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The Augusta News-Review - February 2, 1978 -
One voice for equal employment
(NNPA Editorial)
Not since the passage of the 1964 Civil
Rights Act has a President or Congress
taken sweeping action to improve equal
rights. Now the President’s Task Force in
the Office of Management and Budget has
proposed a civil rights reorganization that
would create a single-mission equal
employment agency under the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission.
It is about time.
Today 18 different agencies enforce 40
separate equal employment requirements.
This has greatly hindered effective
enforcement and contributed to the
astronomical unemployment rates that
plague Black communities.
The proposed OMB reorganization is
more modest than most civil rights groups
would like. Over a period of several years,
EEOC would get jurisdiction over the
Office of Federal Contract Compliance
Programs and equal pay and age
discrimination functions, now in the
Department of Labor, as well as civil
rights protection for Federal workers,
now in the Civil Service Commission. In
addition, the present unwieldy authority
of four agencies to jointly decide equal
employment opportunity policy would
be transferred to the EEOC. In spite of
the drawn out timetable, the proposal
should be supported because it moves us
closer to the dream of a single agency to
enforce equal job rights.
To their credit, the Black summit of 15
civil rights leaders extracted a promise
Walking with dignity
Rhodesian Blacks are reporting basic
accords in the friendly negotiating
concerning a peaceful transition toward a
Black majority rule. Rodesia’s internal
settlement talks are reported by Black
nationalist participants to be on the brink
of agreement on strictly constitutional
issues. Black Nationalist sources said after
a heads-of-delegations meeting on Jan. 19
that agreement now had been reached on
the number of white seats in an
independent Zimbabwe (Rhodesia)
parliament, on how these seats should be
selected, on the nature and number of
so-called “entrenched clauses, “and on
the voting numbers necessary to amend
such clauses.
The sole remaining constitutional issue,
they said, was the duration of the white
safeguards, whether they should last for
5, 10 or 15 years. In addition to the
constitutional issue, there are the
problems of the security forces and an
interim administration still to be tackled.
The nationalists said it had been agreed
that there would be 28 white seats,
elected by white voters, in a 100-seat
Parliament. There would be eight
entrenched safeguards, which could only
be amended, during the initial stages of
Zimbabwean independence by a stated
majority of votes.
It is unclear exactly how many votes
would be needed to change these white
safeguards. But sources suggested that
any alternative would require at least all
72 Black votes plus some of the white
votes, possibly as many as six or perhaps
only three. In other words, a change to
the entrenched clauses would require at
least 75 or possibly 78 of the
Parliamentary judiciary, and such
matters. What remains to be decided, and
the nationalists say this should be
clinched by Jan. 30. is the duration of
these safeguards.
Prime Minister lan Smith wants them
to last for 15 years, while the nationalists
want only five or eight years. Eight years
thus seems to be a possible compromise
figure. Once this point is cleared, the
talks will move on to the crucial issue of
the composition of the security forces
and then to the establishment of a
multiracial interim government to
supervise drafting of the constitution and
the holding of elections. News that
agreement was near on strictly
constitutional issues came iust as the
militant Patriotic Front headed by
expatriate Black leaders Joshua Nkomo
and Robert Mugabe, which is not
participating in the internal talks.
These two disidents did not participate
in the internal talks, they want to meet
with the British Foreign Secretary David
Owen in Malto, the first of February to
discuss the rival Anglo-American
settlement plan. Rhodesian, both Black
and white, meanwhile, have been
encouraged by a Jan. 15th speech in
(Augusta
Mallory K. Millender , Editor-Publisher
Frank Bowman General & Advertising Manager
Mary Gordon Circulation
Mailing Address
Box 953 - Augusta, Ga. Phone 722-4555
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M RATIONAL ADVEWTISIWG I
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from President Carter when they met
with him last month to send the proposal
to Congress. Virtually all the groups
protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights
Act - Blacks, Hispanics, women and older
workers - have indicated support for the
package. With this broad coalition of
support, the President is expected to send
the OMB package to Congress as is.
But there are a few vested-interest
voices within the Administration, notably
the Labor Department, who remain
unreconciled to the concept of a
single-mission civil rights agency, because
they would lose functions. But the
virtually unanimous support of the
protected groups as well as of such
powers as the United Auto Workers ought
to settle the issue.
The impressive reforms underway at
the EEOC leave little room to doubt its
capacity to handle new functions.
Eleanor Holmes Norton, the new head of
the agency, has already made inroads into
the backlog and instituted new case
processing and management systems that
are turning the agency around. Her plans
for class actions to help large numbers of
Blacks are welcome.
