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Vol. 7
Mayor hits affirmative action officer
for criticism of police hiring policy
Mayor Lewis A. Newman
has reprimanded Lt. Handsel
Johnson, affirmative action
officer for the police
department, for accusing city
officials of stalling on the
implementation of a court
order to increase the number
of Blacks hired in the
department.
The mayor said in a letter to
Johnson, “Your quoted
statements in the Augusta
News-Review” (July 21)
“reflect an attitude which must
be counter-productive to
recruiting and keeping
minority employes in the
police department.”
Johnson refused to
comment on the mayor’s
letter, saying that the matter is
in court and his comments
could have an adverse effect
the court’s ruling. Johnson said
he does not intend to respond
to the mayor’s letter.
Newman noted that Johnson
blamed the city government,
the former chief of police and
the Civil Service Commission
for failing to hire and promote
Blacks in such away to meet a
September deadline by which
the Federal Judge Anthony A.
Alaimo has ordered that the
police department be at least
40 per cent Black.
Mayor Newman’s reprimand of Lt. Handsel
Johnson for criticizing the city’s effort to increase
the number of Blacks hired in the police
department is very much reminiscent of President
Carter’s recent reprimand of Urban League Director
Vernon Jordan for criticizing the President for
failing to meet his campaign promises to Blacks.
In each case the criticism was valid and the
reprimand uncalled for. Carter’s claim that
Jordan’s criticism would cause the poor to lose
hope tries to shift the blame for the
Administration’s failure from Carter to Jordan. It
is Carter’s failure to implement the programs he
campaigned on which causes Blacks and poor
people to lose hope, not Vernon Jordan’s
acknowledgement of that fact.
And likewise it is the city’s failure .fs:.see that
justice is carried out and that the cpuit'order is
implemented that causes Blacks faith, not
Handsel Johnson’s acknowledgement dLthal truth.
It should be noted that the Rey. Dr. C. S.
Hamilton, vice chairman of the Civil Service
Black leaders support Jordan’s
criticism of Carter’s policies
WASHINGTON - Black
leaders rallied this week to the
side of the National Urban
League’s executive director
after President Carter’s “no
apologies” defense of his
record in civil rights and social
programs.
file executive director of
the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored
People, the leader of Operation
Push and others came to the
defense of Vernon C. Jordan
Jr. in his criticism of <the
Administration, and they
pledged support for a
show-of-strength meeting next
month.
Jordan, in a speech opening
the Urban League annual
meeting last Sunday, spoke out
against the Carter
Administration, saying it had
fallen short of Blacks’
expectations in terms of
“policies, programs and
people.” It was the broadest
criticism of the President, who
received 94 per cent of the
votes cast last November by
Blacks, by a major Black
leader.
The President, in his speech
to the league, said he had “no
apologies to make” for his
record, but promised more
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IN THE BEGINNING-Mayor Lewis A. Newman (right) is flanked by Lt. Handsel E.
Johnson and then - Police Chief James G. Beck at 1973 news conference announcing
Johnson’s hiring as affirmative action officer for the Augusta Police Department.
“It is obvious that the 40
per cent minority quota set in
the court order will fall short
in September. Figures
furnished me show
approximately 32 per cent
now. Internal blaming of each
other will not correct this -
and certainly creates an
atmosphere which makes it
impossible.”
The mayor said it was
“never contemplated” that the
Don’t desert them
programs and greater efforts in
the future, offering to engage
in a partnership with leaders
such as Jordan.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson,
leader of PUSH, sent a
telegram to Jordan from Los
Angeles extolling Jordan’s
speech as “a compass in the
wilderness and a light in the
darkness.” He promised his
personal and organizational
support to the Urban League
leader and said he could
“support 1,000 per cent your
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Patronize Them
P.O. Box 953
city would authorize an
artificial increase in personnel
to meet the court order. It
would be “financially
impossible” and “totally
wasteful,” the mayor said.
“Some responsibility must
be placed on your office in this
failure to recruit and
particularly, to hold minority
officers hired. Public bickering
within the department is
bound to have a detrimental
Editorial
Commission which oversees hiring and firing in the
police department, supported Johnson’s charges.
