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The Augusta News-Review - April 10,1975 ■Walking /||P|L B I Ml ■ ■ Dignity , ■ by Al Irby ® THERE IS AN OLD SAYING TO THIS EFFECT: “IT’S A POOR WIND THAT BLOWS NO GOOD.” IF THE BLACK BOURGEOISIE IN AUGUSTA IS FIGHTING MAD THAT S GOOD, AND IF I HAD A PART IN BRINGING ON THIS SITUATION, THAT'S ALSO GOOD. IT IS TO BE HOPED THAT THEY ARE MADE ENOUGH TO MAKE A BEE LINE AND RENEW THEIR NAACP MEMBERSHIPS, AND JOIN UP WITH THE SCLC. THAT WOULD MAKE THE COMMUNITY BELIEVE THAT THEIR WILD VENOM WAS NOT BEAMED AT PERSONALITIES THEY DID NOT LIKE. THE NATION’S ACADEMIC COMMUNITY ALL AGLOW AT PRESIDENT FORD NAMING EDWARD HIRSCH LEVI YEARS OLD PRESIDENT OF FAMED CHICAGO UNIVERSITY, AS HIS ATTORNEY GENERAL. JURIST LEVI IS A TOUGH AND CLASSY ACADEMICIAN THAT STOOD LT TO THE MILITANT STUDENT-THUGS IN THE 60 s, WHO WERE OUT TO DESTROY THE NATION’S BASTIONS OF LEARNING. HE CONCEDED, “THE HOUSES OF LEARNING ARE INDEED PLACES FOR CONFRONTATION, BUT IT IS THE CONFRONTATION OF THE MINDS IN WHICH NONE IS VANQUISHED, FOR THE VICTORIES WILL BELONG TO ALL.” Many Americans have not ever heard of this great legal scholar. Evidently the knowledgeable anchor man Walter Cronkite pronounced his name wrong; his last name is not pronounced like the jeans and slacks people, it sounds like the river levee. Nominally, Mr. Levi is a Democrat, so he was bound to run into some bitter opposition, especially in the Senate. Insultingly speaking, Senator John Tower, the Texas Republican, made this nasty remark: “President Ford went fishing in the sewer of New Deal politics in coining up with Levi.” But many of his peers of the legal profession say Levi will bring a much needed element of legal integrity to the office of Attorney General. One former high-ranking Justice official who has served in Democratic and Republican administrations said: “Attorney Levi will put the Attorney General’s office back to the tradition of Justice, and not being engaged in politics.” That’s the way the Justice Department should be, dedicated the the government and justice In recent years, we have had too many Attorney Generals advisers to the President. None of his friends can visualize Levi misusing the investigative arms of the Justice Department for political ends. When he was special assistant to the Attorney General in 1940 to 45, he was referred to as “Mr. Clean”. He was also the first assistant in the anti-trust division, because anti-trust is his specialty. The subject of many of his speeches and articles in various law reviews have dealt with anti-trust interest. LEVI PERCEIVED A WEAKNESS IN THE NATION’S ANTI-TRUST LAWS-ln one such article written in 1947 for the Chicago Law Review, Mr. Levi predicted with notable prescience that, “in tile future there may well be a recognition of the instability of the assumed foundation for some major anti-trust deoctrines. And this may lead to a re-evaluation of the scope and function of the anti-trust laws.” The Attorney General is not a show-off or flamboyant person; some of his legal friends call him shy. Another Chicago-area colleague describes him as “kind of icy and intolerant of bubbleheads.” A former Justice Department official says “he doesn’t rattle off the alternative phrases; he’s just a very solid, constructive thinker.” He inherited the love for the “Black ghetto South Side” when the dashing young intellectual, Dr. Robert M. Hutchins, became president of the University of Chicago at 29 years of age. He pioneered the early-entrance and called the nation’s attention to the University as an innovative school. Levi is no less innovative. It was under his administration that the school elected to stay in the midst of the Black Community and be the leader in the redevelopment of the neighborhood. DUB LEVI A CLASSICAL PATRICIAN WITH NO STOMACH FOR MEDIOCRITY-The Chicago Reader, a self-styled “alternative” weekly, staffed by a group of University of Chicago graduates, scored Dr. Levi for conducting an “Imperial Presidency”. This newspaper also characterized Levi as a “classically conservative libertarian in the area of civil liberties,” and predicted that, as Attorney General, “Levi would probably shy away from the limelight, because of a patrician distaste for public scrutiny.” LEVI STOOD UP TO THE STUDENT HOODLUMS IN 1969-When the confrontation came at the University of Chicago during a 1969 sit-in, Levi handled it firmly and, to most observers, fairly. At the height of the sit-in Levi announced, “we will not negotiate; I will talk to anybody.” Forty-three protesters were thrown out of school and eighty-one were suspended. In a collection of his speeches, Dr. Levi wrote: “Rational discussion itself is fascinated with the manipulative techniques of persuasion, coercion and power. The sense of justice, which all must prize, is subject to manipulation. The devastating reality and complexity of the problems to be faced, the unattainability of goals made-all feed the sense of injustice.” THE GREAT JURIST CRITICIZED GOVERNMENT GRANTS WITH STRINGS ATTACHED-In an interview published last year in the Midwest, the Sunday magazine of the Chicago Sun-Times, the good legal scholar argued against “that great celebration of mediocrity.” He criticized government grants that come with strings attached that might compromise the university’s autonomy. THE AUGUSTANEWS-REVIEW ~ ~| PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY