Newspaper Page Text
Paine College Library
1235 15th St.
Augusta, GA 30901
/ Aumwta
5 & £
, sss
Vol. 7, No. 22 ' -? u,
F
Bankruptcy epidemic strikes
Black Burger King franchises
An epidemic number of
Black Burger King franchises
are closing amidst bankruptcies
and financial disasters, while
the Pillsbury-Burger King
conglomerate continues to
profit, acording to charges
leveled by Black franchisees.
Spurred on by governmental
promises of minority
capitalism, and federal
investment program, The
Minority Enterprise Small
Business Investment Company
(MESBIC), Blacks rushed
headlong into hamburgers -
and steeply mounting debts.
Henry Aaron victim of the
‘great home run robbery ’
BY A.S. DOC YOUNG
Sadaharu Oh is a
37-year-old, left-handed-hitting
first baseman with the Yomiuri
Giants. He stands five-feet,
10-inches tall and weighs 175
pounds. He is now playing his
19 th season in Japanese
baseball.
Wednesday night, Aug. 31,
in a game between the Yomiuri
Giants the Taiyo Whales in
Korakuen Stadium, Tokyo, Oh
hit the 755th home run of his
Japanese baseball career.
Fifty thousand fans cheered
thunderously.
They had been deluded into
thinking that Sadaharu Oh had
tied Hank Aaron’s American
major league record.
Associated Press, an American
news service, reported the
fallacious claim as truth, and so
did countless numbers of white
American media people.
Reportedly, the
Pennsylvania-based Franklin
Mint was striking a medal in
Oh’s honor.
Sports Illustrated already
had lionized Oh. After he hit
Home Run No. 756, Time and
Newsweek presumably would
do the same. And television
producers would develop three
or four specials!
Great Home Run Robbert
Plotted by certain segments
of the white American media
for more than a year, the Great
Home Run Robbery was being
staged in broad daylight,
. pitting to shame all the
unlawful feats of Robert
Vesco, Jesse James, Willie
Sutton, and Pretty Boy Floyd,
Karikari is new
N-R reporter
1
Kwame Karikari
Quite simply, Burger King
has used its minority
franchise to fill its own
coffers at the expense of the
businesses, which have a dismi.
failure rate. Os the loans vhich
Blacks receive from MES3IC,
averaging §125,000, Bu.ger
King receives a whopping
§IOO,OOO up front for use ■
the company name ano
equipment package.
In addition, training fees,
advertising payments, and
supply store subsidizing all
increase company profits and
making a farce out °f the
high-sounding tenets of
Journalism.
Understand me, now: Mine
is not a case of reverse racism. I
have absolutely no animosity
for Oh or the Japanese.
Give him full credit for
whatever number of home runs
he hits, 755, 756, 862. He
should be proud of the record
he sets finally in Japanese
baseball, and the Japanese
people should honor him,
surely, as a great, national
hero.
But, the fact is that
Sadaharu Oh and his record
cannot be compared to Hank
Aaron and his record. As a
young, white sportscaster said
the other day, the attempt by
the American media to
compare them is “weird.”
It's more than that. It’s
another example of white
bigotry at work. If it isn’t, tell
me what is it? Can this
dastardly act be charged to
nothing more than the media’s
frequent compulsion to create
now heroes, regardless of how
ersatz they may be? 1 don’t
believe it!
American major league
baseball is the highest
classification of competition in
the sport anywhere. When
Babe Ruth, a white man, held
the record, it was glamorized
by Americans as “the greatest
record in sports.” It was
sacred. For many years, no one
believed that any other major
league player would beat it.
Adding to Ruth's Record
But along came Aaron, a
Kwame Karikari, 32, has
joined the staff of the
News-Review. He is from
Ghana, West Africa.
He holds a B.A. degree in
Philosophy and Political
Science from the City College
of New York, and a M.S. in
Journalism from Columbia
University in New York City.
Before he came to the U.S.
in 1972, Mr. Karikari wrote for
the Daily Graphic of Ghana.
He is single. His hobbies are
reading, short story writing and
ping pong.
Mr. Karikari will serve as a
reporter and copy editor.
P.O. Box 953
make Black franchisees
bankrupt.
