Newspaper Page Text
Blacks land $ billion
contract for Atlanta
airport concessions
Page 1
Vol. 8, No. 27
Race issue is cutting edge
Black muslim rebel threatens split in nation of Islam
By Askia Muhammad
Pacific News Service
(Askia Muhammad is a
contributing editor of PNS.
Formerly editor of Muhammad
Speaks, he writes regularly for
the Chicago Defender, the
Nation and other publications.)
In 1963 the Honorable
Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of
Islam was, split by the
departure of the movement’s
most widely known
spokesman-celebrity, Malcolm
X. In 1978 Muhammad s son
and successor, Chief Imam
Wallace Muhammad, laces the
open departure of his
movement’s most elequent
representative -- Malcolm X’s
protege, Minister Louis
Farrakhan.
Then, as now, the movement
was divided over its political
militance (or lack of it) and its
racitsl policies. But the position
of the rebels now is reversed.
Malcolm X finally opposed
the damning of whites as a
“race of blue-eyed devils and
embraced the brotherhood of
all races and orthodox Islamic
Dobbs-Paschal gets
airport concessions
By Lyn Martin
Atlanta Constitution
Back when he was just a
teen-ager, Robert Paschal
borrowed $2 to take a train
from Thomason to Atlanta. He
was standing on Edgewood
Avenue, waiting to catch the
train back home, when a man
asked him if he wanted a job
bussing tables.
The young Paschal asked,
“What’s bussing?” The man
answered, “You fool. 11l show
you.”
“The first tray of dishes I
picked up dropped, and 1
broke them all. I cried like a
baby,” Paschal said, recalling
his first job in a restaurant on
Forsyth and Luckie streets. “I
thought that man was going to
beat my brains out. ”
But that was nearly half a
century ago.
As Paschal stood in a room
overlooking Hartsfield
International Airport Thursday
and reminisced about that first
job, he and his brother, James,
were accepting congratulations
for apparently winning the bid
for what airport officials say is
the worlds largest airport
concession contract.
Dobbs-Paschal Midfield
Corp., a joint venture between
Dobbs House, Inc. of Memphis
and the Paschal brothers, who
are known for their restaurant
and motor hotel here,
submitted the apparent
successful bid by guaranteeing
the city $240 million over the
15-year duration of the
concession contract.
Ta king inflation into
account, under a formula
VOTE NOV. 7
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customs. Farrakhan, who heads
a Chicago mosque, supports a
return to Elijah Muhammad’s
Black separtist philosophy after
nearly four years of reforms in
the Nation of Islam.
These differences threaten
to split the Black Muslim
movement into warring camps,
much as Malcolm’s departure
fractured the estimated 2
million-member church more
than a decade ago.
“Color is a reality in this
world,” Farrakhan says.
“There will be a time when
men will not judge men by
color, but since that is not the
reality at present, since we live
in a society that has put us in
this position because of our
color, then we ought to
maximize what God has given
us and lift ourselves up from
under the foot of this
oppressor and this oppression.”
Farrakhan made his official
break with the movement last
winter, but his chance to
catalyze opposition to Muslim
leadership arrived last month
when Wallace Muhammad
resigned in favor of a
provided by aviation officials
the bid calculates that the
value of this amount will have
shrunk to $116.9 million by
January 1981, when the
Midfield terminal is scheduled
to open for operation.
Neither Dobbs
representatives nor the Paschal
brothers were venturing any
guesses about how much they
stand to earn from the
contract, but airport officials
estimated that the concessions
could gross between SBOO
million and $1 billion over 15
years.
Officials will recommend
Atlanta City Council approval
of the bid if the Dobbs-Paschal
joint venture has conformed to
a requirement that at least 20
percent of concession revenues
go to minority-owned firms
and five percent to locally
owned small businesses.
The Marriott Airport Corp.,
a joint venture between the
Marriott and CACO
International, submitted the
second-highest bid, offering the
city $227.2 million over 15
years -a dollar value of $115.2
million in January 1981.
Submitting the third-highest
bid was a joint venture
between Host International of
Georgia and Concessions
International, a firm ow ned by
construction magnate Herman
J. Russell. The joint venture
guaranteed the city $186.5
million, which transfautes into
a January 1981 dollar worth of
$97.5 million.
Two other joint-ventury
firms which had prequalified
did not submit bids. Tne joint
venture between Rich s, Kinley
Ben E. Mays School
will have 50 percent
minority contractors
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P.O. Box 953
17-member council of
representatives.
Farrakhan’s denunciation of
the movement includes charges
that the FBI has been involved
in the transformation of the
Nation of Islam since Wallace
Muhammad assumed control in
February 1975.
