Bbck girl
was coming by with a lot of
books in her hand. She looked
at the picture and looked at me,
slapped me five, and said, ‘Right
on, honey.’ ”
Ms. Norman became interested
opera while growing up in
Augusta., She had to clean the
kitchen every Saturday. “I had
to do the whole thing. And it
was drudgery, absolute
drudgery. And this would take
the whole day.
“1 would bring a radio into
the kitchen and make a party
of the whole affair. And the
opera came on at 2 o’clock, so
I listened and became very
interested in it.
I sing what comes natural to
me,” she said.
But most Black kids
probably would have been
listening to a soul station.
“I adore some popular
singers, like Diana Ross or
Barbara Streisand. I have every
record they ever made. I enjoy
really good performers. But I
can’t abide noise. I just can’t.
It doesn’t matter if it is soul,
popular music or modern
serious music. If it comes to
my ear as a lot of unorganized
noise, I can’t abide it. So I
didn’t listen to the other
stations because I like a rather
soothing sort of sound to wash
the dishes by,” she said with a
hours after a lone Black man
was assaulted by a mob of
whites on the streets of South
Boston and after continuous
abuse and violence directed
towards Black children the
President of the United States
saw fit to legitimize the violent
protest of these mobs by
aligning himself with their
cause. Although the President
gave lip service to a
condemnation of the violence,
he knows, or should know,
that his expressed support of
his opposition ot the court
order is an incitement to
violence.”
Rangel, stating that the
members of the Black Caucus
smile.
Miss Norman left Augusta
when she was 17. She went to
Philadelphia to audition for the
Marion Anderson award. Oa
JESSYE NORMAN
the way back, she had an
audience with the voice
instructor at Howard
University. She came away
with a full scholarship to
Howard, leaving there in 1967
with a music degree.
From Howard she went to
the Peabody Conservatory and
to the University of Michigan.
After a number of concerts,
she went to Munich, Germany
for international competition.
She won there and the rest is
history. Top opera stars today
earn up to $250,000 a year,
not including record sales.
She lived in Germany from
1969-73. And now she lives in
London. She speaks French,
Italian and German.
She is now 29 and is not
married. Asked if she plans to
marry, have a family and settle
down, she laughed and said, “I
will probably have a family,
but I don’t think that 1 will
settle down.”
She is the daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. Silas Norman of 1444
Forest Street.
Ms. Norman will be touring
the United States until the
middle of December. It will be
the longest period she has
spent in the states since 1969.
Does she ever get home sick?
“No. I’ve lived outside the
states since 1969. And
according to my passport, I’ve
been over here 26 times. So I
haven’t really been away, have
I? London is only six hours
away. And I can dial direct on
the phone.”
were unanimous in their
support of “the courageous
Black children and parents of
the Boston community who
are risking their lives to obtain
equality of educational
opportunity,” declared, “I am
appalled by President Ford’s
willingness, even eagerness, to
take advantage of the fears,
prejudices, and
misapprehensions of the
American people by raising the
misleading spectre of massive,
forced busing for racial
balance. At a time when this
nation is sorely in need of
rational, informed guidance on
this issue, Mr. Ford has fanned
MHjF JBr \ SB
Oh
Symbol Os Black Womanhood
Michael Thurmond, (L) president of the Paine College Student Government
Association, salutes Dr. Vivian U. Robinson as the woman at the college most
symbolic of Black womanhood in terms of character, scholarship and leadership.
Chaplain Maurice Cherry looks on.
The award was made Monday at services commencing Black Womanhood Week. Dr.
Robinson was one of the two finalists for the presidency of Paine College. The post
went to Dr. Julius Scott of Spelman College.
Mildred Anderson Hill
Receives Ph.D
■
■_ r
Kt I I ■
DR. MILDRED A. HILL
the flames of racism.”
“When we met as a caucus
with President Ford in
August,” Rangel said, “we left
the White House with the hope
that the Gerald Ford from
Grand Rapids, Michigan who
we knew in the House could
grow into the Presidency and
be the President of all the
people as he said he wanted to
be. Now that hope, because of
the Nixon pardon and
yesterday’s statement, has been
greatly diminished. Given an
opportunity to exercise the
moral leadership of the
Presidency on the vital issue of
'Chicago 7’ Lawyer,William
Kunstler, Speaks At AC
SEE PAGE 2
equal educational opportunity,
Gerald Ford has rejected
morality and support for the
law in favor of demagoguery.”
“The issue in Boston at this
time,” Rangel continued, “is
not busing, but the
maintainance of law and order
and the protection of children.
The city government has failed
to provide the safety to which
our children are entitled as
they lawfully follow the court
order. The President can more
usefully act to provide this
protection with Federal force
than by encouraging the mobs
to further opposition and
violence,” Rangel concluded.
Mildred Anderson Hill
recently completed all
requirements for her doctor of
philosophy degree in English at
the University of Illinois,
Champaign-Urbana.
Dr. Hill received the
bachelor of arts degree from
Paine College and the masters
from Western Reserve
University, Cleveland. She has
done further study at Indiana
University and the University
of Minnesota.
