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The Augusta News-Review - July 20, 1978 -
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Andy’s truth stings America
U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young
was at his finest hour when he
answered critics of his much quoted
statement that there are “hundreds,
even thousands, of political
prisoners in the United States.”
Young said Monday in the
International Tribune, “I guess the
only way I can face life is to live it
and to enjoy it and to be open, and
if 1 can’t be that I don’t want to be
anything.”
It is interesting that honesty,
openness and truthfullness in
government was the quintessence of
Jimmy Carter’s promise to the
American people when he was
campaigning for President It is
absolute hypocrisy for him to
rebuke Andrew Young for carrying
out that promise.
It was equally hypocritical of
Carter to l»e trying to make
political hay out of the treatment
of dissidents in the Soviet Union
when he has a glaring example like
the Wilmington 10 staring him in
the face in this country. And he has
never said a word or lifted a finger
to help those political prisoners, in
spite of the fact that their accusers
have admitted that they lied in
their testimony against them.
We have to wonder if it is not the
fact that the W'ilmington 10 are
almost all Black that makes them
nearly invisible to the President
Syndicated columnist Mary
McGrory wrote Monday that
Young “has once again proved
himself the most valuable member
of the Carter team.”
“Young has no doubts about his
role,” she said. “He is the point
man of the administration. What is
a point man for except to deflect
fire from the commander? He has
done for Jimmy Carter the greatest
service one politician can do
another-he has changed the
subject.
“Carter’s standing as a leader of
the Western world is as depressed as
his ratings in the polls. He went to
an economic meeting in Bonn
empty-handed on energy. His
human rights policy is being
mocked in two Soviet courtrooms.
To accuse Andrew Young of having
harmed Carter’s prestige is like
saying that someone ruined a
totaled car by dropping ashes on
the upholstery.
“Capitol Hill fuhninators know
perfectly well that there is nothing
that Jimmy Carter can do about or
Young is the wrong color
Guest Column
By LEE MAY
Atlanta Constitution
If only Andrew Young were white.
Then he could say all those wild and
crazy things and he would be considered
just a wild and crazy liberal.
But United Nations Ambassador Andy
Young is Black. And when he makes
off-the-cuff remarks about racism and
political oppression being facts of life-life
everywhere, including the United
States-well, the world feels it’s time to
blow a gasket.
Well. The reaction to that has made me
wonder if it is safe for the ambassador to
come home again. Young again is
disowned by the Carter administration.
Larry McDonald, well-known ineffective
U.S. congressman from Georgia, tried and
failed to have Young impeached for “high
crimes and misdemeanors.” Secretary
Vance’s comments can’t be reprinted in a
family newspaper. Sen. Barry Goldwater
of Arizona wants the ambassador fired if
he can’t back up the charge. Says
Goldwater, “I demand Ambassador
Young provide details on who he thinks
are political prisoners in the U.S.”
Good idea. That shouldn’t be difficult,
considering Young’s definition of
“political In the Geneva
interview, Young explains: “I do think
Page 4
for Shachransky and Ginzburg. But
they have been momentarily
diverted in their denunciations of
Soviet justice and their calls for the
suspension of SALT talks to howl
for Andrew Young’s head. It’s a
respite of sorts...
“As a civil rights activist by the
side of Martin Luther King he spent
many a night in the jails of the Old
South. Maybe he picked an
inconvient moment to recall his
past; but it is that past which gives
him his entree in Africa. Andrew
Young is our Africa policy.”
Not only is Andrew Young our
Africa policy; it seems that he is the
only one in our government whose
highest commitment is to truth and
openness.
The problem is that our society
is thoroughly dishonest We have
lied so much and for so long that
the lie has become the reality. And
when this society hears the simple
truth, it finds it offensive.
We have found only one real
fault with Andy Young in his role
as U.N. Ambassador-he has too
often apologized for telling the
truth. And in so doing he has given
credence to those who accuse him
of poor judgment..
