Newspaper Page Text
Emerson Boozer
to speak at
Laney banquet
Page 1
Vol. 8, No. 24
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$25,000 - Leßaron Taylor, vice president of Black Music Marketing, CBS
Records, presented a check for $25,000 to (1) Congresswoman Yvonne Brathwaite
Burke (D-Calif.) and Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (D-N.Y.). The check is a
donation to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Graduate Legislative Intern
Program. See related story Page 3
America’s Black people and
the nation as a whole stands at
a crossroads, NAACP executive
director Benjamin Hooks said
in Nashville last week.
“The nation is at a time
when it must decide whether
to puruse its historic course
toward greatness or fall into
the ash heap of history.”
Speaking to delegates at the
Mayor AJ. Cooper
cleared of kickback charges
From The Afro American
MOBILE, Ala. -- Pritchard
Mayor A.J. Cooper, the first
Black to defeat an incumbent
white mayor in Alabama, has
been acquitted on a federal
charge of taking a kickback on
Mayor A.J. Cooper
Augusta Nms-Kevjm
Ben Hooks says nation at crossroads
National Business League’s
78th annual convention being
held at the Hyatt Regency
Hotel, Hooks said America
needs leaders who will commit
themselves to programs to
benefit all people.
Centering his speech around
a Biblical scripture which says,.
“For if the trumpet give an'
uncertain sound voice,
a city contract.
Cooper said the verdict
affirmed the progress Mobile
has made in race relations.
“When this began, one of
the things we said was, “Know
ye the truth and the truth shall
set you free,” Cooper dard-.
“I want to say that I
appreciate the jury for
recognizing the truth.
“It is particularly rewarding
and a sign of Mobile and where
we’re going that 11 whites and
one Blade could return this
verdict.”
Cooper, the mayor of
Pritchard since 1972, was
charged with demanding and
receiving $5,581.86 to buy
property from J.E. Harris and
Harris’ company in June 1975.
At that time, the Harris firm
had a contract to do drainage
work for Pritchard.
During the trial, the
contractor testified that
Cooper had arranged a deal for
him to buy the property -a
vacant lot next to the mayor’s
home.
Congressman Diggs
convicted on
kickback charges
Page 2
P.O. Box 953
shall prepare himself to the
battle for war,” Hooks told his
audience he does not believe
America is hearing the sound it
needs to hear.
“I don’t think we’re hearing
the President sounding the
trumpet enough for full
employment and equal justice.
It’s one thing to know our
hymns but you must also
To keep city payments to
his firm from “coming in
slow,” Harris said he made
contributions to local churches
and a Black mayor’s group.
However, Cooper denied the
charges. In his five hours on
the witness stand, the mayor
testified that Harris once came
to him with two envelopes
stuffed with money.
Harris said the unvelopes
were Christmas presents for
Cooper and a Black city
councilman, according to
Cooper’s testimony
Cooper testified that he
refused the money and told
Harris that if he wanted to give
it away he could always give it
to the churches.
The mayor had charged that
the FBl’s investigation of him
had been racially motivated.
The agency denied the charge.
Cooper, president of the
National Conference of Black
Mayors, is "Serving his second
term as mayor of Pritchard, a
south Alabama city of about
50.000 people.
Drama growing in Hines Trial,
but air of confrontation eases
From Atlanta Journal-Constitution
CULLMAN, Ala.
White-robed Ku Klux
Klansmen walked around
carrying guns and set fire to a
towering cross near here Friday
night, but north Alabama
seemed to be losing interest in
the racial conflict touched off
by the rape trial of Tommy
Lee Hines.
Throughout the first week
of the trial here, the curious
throng outside the Cullman
County courthouse had
steadily dwindled, and by late
Friday there was nary a bomb
scare or intimidating gesture
there.
Inside the courtroom, the
plot thickened, however, as'the
prosecution intimated that
Hines, a 25-year-old mentally
retarded Black man accused of
raping a white woman, had
given significant details to
police concerning the rape he is
being tried for, as well as two
others he has been charged
with.
The hint that Hines led
police to where the first
victim’s car had been parked,
to the office where she worked
and to the spot in a warehouse
where she had been raped
emerged from the
prosecution’s challenge to a
defense motion to suppress an
oral confession Hines allegedly
gave police.
However, defense lawyers
have maintained that Hines,
understand the figures in our
checkbooks. And it’s one thing
to sing Amazing Grace on
Sunday but we want you also
to sing the Humphrey-Hawkins
Bill on Monday.”