It is perhaps a natural reaction to strike back at
one’s critics. But it is our feeling that elected
officials should be about the elimination ol social
problems, not the destruction of the credibility of
those who have the courage to tell the public that
there is a problem. It is easy for our leaders to get
discouraged when they have to take the heat for
standing up for and pointing out failure in high
places. But we as a people owe it to our leaders to
support them and let them know that we stand
firmly behind them when they stand up for truth
and justice. For courageous leadership among
Blacks in Augusta is as scarce as hens teeth, and this
leadership is desperately needed.
We are not urging support for Handsel Johnson,
C.S. Hamilton and Vernon Jordan just because
they are Black, we urge their support because they
are right. And it’s high time we stop deserting our
leaders as soon as they come under criticism.
call for a meeting of Black
leadership.”
It appeared that some Black
leaders were at first surprised,
, then indignant, at the
i President’s response. At
> meetings with reporters,
i Jordan and others declined to
: respond to the White House
: statement that Carter had told
> Jordan privately the criticism
I was damaging to “the hopes
: and aspirations of those poor
I people.”
r But Carl Holman, president
Augusta, Georgia
effect on morale and
confidence.”
The mayor’s letter
concluded: “Let’s stop the
bickering and get on with the
job.”
Johnson offered: I’ve been
doing that and I intend to
continue doing so.”
The police department was
18 per cent Black when
Johnson took the affirmative
action job in 1974.
of the National Urban
Coalition and a friend of
Jordan’s, seemed to speak for
many Black leaders when he
said, “What is this that Blacks
can’t speak up when they’re
hurt, without getting slapped,
but women, abortion
opponents and everybody else
can say what’s on their
minds?”
A prevalent view here this
week was that the problem for
Carter is that established Black
leaders have not become
accustomed to his style.
NNPA chief aids Jordan, knocks Andy Young
Editor’s note: Below is a copy
of the mailgram sent by Dr.
Carlton B. Goodlett, president
of the National Newspaper
Publishers Association, to
‘ Vernon Jordan, executive
director of the National Urban
League, in support of his
criticism of the Carter
Administration.
by Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett
SAN FRANCISCO (NNPA) -
Dear Vernon: The National
Owned by school board member
Girl believed to have caught
fatal disease in local pool
A 14-year-old Hephzibah girl
died Saturday a week after
contracting a rare form of
meningitis at a pool owned by
Jesse Carroll, a member of the
Richmond County Board of
Education.
Deborah Drayton went
swimming the previous Sunday
at Carroll’s Recreation at on
Windsor Spring Road.
Earlier Associated Press
reports said the girl swam in a
pond near her home. The
reports said the girl was
“visiting her sister in Winston
Salem last Tuesday when she
Tortured for 10 years
Wife on trial for ‘burning husband’
BY LINDA GRANT
PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE
DANSVILLE, Mich. The
defendant is Francine Hughes.
She is 29, the mother of four
children-and the ex-wife of a
man police say she tried to
bum alive at their home last
winter in this small town
outside Lansing.
Hughes, police charge, set
fire to the house March 9 as
her ex-husband slept. Earlier in
the day, police had come to
their home to break up a fight
between the couple. Later,
they say, she set the fire,
bundled her children into the.
car, and drove to the Ingham
County Sheriffs Department,
where she allegedly yelled to
Paine UNCF drive to exceed $28,000
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MISSION ACCOMPLISHED - United Negro College Fund Co-Chairmen (from left)
Dr. C. S. Hamilton and C&S Bank Executive Director Gordon Oliver chat with Paine
College President Dr. Julius S. Scott Jr. The 1977 UNCF drive surpassed its $25,000
goal.
Newspaper Publishers
Association supports your
objective analysis of the first
six months’ failure of the
Carter Administration to honor
his campaign commitments to
Blacks who gave so much to his
election as the 39th President.
Carter has been long on
rhetoric and short on
constructive programs to
satisfy the legitimate needs of
the masses who created the
victory.
August 4, 1977
began vomiting and
complained of headaches. She
soon became delirious and then
lapsed into a coma.”
A spokesman for the girl’s
family disputed that account
pointing out that the girl swam
in a pool.
“This is a place of business.
All of the children have to pay
a dollar to go into that pool.
The doctors say she contracted
the disease before she left
Augusta,” the spokesman said.
The spokesman also
complained that the pool “is
not fixed right” and has a
deputies: “1 did it. 1 did it. 1
burned him up.”
When Francine Hughes
stands trial in October she will
bring with her a sheaf of police
reports and testimony from
friends and neighbors showing
that for a decade James
Hughes, the dead man, had
subjected her to repeated
beatings and psychological
abuse.
