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Lightning Causes Woman s
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Vol. 7
Frank Yerby Lashes American Hypocrisy’
by Mallory K. Millender
Novelist Frank Yerby said
Sunday at Paine College that
America was “created in
hypocrisy and dedicated to the
proposition that nobody was
created equal. It is a nation
whose record of sheer
infamy, only the Nazis have
possibly exceeded,” Yerby
said.
Yerby was the
Commencement speaker and
was awarded an honorary
doctorate.
He unleashed a relentless
attack on the myths
surrounding the American
Revolution and its “heroes.”
His sharpest criticism was
reserved for Thomas Jefferson,
author of the Declaration of
Independence. In writing that
document Yerby said Jefferson
meant, “We hold these truths
Black Press Gives
Support To Don King
Representatives of some cf
the nation’s leading Black
newspapers Tuesday, strongly
supported boxmg promoter
Don King in his charges that
the white press is conspiring to
discredit him in the boxing
world and thereby restore
white promoters to the control
of boxing.
King, who met with the
Black newspaper publishers at
the Hotel Pierre today, charged
that he has not been guilty of
any wrongdoing in the
promotion of boxing matches
and that a vendetta is being
conducted against him by
white writers to “get rid of the
nigger” in the promotion of
the multimillion dollar boxing
industry.
King came armed to the
meeting with the publishers
with mounted blowups of news
stories from across the nation
in which, either by innuendo
or direct attack, suggested that
he has been guilty of staging
phony boxing matches, taking
kickbacks from boxers, and is
faced with a possible
indictment on other unnamed
charges.
Publishers
On hand to hear the charges
made by King were Black
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PRESIDENTIAL PRESENT - President Carter Kisses
singer Minnie Riperton, Center, after presenting her
with a citation from the American Cancer Society at t le
White House. She is winning a battle against breast
cancer.
P.O. Box 953
to be self evident: that nobody
but us is created equal. And
that if your complexion is on
the shady side, you are
endowed by your Creator with
absolutely no rights at all.”
Yerby berated Jefferson
for not having the “moral
courage” to simply free the
four to six Black children he
fathered, after promising their
mother, Sally Hemmings, that
he would free them.
Instead, he let them
run away and passed out a
quiet word that they were not
to be chased or caught, Yerby
said.
George Washington was a
slave owner of the worst sort,
Yerby charged. “His slaves
staggered with hunger and lived
in doorless huts, swarming with
vermin. George Washington
was the world’s champion
publishers of newspapers from
all over the country including
Dr. Carlton B. Goodlet,
President of the National
Newspaper Publishers
Association, Black Press of
America; Gerrald Jones, vice
president and publisher of the
Milwaukee Courier; Garth
Reeves, publisher of the Miami
Times; Kenneth Drew,
publisher of the New York
Voice, and Nathaniel Sweet,
publisher of the St. Louis
American.
John L. Procope, publisher
of the Amsterdam News, was
out of the city, but was
represented by James L. Hicks,
executive editor of the
newspaper.
In a statement to the press
following their meeting with
King, the Black publishers said:
Ask Fair Play
“We as newspaper men who
uphold the tradition of the free
press and a responsible press,
have examined the evidence
before us and are forced to
conclude that Dong King has
not been given fair play in the
white press. The daily press has
virtually, totally ignored a
statement by the Attorney
General of Maryland made a
week ago that Don King is
cusser and the worst general in
all of recorded history. Even
the battles he won, he won by
mistake.”
The patriots of the
American Revolution, which
he called a “cruel and stupid
war,” were tax evaders and
bootleggers.
Even Paul Revere was
drunk when he made his
famous midnight ride. “Paul
Revere became famous for a
ride from tavern to tavern on
which he ended up lost and
didn’t warn anybody. The real
warning was done by three
other riders who stayed sober.”
Benjamin Franklin, who
Yerby called the first Kissinger,
used most of his diplomacy in
“the boudoirs of every French
lady whose husband wasn't at
home.”
And, according to Yerby,
DON KING
clean and has been found
innocent of any wrongdoing.
Instead, many papers carried
banner headlines announcing
the grand jury probe. Some
headlined forthcoming
indictments that have, in fact,
never occurred.