It is time for civil rights to have its own
full-service agency just as labor and
Agriculture and Energy do and just as
most functions do which are taken
seriously by the federal government.
Blacks will be watching the President and
Congress on this issue. It is a litmus test
of their commitment to civil rights.
Rhodesia Blacks and
whites by-pass the
Anglo-American Plan
By Al Irby
which the United States Ambassador to
Britian said it did not matter whether
any Rhodesian agreement was internal or
external so long as it led to free elections
and a genuine transfer of power to the
Black majority.
INTERNAL RHODESIAN TALKS
produce guerrilla 'amnesty'’ plan -- The
Rhodesian government’s “safe return”
program for guerrillas who lay down their
arms is seen as part of the internal
settlement package that Prime Minister
lan Smith and his ministry is trying to
put together in the face of hostile world
opinion.
A brief statement on Jan. 25th
revealed that “some time ago’’ the
Rhodesian security forces had been
authorized to put into operation a safe
return policy for guerrillas who wished to
return in peace. Announcement of the
safe return program follows reports that
the domestic settlement talk between Mr.
Smith and the three domestic nationalist
parties are close to agreement on all
strictly constitutional issues.
HARD TO CONVINCE THE
MILITANT BLACK LEADERS - The
safe-return policy, meanwhile, is seen as
an attempt to convince the Black
nationalist leadership at home that the
Smith government is prepared to consider
the inclusion of certain guerrillas who lay
down their arms and return in peace to
Rhodesia in a Zimbabwe national army,
after the settlement. However, it is
unclear whether the terms are likely to be
acceptable to the guerrillas themselves
whose leadership, which is bitterly
opposed to the present talks, already has
rejected this offer out of hand.
It was not specified, for example, if the
safe return feature would apply to
guerrillas known to have killed in the
field. Thus far, guerrillas involved in
combat usually have refused to surrended
because of their belief this meant certain
execution. Tactical safe-retum offers had
been made from time to time in the past,
but this was the first such offer to be
made on a national basis, said the
government statement.
GUERRILLAS DISILLUSIONMENT -
Recent intelligence had indicated a
considerable “degree of disillusionment
among the guerrilla rank and file which
apparently stemmed from a lack of
confidence in the terrorist leadership”, a
growing belief that the present settlement
talks will succeed and a lowering of
“terrorist morale," in some areas as a
result of security force operations. This
was evidenced by large numbers of
guerrillas coming over to the government
during the past few weeks.
The Deputy Minister for Information
said in a recent statement that it was
“absolutely essential” to ensure that
those guerrillas who were likely to
respond to the offer were given the
opportunity to do so.
Page 4
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FIRE RETROROCKETS!
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Kudos to the local National
Association of University Women for
bringing home Ms. Raymone Bain to
speak at its Scholarship Dinner
tomorrow. She is beautiful and talented
and I am in agreement that a great future
awaits Raymone! She is now Augusta’s
representative at the White House.
808 MOORE OUT FRONT ON
TELEVISION
I just saw Bob Moore on the Channel
12 mid-day action program. This former
Peace Corps officer comes off with great
style as he gives out the news.
EXCELLENT HRC ANNUAL REPORT
Orchids to the local Human Relations
Commission on its recently released
comprehensive and interesting annual
program report on its various services and
activities. Nice going Charles Walker! May
I suggest that you also read it so as to give
your own opinions.
THE MILLENDERS AT NNPA
MEETING
Last month Publisher Millender and his
Lady participated in the annual
mid-winter NNPA professional workshop
held in Miami. Your publisher was
selected as a panelist in one of the key
workshops and was later invited to
introduce the head table. Again, this tells
Augustans of the esteem held by the
Black Press of America for Mai and your
own NEWS-REVIEW. (There are over
200 papers in this association)
The Miami meeting was the first NNPA
event for Jackie Millender and she was
warmly received. As the “First Lady of
the Black Press in Augusta”, we must
note with appreciation how she has given
solid and devoted assistance in helping
build the paper over the past seven years.
This brilliant young mother of two boys
and a professional psychiatric social
worker at our U.S. Veterans Hospital has
been a real asset indeed.
THE COLUMNIST RETURN TO
AUGUSTA
Thanks to the Good Lord, we finally
Letter to the editor
Offers another view of Mclntyre trip
Dear Editor:
1 wish to provide another point of view
concerning the visit of Mr. Mclntyre to
Africa. Although it will not be in direct
opposition to Mr. Askari's letter of
January 19. it is somewhat less parochial.
