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Vol. 6
Atlanta’s Blacks Rally To The Defense Os Judge Bell
By Al Irby
One by one dissident
groups are coming around to
accept Fifth Circuit Court of
Appeals Judge Griffin Bell as
his even-hand record is being
studied more carefully. CORE,
a semi-militant group of the
turbulent 60s, has
recommended him. Only the
NAACP AND A FEW
OTHERS continue to condemn
the Georgia jurist. He is a
moderate, and sometimes his
views will be proven right in
the long run, such as when his
logic saved Georgia public
school systems, when
desegregation threatened to
tear it apart. Then the praise
for Judge Bell came from the
elite of Atlanta’s Black
leadership back when many
feared public opinion would
force the Georgia legislature to
abolish the school system.
Although it has never been
publicized, it was learned that
Bell, as Gov. Ernest Vandiver’s
John Lewis To Run For
Andy Young’s Seat
ATLANTA, Ga. - John
Lewis announced last week
that he has resigned as
executive director of the
Atlanta-based Voter Education
Project, Inc. and is a candidate
for the 5 th District
Congressional seat soon to be
vacated by United Nations
Ambassador-designate Andrew
Young.
Over 150 community leaders
joined the man who has been
called “a living Saint” by TIME
Magazine for the
announcement. Among those
present were Lt. Gov. Zeil
Miller, State Sen. Julian Bond,
State Rep. David Scott, State
Rep. Clint Deveaux, Atlanta
City Council members Esther
Lefever, Charles Helms, Jack
Summers and James Bond, and
Joe Drolet, President of the
Citywide League of
Neighborhoods.
“This campaign is one of
hope and optimism,” Lewis
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Oldest Black Nursing Home Gets $2.8 Million Loan
Mrs. Mary Long (seated), Hobart C. Jackson (left) and Nancy B. Mawby (right) look over architect’s rendering
of the new 189-bed addition to Philadelphia’s Stephen Smith Geriatric Center. Mrs. Long, age 10_, is the oldest
resident at the Center. Mr. Jackson, Center Director, received the first check of a $2.8 million nursing home loan
presented by Mrs. Mawby, Pennsylvania’s Acting Secretary of Commerce. The loan was the largest ever made by
the Nursing Home Loan Agency, part of die Pennsylvania Department of Commerce. The Stephen Smith
Geriatric Center is the oldest Black nursing home in die nation.
P.O. Box 953
chief of staff, not only met
privately with the Black leaders
to help preserve racial
harmony, but he also
conceived the idea of creating
what came to be known in
1960 all over the state on
whether Georgia’s schools
should be kept open if forced
by the federal courts to
desegregate. And it was the
commission’s later
recommendation to keep the
schools open at all costs that
led to the legislature striking
Georgia’s school segregation
laws from the books. There are
many Blacks who are
cognizant of Judge Bell’s
record and have recognized his
ability and the excellent service
he has given to Black and white
citizens of Georgia and the
South.
Congressman Andrew Young,
who has been assigned as
ambassador to The United
Nations, spoke with wisdom
when he said that Judge Bell, a
said, “a continuation of my
life’s work to create a new
order in the South. The Sth
Congressional District is a very
special district. The bi-racial
cooperation here provides a
positive example for the region
and the nation. This district
symbolizes a new Southern
spirit of hope and harmony.”
Political observers at the
meeting categorized Lewis as
the only Black man with “a
broad enough base of support
to succeed Andy Young”.
For the past seven years,
Lewis headed the Voter
Education Project’s
non-partisan efforts in voter
registration and education with
minorities throughout the
South. He was an advisor to
two American presidents, John
F. Kennedy and Lyndon
Johnson, and in 1975 was
awarded die Martin Luther
King Jr. Peace Prize.
V
Augusta, Georgia
Southern moderate, is “better
than a Northern liberal who
has never been put to the test’’.
The Georgia jurist has Black
"friends in many facets of the
Black communities. For
example two months ago, a
prominent Methodist school,
Morris Brown College,
predominantly Black,
nominated Judge Bell as Man
of the Year. Then there is
out-spoken State Rep. Bobby
Hill of Savannah who said:
“Bell is a good appointment”.
Warren Cochrane, who was
executive director of the
Civic Club Provides Christmas Spirit
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The Women’s Civic Club once again provided gifts and goodies for children at the Pilgrim Civic Center. Mrs. J.
Curton is the chairperson.
Atlanta Negro Voters League
back when Vandiver was
elected governor, recalled
Blacks meeting with Judge Bell
in the law offices of King and
Spalding in the Trust Co. of
Georgia building. “Bell was a
moderate voice in those
meetings,” said Cochrane, who
was one of the giants in the
Black community back then.
“But that has always been
Bell’s position. Anybody who
says he’s anti-Black is wrong.
He’s not,” T.M. Alexander,
another highly respected Black
leader in the 1950 s and 19605,
also recalled meeting with Bell.
“It was a time when it was
not too popular for Blacks and
whites to meet together,
especially in downtown
offices,” Alexander said. “To
me”, he added, “it was a
break-through and laid the
groundwork for the Sibley
Commission. 1 think the judge
represented a sort of moderate
voice at a time when it wasn’t
too popular to be moderate.”
Black leaders close to the
meetings with Bell, also
disclosed tire significant, yet
unpublicized, role Sen. Herman
Black Man Wins $125,000 Corrections Judgment
SPECIAL TO NNPA FROM
OKLAHOMA EAGLE
Originally written by David M.
Beard
Gene Howard Williams, a
Tulsa Black who served a year
on a white man’s rape
conviction, had his day in
court, winning a judgment of
$125,000 in damage against
three present or former
administrators at the State
Penitentiary in McAlester. The
suit was decided in the federal
District Court for Eastern
Oklahoma based in Muskogee.