“In addition, many
newspapers have attacked Don
King for his prison record
which, in fact, under our form
of government, has nothing to
do with his activities in boxing
since he has paid his debt to
our society. In the absence of
any concrete evidence of
wrongdoing, and in the light of
his great contribution in
reviving one of America’s great
sports, we as publishers deplore
and condemn the pilloring of
Don King by fellow
newspapers and urge Don
King’s attackers to come back
to those traditions of fair play,
which so long have been a
hallmark of the American
press.
See A Conspiracy
“It has been suggested that
the campaign against King is a
conspiracy against his
constitutional rights and the
publishers urge that the
Federal Judiciary be used to
combat this insidious form of
overt and covert racism. Those
who flaunt the Constitutional
guarantees of a free and
responsible press should be
punished so that this attempt
at character assassination
should represent a highpoint in
the efforts of decent American,
who have fought to guarantee a
Constitutional safeguard, the
freedom of the press....which
must be protected against any
threat from any quarter.”
Augusta, Georgia
Betsy Ross didn’t make the
first American flag. It was
made by a Philadelphia tailor
named Francis Hopkimon.
Noting that the
information in his speech does
not show up in our history
books, Yerby said, “Ignorance
is the worst of all vices.”
Yerby said the race
problem is insoluable because
“People need to hate to
compensate for all the
miserable things they know
they are.”
Telling the students to
look to the future not the
past, Yerby urged, “Leave
“Roots” to lie in peace.
Instead of seeking ancestors,
become worthy ancestors
yourselves.”
The 1937 Paine College
graduate told the students,
“This is YOUR country.
Hosea Williams Tells
Poor Go To Work
Rev. Hosea Williams, president of the Atlanta area chapter
of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference has designed a
series of “non-welfare, self-sustaining” programs to help the poor
“get up, stop begging, go to work, and make it on their own.”
The programs include ways for the poor to get food, clothing and
job training. In addition, there are parts of Williams’ program
which would provide auto repair, auto parrs sales, used appliance
sales and service plus a “cultural development center” to give
training to young Atlanta artists.
And, on top of that, there is a plan for a halfway house for
former prisoners and a 24-jour day care center for children and
senior citizens. All of this, Williams says, can be done without
welfare money. As benefits a plan of such large design, there will
be a grand-scale kickoff event-a four-day People’s Achievement
Festival to be held June 3-6 at the World Congress Center and the
Omni. The main event of the festival will be a Poor Man/Rich
Man banquet on June 3 with the acknowledged king of
Rev. Ike, as guest speaker.
Also on the program of the four-day event are cooking and
sewing contests, a parade and carnival, a citywide multiracial
religious service, a fund-raising auction and several musical
performances.
The event will be financed by sale of tickets to most of the
events, including the awards banquet. After laying siege to
Atlanta’s central business district, Williams said he managed to get
\committments from a number' of business and government
leaders to support the event in ways ranging from buying blocks
of tickets to lending their names for the letterhead of the festival.
“I haven’t had anybody say they wouldn’t help me so far,”
Williams said, but he explained he was reluctant to release names now
because he has included several businessmen by name in a list of
supports he put in a letter intended to enlist further support.
In an effort to keep the program’s finances above board,
Williams said, he is attempting to enlist an initial audit from a
major national accounting firm with offices in Atlanta. Although
the program nominally is an offshoot of the Atlanta SCLC
CHAPTER, it seems clear that the entire plan began with Hosea
Williams. “I am anti-welfare, ” Williams said. "The more you have
those kinds of programs, the more people look for them. And the
more people depend on them, the bigger the federal government
becomes to support them.” “When 1 see people involved in some
See’’HOSEA WILLIAMS” Page 2
Robert Williams University
Hospital Employe Os The Year
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Robert Williams (Left)
accepts award
Dependable, dedicated,
kind, cooperative,
conscientious... these are just a
Grandpappy bought it with his
sweat in the cotton fields.
“The redskins used it for
a hunting ground. The whites
raped and ruined it. But our
people built it, loved it, fought
for it, and uncomplainingly
died for it in every war.”
Here are your roots. You
are the fatheis and mothers of
the America to be -- hopefully
America the Beautiful, with
liberty and justice for all.”
Yerby has been widely
criticized for living in Europe
for more than 30 years (He
lives in Spain) and for not
pleading the Black cause in his
27 best-selling novels.
Asked why he made the
strong identification with the
Black struggle in his speech
Sunday, he said, “It was
necessary to make that kind of
speech to a Black graduating
few of the adjectives used to
describe Robert Williams,
University Hospital Employe
of the Year.