I view Mr. Mclntyre as more than just a
local politician, but a man of national
renown and one who shows competence
in the political arena. His name nor
position should be slurred because of our
wishing to say to him: “Thank you for a
job well done.”
Granted. the State Department
WOULD wish to send Black elected
officials to Black nations. Twenty years
ago it would not have been possible to
have sent such an entourage and would
not have been considered, for the US.
did not overtly attempt to woo the
sentiments of the Black nations of Africa.
Mr. Mclntyre is Black, concerned with
HIGH HOPES
Going places
Welcome home
Raymone!
By Philip Waring
made it back home to Augusta tor
retirement. Or rather semi-retirement, as I
will be engaged in numerous community
betterment activities. This would include:
(1) A speed-up on the award-winning
“Blacks Who Helped Build Augusta”
series. The late Howard B. Woods, vice
president of NNPA and former deputy
director of the USIS, said “This project is
the first wherein a local community and
its Black paper got together to recapture
historic records and achievements before
they are lost forever”... This series has
also motivated other starts on local Black
history.... This is the way it should be....
There are many facets to be covered.
Other persons should also venture in with
their own...
Secondly, I shall be assisting in the
expansion of the NEWS-REVIEW, as is is
a valuable asset indeed.... (3) I am vitally
interested in encouraging Black families
to research out and record family
history.... They owe this to future
generations.... I’ll be happy to share my
basic Black Family Self-Inventory to
those who are interested....
Fourthly, on still another front, I plan
to work actively with little St. Mary’s
Episcopal Church, my family church
since 1901.... Then there is a
long-standing promise to Vernon Jordan
to help get an Urban League affiliate
started here.... And last summer in St.
Louis, at the NAACP convention. Judge
Ben Hooks asked that I give a hand in
Augusta.... A Federal service agency
invited me to consider continuation of a
professional consultancy relationship....
And finally, there have been long-range
plans to open my own public
relations-consulting agency, which would
be a “first” of its kind in the CSRA. It
would mesh my interests in a major social
and economic expansion of the
Augusta-CSRA community....
Many thanks to hometown folks
who’ve welcomed me back.... sent cards,
phone calls, invited me to dinner, etc.... If
I miss seeing you, please come over and
tap me on the shoulder.... Thanks! For
the next several months I may be reached
at the N-R office....
Black needs, human needs of all cultural
and ethnic backgrounds and he is a
STATESMAN. Had I been in a position
of power in the State Department, he
would have been one of my choices also.
When we have a person of competence
in office, we should wish to keep him
there-thanking him once in a while, and
not blaming him for our collective
shortcomings. He, too. has human needs.
Yes, there is much we yet must do. We
must strive for INDIVIDUAL and
collective excellence. We should praise a
gathering of persons who objective is in
the common good, and deplore that
which is not of the common good. In that
manner, we work effectively for the race,
and for OUR country.
Paul D. Walker
2311 Shadowood Dr.
Ill' ' **'.
The national outpouring of grief at
Hubert Humphrey’s death was entirely
appropriate; he was a giant in an era of
lesser men with smaller vision. His last
honors were typical of those men who
has served as President, and that too was
appropriate, for he should have been
President.
President Carter sent him a photograph
of the two of them behind the desk in the
Oval Office and inscribed it: “Hubert
Humphrey, this desk should have been
yours.”
He lost the Presidency by an eyelash in
1968 - only half a million votes out of 73
million. If he had won then the nation
would have been spared the disastrous
economic dislocations of the following
years. Most likely we would have avoided
the intolerable unemployment rates of
today.
And the reason is that Hubert
Humphrey was a man who translated his
compassion to the public arena. He was
concerned throughout his career with the
underdogs, with the sufferings of people
left out of our affluent society. That’s
why it is so fitting that the new
headquarters for HEW is named after
him.
At the dedication ceremonies of that
building, Senator Humphrey, weak from
his illness, summed up the compassionate
philosophy that animated his life.
“The moral test of government,” he
said, “is how it treats those who are in
the dawn of life, the children; those who
are in the twilight of life, the aged, and
those who are in the shadows of life, the
sick, the needy, and the handicapped.”
Hubert Humphrey met that moral test
by championing the interests of those
who desperately needed a champion in
the seats of power. His last great cause
was the battle for full employment. He
co-sponsored the Humphrey-Hawkins
Bill, designed to set the nation on the
road to full employment economy and
convinced the Administration to accept a
compromise version of the Bill. Then,
even from his sickbed, weak from
chemoak from chemotherapy treatment,
he worked long and arduously for its
passage.
