Newspaper Page Text
The Augusta News-Review - May 5, 1977
Walking With Dignity
By AL IRBY
Sickle Cell Anemia Versus Proper Diet
This is an answer to a rash of critics, most of them were
medical personnels, who have not thoroughly explored the
therapeutic power of correct diet relative to Sickle Cell Anemia
and other genetic maladies. I quoted world renown medical
scientists, that stated “with the proper diet this killer disease
could be cured.” Os course this medical expertise was not focused
upon American medical associates, because American medical
schools are inept in the pedagogical implementation of diet as an
important facet of therapy.
Dr. A.B. Raper, a famous medical epidemeologist made this
interested observation: “That only 100 cases of Sickle Cell
Anemia had been reported in all Africa between 1925 and 1950.”
Now the germane question is why are their ancestors, numbering
some 20 odd million here in America, are afflicted with the
deadly killer? Malaria fever which caused nature to curve the cells
to protect the Africans from the mosquito carriers has been
controlled in Africa and here in the United States, yet American
Blacks in a large percentage are afflicted or carriers.
Dr. Raper was largely ignored in American medical circles, but
eminent doctors working in Africa have recently demonstrated
that our African cousins are indeed immune to the deadly anemia
which claims the lives of so many American Blacks. In fact, one
specialist on genetic disorders. Dr. A.G. Mrtulsky, claims the
absence of Sickle Cell Anemia in Africans is surely due to the
difference in diet It took the pioneering talents of researchers at
the American Mind Institute in Pomona, New York, to put
together the pieces of this medical puzzle. The head of this
research team, Dr. Robert G. Houston, has isolated the factor in
the African life style which protect Black Africans - and which
could protect Black Americans from the ravages of Sickle Cell
Anemia. And that factor is diet.
It seems the kinds of foods eaten by African Blacks
By Philip Waring and Mrs. Josephine Richardson
RICH CONTRIBUTIONS TO AUGUSTA BY THE YERBY
AND SMYTHE FAMILIES
Heining, Tenn, may have its Haley Family, but Augusta, Ga.
has its Yerby and Smythe Families. And the latter are
wonderfully real and dedicated people
World-famous Frank Garvin Yerby returns home to Augusta
for his second visit. His participation (with the stellar class of
1937) should be hailed by the Paine College Family, the Augusta
Community, the state of Georgia and thousands of others with
elation and pride...
Much has been written about Yerby’s history-making
achievements in literature. His more than 30 novels have sold over
50 million copies throughout the world. And international
recognition has been rightly accorded him as one of the great
writers of all time we would wager to Dr. Julius Scott, however,
that his forthcoming class reunion and honorary degree will
probably be held by him in special esteem...
BOOK DUSK JACKETS PROJECTED AUGUSTA NAME
AROUNDTHE WORLD
Years ago the faint-hearted asked: “Has Frank forgotten his
hometown roots?”. The weekly column, “Going Places” in the
NEWS-REVIEW, promptly replied NO! The insertion on the dusk
jackets of his novels “Bom in Augusta, Ga. in 1916.. Educated at
Haines Institute, Paine College and Fisk University” favorably
projected these names around the world Hence, helping “Build
Augusta”
News was made on Frank’s 1975 visit to Augusta to see his
Aunt Lillian Bampfield and others....He spoke at Paine College,
Luch Laney High School with Dr. Ike Washington... He also
offered Paine College some of his important papers. This is most
important as the college moves forward to new heights ...To us
this demonstrated solid and humane remembrance of his
hometown roots....(still “Building Augusta”)
YERBY CHILDREN MADE THE MARK
Many young people and newcomers to Augusta know little of
the rich heritage of the Yerby and Smythe Familiesln the
short space available we would like to present a brief historic
review....
There were three boys, Frank, Alonzo and Paul, and 'Elena,
who was the oldest of the four children. Elena, beautiful and
brilliant, was an honor graduate at Haines Institute and later
received her undergraduate degree from Fisk University...To the
delight of the Augusta Community Elena returned home to
teach at Haines...She later moved to Detroit where she married
Dr. Boddie. She is now deceased.
Paul attended Haines and later graduated from the University
of Illinois. Paul Yerby now resides in Detroit and is a successful
pharmacist and civic leader.
DR. ALONZO YERBY OUTSTANDING PUBLIC HEALTH
EXPERT
Dr. Alonzo “Lonnie” Yerby is recognized as one of the
nation’s leading public health educators and administrators. He
made history in 1964 when he became the first Black to win
appointment as Commissioner of Health for the City of New
York. A veteran of overseas service, he is now one of the top
administrators at the School of Public Health at Harvard
University. He also attended Haines, the University of Chicago
and received his medical degree at Meharry.
