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Vol. 5
Paul Robeson Dead At 77 After A Stroke
PHILADELPHIA - Paul
Robeson, 77, who thrilled and
inspired world concert
audiences with his rich bass
voice, but who became a target
of anti-Communists because of
Man Is Arrested In Son’s Stabbing
Augusta police Saturday
arrested a 57-year-old man and
charged him with aggravated
assault with intent to murder
in connection with the
stabbing of his son.
Sam Mims Sr., 1599
McCauley St., was released
from jail on $2,500 bond on
the charge.
Mims’ son, Sam Mims Jr.,
1599 McCauley St., was
admitted to University
Hospital Saturday morning
Man Shot To
Death At
Club Reggio
A 36-year-old Augusta man
died early Saturday of gunshot
wounds received in a Walton
Way nightclub and police
arrested the shying suspect
Saturday afternoon.
Bobby 0. Dyer, 36, 1502
12th St., died at 3:20 a.m. in
University Hospital of wounds
to the throat and right
shoulder, police said, after he
was shot in the Club Reggio at
9th Street and Walton Way at 2
a.m.
Police arrested Homer Davis,
26, 1820 Cooney Circle,
Saturday and charged him with
murder. He was in the city jail.
Det. Sgt. D.S. Lewis said
Dyer and Davis had argued at
the club after Dyer put Davis’
sister out of the club earlier in
the evening.
Black Barred From Nunn Speech
by Bob Oliver
A Black newsman was
barred from covering a speech,
being delivered, by U.S.
Senator Sam Nunn at the
Milledgewille (Ga.) Country
Club earlier this month.
Bill Green, WMAZ
Television Macon, Ga , was on
an assignment to cover the
event when he was told by a
club spokesman, “You cannot
attend this banquet, because
the policy of this club is not to
admit Blacks,” according to
Tim Dobbs, political editor for
WMAZ, who accompanied
Green to the event.
A subsequent news release'
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LT. GOVERNORS ADDRESS BLACK PRESS WORKSHOP - Lt. Governors George L Brown of Colorado
(2nd from right) and Mervyn Dymally of California (2nd from left) addressed the Mid-Winter Workshop of the
National Newspaper Publishers Association -- the Black Press of America - during the closing banquet on Jan. 23 in
the Virgin Islands. At left is Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett, NNPA president and editor-publisher, San Francisco
Sun-Reporter/Metro-Reporter. At right is Publisher Ariel Melchoir, Sr., Daily News of the Virgin Islands and
workshop host Sessions were held at Frenchman’s Reef Holiday Inn on St Thomas.
P. O. Box 953
his praise of Russia, died at
noon Friday at Presbyterian
Hospital in Philadelphia, Pa.
He had been admitted to the
hospital on Dec. 28 after
suffering a stroke.
with a stab wound in the
stomach, police said.
Officers R. Williams and M.
McCauley said the senior Mims
Comedian Clay Tyson, 46,
Dies OF Heart Attack
WsMEHI
Clay Tyson at recent Augusta appearance
The statement “You can
make it if you try” sounds old
and corny, but comedian Clay
Tyson showed how true it can
be. After he suffered a
crippling stroke in 1964 that
paralyzed the left side of his
body, many thought his show
business career was finished.
But they were wrong. The
5-foot-tall Tyson wanted to
from WMAZ indicated Sen.
Nunn wrote the station’s
general manager a letter of
apology. Nunn was unaware of
the incident, he learned of it
through a news telecast. He
issued a statement condemning
the club’s actions, and that if he
had known persons were
barred because of race, creed,
color or sex, he would not have
spoken and will not in any
place that practices such
discriminatory policies in the
future, according to the letter.
The Georgia Association of
Newscasters president. Bob
Young (WBBQ-Radio Augusta),
said there should not have been
AN OPEN FORUM FOR PEOPLE WHO CARE
Robeson was an outspoken
critic of the treatment that he
and fellow Blacks received in
America. He said that the
Soviet Union was where he had
found the greatest personal
told them he and his son had
argued at the house early
Saturday morning. The son
struck his father and the older
perform so bad that he worked
himself back into shape. Within
a year, he was back on stage,
happy as ever.
