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Augusta, Ga 30901
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AN OPEN FORUM FOR PEOPLE WHO CARE less than 75% advertising
Volume 5
Drag Strip Aue
BARREN CAN[ .
Parks Avenue Child Struck By Car, sSg
Residents Warned City Two Months Ago
Seven-year-old Margie Jones
was struck by a car Monday on
Parks Avenue, a street where
residents had been petitioning
protection against speeding
motorists.
A petition signed by some
Court Awards Sterilization Victim s 5
BARNWELL, S.C’ - A
federal jury Friday awarded
one of two plaintiffs S 5 in
damages after finding that the
sterilization policy of Dr.
Clovis Pierce of Aiken, S.C.,
violated her constitutional
rights.
The jury awarded Shirley
Brown $5 in nominal damages.
U.S. District Judge Solomon
Blatt instructed the jury to
award nominal damages if they
found that the plaintiff
suffered no actual damages,
only the violation of her rights.
The jury found in favor of
all defendants in the
two-week-old trial on a
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Mrs. James Brown leads area youngsters aboard bus of trip to Six Flags
Photo by Mike Carr
Mrs. James Brown
Takes Kids To Six Flags
Mrs. James Brown took 37
children to Six Flags Over
Georgia Saturday. Several
adults accompanied then
children.
The trip was designed for
underpriviledged children of all
Defense Lawyer Is
Dismissed From Little Case
RALEIGH N.C., (AP) - A
defense attorney was dismissed
from the Joan Little murder
trial Tuesday and named in a
felony warrant accusing him of
attempting to influence a
witness to commit perjury.
The witness, a Black woman
who works as a radio
dispatcher at the Beaufort
County jail, said attorney
Morris Dees approached her
during the trial’s mid-day break
and tried to get her to change
her testimony.
Dees denied the allegation,
but Judge Hamilton Hobgood
ordered him off the case and
40 residents of the 900 block
of Parks Avenue more than
two months ago asked the
Safety Committee of city
council to “protect our block
from the abuse of speeding
vehicles and thoroughfare
complaint that Dr. Pierce’s
policies discriminated on the
basis of race. The jury also
found against all claims of the
second plaintiff, Virgil Walker.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs
and the defendant indicated
that they will appeal the
decision. The appeal will go to
the 4th Circuit Court of
Appeals, an attorney said.
Tearful testimony marked
the opening days of the $1.5
million suit that saw Dr. Clovis
H. Pierce branded as behaving
unethically in requiring welfare
patients with three children to
undergo sterilization.
Mrs Shirley Brown, 26, and
races. They were provided with
free meals and souvenirs.
The trip is one of four which
will be sponsored by area
merchants in association with
James Brown Enterprises. The
sponsors for the first trip were
out of the courtroom.
Dees was one of six lawyers
defending Miss Little, a
21-year-old Black charged with
first-degree murder in the
ice-pick slaying of white jailer
Clarence Alligood, 62.
Miss Little admits killing
Alligood but says it was in
self-defense when he tried to
force her to have sexual
relations with him. The
prosecution claims Miss Little
killed the jailer in order to
escape from the jail where she
was being held on a breaking
and entering conviction.
The Beaufort County
P. O. Box 953
travelers with seemingly no
concern whatsoever for human
life.”
Young Margie Jones, the
niece of one of the Parks Avenue
residents, was not believed to
have been seriously injured
pregnant, cried on the stand as
she told the jury of three Black
women, two white women and
a white male, her recollection
of the “distressing”
experiences after the birth of
her third child.
Mrs. Brown charged that
when she refused to sign papers
allowing for her sterilization,
Dr. Pierce discharged her from
the hospital, just one day after
her child was born.
Mrs. Penny Smith, her
mother, told the court, “I
talked to him (Dr. Pierce)
outside Shirley’s room.
“I came to visit Shirley the
day after the birth of her baby
Johnson Motor Co., Scene
Magazine, Frank Christian
Studios, Davison’s Auto, Pants
Circus, Pontiac Masters,
Schultz Restaurant, Vogue
Dry Cleaners, Cullum’s and
Chinese Kitchen.
