Newspaper Page Text
Nws-ißinrpmt
, et, . U p uS THE PEOPLE’S PAPER r
V< 4
African President Pays *160,000
For James Brown Concert
In unprecedented
non-political recognition of a
Black entertainer, President
Albert Bernard Bongo of
Gabon, Africa, paid a cool
$160,000 to charter a Boeing
707 Jet to bring James Brown,
the Godfather of Soul, to the
mineral and oil-rich country
for a single concert.
President Bongo chartered
the 146-seat airliner from Pan
American World Airways
recently to transport Brown
and his entourage of 29
persons from New York to
Gabon for the express purpose
of having the famed singer
entertain at the Presidential
birthday celebration. President
Bongo is 39-years old.
Brown turned on a
powerhouse show that sent the
jam-packed audience in the
Black Secretary
Os Transportation
Editorial
President Ford is to be commended for his
nomination of highly able William T. Coleman, a Black
Philadelphia attorney, as secretary of transportation,
one of the largest agencies' of government, it employs
more than 65,000 workers and has a budget of
approximately $8 billion.
If Coleman is confirmed by the Senate, he will
become the second Black in the history of America to
occupy a seat in the Cabinet. The other was Dr. Robert
C. Weaver who served as Secretary of Housing and
Urban Development from 1966 to 1968.
Coleman’s appointment represents a long climb for
Blacks from the back of the bus to the directorship of
the total transportation system of our country. This
includes: trains, planes, ships, buses and city metros.
Maybe this is a good time to take a look at how far
we have come. Measuring the distance does not mean
that we have reached the millennium, because we still
have a long, long way to go. We are still the last hired
and the first fired; we are still trapped in too large
numbers in the lowest paying, least desirable jobs; we
still live in the poorest housing; and we still stand
outside the door of big business, waiting to get more
than a toe inside.
But measuring how far we have come could have a
salutary affect on all of us, and especially our youths,
who have no knowledge of the long road of the past,
little appreciation of the advance, and are turned off by
a feeling that Black people will never get anywhere.
This is not true and our youth ought to know it,
because they need this reinforcement as a stimulus to
urge them forward in school and at work with diligence
and persistence toward excellence.
Our youth ought to know that in the federal
government, for example, their fathers and mothers and
neighbors have equipped themselves for better
opportunities, and then have marched and demanded
and protested and voted for a new day.
And so we have earned our way up from janitors to
junior and senior executives. Today, there are 141 Black
officials in the top grades, earning from $34,607 to
more than $46,000, and another 2,000 earning in excess
of $25,000 a year. Altogether, Blacks now hold nearly
400,000 jobs in government in a thin spread of positions
across the whole spectrum of federal employment.
No we have not reached the millennium with
Coleman’s appointment, but we are on our way. As an
honor graduate of University of Pennsylvania who holds
a law degree from Harvard, Coleman, also experienced
in transportation systems, is well equipped for the
Cabinet post. We are sure he will be a great credit to the
administration.
Diane Marshall
Named To Who’s Who
niane Elizabeth Marshall has
been named to Who’s Who in
American High Schools.
President of the Writer’s
Club and the Senior Choir at
Richmond Academy, she is
also a member of the
Gabon Sports Stadium into
frenzies of delight. The crowd
broke down the fence at the
stadium in an attempt to get
dose to Brown, as he climaxed
his sensational performance by
running the entire length of the
field. The huge crowd roared
its pleasure at the entertainer’s
spontaneous gesture.
President Bongo said he
invited Brown to his nation
“because I have identified with
every aspect of his career. Not
only does he make good music
but, like me, he had to struggle
to the top from a beginning of
poverty.”
The President said he and
Brown think alike in terms of
“doing things for their
people.” He was so impressed
with Brown and his business
Debutante Club and the
Augusta Choral Society.
Dianne is a senior at
Richmond Academy. She is the
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W.G.
Marshall of Augusta.