And he continued to bring
chuckles to the public for the
next 11 years until he died last
week at the age of 46 from a
heart attack in the lobby of the
Atlanta International Hotel.
Starting his career as a tap
a color barrier in the reporting
of news. “For any organization
to use race as an excuse to bar
a reporter is ridiculous,” he
said.
Young commented that there
must be respect for those
representatives who have more
of an access to private areas
than other citizens. But, he
expressed a desire that those
who do control access to
private areas would not
attempt to interfere with a
reporter trying to do his job.
“I take it as a slap in the
face to all reporters and an
insult to the good judgment
of the public, as well as a
Augusta, Georgia
freedom. There, he said, “I
walked the earth for the first
time with complete dignity.”
Because of Robeson’s
political views, his passport was
revoked in 1950, at the
man stabbed young Mims,
police said.
Police did not find the
weapon used in the attack.
dancer 30 years ago, Tyson
subsequently became a singer
and finally a comedian. More
recently he was a frequent
performer on James Brown’s
syndicated television show,
Future Shock.
His pantomime of a lover
taking his girlfriend for a car
ride was what he called “my
bread and butter laugh-getting
routine.” As a featured
performer with Brown’s revue
during the past 10 years, Tyson
credited the businessman-enter
tainer with giving him a break
when nobody else would after
his recovery from a stroke.
Brown said Clay was a gifted
comedian “who wrote his
material from real-life
experiences.”
Although he was a resident
of New Britain, Conn, (where
he was buried), Tyson was
planning on moving back to his
native city, Atlanta. He had
appeared in revues with Ella
Fitzgerald, Lionel Hampton
and Pearl Bailey.
He is survived by his wife,
Geraldine; a son, Clay Jr., 19;
three daughters, Cassandra, 20,
Demetrich, 26, and Mis.
Regina Myers, 25.
disrespect to the letter and
intent of the Constitution of
the United States with its
provision for freedom of
press,” Young stressed.
Green is a member and past
president of the newscasters
organization.
The Georgia Association
of newscasters on Jan. 20,
passed a resolution encouraging
its membership to report to the
public the actions of those who
exclude reporters because of
race and to disengage
themselves from newsworthy
events in such areas where
reporters are excluded solely
on the basis of race.
beginning of the McCarthy era.
The Supreme Court ordered it i
returned in 1958, and Robeson '
1
spent the next five years in 1
Europe.
For the last 11 years he had
lived with a sister in West
Philadelphia, refusing 1
interviews and seeing only !
family members and a few 1
close friends.
Robeson was the son of a '
runaway slave who became a
minister. Born April 9,1898, in
Princeton, N.J., Robeson was
the third Black admitted
Rutgers and was named an
All-American football player
there in 1917. He was
valedictorian of his senior class
in 1919, and a Phi Beta Kappa.
While studying law at
Columbia, Robeson played
professional football on
weekends and took roles in
amateur theatrical productions.
Eugene O’Neill saw
him in a play at a New York
YWCA, was impressed by his
powerful voice and physique,
and persuaded him to join an
acting company in
Blacks Urge
Julian Bond
As President
By Thomas A. Johnson
Leaders of the National
Black Political Assembly have
announced that they intend
to draft State Senator Julian S.
Bond of Georgia as an
independent candidate for
President of the United States.
This marks the first attempt
to form an independent
political organization by the
f our-year-old amalgamation
that grew out of the First
National Black Political
Convention in Gary, Ind., in
March 1972.
It also puts the group in
conflict with Black elected
officials who are under strong
pressure to support their
parties’ political choice. Many
of these officials were among
the assembly’s strongest
supporters years ago.