Robert, who also received
his 25 year service pin at the
annual awards dinner, is a
Senior Nursing Assistant on 9
East. Often called the
“backbone of 9 East” by his
co-workers, Robert trains all
new male nursing assistants on
the floor.
The people he works with
say he is the "kind of person
you want to work with and be
around for eight hours or
more” each day. “He never
complains, and he’s well-liked
by everyone - staff, doctors
and patients alike,” said
numerous fellow workers
nominating him,
Robert came to work at
University Hospital July 20,
1951. and has worked in
nursing service ever since.
May 12, 1977 No. 3
tai.
Frank Yerby
... comes home
Class. It is the kind speech that
they necessarily must have,” he
said.
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Sherald Reid
Phi Beta Kappa
Josey Grad Inducted
Into Phi Beta Kappa
Miss Sherald Yolanda Reid,
1974 Valedictorian of T. W.
Josey High School, was
recently inducted into the Phi
Beta Kappa honor society at
Fisk University, Nashville,
Tenn.
Miss Reid, who graduated
May 9, Summa Cum Laude
with highest honor in her
graduating class, is also a
member of several honor
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PAPERWORK - - For CoL Charles “Chick” James,
paperwork is an important part of conducting the
training for student pilots at Mac Dill AFB. Col. James is
the son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles L James, 2233 Kings
Wav. He is the man called on to review problems witn
pilots of stricken aircrafts.
Says He Hates God
‘Louise Ross Was
Love Os My Life’
Frank Yerby said in his
address at Paine College that
the late Miss Louise Ross,
Richmond County School
teacher who died last year, was
“the single most beautiful
human being I have ever
known. 1 mean that in all
way s-phy sic ally, mentally and
spiritually.”
On Monday, Yerby said
Miss Ross was “the great love
of my life.
“1 had the impression that
she saw me as kind of rowdy
and distinctly disapproved of
me.
“I would have never left
societies: Alpha Mu Gamma,
Foreign Language and the Beta
Kappa Chi Scientific honor
societies.
A chemistry major at Fisk,
she began her freshman studies
September, 1974, and has
completed her work in three
years. Miss Reid is the daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Reid of
Augusta.
the States if I had been able to
establish rapport with Louise.”
Yerby said that others
told him that Miss Ross felt as
strongly about him as he did
about her. But, he added, “she
had the coldest way of showing
it I have ever seen. I was so
dumb that nuances escaped
me.”
Picking up on an earlier
discussion as to why he doesn’t
believe in God, Yerby said, “I
have no use for a God that lets
sublimely good people like her
die like that. These are the
things that bug me. If there is a
God 1 hate Him.”
Don’t Silence
Andrew Young,
Says Prominent
Jewish Leader
In a telegram to President
Carter, a prominent Jewish
leader has voiced hope that
criticism of Andrew Young
would not “silence” the Black
civil rights leader who now
serves as U.S. Ambassador to
the United Nations. “Our
country needs him and what he
stands for,” said Rabbi
Alexander M. Schindler,
chairman of the Conference of
Presidents of Major American
Jewish Organizations, in a
message to the White House.
As chairman of the
Conference of Presidents,
Rabbi Schindler heads an
“umbrella” group of 32
national Jewish secular and
religious organizations. The full
text of his message follows:
“I am sending this message
to express our strong support
for the honest and eloquent
American you have chosen as
our country’s Ambassador to
the United Nations, Andrew
Young. Mr. Young is that
rarity, a man with the courage
of his convictions, a public
servant speaking truth as he see
it, who dares to say the
emperor has no clothes.
Andrew Young understands
that the diplomatic box needs
rattling and that the
pracitioners of polite private
diplomacy have brought forth
not peace but a balance of
terror, not human dignity but
in far too many cases a license
for oppression.
“We do not endorse every
utterance of Andy Young, but
we deeply hope that the
criticism which has been
expressed in some quarters
over his openness and candor
will not silence him. Our
country needs him and what he
stands for.”
NAACP
Freedom Day
The Augusta Chapter of The
NAACP will have its Annual
Freedom Day Program at the
Tabernacle Baptist Church
1223 Lane - Walker Blvd.,
Sunday May 15, at 7:30 p.m.
llie address for the
occasion will be delivered by
the Rev. Michael McCoy,
minister of the Mt. Olive
Baptist Church.
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