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The Augusta News-Review - April 17, 1975-
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(BASE RIVALS, WHO TRUE WIT AND MERIT HATE,
MALICIOUSLY ASPIRE TO GAIN RENOWN, BY STANDING
UP, AND PULLING OTHERS DOWN.)
If there is an iota of credence in the charges made by the Rev.
F.D. Shaw, pastor of Second Mt. Moriah against the so-called
local “Black In-Crowd” it will corroborate what the Blacks on the
streets been saying all along. That Blacks in the upper echelon are
more insensitive to other Blacks than the whites... at least the
whites will help them when they are in need; Blacks will only
ignore them.”
Now, who in the hell gave a handful of pompous Blacks the
right to set in judgement over another human being.
THE NATION IS AGONIZING BECAUSE OF THE VIOLENCE
OF THE HAND GUNS, BUT THE BLACK GHETTO IS
LEADING WITH 60% OF ALL URBAN GUN HOMICIDES. YET
BLACKS ARE ONLY 20% OF THE NATION’S POPULATION.
Blacks are not monopolizing on the current hand-gun
butchery, but if its a 15 year old Black youth living in Chicago or
Detroit, he has a one in 45 chance of being shot to death before
he reaches his 24th birthday; inspite of the established paranoia
complex that American sociologists tag upon Blacks because of
racial frustration in a dominant white society. But there is
another underlying deep-rooted malaise, that plague American
Blacks; it’s their dislike for each other. They tolerate their
immediate clique, but not much love is lost there, either.
The crime-prone 15 to 25 year old age group of Black youths
have not learned to hide their feelings behind a curtain of
hypocrisy, so they kill, rape and rob their own people. The
young, the aged, the small merchant and wage earners struggling
to make ends meet live in constant fear of fire-armed Black
hustlers. This type of hellish living is refelcted in the anxious face
of a young Black mother waiting for her children to return from
school or in the brisk strides of women hurrying home from
work, before it gets dark.
APARTMENTS RESEMBLING ARMY FORTS-Watch dogs
being trained all over, elaborate locks and steel gates covering
doors and windows attesting to the fact that ghetto residents
don’t feel safe even at home. Here are a bit of the sample of life
in the Black community in Chicago. Students are frisked for
weapons each morning in the elementary and secondary schools.
Recently the school board requested funds for a metal detector.
Inspite of all of this precaution, students can usually get guns
when they want them. On a steamy, hot night last June, a group
of Black youths from the Robert Taylor housing project on the
Southside decided on a game of basketball. After arriving at a
nearby payground, a youth from a nearby gang started an
argument with one of the group; one of the gang's buddies threw
him a gun. This gang bully shot one of the boys in the chest,
killing him instantly. Most social scientists debunk the notion
that movies and a deprived life-style inspire violence through
imitative behavior, the police don’t believe that. They contend
that the so-call Black exploitation films, with their common
thread of abundant violence, are big box office in theater in Black
and white low-middle communities.
Some years ago three Black youths made headlines when they
robbed a Japanese restaurant and escaped in a car with four
hostages. Two of the robbers were killed in the chase. The
survivor said the trio had decided on the robbery after seeing the
movie, “Shaft’s Big Score.” A high ranking police official tells of
a wave of arm robberies in which the stickup punks used a line
from the movie, “Nigger Charley.” Many of the handguns that
wind up in the Black Ghetto come from gun shops in the
exclusive subrubs, where gun-control laws are often less stringent
than in the downtown districts.
At the Blue Island gun shop in a veritable gun supermarket in
Blue Island, fashionable suburb of Chicago, shoppers can pick
from case after case of handguns and racks of rifles. There is
plenty of parking behind the gun Mart, as well as a firing range
where customers can try out their weapons. Black cop fights the
gun violence down to the wire. Tom Drummond, a 37 year-old
Black policeman in the high-crime jungle of the Grand Crossing
district, experienced the ghetto arm explsoion from the streets of
two tough crime communities. During his 14-years on the police
force, he has been in more than a dozen gunfights, many of them
recently, two years ago, he won the Chciago Police Department’s
highest award for valor when he single-handedly gunned down
three armed robbers outside a liquor store after being twice
wounded.
