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The Augusta News-Review - April 8, 1976 -
Walking With Dignity
South African White Churches Are
Speaking Out Against Apartheid
The United States started what amounts to a global ideological
tug-of-war way before many of the Third World Nations were
created. Uncle Sam supported every “dat-jim” right-wing group
that came along. Spain, Greece, Brazil, Chile and Korea are but a
few of the right-leaning dictators coddled by the U.S.A.
Maybe playing up to the right-wing guys and gals are in our
best national interest, but itsjiot so to the emerging nations,
especially the Black ones. They would rather take their chances
with Marxists. Therefore, the southern tip of Africa is in deep
trouble. With the whole of southern Africa in greater ferment
than ever before, the paramount question is no longer whether
but WHEN the entire political system of apartheid in Pretoria will
be changed. It is not simply a question now of the removal by
Prime Minister John Vorster of petty irritants, for Blacks, around
the edge of the great monolith of South African racial policy, but
a gathering Black Nationalism momentum forcing a hurried pace
of change.
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS RESTLESS FOR CHANGE OF
APARTHEID POLICIES
The latest significent development is the announcement by the
South African Roman Catholic leader, Archbishop Hurley of
Durban, that white Catholic schools would hence-forward be
open to Black kids. Despite South Africa’s commitment to
limited and controlled change, this sluggish movement is almost
certain to bring the Catholic Church in South Africa into a
frontal conflict with the government. Archbishop Hurley was
among the white church leaders who only a few weeks ago were
lauding another development of great moment: rejection of the
government’s segregated African homeland policy by the
politically important Zulu leader, Chief Gatsha Buthelezi. Instead
the chief advocated Black majority rule for a single unpartitioned
South Africa.
ZULU CHIEF SHOWED REAL COURAGE IN STANDING
UP FOR HIS CONVICTIONS
The Episcopal Bishop, the Rt. Rev. T. Bavin and Dr. Beyers
Naude, director of the Christian Institute welcomed Chief
Buthelezi’s declaration of complete unpartitioned majority rule.
Another defender of Chief Buthelezi was Mrs. Helen Suzman,
longtime Progressive Party member of the South African
Parliament. She said Chief Buthelezi was trying to bring home to
white South Africans the “stark reality” of African aspirations.
Chief Buthelezi had said before a wild cheering crowd of 40,000
Black and white Africans March 14 that events in the former
Portuguese territories abutting South Africa - Mozambique and
Angola -- had brought a new sense of nationalist awareness into
Benjamin
Hooks
FCC
Commissioner
Presidential Citation In
Order For Roy Wilkins
Roy Wilkins, the venerable executive director of the NAACP,
announced recently that he intends to step down from the helm
of the nation’s largest and most effective civil rights organization.
His move will signal the end of one of the most important eras in
the history of the U.S.
After more than 40 years of affiliation with the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, its executive
director for two decades, Wilkins will leave an organization that
has had the single most dramatic impact on social and racial
change of any in our history.
His has been an honorable and charismatic leadership -
leadership, however, that has not always gone unquestioned in
terms of tactics but never in terms of integrity and probity.
For my part, 1 believe the nation owes Mr. Wilkins a profound
vote of gratitude. He should, in this Bicentennial year, be called
to the White House and presented a grateful nation’s highest
citation, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Washington Post Columnist, William Raspberry points out the
fact that half the American people under age 30 have no memory
of a Wilkins-less NAACP.
1 would venture to say, this is especially true of the Black
community where, the U.S. Bureau of Census tells us, that more
than half of the population is young-- between the ages of 18-35.
It has been my good fortune and pleasure to work with Mr.
Wilkins over the years. A stubborn man, a tough man, but a fair
man -a leader with an unswerving goal -- equality for the Black
man in Africa. He never lost sight of this goal and his mission was
forever moving forward and unsullied.