His judgment has been superb.
His performance in his job has been
without parallel.
Some have said that he is not
there to represent Black people,
he’s there to represent his country.
The fact of the matter is that if he
did net as a Black person, bring a
different perspective to his office,
then Carter might as well have
picked a white man for the job.
And Andrew Young brings to the
office the best of the Black
perspective. He brings an
unprescedented sensitivity for the
poor and the oppressed, he brings
an mtelligence that is guided as
much by moral and spiritual values
as it is by knowledge of foreign
affairs. He brings with him strength
and the courage to stand tall when
even those whose cause he defends
call for his ouster.
But in the greatest tradition of
the Black experience, he brings to
his office a commitment to God’s
law-the truth. America is not
willing to admit that
Godliness-truth-has no place in
our domestic and foreign policy.
If we believe in truth and
honesty, then we should recognize
and praise Andrew Young for the
blessing he is to our country and
our world.
there are some people who are in prison
much more because they are poor than
because they are bad. But that’s a
problem we are working on and one on
which we are making great progress.
“There are problems in our system
which sends intelligent, aggressive, poor
people to jail and in which untelligence,
aggressive and rich people have
opportunities.”
You can’t argue with that. In Georgia
alone, the American Civil Liberties Union
is barraged with calls for help in cases
where defer dants-usually members of
the undervlass-charge unfair treatment
by the system. Court files down through
the years are full of case histories where
the law has been bent to fit the class and
station of people arrested.
So, using that definition of “political
prisoner,” Young would have little
problem meeting Goldwater’s challenge.
The system of justice has in too many
cases taken cues from other
systems-social, educational, employment,
political. This has created a situation
where people are jailed, as Young put it,
“more because they are poor than
because they are bad.”
The American human rights movement
is a fine example of that. Says Young,
“Ten years ago I myself was tried in
11 [Ulf IlLff
ilpity hr — i
tV •
May I invite Going Places readers to
examine the feature on Augusta in the
current July/August edition of Brown’s
Guide To Georgia, a statewide magazine
which has been published for sometime
from College Park, adjacent to Atlanta.
Augustans will be talking about the
pros and cons for a long time. Written by
the magazine’s associate editor, William
Culber, an experienced and long-time
Georgia newsman, the praise and criticism
will get both assent and sharp
disagreement.
We understand that he spent some time
here, observing community affairs,
reading records and interviewing all kinds
of people. Above all, however, Mr. Cutler
uses sharp surgical skill in opening up,
examining and then commenting on
many hithertofore unreported sectors of
the economic, civic and racial life in these
parts. His 20-page treatment has maps,
charts, quotes of all kinds, statistics and
other supporting data.
MARGARET TWIGGS COMMENTS
Sunday afternoon at a meeting many
whites and Blacks discussed the excellent
critique given the magazine’s feature on
Augusta by Chronicle-Herald staff writer,
Mrs. Margaret Twiggs. It was entitled
“City Seems To Have Missed The Boat.”
FAIL TO BOOST AUGUSTA
While noting that in most other
Georgia communities there’s usually lots
of news in statewide magazines and other
organs about what’s happening locally,
Mr. Cutler observed that it appears that
businessmen had reluctance in boosting
or naming Augusta, their own base of
operations.
The Atlanta writer pointed out that
Augusta was a beautiful city with rich
historical background, numerous civic
and cultural resources coupled with the
Savannah River, but little was being done
in exploit them... He wondered whether
most Augustans knew about their rich
resources or really appreciated them....
The statewide magazine stated that
Augustans were overly conservative,
always maintained the status quo and
wondered whether this accounted for the
start up and then slow down after some
progressive steps had been made.... (One
area which Phil Waring questions has to
do with his statement of nonavailability
of promotional materials by the Chamber
of Commerce.... In addition to my
longtime work in Augusta Black History,
I’ve also promoted the return here of
former Augustans for retirement.... I’ve
always secured excellent material and
cooperation from the chamber on this)....
