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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. 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