. On a recent night, Officer Drummond was called to investigate
a report of shots at a nearby Housing Project where such calls are
almost a nightly occurrence. Arriving at the project, Officer
Drummond searched the area where the bullets reportedly struck.
A stray bullet struck five-year-old Beatrice Hill in the leg as she
slept in a housing project room with her five sisters and brothers.
•The shot came from the building next door.
: THE ELDERLY SUFFERS ALSO IN THE CRIME
EXPANSION-the elderly are vulnerable to gun-related crimes. In
;one of the ghhetto’s Black project, they have started to bus the
aged to cash their Social Security checks. This had to be to
slow-down the rash of muggings and stickups. Liquor stores and
gas stations are prime targets for stickup men because they stay
open late and usually keep a pile of loot on hand. But that
condition is changing. To discourage armed robbery, a number of
ghetto stations have begun accepting only exact change after 6
p.m.
Some jittery merchants are taking drastic measures to protect
themselves. Some are taking even tougher measures to protect
themsleves and their property. In the past years, dozens of fast
food outlets, drycleaning establishments, drug stores and liquor
stores have shielded their counters and cash registers with
bulletproof plaster, completely separating employees from
customers. It’s a tough life, but that’s life in many big city
ghettos.
THE AUGUSTA NEWS-REVIEW
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY
Mallory K. MillenderEditor and Publisher
Audrey Frazier Society Editor
Frank Bowman Advertising Manager
Michael Carr Photographer
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Ways We Bea Help
Ourselves
Blacks Who Helped
Build Augusta
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WELCOME AWARD FROM ROTARY CLUB FOR BWHBA
SERIES
Last week Publisher Millender and I were elated to receive a
special “Community Service Award” for the Bicentennial
BWHBA Series at the annual media meeting of a national service
club in Augusta.
Things continue to shape up with many Augustans getting the
Best Wishes To The
"Preacher” /Rabbi/
(Guest Column by the Rev. Charles S. Hamilton
Pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church of Augusta, Ga.
and dean, Morehouse School of Religion, I.T.C. Atlanta, Ga.
The Reverend Roosevelt Green Jr., the former minister of the
Shiloh Baptist Church of Augusta, Ga. was installed Sunday,
April 20, as the second minister of the Macedonia Baptist Church
Harrisburg, Pa.
It was my happy privilege to preach the installation sermon.
The service was a rewarding experience. The ministers and
churches of the Harrisburg vicinity gave the Rev. and Mrs. Green
a royal welcome. Some of the other participants were the vice
moderator of the association, the Rev. R.J. Manning; the church
news editor of the Harrisburg Patriot, the Rev. Barker C.
Howland; the Rev. William M. Child, east area minister, American
Baptist churches and Dr. R. Earl Bartley. Dr. Bartley brought the
congregation he serves as minister - The First Baptist Church,
Steelton. The choir of First Baptist is one of the best choirs in the
Harrisburg, area.
Out of town guests were there to witness the occasion from
Philadelphia, Augusta, New York, and Pennsylvania. I am sure
this was one of the best days for the Greens. The membership of
the Macedonia Baptist Church was very generous in sharing on
this occasion and other churches caught the spirit. Rev. and Mrs.
Roosevelt Green have been given a trip to the World Baptist
Alliance meeting in Stockholm, Sweden in July.
The Rev. Green is a native of Athens, Ga. Mr. Green has come
a long ways from the high school drummer to the minister of the
Macedonia Baptist Church in Harrisburg. After graduating from
high school, Mr. Green entered Paine College and received his
bachelors degree. While at Paine he met and married Miss Delores
Philpot. They have four beautiful daughters, Susan, Cynthia,
Michelle and Sharon.
Mr. Green continued his education at the Morehouse School of
Religion of the Interdenominational Theological Center, where he
received the master of divinity degree after receiving his degree at
the Morehouse School of Religion, he attended the University of
Georgia in Athens and received his masters degree in social work
and later joined the faculty there and worked toward an advanced
degree.
The churches Mr. Green served in the Augusta area were the
First Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, Appling, Ga.; Simonia Baptist
Church, Grovetown, Ga.; Beulah Grove Baptist Church, Augusta,
Ga.; Summerville Baptist Church, Augusta, Ga.; and the Shiloh
Baptist Church, Augusta, Ga.