One such franchisee,
Reginald Smith, operates a
Burger King store in Detroit
and has recently entered into
litigations based on alleged
profiteering and racist prac
tices of the company. Smith
got into the Burger King
business through the MESBIC,
which he said he used as “seed
money” to get Small Business
Administration bank loans.
“First I upset the
management by using the
superstar, Black athlete and,
overcoming incredible
pressures, not only beat Ruth’s
record of 714 career home runs
but upped the new record to
755.
Many racists resented Aaron
for hitting Home Run No. 715.
They’ve never forgiven him
for doing it. As soon as they
heard about Sadaharu Oh,
ignoring all obvious logic, they
began plotting the Great Home
Run Robbery.
■I UNITED NEGRO COLLEGE FUND ' W
® I J9999999ii1p Jra
£ I Al i SR
Bb At*.
* 91
KFC CORPORAIION No s•*5 •* Of-1 %Bfe|*
Vi- tc-'W AUG 31 197 ’
I ■v *»
I
I ’ 9b
I X . . IB
I M
.„,- ;i« C.O i I
DONATION: Wall Simon, director of franchises for Kentucky Fried Chicken’s new
concept known as Zantigo Mexican-American Restaurants, presents an eye-catching
SIO.OOO check to Mrs. Hilda Butler, treasurer of the 1977 Louisville and
Kentuckiana Campaign of the United Negro College Fund, Inc. Simon’s donation
represents the overall gift of Heublein, Inc., KFC’s parent company in Farmington,
Conn. The presentation was made on Sept. 7 in Louisville at the annual kick-off
luncheon of the Kentuckiana campaign, which this year has a goal ot $75,000.
September 22, 1977
General Motors MESBIC rather
than the Burger King MESBIC
for financing. Then, I was
forced to wait 26 months from
date of application to opening
day of the outlet, while
management went through
three different site changes.
The normal waiting period is
from three to six months, so I
had exhausted all my personal
funds in the interim,”
The unexpected delays
meant that loans scheduled for
repayment became outstanding
debts, and site construction
costs exceeded the estimates
It mattered not to them that
Oh never had played a single
game of major league baseball,
that Japanese baseball- rating it
generaously - is no better than
American Triple-A ball, that
washed-up former major
leaguers go over to Japan and
easily extend their careers .
If they could have found a
stunted kid who had hit more
homers than Aaron in Little
League competition, they
would have given him the
by §50,000. Thus, Smith
entered the business with a
deficit of S 20,000 from which
he never recovered
Smith plummeted to
near-bankruptcy, with charges
and counter-chargers
dominating his relationship
with the parent company.
Os course, business failures
are common on the economic
scene, but when a high
proportion of Black businesses
fail in a program supposedly
designed to promote and
stimulate Black businesses -
record. Sadaharu Oh just
happened to be the handiest
robbery tool around, a sort of
a .22-caliber gun who was
being set up against a cannon.
As Oh neared the 755 mark
and certain other media
people, Black and white, called
public attention to the Great
Home Run Robbery, some of
Oh’s American flacks
apparently began to feel a
pricking of the conscience.
Instead of writing and
the situation raises many
questions.
Why is the Pillsbury-Burger
King conglomerate profiting
from a venture which other
private industries chalk up as
charitable contributions? Why
did Pillsbury fire their minority
affairs director and resist all
recommendations to establish a
comprehensive minority
enterprise developmental
program? Why are Black
franchisees limited to Black
neighborhoods for site
consideration when Black
consumers have purchasing
talking about what Oh would
do to Aaron specifically, they
now said that, when Oh hit
Home Run No. 756, he would
“set a new WORLD home run
record” or that he would “set a
new PROFESSIONAL baseball
home run record.”
Those claims also were
untrue and, what is more, at
least some of Oh’s American
flacks knew it.
Untrue Claims Made
Josh Gibson, the oldtime
Negro league star, hit more
home runs than Ruth, Aaron,
or Oh.
According to the Guinness
Book of Records, Gibson hit
800 home runs, according to
John Holway, a reputable
historian who has interviewd
dozens of former Negro league
players, scanned thousands of
old newspapers and magazines,
and researched virtually all of
the books written about the
subject, Gibson hit MORE
THAN 900 HOME RUNS!