The Wilkins’ NAACP era embraces one of the most turbulent
and significant periods in our history. When Wilkins joined the
NAACP in the early 1930’s as a young newspaperman, (editor of
the Kansas Calf) the country was in a deep depression. Legal
segregation was the law of the land; discrimination in housing,
jobs, public accommodations, education, legal justice, voter
registration, was rampant, norht, south, east, and west.
He lived to see many of the outward vestiges of racial
discrimination removed and while the NAACP did not initiate the
freedom rides or the militant young Black sit-in movement,
THE AUGUSTA NEWS-REVIEW
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by Al Irby
the hearts and minds of South Africa’s Blacks. He called for a
series of Black national conventions to discuss policy-a call that
has led many observers to see him bidding for political leadership
of all South Africa’s 17 million Blacks and not simply of the 5
million Zulu people.
National Black political organizations have been banned in
South Africa ever since the disturbance at Sharpeville in 1960. Os
the two main political leaders at that time the Pan-Africanist
Congress’s Robert Sobukwe lives under house arrest in Kimberley
after nine years in jail, and the African National Congresse’s
Nelson Mandela is serving a life sentence on Robben Island off
Cape Town/Sharpeville was an international disgrace, and a
turning point in the race policy of racist South Africa.
Then the old orignator of shamful apartheid, Prime Minister
Hendrik Verwoerd, used the Sharpeville infamy as a cue to
tighten his abominable separation of the races. Part of the super
racist over-all plan was to press for the untenable separate Black
homelands-the first of which, the Transkei is due for so-called
independence later this year-and separate Black colleges. But as
was expected by every Black in Africa, the separate homeland,
and, even more, the separate Black colleges have become breeding
grounds for pent-up Black consciousness and militant political
aspirations. These feelings among Blacks are beginning to be
released as events in Mozambique, Angola and Rhodesia are
developing into an unmistakable “handwriting on the wall.”
THE PRESENT PRIME MINISTER HAS BECOME SOME
WHAT DOCILE
Mr. Vorster, who became Prime Minister ten years ago with a
tough “shoot-em-down” reputation has proven more “chicken”
than many had expected. His aim has been to become buddies
with Black Africans to the north. His prime intention has been to
break down the hostile racial wall of isolation which Blacks had
erected against his country. The Pertoria government has opened
its armed services to Blacks-even advertises for Black recruits.
But far from providing an outlet for Black aspirations that might
lessen pressure for change, this recruitment offer could prove just
the opposite-a tool further to sharpen aspirations and perhaps
force change. Many of Mr. Vorster’s critics accused him of
turning soft just only long enough to strengthen his status quo
positions all over the segregated country. Yet some Blacks
believed the Prime Minister had already gone too far to be
stopped, and Mr. Vorster recognized this fact. But white
hard-liners blocked Mr. Vorster’s efforts to lead the way to more
radical and sweeping change.
Wilkins’ NAACP, nevertheless furnished major legal assistance to
them.
Along with countless others, I join in wishing the NAACP
Board Codspeed in its awesome task of seeking someone to fill
the giant Wilkins’ shoes - shoes that have strode like a colossus
across the sweeping landscape of civil rights and human dignity.
It is pointless to speculate on his replacement, for like his
predecessor, Walter White, there will never be another like him.
We should hope -- no, pray, that this venerable organization
Wilkins has headed with such honor for so many years, will be
guided by someone who will carry forward his leadership and
standing as if it were on his shoulders, carrying it to even greater
heights.
It is a shame that this civil rights group that has done so much
to raise so many from a stooping position to one of standing
proudly erect, should be in a strapped condition for funds.
And it would be my hope that the organization while
permitting Wilkins to return to private life after a long and
honorable service would, nevertheless, continue to avail itself of
his wisdom and sweeping intellectual know-how by placing him in
a position of an executive-director-emeritus consultant. He would
thus continue, on another level, his highly useful existence, and
we would be the richer for the arrangement. (NNPA)
"GOING PLACES”
By Philip Waring
Young Stars May Emerge
From Black Festival ’76
I would say unto my friend Ed Mclntyre and his Planning
Associates that their unique Augusta Black Festival’76, well may
make the start for some future stars for television, motion
pictures, stage or the world of music. Who knows this event
during Masters Week of the Bicentennial year may produce an
outstanding future athlete, artist or singer.