Their father, Rufus Yerby, was also member of an old-line
Augusta Family. A professional hotel service supervisor, he also
employed many young college men in the various laree resort
hotels where he served as head bellman and supervisor. Mr.
Yerby was greatly supportive and loving of his children.
SMYTHE FAMILY DEDICATED EDUCATORS
Frank’s mother was Wilhelmina (“Willie”) Smythe Yerby. And
her sisters were Emily, Fannie and Louisa. Mrs. Yerby was a
gracious and cultured woman who loved her children dearly. The
three sisters taught in the Richmond County Public Schools for
well over 115 years of highly skilled and dedicated service. There
is today hundred of persons living who proudly boast of having
been taught by one of the “Miss Smythes”. All four were
graduates of Haines Institute and were personally supervised by
the great Dr. Lucy Craft Laney when her institution was noted as
one of the finest in the nation. The Yerby-Smythe Families are
excellent examples of love and closeness of an American Black
Family which paid off in good dividends of leadership and service
among their children.
PRAISE FOR TEACHERS
The Yerby children always remembered, gave praise and
appreciation to the scores of teachers at Haines, Paine College,
Fisk University and elsewhere who helped mold their futures.
Hence again, “Building Augusta”
OTHER RELATIVES ARE ACTIVE
Frank visited his aunt, Mrs. Lillian Bamfield and her husband,
Allie in 1975. They live at Eighth and Hopkins adjacent to where
the Yerby children were bom. Both are retired after long and
fruitful service. She with Pilgrim Life and he from the U. S. Postal
Black who helped Build Augusta
Page 4
particularly the yams and cassava, which figure so prominently in
Africa diets, contain a substance that can prevent, and cure the
sickle cell gene from doing its damage, says the talented Dr.
Houston. And at the same time, carriers of the gene still have the
benefit of immunity to malaria. Houston’s team has discovered
that yams and cassava are the world’s richest sources of
thiocyanate, a substance composed of sugars and a cyanate
molecule -a close relative of cyanide, the deadly poison. In these
foods, however, the cyanate is in a harmless form, but still has the
ability to prevent red cells from turning into those useless,
mishappen “sickle” cells.
Ironically, American medical personnel are reluctantly coming
around to accept the great possibility of diet in treating many
genetic ailments. Dr. Anthony Cerami and his associates at New
York’s Rockefeller University was the first in America to discover
in laboratory tests that cyanate, in drug form, will be useful
against Sickle Cell Anemia. Dr. Houston reports that the amount
of cyanate used by Cerami in his tests approximates the amount
disgested every day by Africans eating natural sources of cyanate.
And these Africans consume 40 times the amount of this
chemical found in the typical Black American diet, which has
become, with deadly results, the typical Black-American diet.
BLACKS HAVE UNIQUE BIOCHEMICAL NEEDS
Dr. Houston’s studies are indeed promising, offering the hope
for one of our most deadly threats could be easily correctable by
changes in the diet. Inclusion of yams and cassava, as well as
millet and sourghum, two other rich sources of cyanate, would
researchers feel, make sense. Unfortunately, little research, but
lots of talk is being done in America to study the particular
dietary needs of Blacks, even though so much past work indicates
Blacks do have unique biochemical needs; needs which arose from
living for so many generations in a tropical climate.
Mail Service. Both are long-time members of St. Mary’s Episcopal
Church.
A cousin, Eugene Yerby Lowe, is one of New York’s top social
service administrators while his brother, Frances, resides out on
Long Island. The younger brother, Rufus, is a staffer at the
Richmond County Courts and is an officer of Tabernacle Baptist
Church. Two other cousins , Harrison Yerby and his brother,
Timonthy,also reaide in Augusta.
Hviijamin f X
if. X.
Hooks ‘
Com t i< ’
CBS’s Ed Bradley
Leads the List
In response to an article by the News From the Council, a
quarterly publication of the Catholic Interracial Council of New
York, Inc., the three national TV networks gave their side of the
story.
The Council’s article was titled: “Council Moves to Remove
Network Color Ban.” Each network: ABC 1 CBS and NBC firmly
asserted its support of affirmative action, declared it is committed
to the principle of equal employment opportunity and that, on
company-wide basis, it is pursuing a color-blind policy of hiring
the best qualified, etc., etc., etc., etc.
Each also admitted the scarcity of black network anchor
persons (only CBS has one: Ed Bradley, who is also a White
House correspondent for that network), but CBS quickly added
there are “a limited number of anchor positions”, in any case
since each network has but one (ABC has co-anchor sports Harry
Reasoner and Barbara Walters) during the week and a weekend
anchor position the kind Bradley is currently filing.
ABC said: “In addition to black on-air correspondents, current
staff includes black producers, writers, editors and camera
personnel, as well as members of other racial minorities.”
