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Paine College Library
1235 15th St.
Augusta, GA 30901
Man Beats Woman With His Fists
POLICE REPORT - Page 2
New Black Declaration - Page 4
Vol. 6
SCLC Delegates Condemn Death
Penalty At 19th Annual Convention
The Southern Christian
Leadership Conference
(SCLC), concluding its 19th
annual convention in Biloxi,
Mississippi, condemned capital
punishment as an inequity of
“a racist justice system” and
urged Congress to pass a
constitutional amendment
against the death penalty.
The national civil rights
organization’s position was
part of a “social-economic
Former Augustan Completes
Work In Africa
By Audrey Frazier
Former Augustan, Maiy Ida
Gardner, recently completed a
one year assignment in Africa
for the National Young
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Mary Ida Gardner
Women’s Christian Association.
Miss Gardner served as an
advisor and consultant for the
YMCA in the countries of
Tanzania and Botswana.
According to Miss Gardner,
“Our policy (YMCA) is to help
the people do what they want
to do. I helped them write up
projects and made suggestions
for improving the procedure.
While in Africa, Miss
Gardner met with 45 different
club groups of the YMCA once
a week During these meetings
the women organized and
started nursery and elementary
schools, built bus stop shelters
and constructed crafts.
“I was trying to help them
become better leaders. People
from ail over the country came
in for a whole day’s session of
learning how to become better
North Augustan Receives
High Acclaim For ETV Special
Nat Irvin Jr., son of the Rev.
& Mrs. Nathaniel Irvin of North
Augusta, received high acclaim
for his televised version of
“Sister Sarah’s Diary”. The
play was first shown on ETV
June 23, and again August 30.
The following is one of the
many critic’s reviews of Irvin’s
work: With television
nightly coughing up blood and
with the theatre gasping and
pleading in the semi-darkness
for new life, it would be
remarkable if their union
produced anything more than a
stillborn atrocity. Although
Nat Irvin Jr.’s first ETV special
“Excerpts from Sister Sarah’s
Diary” is far from an atrocity,
his production does up the
limitations of television
theatre.
A USC student from North
Augusta, Irvin is working on
his M.A. degree in the newly
organized Department of
Media Arts. To complete his
degree requirements, Irvin
(with the help of Saur.dra
Bowie and Tommy Young)
wrote the “Sister Sarah” script
based on a short story by Dr.
Ralph Phelps and submitted it
to TV to gain their assistance
in his thesis project. Impressed
by the script, ETV decided to
produce the show themselves
but still left most of die
control to Irvin.
P.O. Box 953
agenda” it developed to focus
attention on the plight of
Black and poor Americans.
SCLC President Ralph
Abernathy has said the
document will be presented to
the Democratic and
Republican candidates for
president to increase their
awareness of the problems of
the disadvantaged.
SCLC renewed its
long-standing opposition to the
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YWCA members in Botswana listen to lecture.
leaders, how to plan programs,
work with young people;
things like this that they could
go back into their village and
do a more orderly job of
getting themselves together.”
Out of 10,000 elementary
school graduates, only 2,000
can attend secondary school.
Miss Gardner helped to
organize a domestic science
program for those girls who
could not get into secondary
schools because there is no
space for them. “I helped to
start a training program for
girls so that they may become
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Nathaniel Irvin, Jr.
“Sister Sarah’s Diary” is a
humorous update version of
the Biblical tale of Noah and
his ark - this time Noah being
a fanatical Black reverend
desperately preaching to warn
his congregation and city God’s
death penalty in a unanimously
adopted report from its
resolutions committee at Pete
Fountain’s Buena Vista. Black
leaders, noting that the
majority of persons on death
row in the nation’s
penitentiaries are Black and
poor, have contended that
capital punishment constitutes
a form of genocide.
Recently, the U.S. Supreme
Court voted 7-2 to uphold the
self supporting. They learned
skills to help improve
themselves in whatever way is
necessary.”
Miss Gardner worked with
65 women from throughout
Tanzania and Botswana. “This
was a very interesting
experience,” stated Miss
Gardner. “1 would like to go
back one day just to see if they
have accomplished any of the
projects.”
Miss Gardner, who resides
in New York, is a member of
the national staff of the
YWCA. Presently she is
plan for the imminent
destruction of the world. As
such, the story becomes a
vehicle for the rather obvious
satire of various community
elements. The main blows fall
on the pettiness and
AN OPEN FORUM FOR PEOPLE WHO CARE
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Augusta, Georgia
death penalty, ruling that it
does not violate the
Constitution’s restrictions
against “cruel and unusual
punishment.”
The SCLC position paper
resolved that the Rev.
Abernathy send letters to all
members of Congress urging a
constitutional ban against
capital punishment and that
the organization's 300 chapters
and affiliates across the nation
director of the YWCA’s Job
Corp Training Center. She has
worked with the YWCA for 15
years. She served as executive
director of the YWCA in
California for several years. She
has also worked in Korea for
the United States government
as a program director.
