Newspaper Page Text
The Augusta News-Review - July 29, 1976
Walking With Dignity
By AL IRBY
The Inimitable Barbara Jordan
The inimitable Congresswoman Barbara Jordan could teach
Black politicans the nitty-gritty of practical politics and
statecraft. She knows when to push and when to refrain.
The Black Congressional Caucus was peeved, when she would
not allow her name to be considered for vice-president The
congressional lady solon was adamant in her refusal because her
plans are not emotional nor precocious. On the other hand they
are carefully thought out and evaluated by a keen legal mind.
Nothing in her orderly life are left to chance, everything is
mentally blue-printed. Her clergy father taught her discipline as a
necessary life style at an early age. He instilled in • her to excel in
all endeavors especially in her church and school life. Barbara did
just that at Texas Southern and Boston University where she
received her law degree.
Constitutional law always appealed to her and thats what she
majored in. Many top universities want to have her teach political
science and consitutional law. That may come later but for now
politics have her heart and mind.
Ms. Jordan momentarily was the darling of the Democratic
National Convention at Madison Square Garden but it’s dubious
if she will remain in the good graces of the masses of Blacks
because of political ideology. Her political persuasion is right of
center in the Democratic Party. The bulk of Blacks are solid left
of the main stem and they view every one with gross suspicion
who stand otherwise.
Ms. Jordan maybe can not be classed as a gentlelady in a
classical sense of that term. She is somewhat of a super-liberated
tough, eloquent, loquocious and conservative and in a provincial
way belong to her political benefactors, Texas awesome political
establishment. Don’t get me wrong, they do not bound her in
chains. She elects to be a part of it by her own volition.
Texas is a financial monstrosity that deals in oil, computers,
insurance, construction, and petrochemicals. It needs loyal
managers so they carved out the eighteenth district in Houston
for talented Barbara.
Bob Strauss, chairman of the Democratic National Committee,
a millionaire in his own right, and a Texan is a very good friends
of Ms. Jordan.
Barbara was bom on February 21, 1936, in Houston, the
daughter of a Baptist minister. She graduated from law school in
1959. She was elected to the Texas State Senate in 1967 at the
age of 31, the first Black sent to tht body and the first woman.
Within four years she became president pro tempore of the Texas
"GOING PLACES”
By Philip Waring
Some Blacks Now Donating Money
For Racial Advancement
Fortunately the past decade has seen increasing donations of
money by Black groups to assist in racial salvation and
betterment of programs. Beneficiaries have been our key
community service and civil rights groups including the NAACP,
the National Urban League and the United Negro College Fund.
The NAACP is 67-years old, Urban League 66 and UNCF 35.
Those of us in the business of soliciting funds for these
purposes realize several human and economic dynamics. First,
Black income stands but half that of whites. Inferior educational
training often limit our opportunities. Secondly, annual reports
from scores of national, state and local human rights commissions
point out so clearly that discrimination in employment is still
with us. Because of our disadvantaged position, the habit of mass
giving is still limited. Our middle-class is improving on this,
however.
Scope for today’s column is the number one editorial taken
from the New York Amsterdam, a paper which I sold and later
wrote for during my teen-age days. (May I also point out that the
Amsterdam News editorial writer was Black, a male, and also a
very critical member of Alpha Phi Alpha). So let’s read about the
AKA’s, Links and Deltas who have “put their money where their
mouths are located”. Fortunately, Augusta has excellent chapters
of all three groups.
WELCOME AKA’s
This newspaper welcomes, with exhilarating pleasure, the 47th
Annual Convention of the Alpha Kappa Alphs Sorority which
convened this week in the “Big Apple” at the Waldorf Astoria
Hotel
It is always a pleasure to pay our respects to the oldest
Black-oriented sorority of college-trained women.
But our exhilaration about this convention center around the
Big Way the AKA’s came to the Big Town.
They came in a Big Way. Away that made history for Black
women-a way that offered a big challenge to Black youth, and a
way that made their convention a hard way for Black men, such
as the Alpha Phu Alphas to foUow when they come here next
week.
On the first day that the AKA’s came to town, they presented
the United Negro College Fund with checks and pledges totaling a
half million dollars!
Read that paragraph again!
A sorority of Black women is giving the UNCF a half million
dollars! This, in our memory, is the largest investment in Black
youth by a single group of Blacks in modem day history!
Think about it!
We particulary ask our young people to think about it.
And we particulary urge Black male fartemities to think about
it!
