The Augusta news-review. (Augusta, Ga.) 1972-1985, July 10, 1975, Image 1

The Augusta news-review., July 10, 1975, Image 1

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Newspaper Page TextPAINE COLLEGE A AUGUSTA, GEORGIA Volume 5 Special Drive Launched to Hire More Black Policemen The Augusta Police Department will conduct pre-employment interviews and administer entrance level written examinations to interested persons from minority groups, who desire employment as law enforcement officers, on Friday and Saturday July 11 and July 12. The special drive to recruit Girl Found Hanged In Jail, Family Doubts It Was Suicide Tempera Myrick, 19-year-old daughter of Mrs. Gertrude Myrick, was found dead June 24 in the Women’s 19-Year-Old Kills Man With Butcher Knife John Willie Pugh, 806 15th Ave., was stabbed in the chest and died on his way to the emergency room. According to witnesses, Mildred Harper and Yvonne Badger, William Harper was sent to the Thrif-Tee Supermarket on Sand Bar Ferry Road to get some charcoal and John Pugh went Police Vacancies Filled, Five Whites, Two Blacks Hired - Ratio Widens Inspite of the current luring freeze in city and county government, 7 policemen, 5 whites and 2 Blacks, were hired Tuesday at a meeting of thf Augusta Civil Service Commission. Commission Chairman Joe Taylor told the News-Review that the hiring was not in violation of the freeze because the police department is authorized to have at least a hundred privates at all times. Prior to Tuesday, the force was down to 93. The police department can hire any number up to a hundred but cannot exceed that number while the freeze is in effect, he said. The hiring represented an apparent shift in the position of Federal Judge Anthony Alaimo who had asked that 3 Blacks be hired for every white, and said that he was considering ordering a 4 to 1 ratio if the police department did not voluntarily comply with the 3 to 1 ratio. During a discussion on the hirings, Commission Chairman Taylor said he had received conflicting reports on federal Judge Anthony At Alaimo’s position about hiring more whites than Blacks. Taylor said Police Chief James G. Beck said the judge would not allow it except on a three to one ratio, and Affirmative Action Officer Lt. Handsel E. Johnson Jr. said the judge approved the hiring. “I’m not going to call the judge a liar, but somebody is lying,” Beck told commission members. Taylor said he met with Johnson and was told the judge said there was no order to hire on a three to one basis and to “go ahead ... but next time hire Black personnel can be directly attributed to the current short fall in the number of Black males seeking employment with the department and hopefully through this effort attract some potential employes. Despite the fact that all city agencies and departments are under a hiring freeze and that Rehabilitation Center in Hartwick, Ga. According to authorities at the Georgia Department of along with him. While at the Thrif-Tee Supermarket, John Pugh took the keys from the ignition and refused to give them back to Harper. A fight started between them. After Harper and Pugh returned to 15th Ave., Mrs. Badger stated that Pugh told Harper that the fight wasn’t over yet and picked up a stick heavy towards Blacks.” The conversation between Lt. Johnson and Judge Alaimo was put into writing at the request of the commission president, Taylor said. At the last meeting, Taylor said, the commission received a letter on a discussion the city attorney had with the judge. The letter said the one to one hiring ratio was not working out, and the judge was considering a four to one mandatory or three to one voluntary hiring ratio. It was immediately after this, Beck said, that he called the judge and asked about hiring whites in the face of no Black applicants. Beck said he told the judge he was responsible for the welfare of the city and did not have Black applicants. It was then that the judge told him he could not hire whites except on a three to one ratio, Beck said. Lt. Johnson returned with the order that the commission could hire whites on an emergency basis after talking several newspaper dippings to the judge, Taylor said. Six applicants, two of which were Black, appeared before the commission. Both Black applicants were hired immediately. The rest were put on the department’s eligibility list. Taylor said seven vacancies had occurred in the department, including two recent ones. The commission hired five white applicants from its eligibility list and placed the remaining applicants at the meeting on the eligibility list. Applicants to the police department are placed on an eligibility list after they are approved by the commission P. O. Box 953 position vacancies are being accented and expeditiously processed, eligible • and “acceptable” Blacks and other minorities wil then be placed on or added to the current eligibility list for hiring action at a future date. The Affirmative