BLACK COMMUNITY EXAMINED
One section of this feature was devoted
to the Augusta Black Community....
There were pictures of Tabernacle Baptist
Church and the grave of Dr. Lucy
Laney... Mr. Cutler really moved back
into the rich days of history as he alluded
to the former outstanding achievements
of the professional, business and civic life
of our community.... He used the
example of twenty physicians and
dentists years ago with just a small
handful n0w.... He devoted space to our
present decline....
The Atlanta journalist paid tribute to
the achievements of the former slave,
Lucy C. Laney, and how she built a
nationally prominent school and
Atlanta for having organized a protest
movement.”
Young also said something which
shows he sees a distinction between the
Soviet and American systems: “There is
nobody in prison in the U.S. for
criticizing the government.”
That distinction gets lost in the furor
over Young’s other statements. He is hurt
by the fact that he tells the truth at
inopportune times. SALT negotiations
and already strained relations with the
Soviets make now a very undiplomatic
time to talk about their own deficiencies.
That is accented by Young’s color.
Because he is Black, his statements on
rpcc end attention.
Going places
Augusta praised
and criticized
By Philip Waring
organized the first training program for
Black nurses here... He doffed his hat to
the great Dr. C.T. Walker and how such
national leaders as Presidnet William H.
Talf, financier J.P. Morgan and Columbia
University President Nicholas Murray
Butler visited Tabernacle to hear him
preach.... (As a Black Augusta historian,
this showed me Mr. Cutler did homework
on this subject)....
He praised Pilgrim Life as a little
company founded in 1898 with $2.50
but had grown with assets of many
millions and was the chief insurance and
loan base for thousands of Black
Augustans
On Page 42 Mr. Cutler said that Black
Augustans have long accepted the
traditional conservative pace of life in the
city.... That Black leaders are older men
who have been in office for some time
(what about our two outstanding Black
elected female office holders not
mentioned?).... He said that younger men
in their 30s want a piece of the action....
He noted that Attorney John Ruffin
had successfully challenged the
Richmond County Board of Education’s
desegregation policies and forced
countywide busing to correct the
imbalance... Mr. Cutler praised Ed
Mclntyre and the tremendous overall
cultural contribution of the Black
Festival... The writer noted that the
historical founding of Paine College by
whites and Blacks of the methodist
church as an institution of higher learning
and highlighted outstanding graduates
such as Dr. Channing H. Tobias and Dr.
John Wesley Gilbert....
Continuing, he said that Paine College
“has traditionally exerted small influence
in Augusta” and that both whites and
Blacks were looking towards its new
president, Julius Scott, to change this
situation... He noted the name change for
Laney-Walker Boulevard, spoke of
prominent Blacks buried in Cedar Grove
Cemetery, mentioned historic Springfield,
Union and Thankful Baptist Churches,
and wondered when urban renewal
building would start in the cleared section
of the “Terry”....
CALLED MCG RACIST
Mr. Cutler viewed the tremendous
overall impact of the Medical College of
Georgia on the economic, cultural and
health stance of Augusta, indicating its
faculty and staff played an important
part in the areas’ civic life.... With over
2,387 students and almost 10,000
employes, it was the largest employer in
the area....
He apparently interviewed Black staff
members there who termed MCG as
“Augusta’s most racist institution”.... and
indicated that Charles Walker of the
Human Relations Commission concurred
in this opinion....
It is most important that News-Review '
readers themselves read this revealing
examination of the life and times of
Augusta.... Check the main library or
send for it: Brown’s Guide To Georgia,
P.O. Box 87306, College Park, Ga.,
30337....
A few months ago Mr. Cutler did a
similar article on Albany, Georgia. And
after his surgical operation on that town,
especially Mr. Gray, its major publisher,
all hell broke 1005e.... Today it is
impossible to purchase a copy of Brown’s
Guide To Georgia on the Augusta news
racks.... You may wish to send for a
copy. I’ll have more on this subject in
later columns of Going Places...