See related photos page 2.
medical examiner testified
earlier Tuesday that he found
seminal fluid on Alligood’s
body.
Beverly King, who said she
doubles as a matron at the jail,
told prosecutor William Griffin
that Dees approached her
during the noon break. The
prosecutor told the judge, who
sent the jury out of the
courtroom when the trial was
resumed Tuesday afternoon.
Dees’ expulsion centered
around Mrs. King’s testimony
See “Little Trial”
Page 6
although there was danger of
internal bleeding, according to
Robert O’Neal, also a Parks
Avenue resident.
O’Neal said that residents
had requested signs prohibiting
speeding, warning of children
and had no idea she was being
dismissed. I had to send home
to get clothes for the baby.”
Mrs. Brown said she refused
sterilization, but two other
Black women testified they
submitted to the procedure.
Ms. Virgil Walker said she
signed after Pierce told her he
would refuse to attend her,
would deny her admission to
the hospital and see her welfare
payments were cut off. She
was sterilized on April 17,
1972.
Mrs. Dorothy Waters told
the court she offered to pay
her hospital bills with money
borrowed from the baby’s
| Albany Following Macon In Suit j
’ Against City-wide Voting '
The Department of Justice
filed a civil suit today
challenging the city-wide
election of the seven member
city commission in Albany, Ga.
Attorney General Edward H.
Levi said the voting rights suit
was filed in U.S. District Court
in Albany.
The suit charged that the
election of the seven
commissioners by a majority
vote of all of the city’s voters
abridges the voting rights of
Black persons by diluting their
voting strength.
The suit said Blacks
comprise 34.5 percent of the
voting-age population of
Albany, the fifth laigest city in
Georgia.
Although Black candidates
have received a majority of the
votes cast in past elections in
the ward in which they lived, no
Black has received a majority
of the votes cast throughout
the city to gain election to the
OIC Chief Honored
The Rev. Leon Sullivan
received tiie American Institute
for Public Service Award in the
category “The Greatest Public
Service Benefiting the
Disadvantaged” for his special
Augusta, Georgia
at play, and periodic patroling
to make sure that posted signs
are obeyed to the maximum.
Some changes were made,
O’Neal said, but not enough.
The traffic engineer changed
Parks Avenue to a one-way
father but Pierce had insisted
on the sterilization.
“I was scared to death,” she
said. “I felt it was my
God-given right to have
children and I didn't want to
have that right taken away
from me.”
The suit, filed in behalf of
Mrs. Brown by the American
Civil Liberties Union, charges
Pierce with racial
discrimination. Each of the
women testifying last week is
Black.
Pierce has said his policy is
not based on race but rather on
his concern for tax
expenditures on welfare births.
He says he applies his policy to
city commission, the suit said.
The at-large election system
causes “irreparable injury” to
Black voters by “effectively
precluding” them from access
to the political process and by
“frustrating their right”to
undilute participation in the
electoral process, the suit
charged.
Albany adopted the at-large
system in 1947 and added the
majority vote requirement in
1959. Under the system, the
city is divided into five wards,
with the requirement that a
commissioner must live in each
ward. All five commissioners,
as well as the two
commissioners designated as
mayor and mayor pro tern, are
elected by city-wide vote.
The suit asked for a court
order declaring the at-large
system unconstitutional,
enjoining the city from
continuing to hold elections
under that system, and
leadership in founding the
Opportunities Industrialization
Center. OIC has been
established across the country
to offer job training to
unskilled, low-income people.
The American Institute for
Public Service was created by
Samuel S. Beard in 1972, with
Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy
Onassis and Senator Robert
Taft as co-chairpersons and a
seventy-member board of
selectors, for the primary
purpose of paying tribute to
citizens who have performed
distinguished public service.
Secretary of State Henry A.
Kissinger, a past recipient of
the award, was the personal
representative of President
Ford at the ceremony held at
the Old Supreme Court
Chamber in the U.S. Capitol
and delivered the address.
street, and put up two signs
saying watch out for children,
“but motorists just ignore the
signs. THey are still coming
through like a bat out of hell,
Parks Avenue is used as a drag
strip.”
all his welfare clients who have
had three children.