There could be no better tribute to this
great man than for his colleagues in the
Preventing and
1 treating oral eancer
Women are catching up with men in
one respect that won’t arouse much
celebration among the feminists.
Researchers have learned that as
women smoke more they also are getting
more cancer of the mouth. The cigarette
habits of women are blamed for the
sudden and alarming increase of mouth
cancer among women.
Within the past few years, dentists
acros the country have saved the lives of
many people. They did this by detecting
cancers in the mouth of their patients,
men and women, early enough so that the
cancers could be successfully treated.
The American Dental Association has
asked all dentists to maintain a constant
vigil for oral cancers. Dentists know the
signs of oral cancers, and they are in a
unique position to spot them early.
At one time or other your dentist may
have mentioned a suspicious looking area
developing inside your mouth.
Investigation of these areas is routine, and
usually they amount to nothing more
serious than an irritated patch of tissue.
But to be sure, he can take a sample of
the suspicious tissue called a biopsy and
send it to a pathologist for microscopic
examination. Most of these specimens
turn out to be normal.
More than 8,000 Americans die
annually from oral cancers. Most could
have been saved if they had heeded the
early signs of this disease. About 15,000
new cases are diagnosed each year.
The use of tobacco in any form
appears to be a major cause of oral
cancer. Smokers have a 400 per cent
higher risk of dying from oral cancers
Support our advertisers
To be equal
By Vernon E. Jordan Jr.
Dentistry and you
By Dr. W.J. Walker
Humphrey is
irreplaceable
Congress to make passage of the
Humphrey-Hawkins Bill their priority
item of business in the current session.
And if anyone rates the title “civil
rights leader,” it was Hubert Humphrey.
From the start of his career he worked to
advance the interests of Blacks and other
minorities. As the young mayor of
Minneapolis, a city that then had few
Blacks, he pushed through the first
municipal Fair Employment Practices
Commission in the nation.
He didn't do it for personal gain -
there weren’t enough Black voters in
Minneapolis then to make it a political
move. If anything, he probably lost votes
from prejuciced whites.
Nor did he have to fight for a strong
civil rights plank at the 1948 Democratic
Convention, a move that split the Party
and led to the revolt of the Dixiecrats.
No, he did it because it was right. He was
told then that it was too early to raise the
issue of civil rights. “Too early?”
Humphrey replied. “It’s 172 years too
late.”
And that was only the beginning. From
1948 on, there was never a single civil
rights bill or piece of important social
legislation that did not find Hubert
Humphrey in the front lines, battling for
its adoption.
His death leaves a gaping hole in the
nation’s leadership. Indeed, when one
looks at the concern for balancing
budgets instead of lives, and the relentless
shift away from bringing equality and
opportunity to those denied them, it
becomes apparent that Hubert Humphrey
is irreplaceable.
There seems no one on the national
scene today who consistently
demonstrates the passion, the fire, and
the unswerving commitment to the poor
that characterized Hubert Humphrey’s
public career.
Yet, those are the very qualities most
needed in Washington today. Hubert
Humphrey was lucky enough to have seen
his positions, once labelled radical, come
to be accepted national policy. But so
much is left to be done, so many of those
positions never went beyond lip service,
that his loss is all the greater. What this
country needs is another Hubert
Humphrey to take up the cudgels and
fight the good fight.
than nonsmokers.
The most frequent sites of oral
malignancies are the lips (27 per cent)
and the tongue (22 per cent). Other
common sites are the inside of the
cheeks, salivary glands, palate, gum
tissues and under the tongue on the floor
of the mouth.
One of the earliest signs of oral cancer
can be a white or yellow-white patch that
feels teathery to the touch. Dentists call
this leukoplakia, and it usually means
that something is irritating the tissue. It
could be such factors as the use of
tobacco or ill-fitting dentures.
Other signs include any lump in the
soft tissue of the mouth, sores that don’t
heal, difficulty in swallowing, red spots
and hoarseness.
These are the signs a patient, himself,
can see and should be aware of and be
suspicious of between dental
examinations.
If the pathology examination of the
biopsy oral tissue shows that it is not
cancerous but that it might become so,
then the cause of the irritation must be
immediately eliminated. You will need
the assistance of the dentist in
determining what the cause might be. If
there is an ill-fitting denture, it should be
corrected. If it is due to smoking, the
habit should be stopped.
A word to the wise has proved not to
be sufficient enough when it comes to the
relationship between smoking and oral
cancer. The diagnosis of 15,000 new cases
or oral cancer in the nation each year,
about half of which are fatal, testifies to
widespread disregard for prevention of
this serious disease.