Mr. Green was employed as a counselor at the Youth
Development Center in Augusta for a number of years. Along
with serving as minister of the Shiloh Baptist Church, he served as
director of the University of Georgia’s Augusta Area Learning
Service Center.
The Rev. Green also worked in community activities. How can
I forget the days he walked the picket lines for the Youth
Chapter of the NAACP. How can I forget that he visited white
churches only to be turned away.
Augusta will miss the Greens. Certainly the Augusta area is in
sorrow to see him leave.
The Harrisburg challenge is a greater challenge to the Rev.
Roosevelt Green Jr., and I hope and pray for him that he will be
satisfied in meeting the challenge. The church is a young church
in a changing neighborhood with many unchurched people. I do
not think one could find a more ideal setting. It is a community
which needs strong leadership. The church already has a licensed
Day Care Center which will be expanded soon. The church is a
large church with plenty of room for growth and the church is
growing weekly under the dynamic leadership of Pastor Green. It
has seating capacity for 2,200 persons.
Reverend Green, we loved you in Augusta and we wish you
every good blessing as you continue in Kingdom building work.
k
spirit of a Black history record for the Bicentennial. People are
looking into old trunks, church records, etc. Just today Rev. N.T.
Young and Deacon G. Byrant of Thankful and Rev. R.E.
Donaldson and Mrs. M.B. Drayton of Antioch pledged their
support and participation. These are two of the oldest Baptist
churches in our city, and speaks well for church cooperation.
MANY YOUNG LEADERS WILL WRITE ON TODAY’S EVENTS
Our BWHBA series emphasizes: (1) Heritage or a history of
past events, people, and institutions, (2) Festival or an
examination of the present, and (3) Horizons which will project a
look at the future.
Verlyn Bell will write on “The Bethlehem Center, Past and
Now”, James E. Carter 111 will highlight “Racial Progress At the
University of Georgia Medical Center”, Charles Walker is slated to
highlight the programs and services of the Augusta-Richmond
County Human Relations Commission, Harvey Johnson will tell
all about the CSRA Business League and its special programs to
aid minority business and Joseph Jones is looking forward to
describing how the Columbia, S.C. “Labor Education Project”
has secured hundreds of jobs in the Augusta area for Blacks.
We will also hear from QIC and Frontiers International.
OLD TIME LEADERS TO BE REMEMBERED
“The. Life and Times” of such persons are: Dr. C.T. Walker (by
Mrs. Mary Cummings), Deacon H.B. Garving (L.B. Wallace and
Philip Waring), Rev. Silas X. Floyd (Mr. and Mrs. James Dunn),
Coach John Tutt (H.V. LaMarr), Dr. James E. Carter, Jr. (Philip
Waring), Dr. Channing H. Tobias (Emory Russell), Dr. George N.
Stoney (L.B. Wallace), and Miss Lucy Craft Laney (Josephine
Richardson and Louise Laney). Other old timers will be added to
the roster.
SERIES TO RECOGNIZE LEADERS OF TODAY
BWHBA will highlight the “Life and Times” of such current
leaders as: The Dent Brothers, Councilwoman Carrie Mays, Dr.
I.E. Washington, Commissioner Ed Mclntyre, Dr. Justine
Washington, Attorney John Ruffin, Dr. Canute Richardson, Dr.
Allen Brown, Rev. Charles Hamilton, and others to be
announced.
INTERNATIONALLY FAMOUS TO BE FEATURED
Augusta has two internationally famous sons. Frank Yerby,
who recently visited Augusta and presented some of his papers to
Paine College, is a world famous author. We are asking Mrs. Viola
H. Evans and Dean J.T. Lacey to handle this in a one-part article.
James Brown, “Godfather of Soul”, is an internationally
acclaimed entertainer whose record sales have reached forty
million. Ms. Laura Garvin, who taught him years ago, will
highlight Mr. Brown, who also owns radio station WRDW.
BLACK INSTITUTIONS WHICH HELPED BUILD THE TOWN
Horatio LaMarr and associates will tell all about outstanding
Augusta athletes at home and around the nation. “Black Women
in Business” will be a topic developed by Mrs. Edith Buchanan,
Mrs. J. Dent, Ms. Maude Park and Mrs. E. Buchanan while “Negro
Contractors Who Helped Build Augusta” comes from information
supplied by State Rep R.A. Dent and City Councilman I.E.