■ '"-1
It’s as though whites would rather have a
Black ignore race and class problems or
pretend they don’t exist.
Young does present problems. He
shakes up the world with his statements.
The world would rather sleep than hear
all those reminders about our wrongs. All
the cries for his head eventually may
bring us back to the good old dull days
when the ambassador did nothing and
Sciicl less.
And who knows? If Andy Young goes,
there’s even a chance we’ll have him
replaced with a white who says the same
things Andy says. About as much of a
chance as having Andrew Young turn
white
To be equal
The U.S. Supreme Court, in its
decision in the Bakke case, dealt only
with the issue of special admissions
programs at colleges and universities.
But the basic constitutionality of
affirmative action programs that give
some preference to minorities in
employment has still to be dealt with. A
number of court cases brought by whites
charging they are victims of “reverse
discrimination” are coming up. Those
cases will have greater immediate impact
on Blacks than the Bakke case.
How will the Court rule on them?
There’s no way to tell. Off its past record,
the Court most likely will back
affirmative action programs, perhaps even
those as rigid as the one it struck down in
the Bakke case.
The reason is that the Court has a long
record of approving race-conscious efforts
to remedy the effects of racial
disermination. There have been several
cases decided on the principle that where
past discrimination can be shown,
affirmative action programs with strict
goals and timetables are constitutionally
acceptable.
That was missing in the Bakke case, in
which evidence of the University’s past
discrimination was not before the Court.
In several major cases, once the Court
found evidence of racial discrimination it
approved racial factors in framing the
remedy. That’s why it has approved
racially-based teacher and student
assignments and racially-based electoral
districts in key past cases.
And just days after the Bakke decision,
the Court left standing a lower court
ruling upholding an affirmative action
program at AT&T that had been
challenged by the company’s union. It
also refused to rule in a case involving
minority setasides for public works
contracts.
Those actions offer grounds for some
optimism on future Court action in
employment cases. Another plus is that
the lower courts have consistently upheld
racially-based goals and timetables to
remedy the effects of employment
discrimination. The outlook then, appears
favorable, but some factors are troubling.
For one, the Court’s narrow 5-4 ruling
in the Bakke case makes it next to
npossible to rely with any confidence on
Walking with dignity
13
Maybe the infamous Bakke case was
the racial battle of “Armageddon” for
Black people in America. Our greatest
legal fighter, now an associate justice of
the Supreme Court, laments the fact that
the Highest Court in the land would take
over a hundred years to make a positive
ruling on class-based discrimination. Only
when a white man is affected, did this
court cleave to constitutional dogma.
Justice Marshall expounded this pithy
statement: “I fear that we have come full
circle.” We will explore that reasoning. In
1886, the South sent its fair-haired
spokesman, Henry W. Grady, editor of
the Atlanta Constitution to speak before
the New England Society of New York.
CONNED INDUSTRALISTS
When Grady sat down, the band played
“Dixie,” his last words to these Eastern
tycoons were: “The Negroes should be
left in the hands of the South.” Among
the 540 guests who lustily applauded his
speech were such humanitarian leaders.
JP. Morgan, Charles L. Tiffany, Elihu
Root, Russel Sage and the super-liberal
editor of the New York Times, Charles R.
Miller. The Times, like most of the
country’s leading papers, extolled this
“Rebel” speech to the highest, and failed
to comment upon its gross untruths
regarding Black people. The Black Press
as usual did not think very highly of
Grady’s nationally acclaimed oration, and
said so in screaming headlines.
COURT STOOD SOLID
The Supreme Court of the
mid-Nineteenth century was made up
mostly of Northerners and Republicans.
It strongly supported the growing
national racist opinion that the Negro was
not entitled to the same civil rights as
white men. The 1883 Supreme Court
decision on civil rights written by Justice
Joseph Bradley, a New Jersey
Republican, sanctioned the segregation of
Negroes by individuals in all states.