The festival is the best thing moving down the tracks to give
opportunity and image to our youth and also let them
demonstrate skills and talents while also showing to the total
Augusta Community contributions of our group in the cultural
and entertainment sector. (Ed, please send me a program and
place us on your festival mailing list: 350 Laclede Ave., St. Louis,
Mo., 63103.)
BLACK HISTORY IN GEORGIA DURING BICENTENNIAL
The Georgia Black state legislators have rightly agreed to
particpate in the current Bicentennial but on their own terms and
within the frame of Black relevance. They are going to search out
and highlight the achievements and records of the 27 Negroes
who served in the Georgia legistlature immediately following the
Civil War. With the possible exception of Bishop Henry Turner
(whose portrait was placed in the state capitoi building along with
Dr. M.L. King and our sainted Lucy Craft Laney), records of all
others have been largely ignored or forgotten.
REV. WHITE REPRESENTED AUGUSTA IN STATE
LEGISLATURE
This would not be Augusta Black History Moderator Phil
Waring if the question were not asked: “How does this affect or
help our Augusta Community?”. Fortunately, there is a positive
answer as I understand we were represented among these 27 men.
The Rev. William White, founder of Harmony Baptist Church,
editor of the hard-hitting Georgia Baptist newspaper and father of
Mrs. R.B. Baby White Williams, served in the legislature despite
threats from the KKK. He was really our “Frederic Douglass” and
more features on him later. I need pictures of him and Judson
Lyons, U.S’ Registrar of the Treasury.
NEWS-REVIEW TO HAVE SPECIAL BICENTENNIAL
SUPPLEMENT
Editor-Publisher Millender has just given clearance for a special
“Bicentennial Black History Supplement” of which I will edit
with your cooperation and aid. It will hit the streets on Thursday,
May 27 and is timed as a news maker for the gala three day
Memorial Day weekend. It will feature in pictures outstanding
Black leaders down through the years.
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Blacks Have The Tools To Do The Job
——— ~ SUBURBIA
SLACK BUSINESS MEN AND POLITICIANS U6HTOr
SHOULD SE IN THE FOREFRONT OF LONG
RANGE PLANNING, FOR ITIS ONLY THROUGH MUNmES M
ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CLOUT THAT '
ETHNK GROUPS WWE BEEN ABLE TO '
MOVE UP THROUGH SOCIETY. ,g* 4
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TO BE EQUAL
By Vernon E. Jordon Jr.
The Black Vote In ’76
The Black vote could determine the outcome of this year’s
Presidential election, although you’d never realize this from the
behavior of most candidates who continue to ignore issures of
concern to Black people.
Perhaps they are counting on the sleeping giant of the potential
Black vote to continue to slumber on through the election. For
the biggest threat to Black influence on the voting is low
participation in the electoral process.
Less than 60 percent of eligible Blacks are registered to vote,
which is disappointingly low. Worse still, a third of those
registered may not even go to the polling places on Election Day.
In the last Presidential election only 65 percent of Black
registered voters actually voted.
One obvious reason is that registration procedures are often
designed to discourage participation in the electoral process.
Another reason is the natural mistrust of people who have been
lied to for so long; it’s been estimated tha up to half of
non-registered Blacks don’t register because of a dislike or
disinterest in politics.