Washington to Philip Waring.
The Rev. M.J. Whittaker and Mallory Millender are scheduled
to write on “The Black Press Informs the People” (Incidentally
we’ve had papers since the “Colored American” published during
the Civil War days).
POSTAL SERVICE KEEPS AMERICA INFORMED
Hundreds of colored Augustans took and passed tough Federal
exams which brought them into the United States Postal Service.
Scores of them served many long and faithful years as carriers and
on the railway mail service. We are asking Allie Bampfield, Mr. R.
Miller and their associates to handle.
NEGRO WORKERS HELP EXPAND RAIL SERVICES
We are asking Al Irby, “Dean of newspaper men in Black
Augusta” to write about the hundreds of men who served in the
Pullman and Dining Car Service as well as those who were firemen
and in other capacities. Augusta was once a teeming and busy rail
center of the Southeast.
NETWORK OF SOCIAL SERVICES UPGRADE HUMAN CARE
Four of our top professional social workers - Mrs. Allie W.
Gardiner, Mrs. Magnolia Donahue, Mrs. Charlotte Hornsby
Watkins and Mrs. Jackie Millender to describe past and present
social services (except the Bethlehem Center). This would include
the old Ninth St. YMCA, P. Wheatley YWCA, Boy Scouts, Shiloh
and Paul Moss orphan homes, Mrs. Ophelia Sullivan’s home for
senior citizens as well as Mrs. Maiy Nelson Jones and her good
works. They will also touch on present public and private services
and leaders.
We’ve asked Mrs. Christine Gardner to remind us of USO
programs. Remember Augusta is a real U.S. Army town.
Mrs. Gwen Cummings, of course, will tell about the Wallace
Branch Library while persons yet to be selected will feature the
Wants Leaders
To Stand Up
Dear Editor:
I find it shocking that not
one so called Black leader has
stood up to be heard against
the firing of Patrollman J.B.
O’Byrne by a malicious Civil
Service Commission. Under the
federal law, a person can not
be discharged for union
activities, but here we have
allowed something to be
accomplished indirectly that
could not take place directly,
and we have not even opened
our mouths.
I realize we are dealing with
a creature of the state, but
correct grievance procedures
are correct grievance
procedures, and the way I
understand it is that the final
review body can not impose a
greater penalty than that
imposed by the person vested
with the authority to take
punitive action in the first
instant. Its so elementary that
perhaps it escaped the
sophisicated minds of the
Black leaders.
As I look back on my stay in
Augusta, I have seen too much
of this occurring with only
silence in its wake. Its a small
matter to some, or perhaps an
individual and personal
problem to others, but
notwithstanding, it has a
propensity to make bells toll.
One day the question will be
asked “For Whom The Bells
Toll?”, and the haunting
refrain will be it is tolling for
me.
Our children and our
children’s children deserve
better, and it causes me to
wonder about our fate, and
whether or not we really care
about the human problem
presented here, and elsewhere.
The answers are within our
grasp, but guts are required to
implement. What says,
Augusta?
Prentiss Ivory Davis
P.O. Box 2405
Augusta, GA. 30903
| TOBE
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BY VERNON t. JORDAN, JR. 4 W f
VIETNAM AND THE ORPHANS
The airlift of Vietnamese orphans to the United States,
coupled with the imminent collapse of the Saigon government,
seems to have unleashed a form of mass hysteria here.
For a week or more, we’ve been bombarded with news
accounts and photos of confused children being disgorged from
huge planes and bundles into the arms of their American adoptive
parents.
The whole exercise has been sold as an example of American
generosity and concern for homeless waifs who might suffer
untold harm if the North Vietnamese take over the South.
Like just about everything else we’ve been told about the
endless war in Vietnam, that’s a myth. But it does raise some very
serious questions worth looking into.
The Vietnamese themselves don’t seem to be happy about it.
Some have charged the orphan airlift in a political ploy aimed at
building sympathy for continued U.S. involvement in the war.
Others have angrily labelled the airlift a “kidnapping” of
Vietnamese children. Even Americans have speculated about the
guilt feelings that motivate the new parents, and wonder if the
children might not have been better off in Vietnam.