Hooks, a native of Memphis
who was chosen in 1976 to
succeed Roy Wilkins as head of
the NAACP, also criticized
Congress for not doing enough
to help all Americans.
“Almost every bill that’s
introduced in Congress now
A
Benjamin Hooks
has an anti-busing amendment
put on the end of it,” he said.
“We should remember that it’s
not the bus they don’t like, it’s
us.”
Speaking to approximately
1,000 persons, including
Tennessee’s Democratic
gubernatorial nominee Jake
Butcher, Hooks added that
there is not a trumpet in
Congress sounding off enough
on affirmative action programs.
“And the Supreme Court is
not sounding off like it used
to. The Warren Court was a
Mayor AJ. Coop
cleared of
kickback charges
A . Page 1
October 17,1978
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WILKINSON, (R), leads rally south of Cullman as Klan members stand guard
who has an IQ of around 39, is
“highly suggestible,” given to
uttering responses to questions
he thinks his inquisitors
expect.
Cullman County Circuit
Court Judge Jack Riley, who
had the Hines case dumped on
him by a change of venue order
issued in neighboring Morgan
County, planned to rule
Monday on the motion to
suppress the confession.
Hines’ attorneys have
court of downtrodden people
but now the court seems to be
made up mostly of strict
constructionists.”
Hooks, who is also a Baptist
minister and a lawyer, told the
delegates representing the
nation’s minority firms that
Blacks have got to sit down
and decide what to do for
themselves.
He added that Blacks and
everyone else must remember
that progress does not occur
without paying some price.
“Black leadership must also
sound the alarm,” Hooks said.
“We must get more Blacks
registered to vote and then
make sure they go to the potts
election day.”
On another subject, Hooks
said Blacks must call for the
survival of predominately
Black colleges.
Hooks told his audience
they shouldn’t believe the
rhetoric about America not
being able to have full
employment because it would
cause inflation. “What they’re
telling us is that only the poor
must fight inflation,” he
added.
“A nation that is smart
enough to send someone to the
moon should be able to
provide jobs so people won’t
have to go hungry.”
Hooks added that he wants
to see the National Business
League “write a song of justice
of economic development for
its people, a song of
educational excellence and
Black solidarity.
“We must develop our
economic strength because we
have to remember that we live
in a capitalistic society.”
Founed in 1900 by Booker
T. Washington, the NBL is the
nation’s oldest business
organization.
Less than 75% Advertising
offered testimony by
psychologists and a psychiatrist
that Hines is incapable of
understanding “abstract” ideas
Dent appointed
bailiff for state court
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William L Dent
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Boozer
to speak
at banquet
Former New York Jet star 1
Emerson Boozer will be the j
featured speaker at a -j
membership kick-off banquet I
Nov. 9 for the Lucy Laney
High School Alumni
Associ. : on. |
Boozer was the 22nd player |
to gain over 5,000 yards in the |
National Football League. j
He is a Laney graduate. The |
banquet will be held Nov. 9in j
the school cafeteria at 8 pan. I
Tickets are $lO and may be
purchased from Southside
Barber and Beauty Salon, 2013 j
Savannah Road or by calling j
724-9153. j
Paine College Library
1235 15th St.
Augusta, GA 30901
Sample Copy
tells businessmen
nation at crossroads
Pagel
such as his constitutional right
to remain silent.
The prosecution offered
only one witness in opposition
By Barbara Gordon
William L. Dent is the first
Black to be appointed bailiff
for a Richmond County Court.
Appointed recently by
Judge Eugene Kerr, Dent will
serve in State Court.
The 72-year-old retired
businessman describes his
position as one of “pride,
dignity, and respectability.”
Bailiffs carry out the orders
of the judge. Some of the
baliffs duties include policing
the courtroom, maintaining
proper conduct, escorting
persons to and from jail, and
accompanying jurors during a
trial.
Dent recently returned to
Emerson Boozer
to the motion to suppress - Dr.
Thomas Luther Smith Jr., a
See “HINES TRIAL”
Page 7
Augusta after 21 years in
Philadelphia where he
established and managed
Gepfert’s Drug Store there for
three years before it closed in
1974.
A graduate of Paine
Institute, he served 10 years in
the U.S. Navy.
He and his wife, Wilhelmina,
operated Dent’s Novelty
Supply Co. in Augusta for 15
years.
Dent was president of the
Augusta Negro Chamber of
Commerce in 1953.
He is presently treasurer of
the board of trustees of the
Augusta-Richmond County
Public Library.
25 e