CBS emphasizing ”... there is no discrimination at CBS
News,” said “discrimination against Blacks and other minorities
would be anti-thetical to what CBS News . . . (stands) for. The
relatively long road to anchor work involves, as a condition
precedent, extensive work for us and experience as a reporter."
NBC declared: “Positions in NBC are filled simply on the basis
of ability to do the job and candidates are judged by that standard
alone, not by whether they are white, or Black, male or female.
Until relatively few years ago, American society was so structured
that very few blacks entered news organizations. Consequently,
the available pool of seasoned minorities, men and women, in our
business is still quite small. But it is growing, and we at NBC are
doing all we can to speed the process under our affirmative action
policy.”
I am happy to hear the networks say they are making progress
against insidious institutional racist exclusion policies. That it is
institutional, does not make it any less painful, however.
Ever since 1 have been with the Federal Communications
Commission. I have jawboned about the discriminatory practices
of radio and television in general and the networks in particular.
Let me make this very clear: the FCC does not have
jurisdiction in regulatory matters over the networks, only the
individual licensees which may make up the networks.
Studies show that 70 percent of all the people in this country
look to TV as their prime source of news. The three individual
news directors of the networks, thus, become czars. For on their
decisions rest what we will see as news in this country, what in
fact is news in this country. So, as the Council points out, and as
I have done also repeatedly over the years - facts become
national news simply by their selection for inclusion in the
networks’ evening news broadcasts. Comments elicited by
interviewers become news if they are elicited on the Today Show,
the CBS Morning News, Good Morning America, Issues &
Answers, Face the Nation, Meet the Press.
In none of these do Blacks, despite the protests of good
intentions on the part of networks, play a meaningful role. Before
the horrendous civil disorders that swept our cities in the 19605,
there were almost as many blacks and minorities in network and
local TV and radio news as Eskimoes in the Sahara Desert.
But the searing riots forced stations to find “qualified” black
reporters - some of them working in on-professional jobs in their
stations -- to cover areas where white reporters could not or
would not go. Crisis, then, is the mother of invention.
I believe the networks -- radio and television -- can find
qualified blacks NOW if they decide to cast their employment
nets in a wider arc. I believe that many network officials are
sincere in wanting to bring more blacks, minorities and women
into the industry in news producing, announcing (anchor
v ' ‘'X
' I I
Ki
THE LEVEI Op FEAR IS SHOCKING
MM "nw » 1
TO DAY. AND WE HAVE
IT FOR OUR LIVES HAVE
ALWAYS BEEN WORTH' jb I i
LESS THAN WHITE ONES IN
THE EYES OF OUR COUNTRY KV v F V .J&jr /
AND OUR COUNTRY DOES \
NOT REALLY CARE ABOUT X z /
THE CHAOS IN OUR NEIGHGOR H \ jT v /
HOODS AS LONG AS THAT Vi / /
ANARCHY DOES NOT SPILL \ zV I $ Vv X / /
OVER THE LINES OF DEMAR- ’. f\V M /
CATION. ' I
WEHAVETODOIT A
BECAUSE WE CANNOT ASH 1
OUR OLD PEOPLE TO /"
SPEND THE REST OF THEIR
LIVES PASSING THROUGH A
GAUNTLET OF MUGGERS.
TO BE EQUAL
By Vernon E. Jordon Jr.
Spokesman for Freedom
To listen to the howls of some editorialists, you’d think
Andrew Young has been making awful diplomatic gaffes.
Actually, he’s only been telling the truth. The truth often hurts,
and that accounts for all the heat America’s spokesman for
freedom has been getting. „ . . , , ~K I
When Young accepted the post of US Ambassador to the, UN,
he said he wanted to be the Administration’s “point man”-to
occupy the most advanced and dangerous positions. In fulfilling
that role, he has said some things that are not popular in some
circles, or are more usually said with so much caution that
nobody gets the message.
By gutting the doubletalk that usually infects public comments
of officials, and by telling some home truths in a refreshingly
open style, Ambassador Young is serving his Administration the
country, and the people, who ought to involved in
foreign policy discussions to a far greater degree.
But what exactly is it that Ambassador Young has said that
gets so many people upset? The most recent statement to unleash
criticism was that the South African Government is
“illegitimate.” .
Now who can argue with that? What is morally legitimate
about a white minority government that rules over a large Black
minority denied any semblance of a stake in that society, lhe
South African situation is simply not comparable to any other.
There may be countries ruled by dictators which deny democratic
rights, but such governments reflect the society they rule.
In South Africa a minority white population rules over a
majority Black population, which is compelled to be a cheap
labor source, denied basic civil rights, forbidden the right to own
property or to live in sections of the country, and even denied
citizenship.
South Africans who are Black are presumed to be citizens ot
arbitrarily defined “homelands” and are treated as foreign
contract laborers in their own land. In the eyes of the white
government, they are not “South Africans at all.