Pierce said, “The medical
community in which I practice
recognizes that three children
is an indication for stopping
reproduction. It is accepted
medicine to sterilize the
patient.
“The majority of my
patients who have had as many
as three children request
sterilization. My personal
feelings are, and were, that if
people who are paying for
themselves limit themselves to
three ... the people not paying
their bills should also terminate
their ability (to reproduce)
after three children.”
requiring the establishment of
a ward voting plan.
Under that plan, the city
would be divided into seven
wards, and each commissioner
would be elected by the voters
of the ward in which he lives.
Named as defendants in the
suit were the city, the seven
commissioners, and the city
clerk.
Assistant Attorney General
J. Stanley Pottinger, head of
the Civil Rights Division, said
the suit is the first filed by the
Justice Department to require
a city to change from an
at-laige to a ward election
system.
Albany’s next city election
is scheduled for November 11,
when the mayor, mayor pro
tern, and two other
commissioners will be elected.
Blacks in Macon last week
filed a similar suit. Augusta still
has a city-wide voting system.
Columnist
Tours
Europe
News Review Columnist
Roosevelt Green recently
returned from a trip to Europe.
He and his wife Deloris
toured Rome, Paris,
Copenhagen, Jerusalem,
Sweden and Germany.
A minister, Green attended
the World Baptist Alliance in
Stockholm, Sweden.
July 31, 1975 Vol. 5 No. 19
Black Coalition To
Present Manifesto
Monday,
Abernathy To Speak
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The Martin Luther
King Jr. Survival Coalition
will present its Black
people's manifesto to
business and civic leaders
in Augusta on Monday,
August 4th.
Coalition Chairman the
Rev. Michael McCoy will
Waring Here To Spur Series
News-Review Columnist J.
Philip- Waring will be in
Augusta Thursday to help
boost his award-winning series
“Blacks Who Helped Build
Summer Sports Program
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Photos by Stan Raines
Os the many concerned
citizens and businessmen
participating in programs
which are aimed at recreation
for the Black youth of Augusta
this year, “Christ for the Inner
City” is a group made up of all
volunteers.
These volunteers are all
young career people, teachers,
and nurses, who are teaching
and playing sports, singing,
putting on puppet shows, and
offering various types of gospel
programs for the youth while
teaching about Christ at the
same time.
This group is all white but
will accept volunteers of any
race and position. The director
is Gene Strike. A young man 30
years old.
The summer sports program
is a joint effort of the Berachah
Community Church. 1124
Gwinnett St. and the First
Presbyterian Church on Telfair
Street. The group meets every
Tuesday from 6:30 p.m. until
8:30 p.m. at the Tubman Jr.
High School. In addition, to
this, they have weekend
present the manifesto to
Mayor Lewis A. Newman
at the City Council
meeting on Monday.
The Rev. Ralph
Abernathy will address a
rally the same evening at 8
in Gilbert-Lambuth Chapel
of Paine College.
Augusta.” Waring will meet
series participants at the
Wallace Branch Library
Thursday evening, July 31,at 6
p.m.
By Stan Rames
activities every other weekend.
On the weekends they go to
such places as Clark Hill and
other camping areas. When
weekend activities are held at
Clark Hill, they are held at the
First Presbyterian Church’s
camp site.
The group is funded by
individual gifts and
contributions which may be
mailed to: The Summer Sports
Program, Christ for the Inner
City, Berachah Community
School, 1124 Gwinnett St.,
Augusta.
The director, Mr. Striker, is
a sixth grade teacher at A.C.
Griggs Elementary School on
Turpin St. He gives his reason
for devoting his free time to
this program, “1 am doing this
because God has changed my
life, and I want to show others
what Jesus can do through and
with their lives.”
Mr. Striker praised Mr.
Marion Barnes, principal of
Tubman for his genuine help
and support. Mr. Barnes being
a former football coach is an
asset to the group’s program.
zoe