X k Mallory K. Millenoer...Editor and Publisher I KAudrey Frazier .Society Editor J ■James Stewart Circulation Manager: I ■Frank Bowman Advertising Manager 1 K 953Au»nta.GarPhgne 722-4555 *3' gecortd Ctess Postage I ’aid Augusta, Ga. 30901 ■ SUBSCRIPTION RATES Payable in Advance Ytair irt Richmond County $6.00 tax ind. [•Montis . $2.50 tax IrtT. Lone Year elsewhere ’ . SB.OO tax Ind. . ADVERTISING DEWKRTMENT . ■kA Alii si Using Deadline 12 noon on Tuesday g Dhpiey Advertising DeedUnel2 noon oh Tuesday E ' NewtltemsPrinted Free 'I I ZV film I ■ ' ."AMMUAWtATED Ji it gi ■ < a tk:'* -•’ ■ l K 3 Jp-T PUBUSMCBS, INC. iKIBIIWmT I Page 4 In 1975, More Than Ever Before- / fe ; - Off Jll "Jaw! PILGRIM HONORS ELDER As Augusta’s oldest and largest Black business establishment, Pilgrim Health and Life Insurance Company did itself and the Augusta Community proud indeed with its recent salute to Lee Elder, first Black to play in the famous Masters. The affair wqs “big league” and was in keeping with Pilgrim’s status as the eighth largest Black insurance firm. President W.S. Hornsby and the Pilgrim Family came through in first class style on an operation which will further project Pilgrim’s prestige around the nation, and Augusta’s hospitality and fame as golf capitol. ed Mclntyre top public servant The brain child of able Ed Mclntyre, the Richmond County Commission chairman saw its long range potential for his firm and community before a topflight audience of national figures visiting during the Masters. Able, forthright, well trained in communications and the art of government, his public service has been sterling indeed.... He spearheaded the Georgia Hall of Fame, the Coliseum-Civic Center and other badly needed and overdue improvements.... He organized and heads the Georgia Caucus of Black Elected Officials, the Augusta Black Caucus, salute to Attorney Jack Ruffin (one of the nation’s leading civil rights lawyers), and so importantly, the successful “Build It Back” campaign to rebuild Haygood Hall at Paine College (How often in God’s name has any person raised SIOO,OOO in a Black Community whose income is but half that of his white brother?)... Yes, in a few short years, Ed through hard work, has attained status as a real public servant and statesman while also helping expand the resources of Pilgrim Life. Right On Ed! HAPPY FOURTH BIRTHDAY NEWS-REVIEW May all of die N-R Staff also join with our dynamic editor-publisher in saying “Thanks” to subscribers, advertisers and supporters. Without Mai Millender, however, there would be no first class Black weekly here. He has given fully of himself without pay in this quest on building a paper of which we can be proud. And let’s not forget his lovely wife, Jackie, who has given faithful and dedicated support to the paper. QUEST FOR A FAIR SHARE While I am delighted to learn all about new plans to expand and develop the Richmond County-Augusta area coupled with four giant newly arrived firms, etc., I am disappointed to note it necessary for a number of our civic and civil rights groups to “go public” in highlighting their quest for a fair share of jobs in the public and private sector, better recreational facilities and the long over due fairer shake: Black owned news media getting some of the advertising dollar spent by thousands of Black citizens for goods and services with local merchants. Our media gets less than SIOO,OOO of the millions of dollars spent locally for press, radio and television advertising. There will be more market surveys on the buying power of local Blacks. FIRST HONORS FOR BLACK HISTORIC SERIES ' My current trip to Augusta to assist the planning committee resume Part II of the Blacks Who Helped Build Augusta (BWHBA) series finds a forthcoming announcement of an award. Good, because the BWHBA series is a “first” involving writing of Black History. ABOUT THE WALLACE BRANCH LIBRARY As one who joined with L.B. Wallace, the late Joel Wallace, Mrs. Rosa Tutt, William Brown, Dr. Ike Washington, the late Mrs. Lilly B. Harris, Deacon H.B. Garvin and others who walked the streets of Augusta soliciting books to start the first public library service for Negroes in the pre-World War II era, I felt disappointed indeed to hear about projected plans to dose the Wallace Branch. This branch was successor to the Community Library founded by the Community Forum in the old Gwinnett Street Fire House (present library ate). I also remember during my boyhood days of the grim refiisal to allow us to use the downtown facilities. In the several different cities in the nation on Urban League assignments, I’ve always found problems of weak library circulation in the Black communities. Any informed and trained educator, library worker or social worker will give you the facts Vie Must Help Each Other "GOING PLACES” With Philip Waring k of life about the cultural deprivation and disadvantaged status of the great majority of our people. They include: (1) In the Life style of these good people, victims often of poor education, there is little family tradition of reading or going to the library (2) ine branch library is often located in the heart of the Black ghetto, serves as a solid cultural light house, and is a great distance from the downtown branch, (3) mere circulation figures are / meaningless when one looks at how a branch library can help the cultural, educational and