Newspaper Page Text
Black Festival
tries to raise
$25,000
Page 3
Vol. 8, No. 28
Blacks file 3 suits
to halt at-large voting
Black citizens have filed
three suits since Friday in U.S.
District Court here to strike
down the at-large voting
system in Augusta and
Hchmond County.
The class action suits are
filed on hehalf of all Black
citizens of Richmond County.
Filed against the city
council, county commission,
the board of elections, and the
board of education, the suits
could nullify elections
scheduled to be held
Wednesday for the school
board and the county
commission.
“The effect and purpose of
"4 existing method of holding
elections at-large (in Augusta
and Richmond County) is to
dilute the voting power of
Black citizens and insure that
(elected officials) will be
Blacks hurt 23 years
by at-large voting
It took the defeat of two of
Augusta’s best known Black
leaders-Edward Mclntyre and Dr.
C.S. Hamilton- but Augusta’s Black
community is finally moving to
overthrow the politically oppressive
at-large voting system that has
effectively neutralized the voting
strength of Black Augusta since
1955.
It was in that year that a Black,
Wheeler G Ervin, ran for the Board
of Education. Frank
Summerfield-a Black candidate
fromthe third ward-had run earlier
for the City Council. Augusta, until
that time, elected officials on a
ward basis. But when Blacks began
to run for office, Augusta switched
to the at-large voting system to
keep Blacks from getting elected,
and to be in a position to determine
which Blacks get elected if there
were no white candidates running
in the predominantly Black wards.
The Augusta Chronicle-Herald said
as much when it tried to allay the
fears of Blacks concerned about
losing political power under a
consolidated form of government.
The Sunday Chronicle-Herald wrote
in a May 12, 1974 editorial: ‘‘The
way things are, and the way they’ll
stay if the referendum is negative, is
that county and city board
members, regardless of residential
district requirements, are elected at
large. Heavily-white districts now
have a major voice tin saying who
will be the representatives of
heavily Black districts.”
Paine 9 s birthday observed
According to Dr. George
Clary, a history instructor at
Paine College, Nov. 1, was the
96th birthday of Paine College.
It was 96 years ago that
Don’t forget to vote!
Augusta Ni'iits-iHelijriii
exclusively or predominantly
white,” the suit charges.
The suits further allege that:
*The use of at-large voting
and majority vote and runoffs
for the election of local
officials further dilutes
minority voting strength.
*There has been a history of
official racial discrimination in
Augusta including
discrimination against Blacks
attempting to exercise their
rights to register and to vote.
*Plaintiffs and their class
have been unable to
proportionally elect Black
citizens or white citizens who
support their views and interest
to state and local offices in
Augusta, Ga.
*The dominant political
party in Augusta has in the
past relied upon campaign
tactics designed to exclude or
Editorial
Mayor Lewis A. Newman
admitted that the district voting
system was changed to an at-large
system to keep Blacks from getting
elected.
In the January 14 edition of the
Augusta Herald, the mayor was
quoted as saying ‘‘years ago city
councilmen were elected on a ward
basis, but as Black power grew, the
city changed to city-wide elections
‘to keeps Blacks off City Council.’”
Newman went on to say that the
city wide elections helped Black
voting strength. But the facts don’t
support his position. Blacks
presently have five of sixteen seats
on City Council. But if elected on a
district basis, could elect at least
eight of sixteen. Half of the city’s
eight wards are 60% Black or more.
Blacks have only two of 16 seats
on the board of education but
should have at least five seats if
elections were held on a district
one-man one-vote basis.
With the departure of Ed
Mclntyre, there will be no Blacks
on the five-man Richmond County
Board of Commissioners. On a
district basis with the district lines
drawn according to representation
in the population, Blacks should
have at least two Black
commissioners, two Black State
Representatives and possibly a
State Senator.
We congratulate those who have
brought these suits against the city
council, county commission and
the board of education.