P.O. Box 953
acumen that he has invited the
entertainer to accompany him
on a five-nation good-will tour
of Africa in March. Brown
accepted.
President Bongo said he
hoped to extend the
relationship with Brown to
help in the development of
Gabon. He said he wishes to
interest skilled Black
Americans in considering
Gabon “As a place in which
they could make a new home.”
Thinking ahead as he winged
back to New York, Brown
insisted that the nature of his
visit with President Bongo
“had not been political.”
Gabon, formerly a part of
French Equatorial Africa, is
one of the wealthiest nations in
Africa and her vast oil and
mineral resources are just
S
J* 1 It
f * • •' w*
■
* IF .
HENRY WELLS Photo by
Henry Wells Retires
After 35 Years At A & P
Henry Wells retired Jan.
18 after 35 years with the
Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea
Co. (A&P). He last worked at
the A&P store at 1025 Greene
St.
The 62-year-old former
produce manager says he’s
looking forward to deep-sea
fishing and “just relaxing and
doing some things I haven’t
had time to do before.”
Josey Honors Mrs. James
MRS. RUTH E. JAMES
Augusta, Georgia
beginning to be tapped. Some
85 per cent of the country is
covered with forests and
Gabon is the only country
where the highly valued wood,
akoume, can be found.
Gabon also possesses the
largest known reserves of
manganese, a vital element in
the production of steel.
Concerning his tour with
President Bongo, Brown
declared: “I’m going to do
more concerts, but I’m going
to be heavy in business this
time. I’ll be involved with Mr.
Bongo in some relations with
the well-being of the Black
man, the brown man and
yellow man all over the
world-and I’ll probable be
involved in some way with
oil.”
Brown and his party were
A native of Waynesboro,
Ga., he attended Waynesboro
High School. He is a member
of Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church
where he is president of the
Faithful Circle Club,
vice-president of the board of
trustees, and the no. 1 class
leader.
Married to the former
Elizabeth Dixon, they have one
son, Charles Henry Wells.
given the royal treatment in
Gabon with parties and
receptions and audiences with
the President. Accompanying
Brown to Gabon were his
performers, Fred Wesley and
the J.B’s Lyn Collins, Maceo
Parker and Sweet Charles.
Business Associates included
Brown’s personal manager,
Charles Bobbit, and two
attorneys, Ronald Holmes and
Don Warden.
Before he left Libreville, the
capital of Gabon, Brown gave
President Bongo a beautiful
platinum and diamond Lucien
Piccard watch worth 57,500,
and the President, in turn,
presented Brown with
numerous gifts, including
priceless elephant’s tusk of
pure ivory and African robes.
Noting that he had found all
A&P employes easy to get
along with and that he was
“extremely well treated” by
store managers, he said, “the
Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea
Co. is a great place for anyone
to work.”
A veteran of World War
he served in North Africa,
Tunisia and Sicily. He was
awarded three bronze stars.
The faculty and students of
T.W. Josey High School
recently honored Mrs. Ruth E.
James for her 11 years of
dedicated service” to the
children of Richmond County.
She was given a lovely
inscribed silver pitcher by the
faculty which was presented by
Principal L.K. Reese.
Although Mrs. James has
officially retired, she continues
to serve her community. She is
an active member of Christ
United Presbyterian Church,
the Alpha Kappa Alpha
Sorority, Women’s Civic Club,
and a volunteer tutor for a
program of Family and
Children’s Service.
Paine Alumni
Meets
Saturday
The Paine College Alumni
Association will meet Sunday
Jan. 26th. The meeting will be
held in the Student Center at 6
p.m.
I Ml
BILL WARE
Actor-Model Leaves Bright
Lights For Quiet Augusta Life
Bill Ware, a 31-year-old
actor-model, has seemingly
turned a cold shoulder on
erstwhile glitter of fame and
fortune. He is seeking a
simpler, better quality of life.
