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Augusta, Ga 30901
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A|& THE PEOPLE’S PAPER *
Vol. 4
Named To Council
Residents Say Butler Received No
Votes In Fourth Ward Meeting
Fourth Ward residents who
attended a special meeting last
week at Bethlehem
Community Center to voice
their views on the person to fill
the city council seat of Aaron
Tappan expressed dismay over
Mayor Lewis Newman’s
selection of Sebron Butler who
they said received no votes at
the meeting.
Newman announced his
choice at City Council meeting
Lee Elder Talks About
Discrimination
In The Masters
Part II Os A SERIES
NEWS-REVIEW: How old
are you now?
ELDER: I am 40 years old.
NEWS-REVIEW: As you
approached age 40 without
having qualified for the Masters
and realizing that as you get
older, age gets against you, did
you ever doubt that you would
make it?
ELDER: No. I’ve always felt
I had a good shot at winning,
and had a shot at qualifying
for the Masters. The years that
they had the qualified list, as
far as points were concerned,
I’ve finished very highly upon
it. One year I missed by one
shot. This was the year of 1970
when they had the point list.
Two years after that, in 1972,1
finished about two positions
out of qualifying for the
Masters. Even that did not
discourage me in anyway. I felt
that as long as I had the will
and determination to keep
going, I felt that somewhere
down the road, it had to
come. If not for myself at least
for one of the other Blacks.
' Butlthoughtatthattimemy
game was the strongest at that
particular time and I felt that I
was the one that they would
have to contend with because
of the fact that I was an
exempt player. I did not have
to go out every Monday and
try to qualify. And I know how
rough it is trying to qualify. I
know how easy it is to get
down when you maybe go two
or three weeks and not qualify.
So I think that I felt that all
along that it would be me. I am
just happy that it was me and I
just hopeand pray that before
Augusta that some other Black
can join me, because I know
that it will take an awful lot of
pressure off of not only just
me but a lot of Black
Americans who are really
pulling and hoping and praying
that I can win the tournament.
But winningis not everything
here at Augusta. That is
because we’ve accomplished
something that we fought for
an awful long time. We fought
for it a long time.Esneciallv all
of the Black players. Simply
because almost every
nationality of foreign descent
has played at Augusta, and no
Black man has participated in
the tournament until 1975
even though we have put our
lives on the line in every major
war that has been bestowed
upon this country.
NEW-REVIEW: You have
been frequently quoted in the
local press as saying the only
way you would want to be
accepted into the Masters is
through qualifying. You did
not want to be invited if you
did not qualify the same way as
everybody else. Is this realistic
in view of the exceptional
pressure that you would have
to bear? What I’m suggesting is
that if every other player were
subjected to the same pressure,,
then it would be easier to buy
your logic. Could you speak to
P. O. Box 953
Monday. He said of the persons
being considered, Butler
received more first-place votes
than anyone else.
Mrs. Mamie Bostick,
president of the Neighborhood
Association, who chaired the
Bethlehem Center meeting,
said that “three fourths” of the
votes went to William Brown, a
teacher at Lucy Laney High
School. Silas Norman, an
insurance man, placed second.
ELDER: Why yes. Certainly.
The statement that I made
when I said that I would not
accept an invitation to
participate in the Masters was
primarily because of the fact
that I knew that it was a
position I would put myself in
to be used. To be used by
someone that perhaps was
running for a politcal position.
Perhaps to be used by someone
that .... I could have persuaded
the voters in one way or the
other. If I had really gotten
behind and really pushed fairly
hard, trying to get a special
invitation, I felt that this
would be unfair. Not
necessarily, say, to my fellow
Blacks, but also to players who
had won tournaments or had
two or three tournaments and
had not been invited to the
Masters. This was prior to the
actual changing of the rules. I
know for a fact of several
Black guys that had won
tournaments and had not been
invited to the Masters. Charlie
Sifford won two tournaments
and was not invited to the
Masters. These were large
tournaments. Pete Brown won
the San Diego Open, and was
not invited. Charlie Sifford
won the Greater Hartford and
the Los Angeles Open and was
not invited to the Masters. Not
only that, but I myself have an
awful lot of close Caucasian
friends who have won and were
not invited. I know for a fact
that if I had accepted the
special invitation, if it had
come about, although I don’t
think it would have ever
materialized, simply because of
the fact that I feel that the
Augusta Committee would not
have made a special ruling
whereby a Black could come
in without qualifying under the
rules that they had laid
down. I feel that if I had done
this, I would’ve been obligated
to people that I think that I
would not have wanted to have
been obligated to; that is, if I
had accepted this special
invitation or even accepted it
as far as backing it or saying
that I would play at the
Masters providing that they
would give me a special
invitation, I felt that I would
have to save face with my
fellow golfers on the tour, and
this is again getting back to the
point that a lot of them had
won and had not been invited
to the Masters. So just from
that aspect, this is one of the
reasons why I would not
accept a special invitation to
play at Augusta.