Action Officer of the Augusta Police Department, Lt. H.E. Johnson Corrections, Miss Myrick’s body was found hanging in her cell where she reportedly committed suicide. and started beating Harper with it Harper then produced a knife and stabbed Pugh in the chest. Mrs. Badger stated that she didn’t know where Harper got the knife from but that he never left the area of the front porch and the yard. At 6:30 p.m. that same day Harper was arrested at 836 and can be called to active duty by Lt. Johnson and Chief Beck as vacancies occur in the department. At the close of the meeting, Taylor said, “We would like to assure the judge that as Black applicants are brought before us that are qualified, we will hire them.” In other commission action, Pvt. J.R. Smith, a Black, quit without notice, according to City and County to Establish Affirmative Action Plan An affirmative action plan for the City of Augusta and Richmond County will be presented within 60 days, according to Charles Walker director of the Human Relations Commission. Representatives from the city council, the county commission and the Human Relations Commission met Tuesday and agreed that an affirmative action plan would be worked out to increase the number of minority and female employes in the city and county governments. It was also agreed that the plan would be worked out by the Augusta Planning and Development Committee to be ready for presentation to government representatives within 45 to 60 days, and implemented within 30 days after that. Walker said that the commission was not recommending a plan based on AN OPEN FORUM FOR PEOPLE WHO CARE Jr. will be at the Wallace Branch of the Augusta Library, located 1237 Gwinnett St., from 1 thru 6 p.m. Friday July 11, and from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m., Saturday, July 12, to conduct interviews and answer questions concerning law enforcement work with the Augusta Police Department. Individuals desiring to The dead girl’s mother has requested that SCLC officials look into the death of her daughter to. determine if she did in fact commit suicide. 15th Ave. where he had crawled beneath a house next door to where the incident occurred. A murder charge was filed against Harper at the time of his arrest but civil court Judge Oliver K. Mixon reduced the charge to voluntary manslaughter. Judge Mixon set Harper’s bond at SI,OOO after reducing the charge. Beck, and the commission accepted his resignation. Pvt. William R. Scarlott, white, resigned to accept a better paying job, Beck said. The commission also accepted the retirement of Capt. R.C. Silvey from the Augusta Fire Department after 46 years of continuous service and the resignation of fireman Wayne Taylor. a quota system, but one based on using the natural turnover rate. He stated that an effective affirmative action program can be implemented without antagonizing any segment of the community. The HRC spokesman emphasized that while the commission had no intention of bringing in federal force to encourage formulation of a program, it is essential, according to federal law, for governing bodies to have affirmative action plans that are viable. Walker, further stated that while the commission is willing to support the governments in there attempts to develop a program, it should not be in charge of the program. County Commission Chairman Edward Mclntyre recommended that all elected officials who supervise personnel become a part of the overall plan so that input will Augusta, Georgia submit employment applications during these scheduled sessions should have in their possession one copy each of the following documents: birth certificate, high school diploma, valid driver’s license and armed forces honorable discharge certificate (DD form 214). Applicants must be 20 years MM '*.•’*. l -■ ■■ - 18/ MARION E. BARNES Photo by Stan Raines Marion Barnes Becomes Principal At Tubman By “Stan” Raines Marion E. Barnes became principal of Tubman Junior High School as of July 1. Prior to the promotion, Barnes taught at A.R. Johnson Junior High School for 11 years and at C.T. Walker Elementary for 7 years. The Augusta native is a Paine College graduate. He received the master of education degree from South Carolina State, and has done further study at Georgia Southern. While at A.R. Johnson, Barnes was the football coach and leaves behind him an come from those agencies directly affected by such a plan. Mayor Lewis A. Newman said that of all employes hired within the past year and still working for the city, 40 per cent are Black. He further stated that although these persons were not in high echelon positions, “they were the ones who have stayed and are bound to move up.” It was agreed the HRC and the Central Savannah River Area Planning and Development Commission would work together with input, from city and county personnel directors to produce a number of alternative affirmative action plans. Elected officials, such