“This case may well set a
new standard for self-defense,”
said attorney Nelson Brown, a
founder of the Francine
Hughes Defense Committee.
Continued abuse over an
extended period, rather than a
single threatening incident, he
argues, may be established as
Your statement presented
eloquently our case against
those politicians whose
pre-election rhetoric failed to
mesh with elected behavior.
We vigorously disagree with
Ambassador Andrew Youngs
belief that Blacks cannot desert
the party of Roosevelt,
Truman and Johnson because
they have no where else to go.
Unfortunately, for 114
post-Lincoln emancipation
years the educated Black 10th
“sandy” bottom.
A sign in front of the pool
reads: Jesse Carrol’s
Recreation, Pool spring fed,
approved by Health
Department, $1 per person.
The disease was diagnosed as
amoeboid meningitis. Only
four of the 80 persons known
to have contracted the disease
have survived. The others died
within a week.
Most of the previous victims
of the disease had gone
swimming in ponds or lakes
just before being stricken.
The disease is linked to an
the basis of a self-defense plea.
“We are not condoning a
woman’s killing of her
husband, but we must give
these women (battered wives)
alternatives to deal with so this
kind of tragedy doesn't happen
again,” said Carrie Sandahi,
another defense committee
member. “We reel that,
because Francine was given no
other alternative but to defend
herself in the best way she
knew how, all charges against
her should be dropped.”
The Hughes defense strategy
meshes with a growing
nationwide campaign for the
protection of battered wives.
State and national crime
statistics show that most
have failed to utilize their
intellect to search for Black
political alternatives in a racist
society, whose deeds of its
leaders and people are never
intended to approximate the
prophetic promises of its
Democratic creed.
The primary reason that the
demands of Blacks are the last
See “NNPA CHIEF”
Page 2
No. 15
organism called the naegleria
amoeba, which is believed to
enter the body through the
nose, mouth or ears and make
its way to the spinal cord.
When it attacks, the brain and
spinal cord become inflamed
and the brain begins to swell.
Although doctors say the
disease is not contagious, they
say as many as five cases may
occur within a short period
near the place where the first
victim contracted the disease.
Carroll, who represents
district 1434, could not be
reached for comment.
violent crimes continue to
occur in private homes.
A 1973 FBI report found
that a quarter of ail murders
are committed within the
farnily--and over half of those
involve one spouse killing the
other. The national crime
report estimated that there are
at least one million battered
women in American families-a
factor that figures prominently
in family murder cases.
Hughes is faced with two
charges: first-degree murder,
implying premeditation, and
felony murder, a charge used
when someone died during the
commission of a felony-in this
case, arson. Bail is normally
denied in first degree murder
cases.
When the final count is
made, the Paine College United
Negro College Fund (UNCF)
drive is expected to exceed
$28,000, a 60 per cent increase
over the 517,000 raised in
1976.
The campaign was
co-chaired by Gordon Oliver,
executive vice president of the
Citizen’s and Southern
National Bank and Dr. C. S.
Hamilton, pastor of Tabernacle
Baptist Church.
According to Paine President
Dr. Julius S. Scott Jr., the
response of the community to
the 1977 campaign “has been
singularly outstanding.
While crediting the success
of the campaign to Mr. Oliver
and Dr. Hamilton and
numerous volunteers, Dr. Scott
said: “We take the
over whelming success of this
campaign to be an
endorsement, by CSRA
residents, of the mission and
thrust of Paine College.”
Although contributions
increased in all areas, the most
impressive growth was in die
number and size of corporate
gifts, which doubled.
Approximately 75 per cent
■ of the campaign receipts will
remain at Paine. The balance
will be forwarded to the UNCF
national headquarters.
Last year Paine, received
over $160,000 in unrestricted
funds from the UNCF.
Area chairpersons for the
1977 drive were: Solomon
Walker 11, individual special
gifts; Gordon Oliver, corporate;
Ms. Mary Elam, clubs and
organizations, Dr. C. S.
Hamilton and the Rev. Jack L
Stokes, churches; Quincy
Robertson, small businesses;
Earl Thurmond and Henry
Brigham, public schools; Dr. W.
J. Walker Jr., dentists; Dr.
Harry B. OTlear, doctors;
Atty. Julian B. Willingham,
lawyers; and Ms. Andotyn
Brown, Paine College faculty.
25*