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The Augusta News-Review - June 8, 1978
“We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us.
Too long has the public been deceived by misrepresentations in things
which concern us dearly.”
-- Freedom’s Journal, 1827 --
(Augusta Netos-Kelnefo
Mallory K. Millender • Editor-Publisher
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What’s in a name?
Guest Column
By Tom Wicker
New York Times
ATLANTA -- At a convivial luncheon
here the other day, Hal Gulliver, the
editor of The Atlanta Constitution, was
drawing out his guests on a variety of hot
topics - Rhodesia, the Cubans in Africa,
the state of the American press, the
outlook for Jimmy Carter’s re-election.
A quiet voice broke into the
conversation: “May I change the subject a
moment?”
The hard talkers around the table fell
silent as Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, the
retired president of Morehouse College,
chose his words carefully:
“Why is the biggest and most expensive
Federal building named for J. Edgar
Hoover?”
No one answered, because no one had
an answer, although all understood Dr.
Mays’s question instantly. The F. 8.1.
building is the biggest and most expensive
ever erected by the General Services
Administration; and that morning, the
Atlanta papers had detailed yet another
disclosure of how J. Edgar Hoover did his
malevolent best to undermine, slander
and destroy the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr., a son of Atlanta and one of this
century’s greatest Americans.
These efforts ranged from Mr. Hoover’s
personal branding of Dr. King as “the
most notorious liar” in the country to an
actual attempt to induce him to commit
suicide. But more was at stake than
Martin Luther King’s reputation; as Mrs.
Coretta King put 'it, the latest disclosure
also “proves oncd again that the F. 8.1.
treated the civil rights movement as if it
were an alien enemy attack on the United
States.”
In November, 1964, the executive
director of the NAACP, Roy Wilkins - as
his latest Senate testimony shows and as
Dr. King’s FBI files will support -
intervened with the bureau to stop its
attacks on Dr. King, which Mr. Wilkins
felt were damaging the civil rights
movement. But FBI memos just coming
to light show that the bureau tried to
convert this into another scheme “to
remove King from the national picture”
and replace him with an FBI-chosen
“national leader.”
This was not only an attempt to
destroy Dr. King; since the memos
distorted Mr. Wilkins’s statements and
attitudes in what he later told a Senate
committee was a “self-serving” manner,
the FBI recklessly endangered his
reputation as well as that of Dr. King.
All this, not insignificantly, was taking
place while Martin Luther King was
Our new day begun
In keeping with my call at the NAACP
Annual Convention in St. Louis, Mo., last
year for a major summit conference of
Black leaders, almost 1,000 spectators,
delegates and members of the press met
in Chicago from May 4-7 to help the
veteran civil rights organization define
cunent civil rights issues and strategies.
The t NAACP National Leadership
Summit Conference was different from
our regular annual conventions and other
conferences in one major respect.
It reached out in an all-encompassing
scope for some of the nation’s foremost
professional, civic and political leaders
who, because they have their own
constituencies, do not normally work
closely with the NAACP.
The vast majority, however, are
lifetime supporters of the NAACP and
gained prominence as a result of their
close identity and work with the veteran
civil rights organizations.
It was therefore no surprise to hear
them repeat that “there is no other
organization like the NAACP.” Th£,
grand lady has been the mother of many
other civil rights organizations and
movements. *lts strategies of legal and
civic protests are now boldlv used by
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Page 4
writing his acceptance speech for the
Nobel Peace Prize. Apparently the mere
thought of his despised target being so
honored was more than J. Edgar Hoover
could accept.
Roy Wilkins’s intervention on behalf of
the civil rights movement, moreover, was
occasioned by such FBI activities as its
circulation to various newspapers of tapes
and transcripts of wiretaps and
microphone surveillances used against Dr.
King. These “leaks,” it should be noted,
were engineered by the FBI at a time
when it was a felony to disclose the fruits
of a wiretap or a “bug.”
It is no justification whatever that
these transcripts are reported to have
contained evidence of sexual peccadillos
by Dr. King and others. In the first place,
Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s
authorization for the wiretaps had been
obtained on the spurious ground that Dr.
King had Communists in his entourage; in
the second place, if anything at all should
have been done about the material
allegedly overheard, it should not have
been done by a Federal police agency and
certainly not through clandestine and
illegal disclosures designed to destroy a
leader and a movement.
If this were the only blemish on J.