as the tax collector, sheriff and court personnel, would be invited to participate in the program. These officials are accountable to the legislative delegation, not to the county commission. of age, be in excellent physical condition, free from color blindness and no prior felony conviction. While it is a fact that this drive is primarily aimed at recruitment of minorities, the Augusta Police Department encourages participation in this program from all interested persons in the CSRA. enviable record of 78 wins againsty only eight losses. His teams won nine junior high school championships, which includes two years in which his team was not scored upon. ' 1 » g. *>■ / mSr jin F 4 F oh RlMi IL, K-- ■ iS’ 7 JEp I CALLS FOR NEW DIRECTIONS IN RACE RELATIONS - Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett, right, president of the National Newspapers Publishers Association and editor-publisher of the San Francisco Sun-Reporter, called for new directions in race relations by Black and white leaders during the nation's Bicentennial to make freedom and equality a fact and not merely a promise. Goodlett issued his statement recently in New York during a Bicentennial salute to Crisis Magazine sponsored by Black Heritage Association which presented him an award. With Dr. Goodlett are Crisis Editor Warren Marr II and Ms. Nell Bassett, communications director for radio station WMFM. News Deadline Mondays- No Exceptions! July 10, 1975 No. 16 Editorial Survival of Black-Owned Press Threatened The Black Press of America is greatly threatened by white daily newspaper creation of Black oriented sections and free home delivery journals in the inner cities of 16 metropolitan areas with Black populations in excess of 250,000 each. Last week the Washington Post began publishing a Black community section which will be part of each Thursday’s edition of the daily. Similar weekly sections will accompany editions going into the Maryland and Virginia surburbs each Thursday. The Washington Post venture into die Black community with a section reminiscent of the “colored pages” of many newspapers in the South a generation ago may hurt the four Black weeklies of Washington - The Afro-American, the Informer, New Observer, and the Capital Spotlight. In Los Angeles, the Knight-Ridder owned Wave Publications have a free home-delivery circulation of 250,000 in the Black community, adding to the revenue of the highly'' profitable chain. Since the Wave newspapers became Black oriented some four years ago, the Black-owned Los Angeles weeklies scarcely obtain any large display advertising from the big downtown department stores. The Chicago Tribune is reportedly plannning a colored section for distribution with the big daily in the southside and inner city of Chicago. The Tribune’s entry into the field could threaten the economic position of Chicago’s Black-owned successful daily and weekly publications. The Washington Post “colored community” supplement is a glaring example of greed. In collusion with white merchants, the paper is seeking a still larger share of the advertising revenue generated by the billions of dollars spent annual here in Washington by Blacks who earn more as a group than the members of the race in any other city in the country. How can the Washington Post, which daily demonstrates a subtle type of racism by ignoring the print media needs of Blacks who make up 71 percent of the District of Columbia population, be counted on to do anything really constructive for the Black community through its “colored section”? The organized Black Press of America is threatened by the projected publication of Black oriented sections and free home-delivery newspapers by white dailies in 15 other metropolitan areas, including: New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Atlanta, Miami, New Orleans, Houston, San Francisco, St. Louis, Detroit, and Cleveland. Through these mutually exclusive sections, the Post and other major dailies will be able to offer split rate or cutrate ad schedules. This may add revenue, but it will further divide metropolitan areas, contributing to an unhealthy provincialism. The NNPA, the Black Press of America, calls upon the 66th Annual Convention of the NAACP. meeting in Washington, to oppose the segmentation of the daily press and total usurpation of the advertising dollar in the inner city to the disadvantage of Black newspapers. Furhter, NNPA urges the NAACP, the National Urban League, the organized Black Church, the National Business League, and members of the Civil Rights Coalition to convene an emergency conference to confront the Washington Post and all other newspapers that may threaten the survival of the Black Press. Additionally, NNPA urges the Congressional Black Caucus to call on the Department of Justice to investigate and file anti-monopoly litigation against the Washington Post. This railing, perhaps an economic boycott may be required as the ultimate weapon.