psychological development of poor Black children who need an opportunity, and finally (4) Our public schools, churches, civic groups, etc must join hands in supporting and helping enrich the Wallace Branch program services. So let’s get the notion of closing the Wallace Branch out once and for all! ar M® iHk A Abraham Lincoln, the greatest of our states men-presidents and the most immortalized of our nations orators was weaned, nourished and matured educationally on the best-read literature of the Jewish people. Mr. Lincoln’s ethical indoctrination, his sense of history and his vision of greatness were all attributed to his continued almost daily study and research as a youngster and adult in the library which for years, was the only one available to him, the books of the Old and New Testaments, collec tively known as the Bible. Recognized as the most extensive written body of ethical insight inherited from the ancient world, this same collection of books seiyed as the literary model not only for Abraham Lincoln but also for countless other orators and statesmen of our modern world. Regardless of the translations the biblical literature has been consistent with the dictum of Phillips Brooks that the clarity and beauty of expression should always befit the excellence of God’s word. It is for this reason that generations which have been reared upon this most widely read literature in the world have produced our most memorable poets, orators and sages. With only this simple background in mind, it would seem reasonable that all of our young people today should be introduced to and immeshed in this material most basic to the Hebrew-Christian heritage and which gives central shaping at least to our idealized way of life. We wonder today why we have so many defections from respect for the best values which we have known, as evidenced from our White House to our scandalously over crowded jails. Yet we continue to isolate whole generations from the ethical roots of what some would call our European- American civilization. One of the most striking differences between the two Republican presidents, Abraham Lincoln and Richard M. Nixon, is in the degree to which their lives were absorbed in and fed by both the biblical ethical teachings and the biblical capacity to lift'its reader’s mind and imagination to what the Hebrew patriarch Abraham regarded as an ideal human community “whose builder and maker is God.” If Watergate teaches the legal, religious, civic and educational establishment one overriding lesson, perhaps it should be this: That a people set adrift too far from their familiar shores may perish. Or, to put''it another way, a tree or a vine long removed from the sustaining nourishment of its roots will wither and decay. There is no good reason why the biblical literature should not and could not be taught in all WBIEN on Wheels | HELPFUL SAFETY TIPS~| by Elizabeth Stimley Plymouth Safety Writer S’WJfi ® —7/157 in 6KOJ?: TIRE CARE TIPS The salesman was amazed when I told him the exact size and type of new tires I wanted. He thought women only knew when it was time to buy gas. If I had told him that I also knew when to rotate the tires and how to read the tire wear gauge indica- have probably gone into shock. WOW Deciding what type of Ml tire to buy for the car is like deciding what to wear. You won't wear sneakers with a cocktail dress. And you shouldn’t mix the types of tires (cross bias, bias belted, radiaD. Most manufacturers recom mend that you buy the same type of tire that came with the car. However, a reputable dealer will be able to’recom mend other types such as radials, if your driving routine demands them. The owner’s manual is still the best reference source for in formation on tire buying and care. But there are simple tests you can give the tires periodically. Such as checking the tires for uneven wear before driving. This will indicate whether the tires are in balance or if you need an alignment job. Every third gas stop, check the tires' air pressure. Kicking the tires is as undependable as thumping a watermelon. Remember, your car rides on only four small patches of rub ber in contact with the road, so give them the care they need and deserve. Black Enqanwcmcnl ! By Dr. Nathaniel Wrighi, Jr. human rights activist RE-LEARNING OUR HERITAGE TO BE equm inu BY VERNON E. JORDAN, JR. K THEBLACICECONOMIC depression Statisticians have discovered a remarkable way to move people in and out of the labor force. They call it “seasonal adjustment”. And one way to make the unemployment figures lower is not to count people as unemployed if they’ve given up looking for work in a job market where no employment opportunities exist. The Labor Department’s February unemployment figures showed a rate of 8.2 percent, or about 7.5 million people out of work. Those are seasonally adjusted figures, theoretical constructs to account for shifts in work patterns that occur from month to month. But when real people are counted - bodies, not theoretical constructs - the picture changes somewhat. Then we have an unemployment rate of 9.1 percent and 8.3 million workers - real people with bills to pay and families to feed - out of work. And even these figures are grossly misleading. In February, some 580,000 workers gave up looking for jobs. So long as they registered each week that they were actively looking for work, they were counted as unemployed. In