Edgar Hoover’s record, it might be
regarded as a sad aberration in an
otherwise admirable career. But in fact, as
time brings more Freedom of
Information suits, more grand jury
deliberations, more investigative
reporting, the truth becomes clearer -- the
assault on Martin Luther King was only
part of a long and dismal record of FBI
attempts, at Mr. Hoover’s command, to
suppress dissent and social change, hound
and harass supposed enemies, smear
individuals and organizations, blackmail
those on whom it “had something,” and
manipulate public attitudes to suit the
Director’s prejudices. And all these
activities were based on surveillances and
infiltrations conducted with little or no
regard for the law.
It will be protested that FBI agents
under Mr. Hoover also performed many
useful and creditable tasks, with bravery
and skill. That is unquestionably true, but
it merely underlines the harder truth that
the King vendetta and other excrescences
discredited the records of, and betrayed
the trust of Americans in, the man and
the bureau he created in his own image.
Why, indeed, should the American
people’s biggest and most expensive
building, standing squarely on the parade
route of Presidents, in the symbolic city
of democracy, be named for J. Edgar
Hoover? What does that tell us, not about
him but about ourselves?
NAACP leadership
summit conference
By Benjamin Hooks
scores of other groups and coalitions.
The ideas and knowledge that were
contributed to the conference further
showed the depth and breadth of
expertise and influence that Black
Americans now possess. What is needed,
therefore, is a catalyst for transforming
these vast pools of knowledge and
experience into viable strategies for
combatting the herrendous social and
economic problems that Black people
continue to face.
The role of an umbrella organization,
and catalyst, is one that the NAACP has
traditionally played. The most recent
period of reference was the 50s through
the 60s. Then, the NAACP performed
such unsung functions as winning the suit
in which the U.S. Supreme Court held in
1956 that segregation on travel within
states was unconstitutional. This victory
enables Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. to
triumph in the Montgomery bus boycott.
The NAACP also provided about $1
million in bail for student demonstrators
during the 60s. This money has never
been retrieved. There were a host of other
non-legal battles that the NAACP fought
and won. Most notable were the passage
of the civil rights acts, beginning with
WE HAVE THE TOOLS TO DO THE JOB. LETS MAKE A START NOW.
LAWYERS ARTISTS
DOCTORS ARCHITECTS
DENTISTS BUSINESS
ENGINEERS SOCIAL workers
TEACHERS ACCOUNTANTS
AFTER years of hard
WORK AND STUDY-NOW
W RETURNING TO BUILD
better black
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Millions of Americans who know and
love Roy Wilkins have already denounced
the despictable FBI innuendo regarding
toppling Dr. Martin L. King Jr. That’s J.
Edgar Hoover’s old plan to split us in the
civil rights movement. But it won’t work
even with Dr. King and tyrant Hoover no
longer with us.
Let’s evaluate this subject: (1) The
alleged FBI subject was “a young man
desiring more power” - Roy Wilkins was
then up into his late sixties and head of
the most powerful Civil Rights
organization in the nation, (2) Dr. M.L.
King Jr. was both a Spingarn Medalist and
a Nobel Peace Awardee - And who in
God’s name would attempt to topple an
internationally popular leader of this
stature, except the sick mind of the late
FBI leader, (3) With the KKK, numerous
hate groups in both the private and public
sectors, coupled with the decade-long ban
against the NAACP in Alabama, there was
excellent cooperation between SCLC and
NAACP, and lastly, (4) Numerous public
records show that former FBI agents have
described how they had to fabricate
reports to Hoover’s liking. The nation was
repelled on learning how Hoover
attempted to smear Dr. King’s private life
and reputation. And that’s what 1 believe
has happened in the current Roy Wilkins
case.
WHITNEY YOUNG’S WARNING
About ten years ago the late and great
Urban League chief, Whitney M. Young
Jr., warned us “Beware of J. Edgar
Hoover and his FBI efforts to divide the
civil rights movement.” It has come true.
It appears that Roy went in to protest to
the FBI its treatment of Dr. King. And
they turned it around to make him
appear as a double agent!
ATTACKS ON PRESS
May we share on this subject by
Samuel Slade of the St. Louis Sentinel. It
reads thusly:
In a recent report published in a
nationally distributed publication, it
revealed thag the Jimmy Carter White
House is not totally in favor of First
Amendment rights and sunshine law
views.
It is felt by many observers in
that of 1957.
But despite these and other triumphs,
Black people, by and large, are at a
standstill today. The victories of the 60s,
the legal pronouncements and precedents
have not realized equal opportunity for
the masses of our people. The majority of
Blacks have not yet benefitted from the
“deliberate” speed formula for redressing
longstanding grievances and outstanding
legacies of discrimination.