A dislike of politics is just anither way of saying that “I don t
believe politicians, even those that say they’ll do good, because
MID YEAR BICENTENNIAL BLACK HISTORY
CONVOCATION
As you know James E. Carter, 111 and the Black Heritage
Commission have just rounded out plans for a “first-of-its-kind”
BICENTENNIAL BLACK HISTORY CONVOCATION. It will
feature a major public meeting at 6 p.m., Monday, May 31 at
which time Dr. Benjamin Mays will speak at Tabernacle Baptist
Church. Theme is centered around the name change of Gwinnett
Street to Laney-Walker Blvd. There will also be historic exhibits,
reunion of former students from Haines, Walker Baptist,
Immaculate Schools and other institutions. This event will never
occur again in history and scores of former Augustans and
students who attended its schools will be coming in from around
the nation. There will be ceremonies at the graves of Miss Laney
and Dr. Walker and maybe placing of plaques, etc., at other sites.
Tobias-Yerby Circle is another hope.
L.B. Wallace, national president of the Haines Alumni
Association, indicates he is meeting with Dr. Ike Washington
(Walker Baptist Alumni) and William Brown (Immaculate
Conception Alumni) to set up a steering committee for some type
of reunion event during this three day period. Everyone reading
this, who is concerned, should contact these men and offer
cooperation and participation. This could be a join affair or
separate, large or small, informal or formal, but however it is
given, this gala Convocation calls for school reunions. Augusta is
noted for its warmth and hospitality. I am sure none of us would
want former Augustans flying and driving in from around the
nation and not one planned reception or school reunion for them.
BLACKS WHO HELPED BUILD AUGUSTA SERIES MOVING
ON
The Blacks Who Helped Build Augusta series will continue
throughout 1976 and into 1977. It should NOT BE CONFUSED
with the aforementioned Memorial Day weekend special
Bicentennial Black History Supplement which will print only
once. As the BWHBA series is a joint community effort involving
scores of different people who will help write, persons who have
assignments are urged to renew their planning. Your Black
History Moderator will soon be in contact. All of these efforts
spell vital background information and pride in Augusta and
accomplishments of its Blacks despite great odds!
I’ve seen too many of them lie. And anyway, no matter how
liberal they are, they’ll be more concerned about white folks than
Black and browns.”
So getting those millions of unregistered minority citizens
involved in the political process will mean not only changing
registration laws, but also convincing people that political action
can help change things. And it’s us to liberal politicians
especially, to prove to minorities tha. their professed liberal
beliefs are not just a screen that can be tossed away whenever it
suits them.
Such Black disillusionment with liberals as exists is engined by
such factors as the refusal of white suburbanites to approve
subsidized housing in their communities, the opposition of many
liberals to busing and affirmative action programs, and the
appearance of taking Blacks and the Black vote for granted.
Black disillusionment with conventional liberalism doesn’t
extend to economic and related issues; it is based on the
conviction that the Black stake in these issues is deemed
expendable by liberal leaders.
This helps explain why someone with so strong a civil rights
record as Senator Jackson is not lighting any fires among Blacks -
they’re too angry about this anti-busing stance and the way it
injected race into the campaign. Representative Udall’s record
and platform have won admiration from many Blacks, but again,
many suspect their interests won’t be given priority.
The entrance of Senator Church and Governor Brown into the
race reinforced this Black attitude, since neither mentioned equal
opportunity as a key part of his program. There’s an impression,
true or not, that liberals are more concerned with air pollution
than with the social pollution that harms our cities and
minorities.
Thus many liberals are surprised by Governor Carter’s strong
showing among Black voters in the primaries. His civil rights
record may not be as prominent as some of his competitors’, but,
perhaps for that reason, he is actively courting Black voters. Jt
The message Black voters are sending the politicans this year is
“don’t take us for granted”. And smart politicos in both parties
ought to take that message to heart.
Even with the present under-representation on the voting rolls,
Blacks may be the crucial factor in this year’s election.
Concentrated in the most populous states with the largest number
of electoral votes, and already the “swing factor” in many
southern states, Blacks could find themselves holding the balance
of power in November.
So campaigners and the drafters of the major party platform
had better start paying attention to Black needs and to the
unfinished business of creating equal opportunities.
Deadline
Mondays
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