“You can’t look at the
Nation of Islam and say that it
got turned around by
accident,” he charged in a
speech at Howard University in
Washington, D.C., attended by
supporters from St. Louis, New
York, Los Angeles- and
Nashville. “You just can’t look
at the Black movement and say
that it was destroyed by
accident.”
The Nation of Islam was the
largest and most feared Black
organization throughout the
1960 s, and came under
repeated attack by federal and
state officials.
Farrakhan cites FBI
COINTELPR.O documents as
early as 1969 that gave Wallace
Muhammad the agencys
“approval” as a possible
Enterprises and Kattel
Enterprises said it did not have
time to prepare the voluminous
bid. Kinley is owned by Mack
Wilbourn, who is a principal in
a joint venture that operates
the Atlanta Civic Center
Concessions. Kattel Enterprises
is owned by former Citizens
and Southern Bank president
Richard Kattel.
The Fred Harvey-Gourmet
Services Inc, joint venture said
a corporate decision was made
not to enter a bid.
However, that decision did
not preclude Gourmet Services,
the other partner in the joint
venture holding the Atlanta
Civic Center concessions
contract, from getting a share
of the concession pie.
Dobbs-Paschal selected
Gourmet Services as one of 14
minority-owned or locally
owned small businesses that
will be subconcessionaires in
the new midfield terminal.
The 14 subconcessionaires
will realize an estimated 25.6
percent of the anticipated
concessionaire receipts, Dobbs
and the Paschals will operate
the remaining subconcessions
and will share the other 74.4
percent of the revenues.
Os the subconcessionaires
chosen by Dobbs-Paschal,
Gourmet-Services is only one of
several which contributed to
the reelection campaign of
Mayor Maynard Jackson.
All five of the joint ventures
which prequalified to bid for
the concession contract
included members who had
contributed to Jacksons
campaign.
successor to Elijah Muhammad.
“Plan A was to neutralize the
movement by changing its
direction entirely,” he said.
“Plan B was to wipe it out.”
Certainly Wallace
Muhammad has changed the
direction of the Nation of
Islam since 1975. To
disassociate the church from
the concept of Black
nationalism, Muhammad
changed the name of the
movement to the World
Community of al-Islam in the
West (WCIW) and the name of
the official newspaper from
Muhammad Speaks to the
Bilalian News.
He disbanded the military
arm of the movement, the
Fruit of Islam; liberalized dress
and moral codes and permitted
- even encouraged - members
to serve in the armed forces.
But the most controversal
changes involved ideology and
economics. Wallace
Muhammad abandoned the
“blue-eyed devil’ theory and
opened the church to white
membership. He even
established a warm detente
The Paschal brothers, who
operate Paschals restaurant
and motor hotel, a longtime
headquarters for Black political
strategists, gave $l5O to
Jackson’s campaign.
Gourmet Services and its
principles, Nathaniel Goldston
and Joseph Hudson,
contributed a total of $3,200
to Jackson’s campaign. The
firm will serve food and
beverages at the airport.
The principles of another
subconcessionaire, Paradise
Mid-Field Corp., include Dan
Paradise, who contributed
S6OO to the mayor s election
bid. Paradise will sell gifts and
toys.
According to the records in
the Georgia Secretary of state s
office, W.D. Branch is principle
agent for two firms selected as
subconcessionaires; Branch
Enterprises, which will operate
a duty-free shop; the Atlanta
International Airport Press,
Shine and Heel Corp., a
shoeshine shop. Branch gave
the mayor’s campaign $l5O.
Other minority or locally
owned small businesses named
as subconcessionaires were:
Williams Barber Shop; F.O.
Thacker Contracting Co., food
and beverages, Clorse Dale,
chairs for television viewing
areas; Social Planning
Management Systems Inc.,
locker rentals and luggage
carts; Sun Vending-Social
Planning, food vending;
Shateen Flowers, fresh flowers;
Bud Smith Photo-Lab, photo
booths; and BJT Inc.,
amusementa and games.
Congressmen ratec
on their records '
on Blacks, the poor
Page 2
November 1978
with American Jewish leaders,
inviting senior Rabbi Joshua
Haberman of Washington,
D.C., to speak at the Chicago
mosque.
Wallace also sold or closed
most of the movement’s small
businesses, ranging from
bakeries to restaurants. Instead
of self-help, Muhammad sought
federal economic support for
the remaining Muslim farms
and business ventures.
last June, the WCIW and
the U.S. Commerce
Department reached an
agreement for technical
assistance and federal aid. In
addition, Wallace accepted
financial help from Saudi
Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates to help build a new
Chicago mosque.
These changes have not
been accepted easily.
Grumbling criticism of the
WCIW’s new direction is open
and widespread, though mostly
from Blacks outside the
movement.