For me, the most telling comment was made by a South
Vietnamese government official who asked, “what kind of a
future will they have in a racist country like the United States
anyway?”
A good question. Asian Americans, like Blacks and other racial
minorities, have always faced discrimination here. Who is to say
that after the euphoria and heart-tugging mass propaganda wears
off that those kids won’t be looked upon as permanent outsiders
in American society?
I wonder too if many of the adoptive parents so hastily
recruited are prepared for the stresses and strains of cross-cultural
adoption, and if they are prepared to preserve their adopted
children’s heritage. The hasty renaming of the Ngo’s and Dao’s to
John and Mary make me skeptical.
But the real tragedy here is that while Americans rush to bring
over homeless kids from Saigon they have yet to evidence any
interest in orphans here at home. One of the justifications for
flying 2,000 Vietnamese children here is the supposed shortage of
babies for adoption in the United States.
What shortage? Conservative estimates of American kids
available for adoption place the number at about 12,000, the
majority Black and minority.
It says a lot about American racial feelings that these kids are
left without homes while Vietnames orphans are “rescued” from
their own kin and country. Remember the pictures of starving
Biafran children some years back, or the victims of last year’s
African drought? Why wasn’t there the same outpouring of
sympathy and interest then? Could it be because those kids
happened to be Black? The extraordinary airlift incident ought
to spur a hightened interest in adopting orphans from U.S.
institutions. Greater publicity ought to be given to their
availability and to arrangements that can be made to help families
adopt.
In some places financial aid is available from local
governments, and this ought to be extended so that low income
families too, can afford to bring up children otherwise
condemned to an institutional setting.
Such arrangements would help increase the numbers of Black
families able to adopt Black children. And while both Black and
white communities expressed doubts as to the wisdom of white
couples adopting Black children, with proper safeguards this too
could be feasible.
After all the hoopla is over, the overwhelming majority of
Vietnamese orphans will still be in Vietnam, and 120,000
homeless children in the U.S. will still be in institutions here.
We ought to be humanitarian enough to provide help and care
for both groups by sending aid to the one and adopting the other.
saga of Augusta’s famous Lincoln League.
CIVIL RIGHTS BRING ABOUT CHANGE IN AUGUSTA
Chaplain Maurice Cherry of Paine College will write on the role
of students there in successfully integrating public transportation.
Several were arrested in the process in 1959.
There are three crack lawyers of color who have worked hard
and faithfully over the years, helping to bring about first class
citizenship. We are asking them - Jack Ruffin, John Watkins and
Jim Hinton - to describe these events dealing with transportation,
public accomodations and public education.
Rev. Charles Hamilton, NAACP president, promised that he’d
write about the important role of that organization.
BLACK FIGHTING MEN HELP PROTECT THE REPUBLIC
My own research points out clearly that Augusta Blacks have
participated, fought and lost their lives in every war (since the
Civil War) to protect this nation. As examples, Dr. George N.
Stoney, first Black physician in Augusta, served as an army
surgeon in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, the great Rev.
Dr. C.T. Walker was a chaplain in the same war. World War I
brought to us many who volunteered and served at home and
overseas in combat. One was Lt. Leonard Edwards. World War II
gave us two young men who passed during that time and for
whom the Screen-Ramsey veterans post is named. World War II
also gave us Master Sgt. Andrew Waring who was the only
Augusta Black to win a Bronze Star for bravery on the battlefield.
S.M. Jenkins, who is now the first Black to serve as DepL •
Inspector of Veterans of World War I and Board Chairman at
Pilgrim Life Insurance Co., will team up with A.M. Carter, Edwin
Dove and Harry J. Carter on this subject. They may use two
editions for this important task about our fight men and women
as well as our veterans’ organizations.
PUBLIC SCHOOL PANEL TO BE EXPLAINED
The role of Blacks serving in the Richmond County Public
Schools is so important until that panel has been expanded. This
is now its composition: James Dunn, chairman; Ms. Laura Garvin,
M, rS - , R “ th E - James, Hubert Wilson, Prof. M.B. Braxton and
Lloyd Reese while Asst. Supt. Dave Mack will be consultant. Dr.
Justine Washington will write at the end of this series on its
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