NEWS-REVIEW: You
mentioned Sifford and Brown,
who have won tournaments
and have not been invited
because the rules were
changed. Would you say all of
this was designed to
exclude Blacks from the
Masters?
ELDER: I felt, like I’ve
alwaysstated, that the rules
that the Masters laid down
The other candidates, the Rev.
Franklin Shaw, Sebron Butler,
and Mrs. Alberta Jasper
received no votes.
City Councilwoman Carrie
Mays said she wondered how
the mayor concluded that
Butler received most of the
first-place votes, “unless there
were some other meetings” she
didn’t know about.
Mayor Newman had held up
the nomination at Mrs. Mays’
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LEE ELDER ■
were rules whereby > they were
making it awful hard for the
Blacks to qualify. That was
because of the fact there were
so few Blacks on the tour
competing against 300-350
guys each week. And when you
set down a rule such as the
rules that the Augusta Masters
had laid down whereby you
have 10 qualifying spots from
the Augusta tournament to the
next Augusta tournament, all
finishing in the first 15 at the
U.S. Open or finishing in the
first 80 to PGA, then I felt that
this was wrong. I felt that the
Black players, regardless,
should have been invited off of
their merits on the tour, as far
as finishing in the top 60
money winners, which 1
have stressed in every article or
anytime I have been
interviewed. Where the fact
that the top 60 money winners
should have been invited to the
Pressure On White House
To Fire Powell Is Opposed
By NAACP And OIC Leaders
Washington
(NNPA)-Clarence Mitchell,
chief of the Washington Bureau
of the NAACP and Dr. Maurice
A. Dawkins, director of
government relations for
Opportunities Industrialization
Centers (OIC) are opposing
pressure on the White House to
fire John L. Powell Jr.,
chairman of the Equal
Employment Opportunities
Commission.
In separate letters to the
Washington Post, which has in
effect asked President Ford to
remove Powell from the EEOC
chairmanship. Mitchell and
Dawkins have urged a
correction of total
administrative problems of the
agency rather than the “mere
replacement of one
individual.”
Each of the two national
leaders have submitted
suggestions to the Post. They
both think the probable
tendency not to consolidate
cases, because the agency’s
budget is based on caseload,
can be overcome; that the
Augusta, Georgia
request to give Fourth Ward
residents a greater opportunity
for input. Mrs. Mays and Mrs.
Bostic said they had no
objection to Butler but they
“wonder” how the mayor
arrived at his vote count.
Newman told The
News-Review that he had
learned that Brown and
Norman were the choices at
the Bethlehem Center meeting.
He said there were other
Masters were exempted from
every tournament with the
exception of the Masters and the
U.S. Open. In the U.S. Open,
we do have to qualify the
seond time, but at least open
up an avenue where we can
attempt to qualify. The
Masters did not open up an
avenue such as that. Why that
was, I think, that they made
their OWN rules. The PGA,
the T.P.B. primarily oversees
the tournament. They do not
set down any rules as to any
stand that the Masters has to
go by. If it’s to be a major
championship, then let’s make
it a champion. Let’s make it
open for anyone that can
qualify for it, like the U.S.
Open or the P.G.A. or the
British Open. We can go to
Britain and attempt to qualify
for a championship, but we
can’t attempt to qualify in the
Masters.
commissioners are in a kind of
limbo because their
quasi-judicial functions have
been transferred to federal
judges, leaving them time to
become entangled in
administrative matters.
Also they say that the
independence of the general
coucil of EEOC should be
modified and that attacks on
agency’s lawyers by some in
the Justice Department are
hampering the anti-discrimina
tion work. Further, Mitchell
and Dawkins suggest that a
clear channel of
communications between
EEOC and the President be
established and that it is
natural for newer agencies to
make some mistakes, but when
EEOC’s errors are compared
with some of the older ones, it
seems like a model of
efficiency.
In addition, Dawkins calls
on Vice President Rockefeller
to look into the conflict
between the chairman and the
members of the EEOC
commission.
meetings.
“What I did, and 1 may have
been wrong, I asked people like
Jack Ruffin, Ed Mclntyre, the
Dent brothers (R.A. and 8.L.),
C.S. Hamilton, and Dr. I.E.
Washington their choice, and
about six out of eight said they
were for Butler,” Newman
said.
He said he received very
good recommendations on
Brown, but there may have
Following Argument
An Augusta man was
murdered Saturday following
an argument over liquor,
according to witnesses.
Police found the body of
Isiah Richerson, 1588 Linden
St., lying face down in a pool
Role Os Black
Press Crucial To
Freedom Says
President In
Observance
Statement
The Black Press was praised
last week by President Gerald
R. Ford as “crucial in
perpetuating and preserving the
legacy of freedom we cherish.”
He made his commendation
in a statement on the
observance of Black Press
Week, March 10-16, issued by
the White House on Friday.