PLESSY V. FERGUSON CASE
In the Plessy v Ferguson decision of
1896, which upheld the constitutionality
of state laws providing the so-called
“separate but equal” accommodations for
Negroes, a precedent was set which
greatly aided the spread of segregation on
public carriers and in public places
throughout the nation. Lower federal
Affirmative action
round two
coming up
By Vernon E. Jordan
just how it may react to a specific case.
With such strong feelings current on
affirmative action, this politicized court
may place even greater restrictions in
racially-based programs than it already
has.
Another factor is that some of the
cases making their way through the lower
courts seek riot only to overturn
racially-based affirmative action programs
geared to remedy past discrimination, but
also challenge such programs that
override seniority. The Court has a mixed
record I in approving overrides of
promotion and seniority systems.
Some pending cases involve special
programs in which Blacks got training or
promotional advantages through
affirmative action programs. The
rationale for such programs is the fact
that since hiring discrimination kept them
out of entry jobs until recently,
minorities have not accumulated enough
seniority to reach higher job levels.
Refusal to rule such programs
constitutional would have the effect of
delaying even the most elementary
equality in the workplace for another
twenty years. It would also have a chilling
effect on employers, many of whom are
reluctant to embark on affirmative action
in the first place.
Also in danger are minority setaside
programs, such as the government’s
setting aside ten percent of its public
works funds for minority business. In the
Bakke case the Court struck down rigid,
inflexible numerical formulas. The federal
setaside program is more flexible than
that in the Bakke case, and it is
specifically mandated by the Congress, a
strong plus in its favor. Recent decisions
give grounds for hope, but the issue is still
pending ultimate resolution.
So the Bakke case didn’t settle much.
The issue of affirmative action is still
alive, still very much in danger from
insensitive jurists and a hostile public. All
of which means that government,
educational and business leaders must
provide the leadership in implementing
and enforcing effective affirmative action
programs, and in explaining their need
and their use to a public that is
misinformed and prey to racism.
A racial holocaust
By Al Irby
courts and the Interstate Commerce
Commission had already approved such
segregation, although Negroes correctly
contended that separate accommodations
were rarely, if ever, equal. One federal
court decided, “Equality of rights does
not mean identity of right.” When
Homer Plessy was forced from a “white”
railway coach in Louisana, the Supreme
Court in its majority opinion, written by
Justice Henry B. Brown, a Michigan
Republican, upheld the state segregation
statute, declaring that the Fourteenth
Amendement “could not have been
intended to abolish distinctions based on
color, or to enforce -a co-mingling of the
two races upon terms unsatisfactory to
e’ther.”
BLACKS FOUND A FRIEND
But in a strong dissenting opinion]
Justice Harlan declared, “In view of the
Constitution, in the eye of the law there
is in this country no superior, dominant
ruling class of citizens. There is no caste
here. Our Constitution is color blind and
neither knows nor tolerates classes among
citizens. It is therefore to be regretted
that this high tribunal has reached the
conclusion that it is competent for a
State to regulate the enjoyment by
citizens of their civil rights solely upon
the basis of race. In my opinion, the
judgment this day rendered will, in time,
prove to be quite as pernicious as the
decision made by this tribunal in the
Dred Scott case. The thin disguise of
equal accommodations for passengers in
railroad coaches will not mislead anyone
nor atone for the wrong this day alone.”
The above is the precise kind of racial
harassment the Supreme Court of this
country has imposed upon Blacks prior to
the progressive advent of the Warren
Court.
JUSTICE MARSHALL’S LAMENT
This horrendous condition is what
prompted Justice Marshall to make this
pessimistic observation: “While I applaud
the judgment of the Court that a
university may consider race in its
admissions process, it is more than a little
ironic that after several hundred years of
class-based discrimination against Blacks,
the Court is unwilling to hold that a
class-based remedy for that
discrimination is permissible. I fear that
Blacks have come full circle.”