So how can a government representing 2.3 million people in a
J,-— ■ Ti_ir
POWER
<&GIORY
• ...*-U B y Q r G.E.A. Toote
A Search for the Truth
the Grand Jury
A grand jury consists of 23 persons. Dating back to the time of
King Henry 11, its purpose is to provide community participation
in the administration of justice. Meeting in secret the jurors
decide whether suspected criminals should be indicted and
brought to trial.
TWO TYPES
The grand jury may hear evidence after arrest, and decide by a
vote of at least 12 members that there is sufficient cause for an
indictment and trial.
Or it may investigate alleged criminal activity by
subpoenaing and questioning anyone who may have information
of wrong-doing.
RUBBER STAMP
In too many instances prosecutors are relying on insufficient
evidence, or have intentionally misled witnesses into peijuiy
charges when no other criminal act could be substantiated.
Grand Jurors instead of serving as a buffer for an accused
frequently become the instrument of the prosecutor.
postions), and program policy-making roles, and end a shameful
period of institutional racism.
It’s a matter in some cases of putting their priorities in order. I
intend to continue to argue and fight and fuss and urge that the
matter of equal employment opportunities at all levels of the
industry is a number-one priority item that has too long occupied
a slow heat, back-burner position.'
country of 26 million be considered legitimate? Why should an
America newly concerned about human rights go along with the
fiction of South Africa’s supposed legitimacy? Ambassador
Young was right on target in his definition of that country’s
government.
Another statement that drew criticism was that Britain is “a
little chicken” on race Well, the language may be a bit more
colorful than that of most diplomats, but again, it’s true. Britain,
from the hey-day of its empire to the present, has always
exhibited a casual racism. Os course it is not alone in this; our
own country along with many others shares this disease.
Ambassador Young was referring to the Rhodesian situation
when he said tiiat. Can anyone deny that if a Black colony
declared unilateral independence and proceeded to defy legality
and to subjugate whites, as Rhodesia oppressed its Black majority,
that the British would have acted differently? And it could be
healthy for the British to hear such truths from a Black American
diplomat, since racial discrimination against Black and Asian
Britons is a very serious problem.
What are some of the other supposedly awful things
Ambassador Young has said? That the Cubans in Angola are a
stabilizing force? The President himself has agreed with that.
ThaAmerica is often too concerned with communism in Africa?
Well, perhaps we are. It seems absurd to have a policy of detente
with Russia, to have high officials visit China, to trade with the
Soviet bloc, and then to panic and cut off all relations with
African countries that espouse Marxism.
The real test should be whether such countries honor their
agreements with us and to all appearances, Angola, for one, is
protecting American oil interests on its soil. So why pick a fight
over ideology with Africans, when we don’t with-Europeans?
Ambassador Young has been outspoken. He’s angered some
and gratified others.- But most important, he has told truths that
needed telling, and he has brought foreign policy issues out in the
open where they ought to have been all along.
WITNESS PROTECTION
The House Congressional Judiciary Committee is considering
remedial legislation that will allow a lawyer to accompany a
witness; require that a witness be alerted to the subject of inquiry
before appearing; and the requirement of similar rules of evidence
and procedure that apply at trial.
In 29 states the prosecutor after an arrest is allowed to
bypass the grand jury, and file charges in open court. This
technique has proven less arbitrary to minority defendants.
RELUCTANT JURORS
Many people do not wish to serve on juries either for family
reasons, or because they can not afford to forego their pay
checks.
Grand juries more represent a hostile, captive group of
citizens, than a body of peers.
INVESTIGATORY JURY
The investigatory grand jury still serves a viable purpose,
provided the rights of witnesses are protected.
Unfortunately the time has passed in American when the
prevailing view is that one is innocent until proven guilty.
Black America must acquire the habit of expressing their
concerns in writing to elected officials. Our opinions should be
known on issues such as this.
£ THE AUGUSTA NEWS-REVIEW
'■< Mallory K. Millender .Editor-Publisher 5
Frank Bowman General & Advertising Manager
Al IrbyNews Editor
Mary Gordon Circulation
Mailing Address: ;•
Box 953, Augusta, Ga. Phone 722-4555
:< Second Class Postage Paid Augusta, Ga. 30903 $
SUBSCRIPTION RATES I 3
Payable in Advance J
X One year in Richmond Countys7.oo tax incl.
6 Monthss3.so tax incl.
$ One year out of Countysß.oo tax incl
g ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT J 1
Classified & Display Advertising Deadline
* 12 Noon on Tuesday
News Deadline Monday 5:30 (printed free) i
Z\ AMALGAMATED Jl.lejl tL
PUBLISHERS, INC. '
’C4* • CHICAGO A <
Hi
hl