And before we get off the subject of what Black women of the
AKA’s have done, let us first go from the East Coast in New
York, to the West Coast in Seattle.
There, in this same week the Links, another one of our
outstanding Black women’s organizations, on July 16 presented a
check for $150,000 to the United Negro College Fund!
That gift by the Links brought the total that the Links hive
given to the UNCF in the past years to $350,000!
ANd they, too, like the AKS’s, voted to continue to give to the
UNCF as their prime charity and to make another donation of
$150,000 to the fund in 1978!
We ask our Black young people to take a particular close look
at these huge surne of money invested in them by Black women,
because it was not too long ago that Black youngsters- male and
female, were roaming around our campuses “putting down
Black sororities and fraternities.
That had to be a painful experience for Black sorority women
and Black fraternity men.
And because it was painful to them, they might well have given
up on pushing our Black youth forward, and instead, devoted
their time, work and energy to buying sorority or fraternity
houses and throwing cocktail parties for their own enjoyment as
they approached the prime of their lives.
But Black women did not choose to do this.
Instead, they continued to believe in our Black children in
spite of their dalliance in the revolution, the “jean scene,” teh
Page 4
Senate, which meant she was serving as acting governor when the
lieutenant governor and governor were out of town.
Mai Goode, the noted television journalist, explains the
remarkable lady in these words: “She’s smart, knows the issues, is
a super political horse trader of the first order, and represents a
Black district that is the most politically sophisticated of any in
the United States.”
BARBARA GETS 81 PER CENT OF VOTES
The eighteenth district in Houston is predominately Black and
was cut-out as a safe district for Barbara in 1970. Without the
Texas political brokers and without a superb renutation in the
Texas Senate that could not be >challenged, in other words, if
it was not for Barbara Jordan the eighteenth district would never
have come about.
The rhetorical lady from Texas received an astounding 81 per
cent of the vote (47,713) in the 1972 primary against three men
opponents. In the 1972 general election, she received 85,672
votes carrying every precinct by overwhelming margins.
Her colleagues on Capitol Hill are quick to say they don’t look
forward to debating her nor can they count on her in the Black
Caucus when controversial issues concerning Black People are
discussed. In answer to why she declined to attend the recent
mini-convention of Black Democrats in Charlotte, N.C., she said,
“because it’s a waste of time”.
MS. PRAGMATIC, THAT’S HER
Interviewed on the convention floor at Madison Square
Garden, concerning the speculation that she would be the first
woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court, the
perspicacious lady declared: “1 have no comment about that. I
think it very presumptuous for someone to talk about a seat on
the Supreme Court or any other position which I may be
considered for by Mr. Carter before he is elected as President of
the United States.”
Houston Texas was not a “hot-bed” of civil rights activities,
not that Blacks in Texas were anti-civil rights, but they were too
affluent to be really concerned. This was the kind of climate that
creates conservatism even in Blacks. Barbara Jordan is made of
these ingredients.
MOREHOUSE COLLEGE SENDS SOME OF ITS EMINENCE TO
THE OLYMPICS
Edwin Moses of Morehouse College won a covetous gold medal
in the 400 meter huddle at Montreal on last Sunday, excellence
begets excellence.
drug scene and their bad grades and high rates of dropping out.
When Black students took freedom rides instead of reporting
to college classes, Black mothers stuck with them.
But when they went to jail instead of reporting for final exams,
Black mothers stuck with them.
When they failed to graduate on time, and were ready to drop
out from college, Black mothers chastised them, raised some
more money and sent them back to school.
Finally when these young people turned their backs on them
by denoncing Black sororities, Black mothers accepted that
painful blow, too, and kept on keeping on by saying to them:
“Some day, you” understand.”
Today in this aftermath of benign neglect, where the
anti-poverty money of the Great Society is rapidly dwindling
down to zero; where free tuition is virtually a thing of the past;
and where scholarships are as scarce as hen’s teeth; these same
Black women, in these hard times, now step forward and say:
“We will invest in our Black children to the tune of a half
million dollars!”
We ask our young peole now: Have you ever seen a better show
of faith? And the logical question to follow that one is:
What will your answer be?
We cannot, of course, close this editorial without also paying
our respects to Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, which in step with
the onward march of Black women, only recently invested
approximately a million dollars in the production of a Black
owned motion picture entreprenurial effort.
This move made history is providing job opportunities and
career ladders for young Black people in a field where our
advancement has been painfully slow.