Monte Irvin, a member of
Base hall Commissioner Bowie
Kuhn’s staff who formerly
played both Negro and major
league baseball, says:
“Josh Gibson was the
greatest hitter I ever saw.”
Many years ago, a legendary
white major league pitching
star, Walter Johnson, was awed
by Gibson’s ability and, in
effect, said:
“If he weren’t colored, he
would be worth 5200.000 to a
major league team.”
Considering inflation, that’s
tantamount to saying Gibson
would be worth milliond
today.
Satchel Paige, the supeistar
Negro leaguer who is regarded
by many as the greatest pitcher
who ever lived, a pitcher who
faced and conquered many
major leaguers in exhibition
games, is another who swears
that Gibson was the best hitter
he ever encountered.
But. like Sadaharu Oh, Josh
Gibson never played major
league baseball.
No Serious Challenge
That being true, neither
Blacks or whites made serious
challenges against Ruth on
Gibson’s behalf. Almost
unanimously, they appraised
and acepted major league
baseball as being supreme, the
highest level of competition.
If Gibson didn’t play major
league baseball, they reasoned,
there was no way he could beat
“See “AARON”
Page 3
Less Than 75% Advertising
patterns that encompass entire
metro areas?
Although Black businesses
cater almost exclusively to
Black people. Black consumers
spend most of their dollars
outside their communities.
These warrant prompt
investigation and attention
from the government,
consumers, and all those
committed to equal
opportunity.
Blacks have historically been
victimized by racism in the
business world with higher
insurance rates than those paid
Mitchell’s bill to aid
minority businesses
Labeling the bill “...the most comprehensive
piece of proposed legislation ever introduced to
assist minority wntrepreneurs,” the Chairman of
the Minority Enterprise and General Oversight
Subcommittee of the House Small Business
Committee (Joseph P. Addobbo-D., N.Y.) began
hearings on the Minority Enterprise Act of 1977
designed by Black Congressman Pareen J. Mitchell
(D-Md.). Originally introduced during the 94th
Congress and reintroduced again in the current
95th Congress with 56 House co-sponsors, the
Minority Enterprise Act launches an attack on the
pitfalls faced by minority businesses of lack of
capital and operational finance and lack of access
to contracting and sub-contracting opportunities.
The primary features of the Act are: the
expansion of assistance under the Small Business
Administration to minority small business
concerns, the provision of statutory standards for
contracting by the United States with minority
businesses, and the creation of a Commission on
Federal Assistance to Minority Enterprise.
McKinney reflects
on OIC progress
BB W
K • <
IH
w -JE
Isaac McKinney
BY SHARON CALDWELL
Isaac Mckinney, executive
director of Augusta
Opportunities industrilization
Center (AO1C) for the past two
and a half years, spoke of the
accomplishments the local
center has made, and the
impact that OIC has made
nationally in a recent
interview.
The largest accomplishment
Augusta’s OIC has attained.
McKinney said, was being
selected along with seven other
branch® September last year
for its criteria of locality, size,
geographical location and the
ability to coordinate activities
by whites in the same city,
inaccessible credit outlets,
high incidence of crime, and
assorted other sociological and
economic barriers.
MESBIC investments are
some of the few remaining
vestiges of the Nixon
Administration intended as a
thrust toward viable ‘Black
capitalism.’ That dream of
owning a piece of the
American pie has turned into a
nightmarish monster for Reggie
Smith and other Blacks buoyed
by the hopes of MESBIC-en
trepreneurship.
in the community. At that
time a contract of SI million
from the U. S. Department of
Commerce was granted. These
funds brought about the
organization of the
Community Investment
Cooperative (OlC)- He added
that there are approximately
200 branches of OIC
nationwide.
This organization, although
linked with OIC in respect to
helping people better
themselves, is a separate
organization.
“OIC is probably the largest
private non-profit organization
providing assistance to
individuals most in need of job
training and placement in
America’’, McKinney said.
OIC is operated on
sub-grants from governmental
agencies such as the U. S.
Department of Education
Commerce, Labor, HEW as
well as local businesses the
director added.
Augusta's center has already
grown to service other counties
surrounding Richmond such as
Burke and Jefferson Counties.
It has a night program and is
presently working on
expanding its facilities added
McKinney.
McKinney, who has recently
left his post to attend graduate
school, is being replaced by Ms.
Gloria Butler.
25*