Paine College was established
by a group of Black and white
leaders of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South and
the Christian Methodist
Jesse Jackson
‘cleans up’
Mick Jagger album
Page 3
P.O. Box 953
dilute Black voting strength.
* Plaintiffs and their class
have suffered from and
continue to suffer from the
effects of invidious
discrimination and treatment
in education, employment,
economics, housing, public
services and the adminitration
of justice.
*Plaintiffs and their class
have had less opportunity than
white residents of Augusta, to
participate in the political
process and to elect
representatives of their choice.
The City Council of the Gty
of Augusta and its individual
members have been, in their
official roles, historically and
presently, unresponsive to the
needs, wishes and desires of
Negro citizens and the Negro
community. This
Episcopal Church on Nov. 1,
1882.
Dr. Clary wrote his doctoral
dissertation on the history of
Paine College.
NovembeP'-llj 1978
unresponsiveness is a direct
result of the now existing
election method which dilutes
the minority vote.
The suit said further that the
plaintiffs are “suffering
irreparable injury as a result of
the acts of the defendants and
that injury will continue unless
declared to be unlawful by the
court.
The suits request injuctive
relief to prevent deprivation of
the “protection in the electoral
process and the right to due
process and equal protection of
the laws secured by the first,
13th, 14th, and 15th
amendments of the
Constitution.”
Additionally, the suit asks
the court to
* Issue a preliminary
injunction to be made
First Black elected
in Thomson
is a woman
By Clara West
THOMSON - Mrs. Arm
Parham Daniel, a retired school
teacher, is Thomson’s first
Black elected official.
In the recent city election,
Mrs. Daniel topped the ballot
in the northern district with
286 voles. She will be sworn in
as city councilwoman on Jan. 1.
“I had the best committee in
the world,” Mrs. Daniel said,
reacting to her victory. She had
the support of the Thomson
Progressive Civic Club and the
Thomson chapter of the
National Association for the
Advancement of Colored
People. “1 gathered my
thoughts and prayed to God
for guidance,” she said.
A native of Atlanta, she
came to Warrenton as a child
with her family. She has lived
in Thomson for 30 years.
After teaching for 32 years,
she retired in 1973 with 25
years of service in Columbia
County as supervisor/curri
culum director.
Mrs. Daniel is a member of
the Trinity AME Church where
she serves as class leader,
trustee and church secretary.
She is a member of American
Legion Post No. 576, Herione
of Jericho No. 17, McDuffie
Retired Teachers Association
Columbia County
to memoralize
Black educators
Efforts are underway to
memorialize outstanding Black
educators in Columbia County,
according to School
Superintendent J. Pierce
Blanchard.
The action is coming as a
result of a request of Paine
College professor Leslie
Pollard, a native of Columbia
County.
Pollard said Blanchard had
confirmed that a committee
had been appointed to study
the history of the educators to
be memorialized, and that
plaques and other appropriate
memorials would be
established.
Blanchard told the
Black woman
Ist elected official
in Thomson
Page 1 1
permanent later enjoining the
city council, county
commission, and board of
education from holding further
elections under the present
apportionment of those bodies.
*Order the governmental
bodies to reapportion
themselves in a manner that
complies with the one-person
one-vote mandate of the
Supreme Court of the United
States and which does not have
the effect or purpose of
diluting the voting strength of
Negro citizens of this county.
* S u b m i t such
reapportionment plan to the
Attorney General of the
United Stales.
*Order that all members of
local governmental bodies be
elected at the next general
election to be held in Augusta.
■ ~ ■, < • „ ■
■* > « ‘W
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Ann Parham Daniel
and vice chairperson of the Board and the Bartram I rail
McDuffie County Library Regional Library Board.
News-Review that among those
to be honored are the Rev.
George T. White, who worked
in Harlem for about 50 years;
Wallace Gibbs, a white, who
worked for Black education
before the court orders, and
Blanchard, who has served in
the system for over 30 years.
He also stated that the Old
Walnut Grove Elementary
School, a one-room school,
which operated until 1956 will
be moved down to Appling and
made into a museum.