February, after weeks of fruitless job-hunting and no leads or interview possibilities they gave up the search. They thus became, in the official statistics, non-persons, no longer part of the labor force and no longer counted as unemployed. Seen from the vantage point of a person who wants to work in a society that has no work for him, these statistical exercises become a sort of shell-game deceiving the public, legislators and the Administration about the seriousness of the Depression. I’m not calling it a recession any more, because we are currently living through an economic Depression. For Black people, there isn’t the faintest doubt about this. One of the biggest barriers to getting the kind of federal action to end this Depression is the public’s ignorance of the seriousness of the situation. The National Urban League’s Research Department just released its quarterly economic report on the Black worker, and, along with up-dating to cover the last month or so, it presents a devastating picture of the Black economic Depression. It estimates true Black unemployment including those out of work, working part-time when they want full-time work, and those who have given up trying to find jobs, at about 25 percent, one out of every four Black workers! For Black teenagers, the official rate is over 40 percent. In some urban ghettos, up to half the people are without full-time jobs they want. And that’s not all. There are as many Blacks out of work today as in the darkest days of the Great Depression. About a quarter of the Black unemployed have been out of work for at least four months. About 700,000 of the Black unemployed are not eligible for unemployment compensation benefits, because their unemployment did not result from direct job lay-offs, a requirement for such benefits. And on striking finding is that Blacks, who comprise 12 percent of local government employes, make up almost half of all local government workers who were employed, offering striking testimony to the disproportionate lay-offs of Blacks by local governments, demonstrating lessened commitment to affirmative action. , , Some people, noticing the concentration of Black workers m the laggard auto industry, think that alone accounts for high Black jobless rates. Not true. Far more Blacks have lost jobs in the construction and food processing industries. And this Depression is not confined to Blacks, it cuts across the board. High white unemployment is also hidden by the official numbers game. In addition to the 6.9 million white workers officially counted as unemployed in February, add another 6.9 million discouraged workers, and people in part-time jobs who want full-time work and you’ve got a grand total of close to 14 million white people out of work today. No amount of fudging can hide the fact that this nation is in a real Depression. It’s time to stop haggling over what to call it and get to the business of ending it. of our elementary and secondary schools, whether public or private. Indeed the reason for its establish ment in every curriculism as a fundamental part of our priceless heritage are overwhelming. Perhaps the most serious practical problem rests with our religious organizations which jealously and selfishly claim that this incomparable historical literature is sacred to them alone Such thinking is sheer nonsense! It is also grossly self-defeating. Many secular on non-rcligious universities have taught for years courses on “The Bible as Literature.” This probably could also be done, without breaking any existing laws, in most of our public schools. What is more important, however, is that the ethical moorings of our way of life have no business being locked up today in our presently half empty synagouges and churches. The biblical teachings are the priceless foundational inheritance of all for whom we have the responsibility of molding into able and thoughtful citizens, into family-makers and into the architects of the future shape of our society. The biblical literature is not doctrinnaire. , It is the incomparable story of an incessant search for truth and ultimate meaning by people represent ing the twin fountains of our society Hebrew- Christian sources. It is a body of literature which is at once radically revolutionary and superlatively conservative. It is at the same time practical and contemplative, philosophical and detailed. Some have found, and will doubtless continue to find, in it profound religious meanings for their lives. There is no crime in this. Still it may be, whether criminal or not, no less than suicide for our increasingly imperilled way of life for millions of our young people to be brought up almost, totally ignorant of the greatest “best seller” which the world has ever known. For any society of people to endure and prosper, they must see, acknowledge and share some common roots. Such non-controversial, and secular oriented new books similar to Walter Russell Bowie’s old classic, The Story of the Bible, published more than a generation ago, need to be prepared to assist classrooms today to claim the most essential and most literally neglected vehicle for human growth which should be available to every citizen in our society. This ancient story of the struggles of the Hebrew people to find the best society which life might afford must, in some way, become once more the common civic and ethical heritage of us all.