Upon Miss Gardner’s arrival
to Augusta, she was greeted by
Augusta’s executive director of
the YWCA, members of
Springfield Baptist Church,
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority
and The LaMademoiselle Club.
A reception followed at the
home of her mother, Mrs.
Christine Gardner of 2016
Grand Blvd. The reception was
given by friends and well
wishers of Miss < Gardner.
Approximately 60 people
attended the affair.
faithlessness of the
congregation and tlie
obnoxiousness of the local
authorities with their trival
regulations. Besides these
traditional recipients of
criticism in the story, Irvin
includes jabs at labor unions,
gossipy women, TV news
reporters (as Woody Allen did
to sportscasters in “Bananas”),
etc. for their basic callousness
and disbelief.
Whether Noah is right or
wrong is not so much the issue
here as the fact that the
townspeople have degraded
themselves in their intolerant
harassment of him. This
degradation is most evident in
the washeteria scene in which
several very vocal women
delight in telling their recently
returned friend about what
hey consider the ridiculous
nd embarrassing behavior of
heir pastor. Their song
1 the event leads into
wicked pagan ritual of sorts,
accompanied by dissonant
voices and music, multi-colored
flashes of light, and dance-like
movement, ended by an
ominous roar of thunder.
Altnough we hear a great deal
of Noah's religious rhetoric
(perhaps too much), the story
retains the community
perspective. Only Sarah, tom
between family loyalty and her
write the individual
congressmen in their districts.
Tire document also called
for a “reinvestigation” of the
1975 conviction of Christopher
Moore, a 23-year-old
Pascagoula Black found guilty
of capital murder in the knife
slaying of Mrs. Irene Hoffman,
a 29-year-old school teacher.
The SCLC, which has
maintained Moore’s innocence,
also voted to send a letter to
Gov. Cliff Finch, “requesting
his direct intervention in this
case.”
Turning to other domestic
problems, the 16-page agenda
called for passage of the
Humphrey-Hawkins
full-employment bill, pending
before Congress. It said the
percentage of unemployed
Black Americans is “nearly
double the unemployment rate
of white Americans” and cited
a 40 per cent national
unemployment rate among
Black youth.
The SCLC said
“Black-on-Black” crime-in
which Blacks are the victims of
other Blacks-continues “to
have an adverse impact on the
economic development of
Black and poor people in this
country” and voted to launch a
nationwide program designed
to “minimize” the problem.
Declaring that the
Democrats have taken Black
voters for granted “far too
long” and that the Republicans
have “ignored” the Black and
the poor, the organization said
ootn political parties will be
asked to support a “meaningful
national health insurance
program and full employment
for every American qualified to
work.”
The Rev. Rainh Abernathy
was re-elect' 1 ': national
president of the SCLC.
Abernathy has headed the
group since the assassination of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in
Memphis, Tennessee, April 4,
1968.
own doubt, is singled out to
give us any insight into her
fanatical brother’s behavior.
Basing his show on a novelty
idea and using stereotyped
characters, however, Irvin runs
the risk of being merely “cute”
or creating a show for children
only. The dangers of this type
of script are evident in the
strike scene in which
beer-gutted white construction
workers singing “We Shall
Overcome” picket Noah for
violating wage and hour laws.
Such a scene is too deliberately
contrived to be funny.
The real problem of the
production is the problem that
plagues most television plays
that I have seen - stage acting.
In the theatre, obviously, a
certain degree of exaggeration
of voice and gesture is
acceptable, indeed necessary,
to communicate emotions and
actions over the expanse of the
audience. But the very nature
of film precludes the necessity
of such exaggeration - the
camera can capture the faintest
expression of motion with
clarity, and the audio
equipment can accurately
register the slightest sign.
Irvin’s leading actors are
stage actors. Saundra Bowie
(Sister Sarah) has performed in
may SCORE productions, and
Tommy Young (Noah) is the
See “IRVIN” on Page 5
Correction
In the story, “Barton
Village Shootout”, August
19, the News-Review
reported that the
deceased, Ida Lassiter was
the sister of Bonnie
Lassiter and Brenda
Lassiter. She was their
sister-in-law. We regret the
error.
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Dr. Ralph David Abernathy beams with joy after being unanimously reelected
SCLC’s National President by delegates at 19th Annual Convention.
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SMILING CONTEST? Betty Sharpe, a member of Congressman Andrew
Young’s staff in Washington,' seems to be having a smiling contest with
Democratic Presidential nominee Jimmy Carter. The Atlanta Congressman, a
strong supporter of the Carter-Mondale ticket, was host to Governor Carter
when the Presidential candidate recently visited Congress.
Dr. Scott,
A
Bricklayer?
Dr. Julius S. Scott, Jr.,
president of Paine College,
placed four bricks from the
old Haygood Hall to the
new building on campus.
The old building was
destroyed bv fire eight
years ago. With Dr. Scott
are Richard Ingram and
Jerry Berger.
September 9, 1976 No. 23
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