Further, the President said:
“As we approach the
celebration of our national
bicentennial, it is appropriate
that we pay tribute to the
Black Press in our country.
“Since the early 19th
century, America’s Black
newspapers have championed
the cause of equal opportunity
and justice,” he added.
“They have,” he continued,
“staunchly defended the very
principles on which our nation
was founded and sought full
expression for those principles
in our daily lives.”
Black Press Week was
observed across the nation last
week in recognition of the
founding of the first Black
newspaper, Freedom’s Journal,
on March 16, 1827, by John B.
Russwurm and the Rev.
Samuel E. Cornish at 5 Varick
St., New York City.
In Washington, Howard
University’s school of
communications held a
week-long communication
conference. And the National
Newspaper Publishers
Association was joined by the
National Press Club and the
Capital Press Club in
conducting a luncheon
symposium on “The Role of
the Black Press in our Central
Cities.”
The panelists were: Ms.
Ethel L. Payne, associate editor
of the Chicago Daily Defender;
Simeon S. Booker, Washington
editor of Jet and Ebony
magazines; Dr. Carlton B.
Goodlett, president NNPA and
editor-publisher of the San
Francico Sun-Reporter/Metro
-Reporter.
Also James L. Hicks,
executive editor, New York
See “BLACK PRESS”
Page 3
been the feeling among the
people he talked to that two
councilmen from Lucy Laney
High School would be too
many. Laney principal Dr. I.E.
Washington holds the other
Fourth Ward council seat.
The mayor said he had no
political motives. “I did not
know any of the candidates
except Silas Norman, who had
run previously. They were all
good candidates.”
Man Murdered
of blood in the bedroom of
Ellie Rosier of 1123 End St.
Witnesses reported that the
men had been arguing about
liquor when Rickerson tried to
strike Rosier.
Rosier fired one shot
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Left to right are: Mr. Sullivan Green (son of honoree), Mrs. Ethel Danforth
(daughter of honoree), Mrs. Annie Golphin (daughter-in-lawO, Mrs. Ella Ashley
(daughter), Mrs. Pauline Bryant (daughter), Mrs Myrtice Williams. Mrs. Annie Greene
(honoree), Mr. Sam Danforth (son-in-law). Rev. G.C. Williams, Mrs. Lynne Williams,
and Mr. James Golphin (son).
Celebrates 91st Birthday
Mrs. Annie Sapp Green
celebrated her 91st birthday
March 8 at the home of her
daughter and son-in-law, Mr.
and Mrs. Sam Danforth.
Mrs. Green was born in
Barnwell County, S.C. in 1884.
She moved to Augusta in 1952.
She is the mother of 14
children (six deceased), 64
grandchildren, several great
grand children and several
great-great grandchildren.
Six of Mrs. Green’s eight
NAIROBI-A number of
studies have demonstrated that
African infants out-perform
their U.S. and European peers,
both Black and white, in motor
and mental skills during the
first year of life. No one knows
whether the explanation is
genetic, social, or a
combination of the two.
Recently a team of
researchers from the Stanford
University School of Medicine
March 20, 1975 No. 52 |6
African Infants Out Perform
Americans And Europeans
MAYOR LEWIS A. NEWMAN
striking Rickerson, who was
pronounced dead on arrival at
University Hospital.
Rosier was arrested and
charged with murder.
EXECUTIVE HOUSE
BURGLARIZED
surviving children were in
attendance at the celebration.
They are, in addition to Mrs.
Danforth: James Golphin,
Roberta and Georgia; Mrs. Ella
Ashley of Jacksonville, Fla.;
Sullivan Green of Jackson,
S.C.; Matthew Greene, New
Ellington, S.C.; and Mrs.
Pauline Bryant, Beech Island,
S.C.
Mrs. Green is a member of
Bean Pond Baptist Church in
Jackson, S.C. Her pastor, the
and the University of Nairobi
tested sixty-five Kikuyu infants
at two-month intervals and
related the performance of
each child to the economic
status, educational
achievement, size, and
structure of the child’s family.
The results confirmed earlier
studies: The infant Kenyans
scored higher on a vast
majority of the tests. In
The Executive House,
Augusta's new hotel that
opened for the first time
Monday, was hit by burglars
last Friday.
The burglars took an
unestimated number of TV’s
and vacuum cleaners.
Rev. James D.R. Avery, was
present for the occasion.
Others present were the Rev.
and Mrs. G.C. Williams and
many other relatives and
friends.
Still active in household
chores, including the
preparation of meals, especially
her breakfast. Mrs. Green
attributes her longevity to her
“trust in God, obedience to my
doctor, and doing the right
things.”
addition, variations among
them related with fair
consistency to economic and
social factors. While this lent
support to theories
emphasizing the importance of
environmental influences in the
first year of life, the
researchers agreed that genetic
factors were probably even
more important. The study is
reported in the British
magazine Nature.
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