The assembly’s leaders said
that Mr Bond best represented
that assembly’s campaign to
create “a society based on
humanism, democracry and
self- determination, free of
oppression and exploitation of
humans by other humans; an
end to racism, sexism,
militarism, imperialism and all
the insane derivations of
monopoly capitalism.”
Mr. Bond’s reaction to the
assembly move was to say he
was “flattered” but that he had
no plans to involve himself in
national politics “until the
1976 legislative session is over
in March.”
Ata news conference at the
offices of District 1199, Drug
and Hospital Workers Union,
Mtangulizi Sanyika, chairman
of the assembly’s political and
organizational development
said the group was “entering
Presidential politics as
independents with no intention
of compromising or negotiating
with the Democratic or
Republican parties.”
He said the effort would
offer “our people and the
American public a choice, a
human agenda" so they “will
not be forced to choose
between the lesser of two
evils.”
Mr. Sanyika, a Boston-based
political activist whose name
was formerly Hayward Henry,
said that Mr. Bond had been
Provincetown, Mass. Robeson
starred in O’Neill’s “All God’s
Children Got Wings” at the
Provincetown Playhouse, and
appeared at the same theater in
the title role of “Emperor
Jones.”
He made his debut as a
concert singer in Greenwich,
Conn., in 1925, and was an
immediate success.
In 1930, Robeson made a
triumphal concert tour of
Europe, and also played the
lead in “Othello” in London,
where he was acclaimed.
A.G. Gaston Kidnaped
A G. Gaston
A.G. Gaston, one of the
nation’s wealthiest Black men,
was kidnaped Saturday in what
police said was a ransom
attempt “that fell apart at the
seams.”
Gaston, 83, was rescued
within hours after a man broke
into his home and beat him
and his elderly wife and
abducted Gaston in his own
car, Maj. David Orange of the
Jefferson County Sheriff’s
Department said.
“This was definitely a
ransom kidnaping that fell
apart at the seams,” Orange
said.
Charles L. Clayborn Jr., 44,
a Black man who last worked
in a Las Vegas, Nev., nightclub,
was charged with kidnaping,
robbery, burglary and two
counts of assault with intent to
murder.
Gaston, who rose from
chosen out of a field of five
Blacks. The other four under
consideration were Democratic
Representatives John Conyers
Jr. of Michigan and Ronald V.
Dellums of California; the
Mayor of Gary, Ind., Richard
G. Hatcher, and Dick Gregory,
the comedian and social
activist.
The assembly’s co-chairman,
Mashariki Kurudisha, said that
the group would have chosen a
woman candidate had they
found one “better, able to
carry these issues.”
Ron Daniels, the assembly
chairman, who lives in
Youngstown, Ohio, said that
the organization would also
assist in the convening of the
first National Committee for
People’s Politics in Washington,
DC., Feb. 20-22. The
committee will attempt to
unite them “Black, third
world, and white groups and
persons” with similar interests,
he said.
The assembly, with support
of the committee, will then
seek “ballot status for the
candidate in 25 to 30 states,”
he said.
The assembly’s own third
National Black Political
Convention is scheduled for
Cincinnati March 17-21.
The group’s first convention
in 1972 attracted some 8,000
Black Americans of diverse
political interests to Gary.
Many of the elected officials
and civil rights people dropped
out of the organization after
nationalists pushed through
resolutions calling for the
“dismantiDing of Israel” and an
end to school busing to achieve
racial integration.
Fewer than 2,000 attended
the group’s second convention
in Little Rock, Ark., in April
1974.
LESS THAN 75% ADVERTISING
January 29, 1976 No. 43
Paul Robeson
poverty to make his fortune in
insurance, real estate, a funeral
home and other ventures, was
found in the back seat of his
car about two hours after he
was forced from his home.
Officers halted the car and
found Gaston in the back seat,
his head covered by a paper
sack and his body by a blanket.
“I’m A.G. Gaston. That’s
the man that got me,” they
quoted Gaston as shouting.
He was taken to a hospital
where Mrs. Gaston already was
being treated for multiple head
cuts and a dislocated shoulder.