In the summer of 1972,
through the African-American
Institute and Howard
University, she was the
recipient of a travel-study grant
to Ghana, Togo, Dahomey,
and Nigeria, West Africa.
Before going to Illinois to
study, Dr. Hill was on the
Paine College faculty for 10
years where she taught English
and directed two federally
funded projects for inservice
teachers designed to improve
the teaching of English.
Dr. Hill is now in her new
position as associate professor
of English at the University of
Florida, Gainesville. Part of her
duties involves directing and
developing programs in English
for special service students.
She is the daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. Luther Anderson, Sr.,
Columbus, Ga. and the mother
of two sons, Walter and Robert
Hill.
I Ir i SB
J Bi* 1 ■ If
B Kb J
Photo by Roscoe Williami
L-R Dr. Canute Richardson, acting president, and Dr. and Mrs. Julius Scott are all
smiles during news conference as Scott was named Paine s new president.
Trustees Name Dr. Scott
As President Os Paine College
Dr. Julius S. Scott Jr. will
serve as the new president of
Paine College, the college’s
Board of Trustees announced
Friday.
Dr. Scott replaces Dr. Lucius
Pitts, who died in February.
During the search for a new
president. Dr. C.M.
Richardson, vice president for
academic affairs at the college,
served as acting president.
Dave Mack, cliairman of the
Board of Trustee’s presidential
facilitating committee, said
that Dr. Scott was the
unanimous choice of the
committee at an Oct. 5
meeting. More than 20
candidates for the job were
Ford Joins
Anti-Busing Mob
Philosophically, President Ford identifies with
Governor George Wallace of Alabama, who stood in the
door of his state’s university when President Kennedy
took a firm stand to integrate it, and had his
representative order George to step aside.
Today, symbolically, President Ford, who declared
only a few short weeks ago that he intended to be
President of all the people, stands with the mob in front
of the school buses in Boston, declaring that the court’s
decision in the Boston case, “in my judgement, was not
the best solution to quality education in Boston.”
Continuing, he said: “I have consistently opposed
forced busing to achieve racial balance as a solution to
quality education and, therefore, I respectfully disagree
with the judge’s order.”
And so Ford turns out to be only a Grand Rapids,
Michigan, politician with the limited view of his small
town and not the statesmanlike vision of a President of
the United States. This is a very sad revelation.
In 1957, almost 20 years ago, President Eisenhower,
who also did not favor busing, rose to the occasion and
sent troops to Little Rock when Governor Faubus and a
mob sought to block the integration of Central High.
Apd however President Ford may feel personally
about busing, when he took the oath of office as
President of the United States, he assumed the
obligation to support and defend the Constitution and
the laws of the land as interpreted by the courts. It
seems that he is not going to live up to his
responsibility. For he has openly invited the Bostom
mob to disobey a court order.
Regretfully, Mr. Ford, the reservoir of goodwill you
have had in the Black community is rapidly running out.
Your encouragement of a nightmare of racism in the
American public school system is beneath the dignity of
the high office of the Presidency.
considered, Mack said.
Dr. Scott said that he looks
forward to the challenge of his
job. “1 discern my role as
crystalizing and fulfilling hopes
and dreams which are yet
unfulfilled.”
He said that other facets of
his job will be to assess all
programs at the college and to
act on recommendations based
on the assessment. He said that
he will be the “primary
catalyst” in securing the
resources to fulfill the hopes of
students and faculty at the
college.
Paine College's goals and
priorities will be set after he
meets with faculty, students
Editorial
and staff of the college, he
said.
“I do not have an overly
romanticized view of what this
place is like,” he said. “I have
no blueprint to act on.”
Dr. Scott stressed the need
for Black colleges to teach
more than reading, writing and
thinking. “It is not enough
simply to teach them to read,
write or think, but to fit into
the framework of the Black
experience.”
Studies of the Black heritage
must fit into a larger pattern of
knowledge, he said. Students
should be taught about Black
literature and art, but not to
the exclusion of world
literature and art, he said.
Dr. Scott has worked in the
field of higher education for
many years. He received an
A.B. degree from Wiley
College; a Bachelor of Divinity
degree from Garrett
Theological Seminary; a Ph.D.
degree from Boston University;
and an A.M. degree from
Brown University. His fields of
study were sociology and
higher education.
His past positions include a
job as director of public
relations at Wiley College and a
job as lecturer in the College of
Liberal Arts at Boston
University. He served as
director of the Wesley
Foundations at Brown
University, Texas Southern
University and the
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
In 1967, Dr. Scott was
named assistant director of the
Southern Fellowships Fund in
Atlanta. His job was to
encourage doctoral candidates
to study at Black colleges.
While he worked with the
Southern Fellowships Fund, he
was director of a study of the
governance patterns of 50
private, senior Black colleges
and universities.
Dr. Scott directed a study of
the six institutions in the
Atlanta University Center for
the Academy for Educational
Development. Recommenda
tions from this study were the
bases for changes in the
administrative structure in the
Atlanta University Center.
Following his stint at the
Atlanta University Center, Dr.
Scott was appointed executive
director of The Martin Luther
SEE PRESIDENT
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