Thirty percent of Black Americans live
in “officially-defined” poverty. Black
unemployment is twice as high as white
unemployment. This has been the
constant since World War 11, in “good
Take a GIANT STEP
i n the March of Dimes
fe WALKATHON
T 0 PROTECT THE UNBORN
U U AND THE NEWBORN
THIS SPACE CONTRIBUTED BY THE PUBLISHER
Going places
Roy Wilkins
lied on by FBI
By Philip Waring
Washington, that the boys from Georgia
are not sure of what they are doing, and
subsequently are reluctant to cooperate
in most instances with the press or news
media.
In a summary of positions taken by the
article on the Carter Administration, and
after approximately a year in office, the
administration has taken a series of
actions on First Amendment and freedom
of information issues that could be
viewed as dangerous trend supporting
government secrecy and censorship.
Some of these Administration actions,
mainly by the Justice Department,
include:
Asking a U.S. Court of Appeals to rule
that the Justice Department may secretly
seize telephone records of news media
offices in order to discover confidential
news sources.
Asking a U.S. Court of Appeals to rule
that the Secret Service has the right to
exclude any reporter from the White
House press facilities without offering
any reason or explanation.
Asking a U.S. District Court to dismiss
a complaint alleging the 33,000 pages of
Henry Kissinger’s official telephone
transcrpits are public property governed
by the Freedom of Information Act.
Asking a U.S. District Court of Appeals
to rule that two reporters from The
Charleston (W. Va.) Gazette should be
jailed for six months for refusing to
disclose unpublished information.
Asking a U.S. Distrct Court to issue a
gag order sealing information obtained
from the FBI in a lawsuit alleging illegal
FBI harrassment of a plutonium - P^ ant
worker.
Urging the U.S. Supreme Court to
uphold a gag order barring the press from
“mingling with or being in the proximity
of’ criminal trial participants on the
grounds that the press has “no direct”
interest in such a gag order.
Opposing an amendment to the
Criminal Code Reform Act protecting the
press from being jailed for violating
invalid gag orders.
All of these actions were taken by the
Solicitor General or Assistant Attorneys
General or other persons in positions of
substantial authority and do not include
other actions taken by lower-level
officials.
times” and bad. Black teen-age
unemployment reached a phenomenal 9
percent this year. In some cities it soars
to as high as 86 percent.
Having now therefore received the
commitment of leaders to work with the
NAACP in meeting the challenge ahead,
the NAACP will at its annual convention
in Portland in July,, proceed to develop
strategies with delegates from our 1,700
branches across the country for the
acceleration of the struggle for full
equality that lies ahead. We invite every
American who supports this goal to
support us by becoming a member of the
NAACP.
Walking with dignity
JSL
Chicago’s school desegregation plan is a
perfect labyrinthian monstrosity on a
winding path. A tangled web of partisan
politics and crazy social goals is being
spun around the “Windy City’s” school
children as a new voluntary desegregation
plan is debated. The plan, called “Access
to Excellence” calls for voluntary
participation by all ethnic races in
programs ranging from help with basic
skills to “classical schools” for
thetalented. It faced examination at a
May meeting of the State Board of
Education, but nothing concrete was
settled. But it was another chapter in the
national search for ways to successfully
desegregate big-city schools, it already has
left a long trial of controversy.
NAACP WENT INTO ACTION
State guidelines call for a mandatory
desegregation plan as a backup if
voluntary measures do not work, but
Chicago School Superintendent Joseph P.
Hannon is attempting to be “tough
outhed,” and has reject any mandatory
measures. That put him in direct conflict
with, his namesake, Joseph M. Cronin,
State Superintendent of Illinois. Dr.
Cronin, with THE APPROVAL of the
State Board of Education, can block
future federal and state educational funds
for Chicago. Also, the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People is planning to sue the city
to force a mandatory backup.
TACTICAL ADVANTAGES
But Mr. Hannon has some tactical
advantages in his face-off with the liberal
Dr. Cronin and the NAACP. State
Superintendent Cronin is under pressure
from court challenges and legislative
action to go easy on desegregation. The
General Assembly is moving toward
approval of a referendum to amend the
state constitution, abholishing the state
Board of Education and making the state
school superintendent’s job elective again.
Under the state constutition that went
into effect in 1971, the superintendent’s
job became appointive, and Dr. Cronin
subsequently was brought to Chicago
from Massachusetts to fill it. If the
Illinois Legislature approves the
consitutional referendum, and both
houses have done so separately, it will be
voted on in November.
“The state board’s credibility and very
Letter to the editor
Oppose ‘scare tactic’
Dear Editor:
I don’t see how they can come up with
this “reverse discrimination” rhetoric
when 1 look at the facts that surround
me each day. The same people that were
running things 10, 20, 100 years ago are
running things today. There are a few
more Black faces here and there but ain’t
nothing changed. The same folk do the
hiring; the same folk do the firing; the
same folk decide what areas get public
funds; and so forth and so on. This is just
another smokescreen ‘scare tactic*.