Gaston received a head cut.
“I’m alive, he shouted to
relatives and friends as he was
carried into the hospital on a
stretcher.
Orange said the kidnaper got
into the couple’s large house
by boring enough holes with a
brace and bit to cut a large
enough opening in a back door
to wiggle through.
The Gaston home has an
alarm system, installed after a
bomb was thrown into the
house in 1963 during
Birmingham's racial disorders.
There is an alarm on the house
itself, but Mrs. Gaston said she
had forgotten to set the house
alarm the night before.
Mrs. Gaston said she was
awakened by a noise in her
husband’s room, went in and
Editorial
Earth, Wind And Fire
And CBS - Thanks
During the main thrust of the civil rights movement in the
1960 s entertainers, Iboth Black and white , marched in the front
lines of battles in Montgomery, Birmingham, Selma, and Jackson.
Some of the biggest names in the entertainment business
contributed their time and talents to provide needed financial
resources in support of the NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, CORE,
National Urban League, and other groups leading the fight against
discriminatory laws and an unjust social system.
As we know, the Nixon Years brought a “benign neglect” and
a wanton conspiracy to defame and destroy, through the CIA,
FBI and other subversive means, tfag civil rights movement and its
most militant leadership. During these dark years, other civil
rights-oriented organizations have been weakened by the lack of
financial support.
On the second day of the New Year, there was an encouraging
sign that at least one aspect of the period of corporate neglect of
urban needs may be gradually coming to an end. More than
14,000 persons jammed the Oakland Coliseum to see Earth, Wind
and Fire, in the first of a series of “Save our Cities” benefit
concerts.
Earth, Wind and Fire, one of the hottest groups in the country,
contributed* their services, and so did promoter Bill Graham.
And CBS Records picked up the tab for all promotional costs for
the concert.
Co-chaired by Dr. Margaret Mead, noted author and
anthropologist, and Mayors Maynard Jackson of Atlanta, and
Kevin White of Boston, the “Save Our Cities” Committee has
planned a series of six concerts to benefit two organizations
actively involved in the business of improving the oualitv of life
in our cities - the National Urban < Coalition and the National
Council of Negro Women.
Top executives of major recording companies serve on the
committee and are providing the leadership for this national
effort to re-focus public attention on the urban uisis and to
mobilize resources to deal with this crisis.
Earth, Wind and Fire, who are products of urban life, and the
leader- s»iip of the CBS Records Group are to be commended for
helping to hunch this vitally needed campaign to “Save Our
Cities.’’
On Broadway he starred in
“Porgy and Bess,” “Black
Boy,” and “Showboat,” and
also appeared again in
“Othello” in 1943. That ran for
296 performances, an all-time
record for a Shakespearean
play on Broadway.
Robeson’s first movie role
was in “Emperor Jones” in
1931. In the movie version of
“Showboat” in 1936, he starred
with Irene Dunne. He also
made many hit phonograph
records-among them “01’ Man
River”-and sang often on
radio.
saw him struggling with a
masked man.
The man, armed with a
hammer, swung on her. “He hit
me two or three times on the
head with the hammer, as hard
as he could,” she said.
She was stunned but
conscious. The man pushed her
onto her husband’s bed,
handcuffed her hands in front
of her and tied her feet to the
bed with a piece of rope.
She struggled free of the
rope and called Smith &
Gaston Funeral Home and
asked them to get the police.
Deputies Richard H. Landers
and Frank W. Clifton found
Mrs. Gaston lying on the floor,
still iia nd cuffed, bloody but
still conscious.
Gaston’s car was missing and
the two deputies began
patrolling the area, looking for
it.
In the meantime, the
abductor drove around, making
several stops. Officers said he
apparently was looking for
partners. Eventually he got on
Alabama 79 northeast of
Birmingham and was sighted at
about the same time by
Landers, Clifton and other
policemen.
Landers said they saw
Gaston squirming under the
blanket in the back seat,
yanked open the door, guns
drawn, and arrested the man.
2W