And as we salute tire AKA’s the Links and the Delata for
investing in our own, we turn to Black men of Alpha Phi Alpha,
who will be coming, to our city next, and say to them, and to
Black male organizations who will follow them:
What will you offer? How will you match this performance by
Black women?
Think about it... and act!
Letters To The Editor
"Support Brothers &
Sisters Behind Bars’’
Dear Editor:
In recent years, we as Black
people existing in North
America, have been the victims
of political repression disguised
as justice, “law and order”.
This repression has manifested
itself in several forms, however,
the most devastating and
revealing method utilized by
the oppressors has been
through the tenacles of police
state tactics.
While it disturbs us greatly
to witness the attacks made on
our people for ‘crimes’
committed against the
colonialist/oppressor, it should
also come as an expected effect
of a racist society which has
since our arrival on these
shores relegated us to positions
of subordination.
Consequently it is of utmost
importance that we realize that
the prisons, jails and courts of
this country are only
■nJ
Jr '
extensions of the ruling few
who determine our courses and
insult us.
Several examples expose the
nature and extent to which the
oppressor will go to suppress
Black growth and deny us the
basic human dignity taken for
granted by them. For instance,
by now we should all be aware
of the plight of Sis. JoAnn
Little in Beaufort, N.C. While
this case received national and
international attention, it
raised several questions
concerning the right to
self-denfense, the legal
protection concerning that
right and the protection of
Black womanhood under the
same justice that for decades
has turned a deaf ear on
brothers and sisters lynched by
mobs of whites for various
so-called crimes.
Also witness the plight of
Ben Chavis, the Wilimington 10
Blacks 9 Destiny In Own Hands....
"BLACK POWER-
A DECLARATION 'WK*
OF INDEPENDENCE
OF WHITE LEADER- J /
/jgbETERMNATIM
OWNER ~ f
ft \' ship!
■
//// \
# \ i
A
Spunking Out
Busing Plan Revealed
After much deliberation and concentration 1 have finally
figured out a basic plan to solve the busing controversy. This is a
10 point plan that should be well reveived by whites, Negroes and
Blacks in this country. The plan would first be utilized in Boston
and then in cities like Augusta, Harrisburg, Pa., and Louisville,
Ky.
The first point is to conduct “Save the Bus” campaigns. The
huge automobile makers and monopolistic oil companies would
provide campaign funds and executives to conduct the campaigns.
Since “Save the Children” campaigns do not merit widespread
support, a “Save the Bus” drive would logically appeal to the
defenders of property rights over human rights.
The second point would be the painting of all yellow school
buses to new red, white and blue hues. Large American flags
could then be pained on the buses since patriotic whites love
those colors and they would not dare destroy buses with the flag
designs. Bus drivers would be required to wear red, white and
blue uniforms and bus tires would be inscribed with “I love
America” letterings.
The installation of tape recorders on each bus is the third
point All school children would then listen to the “Star
Spangled Banner” or the National Anthem as they entered and
departed from a bus. A pre-recorded prayer could then be played
since whites are upset about the non-existence of prayer in the
public schools. The law says nothing about praying on school
buses. Since school children do not hear any prayers at home, the
bus drivers will therefore be mobile chaplains.
Painting all of the schools red, white and blue constitute the
fourth point. The roofs of all schools could be draped with school
length flags with big replicas of the Liberty Bell hanging over the
entrances and all exits of each school This would insure that no
innocent school child could escape the message of patriotism and
plunder of this democracy. The fifth point consists of placing
prayer back in the school while banning the reading of the
Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.
After all, everybody knows that it is more important to pray than
to continue to give lip service to those important documents.
What school would miss the temptation to pray since it has been
preying on innocents minds since the birth of this country.
The sixth point is to hire teachers not on the basis of education
but on their ability to pray. Those who prayed the loudest and
and the Charlotte Three in the
ultra-racist state of North
Carolina. These men and one
woman have been charged and
sentenced to extremely long
sentence in the prison camps,
sanatoriums, and jails for
so-called ‘crimes’ when
evidence points to their
innocence.
There is also a mounting
national campaign to secure
freedom for 16 year old Gary
Tyler in Louisianna. This
brother has been accused of
shooting a white student in a
small Louisiana town. He was
sentenced to serve 99 years and
a day in Louisiana’s infamous
Angola Prison. Evidence also
points to his innocence,
however, the court refuses to
hear his case again.