An individual has the right to socialize
with whomever he or she chooses.. Social
discrimination is acceptable to us all and
we all do it. However, discrimination on
any level other than social is not
acceptable to.right-thinking people. When
discrimination plays a part in where one
can work and live and where public
monies are being spent then none of us
should find this acceptable.
Everytime Blacks and other minorities
make one stride toward gaining equality
of opportunity in this country an
ultra-conservative element comes up with
some kind of ‘scare’ to turn public
opinion against us. After the
Emancipation Proclamation they said the
Government was gon’ take Confederate
land and distribute it among the Blacks.
This gave rise to the myth of “Forty
Acres and a Mule” among the ex-slaves
and changed the sentiment of
Northerners in favor of the Rebels. It also
led to the nremature withdrawal of Union
Appreciates Festival support
Dear Editor:
By now you’ve probably heard about
the tremendous success of this year’s
April Festival. It was the best one yet,
with all events being very warmly
received and total participation topping
the forty-five thousand (45,000) mark.
You and the Augusta News-Review
played a very intergral part in the success
of the Festival; and on behalf of our
Board of Directors and myself, you have
Is desegregation
passe?
By Al Irby
existence is on the line,” notes
Christopher Nugent of the Citizens
School Committee, a private Chicago
group wich monitors educational issues.
The November vote would be “essentially
a referendum on desegregation as well as
on the funding of mandatory programs
like bilingual and special education,” Mr.
Nugent continued. Dr. Hannon is
generally respected as a sincere and
capable official, and even his critics
concede that he is working with the
political realities as he sees them.
In rejecting a mandatory desegregation
arrangement, Dr. Hannon chose not to
follow the recommendation of the
City-wide Advisory Committee (CWAC),
a citizens group which has been studying
Chicago’s desegregation problems for over
a year. Chicago has long been immuned
to the kinds of court pressure brought to
bear on cities like Detroit, Cleveland, and
Boston. Observers in Chicago say that a
combination of a lack of money and an
understanding with city hall, has
forestalled an NAACP suit at this time in
Chicago.
But that may soon change. “The suite
will be filed,” declares Thomas Atkins,
president of the Boston Branch of the
NAACP and a legal consultant on
desegregation suits across the United
States.” But when it will be filed is
anybody’s guess. Preparing the complaint
will be a massive job. The Chicago school
population of 511,000 is already heavily
minority, with about 35 percent of
students learning in “desegregated
settings,” a school spokesman said. Only
22 percent of Chicago’s public school
pupils are white, and Dr. Hannon said his
plan is designed to keep those children in
the system. “The whole business of
forced desegregation is not something the
Black community is eager to see happen,”
says Bernard La Cour of the Urban
League in Chicago. “They feel the local
white-controlled school board ought not
to be free of the law, but they are quite
willing to live with Hannon’s plan as long
as they feel they can participate.
THE HANNON PLAN
In announcing the plan April 6, Dr.
Hannon said it offers “a broad spectrum
of alternative programs: academic interest
centers, career development centers,
technical centers, basic skill programs,
enriched studies, new pre-school
programs, and new magnet schools.
troops and eventually ended the issue of
equality for the next 70 years in the
infamous Compromise of 1876.
After the Brown us Board of Education
decision in 1954, outlawing ‘separate but
equal’ facilities in public education, one
‘scare’ was that there would be a rash of
mixed marriages. Although this did not
materialize the thought alone was the
boost needed by segregationist forces to
delay equal educational opportunities
even to this day.
The Civil Rights Movement of the
1960’s was instrumental in changing the
attitude of certain segments of society
toward minorities. Programs were
instituted to assist minorities in getting an
education, locating and buying better
housing, etc. Unfortunately, the price of
this initiative was the lives of many
dedicated human beings, including
Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. Now the conservatives
tell the nation that these programs must
be discontinued because they constitute
“reverse discrimination.”
The people that can discriminate and
make it mean something are those who
hire and fire; those who distribute public
monies; those - who control the news
media; etc. You don’t find too many
Blacks and other minorities in these type
jobs. Is this ‘scare tactic’ gon’ work, too?
Gene A. Andrews Jr.
1701 Pearlie Drive, Apt. 4-G
Wichita Falls, Texas 76306
our sincerest thanks.
Judging from the comments of many
people who learned about the various
Festival activities through the
News-Review, I’m sure that you have
their thanks, too, for promoting this
community wide effort to project the arts
in our area.
Sincerely,
Edward M. Mclntyre, chairman