The school will be
refurbished. Old double desks
will be put in along with a pot
belly stove, Blanchard said.
Less than 75% Advertising
Emerson
Boozer
to speak
Former New York Jet star
Emerson Boozer will be the
featured speaker at a
membership kick-off banquet
Nov. 9 for the Lucy Laney
High School Alumni
Association.
Boozer was the 22nd player
to gain over 5,000 yards in the
National Football League.
He is a Laney graduate. The
banquet will be held Nov. 9 in
the school cafeteria at 8 pan.
Tickets are SlO and may be
purchased from Southside
Barber and Beauty Salon, 2013
Savannah Road or by calling
724-9153.
Augustan gets national honor
Mrs. Mattie Lawson, a
certified surgical technologist
endoscopy training coordinator
at the Medical College of
Georgia, has been named
Technologist of the Month by
the National Association of
Technologists.
She has been in the medical
field for 20 years. She worked
in the surgery department for
14 years where she assisted in
open heart surgery and
gynecology.
After leaving the surgery'
suite she joined the
Laparascopy Training Program
and became the laparoscopy
training coordinator. This
consisted of traveling eight
states training physicians,
nurses and surgical technicians
Columbia County
schools to protect
heritage of Blacks
£ Page 1
Emerson Boozer
bTV may hear
Wilmington 10
Preparations are underway
to bring the case of the
Wilmington 10 before the
United Nations, according to a
church official active in the
battle to freen the young civil
rights workers convicted of
arson by the state of North
Carolina.
Dr. Charles Cobb, executive
director of the Commission for
Racial Justice of the United
Church of Christ, made that
disclosure recently on the
syndicated television program,
America’s Black Forum.’
Dr. Cobb’s church has spent
more than $2 million dollars
defending the nine Black men
and one white woman since
they were charged with
burning a grocery' store in 1971
during racial disturbances in
Wilmington, N.C.
Three of the young activists
remain in jail while the rest are
on parole.
While disclosing that a
resolution may soon go before
the Human Rights Commission
of the United Nations,
protesting the imprisonment of
the young people, Dr. Cobb
blasted President Carter for
failing to speak out in support
of the Wilmington 10.
“Even if he speaks out
tomorrow, I would have a
problem in seeing him as an
OA
Mattie Lawson
on laparascopy instrument
ation, equipment, and
preparation of the laparoscopy
patient.
Al that time, she assisted Dr.
Edwin S. Bronstein in writing
25 e
honorable man as a man of
integrity,” said Dr. Cobb.
He charged that President
Carter’s support for Soviet
dissidents “stands in marked
contrast to his silence on the
Wilmington 10, who have
always maintained that they
were framed by a conspiracy
prosecutors and
police.
President Carter has
consistently maintained that
the Wilmington 10 case is a
state issue, not subject to
federal review.
Dr. Cobb also charged that
Carter’s inaction in the case is
based on fear of angering
North Carolina’s Democratic
Senator Robert Morgan, who
served as prosecutor in the
1972 trial.
“He feels so dependent upon
Sen. Robert Morgan for what
votes he wants in the Senate
that he refuses to do what he
knows is right,” claimed Cobb.
Asked if the presence of
radicals such as Angela Davis in
the movement to free the
Wilmington 10 may have
frightened some potential
supporters, Cobb replied, “It’s
not Communism that is causing
us trouble. It’s the people who
claim to be Christians, like
Gov. Hunt, Griffin Bell and
Jimmy Carter ’
the book “Laparoscopy for
Sterilization,’' a manuel of self
instruction for physicians,
nurses, and hospital operating
staff. The book is dedicated to
Mattie, “a dedicated woman,
skillful in her art without
whom this book would not
have been possible.”
Ms. Lawson is an endoscopy
consultant for the Veterans
Administration Hospital in
Augusta.
She has been active in the
Association of Surgical
Technologists since 1971. She
has served one term as vice
president, and two terms as
president, a member of tile
board of directors Membership
Committee, and fund raising
chairman.