His day in court, however,
has lasted for more than two
years. It took a jury of four
women and two men little
more than an hour-and-a-half
to make the determination and
specify the award following
legal proceedings which began
in September, 1974. During
the lengthy proceedings, which
included dismissal of the case
in State Court, the list of
individuals being sued
dwindled from an initial list
which included former Gov.
David Hall and members of the
State Board of Corrections.
Those named in Friday’s
judgment include former
McAlester Warden Park
Happy New Year
FROM THE NEWS-REVIEW STAFF
December 30, 1976 No. 37
Talmadge played in arranging
meetings between Blacks and
Bell.
Two close confidants of
Talmadge -- Black undertaker
Robert Parks of Cedartown
and W.O. Brooks, once a
research assistant for Talmadge
and an aide to Gov. Vandiver
at the time - met repeatedly
with Atlanta’s Black leaders in
efforts to prevent racial
flare-ups. Judge Bell has been
in the thick of actions to help
Blacks through the labyrinth of
racial transition in Georgia.
Anderson; Sam Johnson,
the-deputy warden industrial
coordinator at McAlester; and
Dale Gossett of the
Penitentiary’s classifications
department
Williams was returned to
McAlester from a pre-release
center in Oklahoma City in
June, 1972, when he was
confused with Harold Gene
Williams. The confusion had
begun shortly after he was sent
to the State Reformatory at
Granite in September of 1971
and had supposedly been
resolved with the removal of a
“hold” for serving the rape
penalty from his record.
Confusion continued, however,
with records at both Granite
and McAlester when Williams
was taken to the Penitentiary
from the release center due to
apparent paranoid tendencies.
When he was due for release
in September, 1972, he was
held to begin serving the rape
sentence. It was almost a year
later that Williams’ finally
received assistance in locating
him. They had visited him in
Oklahoma City shortly before
he was moved and had not
been able to locate him since
that time. Contact with North
Tulsa Rep. Bernard J. Mclntyre
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DR. C.S. HAMILTON
Dr. Hamilton
Emancipation Day
Speaker
The Rev. Dr. C.S. Hamilton
will be the Emancipation Day
speaker January 1, 11 a.m. at
Tabernacle Baptist Church. Dr.
Hamilton is a native of
Cedartown, Ga. a id grew up in
Powder Springs, and Atlanta.
He received the A.B. degree
from Morehouse College, The
Bachelor of Divinity from the
Morehouse School of Religion,
The Master of Sacred Theology
from the Morehouse School of
Religion of the Interden
omination Theological Center,
and the Doctor of Ministry
degree from Colgate Rochester
in Rochester, N.Y.
Dr. Hamilton served as
associate minister of the First
Baptist Church, LaGrange, Ga.,
and served as pastor of the
First Baptist Church,
Thomasville, Ga.
For the past 20 years
the Rev. Hamilton has served as
and subsequent aid through the
Goodwin and Goodwin law
firm won Williams' release on
September 13, 1973, after he
had served a year on another
man’s sentence. With a year’s
preparation of the case, suit
was filed September 11, 1974,
by Gordon McAllister of the
Goodwin firm.
McAllister was assisted by
Jim Goodwin, Linda Cole and
David Cole in court
proceedings which originally
sought SIOO,OOO in actual and
5300,000 in punitive damages.
Due to later appraisals of the
severity of phychological
damage to Williams, the actual
damage figure was raised to
$250,000.
Not only did Williams spend
Pro Plaver Slain,
Actress Wife, Held
Death of husband, Rick
Manzie, 36, is the second
personal tradegy faced by
beautiful Barbara McNair in
recent years. The Philadelphia
Eagles defensive end was found
in a pool of blood in the
dressing area of their 20-room
house, wearing only a T-shirt.
He had been shot once in the
head, detectives said.
There was no sign of forced
entry, burglary or a struggle
police said. The house was not
ransacked and all the doors and
windows were locked.
The first tragedy concern
minister of the Tabernacle
Baptist Church in Augusta.
He served as president of the
Augusta NAACP for a number
of years, two terms as a
member of die City Council,
and has served on the Human
Relations Committee. He is
president of the New Era
Missionary Convention of
Georgia, and former Dean of the
Morehouse School of
Religion.
Dr. Hamilton, currently a
member of the Civil Service
Commission, is a member of the
Executive Committee of the
Fun of Renewal, a member of
the Publishing Board of the
Progressive National Baptist
Convention. Inc. and a member
of die President’s Advisory
Committee of the State of
Georgia to the Commission on
Civil Rights. He also teaches
religion at Paine College.
a year serving another man’s
sentence; he spent
eight-and-a-half months in
solitary confinement and was
in McAlester during the riot
which heavily damaged the
facility. A psychiatrist and a
psychologist who offered
expert testimony during the
suit appraised his condition as
schizophrenic - paranoid as a
result of his experiences.
Though it is probable that
those named in the judgment
will appeal, attorneys for the
plaintiff feel that die decision
is a landmark. Goodwin says
that the $125,000 may be the
largest judgment in such a case
in recent years.
According to McAllister,
simply put, “it was justice.”
under world charcters that
Manzie was associated with in a
loan shark connection.
The bodies of the two
associates of Manzie’s were
found in a 5 5-gallon oil drum
on the Northwest side of
Chicago on July 1974 Barbara
returned home from a Chicago
engagement after her husband
was found snot to death in
their ncme.
New Jersey police arrested
the 26-year old wife, who was
weeping and distraught, and
denied to the end that she is
quilty.
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