“I could see it (the changes)
if the white man had improved
just a little,” a former official
Mays school delay
costs millions
JI
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Dr. Ben E. Mays
A demand by Blacks for
fifty percent minority
participation in the
construction of the proposed
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FOR EXCELLENCE An award for pioneering excellence in Black business development is presented to
Johnnie Moore, public information officer, U.S. Civil Service Commission by Dr. Calvin W. Roiark, chairman of
The IBM Cooperative of publishers associated with Black Media, Inc.
Less than 75% Advertising
who served under Elijah
Muhammad and Wallace
Muhammad said. “But the
devil hasn’t changed. If
anything, he’s gotten worse.”
“You have seen a crucifixion
in your midst,” Farrakhan told
the Howard University
audience. “The Muslims were a
pride in your community.
Look at them now. Nailed to a
cross!
“The man never lied to us.
He never tricked us into being
a Muslim. Now look at the
Nation. Hands nailed - those
same hands that once bought
farms, built a trucking system
and built 42 independent
schools.”
Farrakhan places the
liberation of oppressed
dark-skinned people around
the world as a high priority for
a revitalized Nation of Islam.
“I have been in Communist
countries, in Socialist
countries, in Christian
countries and Islamic
countries,” he said. “1 can tell
you that in every country I
have been blessed to visit
Benjamin E. Mays high school
may have cost the Atlanta
School System $2 million and
delayed the school’s opening
by a full year.
However, School
Superientent, Alonzo Crim,
who refuses to put a dollar
figure on how much the delay
has cost, thinks the system is
simply paying the cost of
“social responsibility.”
The sl2 million
comprehensive high school was
scheduled to open its doors in
the Fall of 1980. School
architect, Clifford Nasher said,
“There is no possible way for
us to meet that deadline at this
point”
When the school is built, it
will house 1,800 students and
feature school prograihs in
math and sciences. The original
ista, u.’
i oiuui baupiuyer s
widow to receive
$50,000 for 13 years
Page 6
where there is a plurality of
races, the Black man,
everywhere on this earth, is on
the bottom.”
Until this spring,
Farrakhan s public statements
were officially ignored by the
WCIW. But in March, Wallace
Muhammad issued an
emotional public appeal to
Farrakhan, asking him to
match tlie success of the WCIW
movement with his own work.
“I’m challenging him,”
Muhammad told a national
radio audience, “to produce
more business, more jobs, more
human dignity with his
philosophy than I produce
with al-Lslam.
Even vWthout Farrakhan s
active leadership, a WCN\
“rejection front has formed
to take up that challenge.
In Los Angßfrs, a former
minister unefer Elijah
Muhammad has organized a
group called “the Nation ol
Islam.” The minister publishes
a quarterly magazine.
“Mohammad Speaks.”
In Detroit, the brother and
plan for the school also called
for other special features
including a field house for
coaches and athletes. Nasher
said the fieldhouse is one of
several features which may be
scrapped because of the
financial squeeze.
The Atlanta School Board
had authorized sl2 million for
the school but the lowest bid
to date has been $13.6 million.
That bid was rejected by the
board along with others.
A flap over minority
participation also caused the
bids to be rejected. Several
companies failed to enter bids
because of the minority
involvement requirement. At
least one company has said
that the requirement has
restricted competition on the
project thus raising the cost
grandson of Elijah Muhammad
announced they would “speak
for the messenger of Allah’s
forgotten program of self-help
as it existed during his
lifetime.”
And in St. Louis, a Nation
of Islam Mosque displays a
mural-sized photograph of
Elijah Muhammad on the
outside of the building.
Farrakhan’s haunting
resemblance to Malcolm X --
and the uncanny similarity in
their careers has brought up
the inevitable fear of violence.
Farrakhan rebuilt the Boston
mosque where Malcolm
preached and later was sent to
Malcolm’s Harlem mosque
after the leader was assissinated
in 1965.
Farrakhan himself notes the
similarity and appears to be as
careful as he is determined. «
The challenge is now met, with
farrakhan A Ending the
mantle of Eli V Muhammad’s
I■.: :_ . Tjainst th :
modernization/ program of
Muhammad s J> vn son.
Dr. Crim said he is not sure
exactly how much the
competition has been
restricted. Crim said "We just
feel that if we have adequate
minority representation in this
city it neeeds to be reflected in
the construction,” Crim added
“Democracy is expensive.”
The school system is also
faced with what to do with the
site of the school until
construction begins. At its
most recent meeting, the board
voted against paying $12,000
to have grass planted. The
school architect had asked for
the grass to prevent possible
erosion and to comply with a
city law requiring sites already
graded for construction to be
grassed over if they are to left
that way for more than 14
days.
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