As a print ad model, he
earned S6O-an hour. His ads
appeared in such publications
as EBONY, LIFE, TIME,
EVERGREEN and THE NEW
YORK TIMES newspaper. And
in foreign publications such as
Denmark’s POLITKEN, and
Munich, Germany’s STERNE.
In addition to doing TV
commercials, he appeared in
the Broadway play, “Les
Blancs,” which starred James
Earl Jones; Leroi Jones’ “Slave
Ships”; and ‘‘Andre
Christophe.”
Three years ago, he and his
wife, fashion designer Laverne
Bogans, left New York and
moved to Augusta. Ware
explains, “I just decided that I
had to leave New York.
Augusta was chosen because it
was close enough to what I
Caucus Chairman Opening
Speaker For NN PA Workshop
Washington (NNPA) - Rep.
Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y.,
Chairman of the Congressional
Black Caucus, will be the
opening speaking of the
National Newsp.c>2r l üb'ishers
Association (NNPA)
Mid-Winter Workshop which
will be held here at the
Mayflower Hotel, January
22-25.
President Gerald Ford or
Vice-President Nelson
Rockefeller will be the closing
speaker.
Other highlights of the
Workshop will be: A White
House briefing, addresses by
John H. Powell, Chairman of
the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission:
other government, business and
civil rights officials, and by Dr.
Carlton Goodlett, president of
NNPA.’
In the opening address,
Congressman Rangel is
expected to discuss some of
the critical problems facing
Black Americans and the
legislative program being
developed by the Congressional
Black Caucus to help solve
January 1975 No. 43 J
wanted, and then I had
relatives, and that helped. It
had a nice atmosphere and the
people were much warmer.
Everything was not as hushed
and rushed as in New York.”
The geographic change was
just one of many changes Ware
has gone through. He now
refuses to pose for any ads
which promote liquor or
cigarettes. “I don't drink or
smoke. I couldn’t endorse
products I don’t approve of,”
he said.
“I know that liquor is one of
the things that keep us apart.
There are many men who use
liquor as a outlet saying, ‘l’m
going to drink my problems
away. They wake up with a
hangover and still have the
same problems.” And, he adds,
Blacks are not getting a
percentage. “If we bought it
from a Black liquor store, then
at least we’d be getting some.”
To excel within yourself,
you have to take certain stands
and these are things I’ve made
5
' - h I'7 a'■
REP. RANGEL
some of them.
Congressman Rangel has
been fighting inflation, changing
the Administration with
decisions about.”
Ware owned two stores in
New York, a boutique and a
health food-plant store. He and
his family are raw vegetarians.
They take no medicine but use
herbs instead.
Ware says he has been
reading and practicing diets
throughout years of travel in
such countries as Nigeria,
Liberia, Ghana, Senegal, Peurto
Rico, the West Indies,
Switzerland, Denmark and
Germany.
He says he is not interested
in acting roles in the new Black
movies, “What’s being shown
today, 1 don’t want to be a
part of. The majority of the
films are destine to exploit us
and rip us off. When they start
doing something meaningful,
I’ll pursue it.”
In the meantime Ware is a
student at Augusta College,
studying Biology.
He and his wife and
children, Eboni and Marques
live at 2428 Williams St.
providing relief for the
corporations and the wealthy
at the expense of working
families. And he has criticized
President Ford for giving “tacit
support to the Boston school
bus rioters.”
And in his campaign against
drugs, he has urged the
President to suspend economic
and military aid to Turkey for
its resumption of poppy
production.
Congressman Rangel is a
native of Harlem. He dropped
out of high school in 1948 and
joined the Army. But after a
four-year hitch during which
he earned a U.S. and Korean
Presidential Citation, he
completed his high school
education, graduated from
New York University on the
Dean’s List, and earned a law
degree at St. John’s University.
After two terms in the New
York State Assembly, he was
elected to Congress in 1970,
succeeding Adam Clayton
Powell. He was selected by his
colleagues last January to the
Chairmanship of the
Congressional Black Caucus.
20t