These and numerous other
cases point to the unequal
distribution of ‘justice in
America’. It is no mere
concidence that these Black
people have been victims of a
society which has been
traditionally racist in its
PONTIAC W MASTER
Your Thumb* Up Dealer
Eleventh I
■ at Telfair
oj
Bwti The Beat Haade Down.
treatment of the sons and
daughter of those illegally
kidnapped from the continent
Africa and supporessed into
subservience. We can not allow
Black men and women
incarcerated in the prisons
across America to become
isolated from the mainstreams
of Black life and
determination. For it is these
same Black people who have
endured along with us the
forever present forces of racism
and capitalism which exploits
and demeans the essence of
Black life.
In the final analysis we
should consider reunited with
those of our community who
have been confined to the pens
of America. We can aid by
seeking out others who are also
interested in offering those of
us in captivity alternative.
Unite with brothers and sisters
behind the walls!!
Randy Gunter
P.O. Box 1408
Augusta, Georgia
most eloquently would become school administrators while those
with less strong vocal cords would become teachers. This is a sure
way to hire more Black teachers since they had to pray the
hardest over the years to survive under the old system. A white
bigoted parent is more familiar with the power of prayer than he
or she is with the power of democracy and love.
The school superintendent would be appointed on the basis of
the ability to pray in eight keys at a football game and be heard
without the use of a microphone. At these games each teacher
would be required to carry a flag in each hand. Also, teachers
would be required to form choral groups and sing the National
Anthem at the beginning, half-time, and ending of each game.
Those teachers who could not sing well would help their home
team since the opposing teams could not play football fbr
laughing.
The seventh point involves consolation for those white parents
who have learned to hate the sight of school buses regardless of
race, creed or color. The children of these parents would be flown
to school in helicopters prayed over by Billy Graham. Those
whites not liking flying would have their children delivered to and
from schools on newly built trains ajid trolley cars. What right
thinking parent could be “anti-training” since their children have
never received a real education anyway?
Someone will rationally raise the question about
“neighborhood schools” and that deserves an answer. President
Gerald Ford would declare each state a neighborhood by
executive order. Those states not going along with this order
would be pardoned until they rejoined the Union. The rebellious
governors of those states would be exiled to San Clemente to
walk along the beaches while reconsidering their wrong in
preparation for writing books destined to be best sellers in South
Africa.
The ninth point would reasonably be to paint all of the
non-white school children the superior color of white. The large
multi-national corporations would be given federal funds to
conduct research and develop a white paint that is permanent -
especially on Black children. Black paint would become illegal
and any Blacks caught with this foreign sustbance would have to
spend a night in the “white” house as punishment.
A tenth and major point is to abolish all transportation for
school systems. All school children would therefore be required
to walk to school This would help the children to become
healthy adults without the unhappy experience of a weight
problem.
The President’s Commission on Physical Fitness would present
a “white heart” to children who have to walk the farthest to
school President Ford and Ronald Reagan would flip a coin to
determine who would present the awards during a given year.
Pictures of President Fort and Ronald Reagan on a giant
elephant in clown suits would be placed in each school district.
This would evoke smiles and perhaps even anger at the two
persons who have done the most to mis-educated the children.
I know everybody will be happy with this plan and I will
become a national hero and be appointed an Ambassador to
South Africa. Only Art Buchwald or myself could have solved
this busing problem - if you forget about the Pink Panther.
Some wiseacre will no doubt wonder how Blacks and the
president will react to the “Master Plan”. My answer is that the
president will become a bus driver in January and Black folks will
keep their children at home until white folks come to their senses
- after trying my plan.
Haram bee!!!!!!!!!!
;•: THE AUGUSTA NEWS-REVIEW j;
¥ Mallory K. MillenderEditor-Publisher X
S: Frank Bowman Advertising Manager £
¥ Audrey Frazier Editor-At-Large .;.
$ George Wrightßeporter $
Michael Carr Photographer $
¥ Stan RainesCirculation Manager $
£ Mailing Address: Box 953, Augusta, Ga. Phone 722-4555 $
Second Class Postage Paid Augusta, Ga. 30903 :<
SUBSCRIPTION RATES $
Payable in Advance x
¥ One year in Richmond Countys7.oo tax incl. £
6 Months $3.50 tax incl. ¥
¥ One year out of County SB.OO tax incl.
ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT X
X Classified & Display Advertising Deadline
X 12 Noon on Tuesday S
News Deadline Monday 5:30 (printed free) $
Z\> AMALGAMATED JjJtjljL '¥
L_±. PUBLISHERS. INC. 'JjCgjyjyWmJ X
V NATIONAL ADVtR’ISING REINJISCNTAuvi
X • NEW YORK •CHICAGO ■■ 9 ».•
I