Newspaper Page Text
Annexation
will dilute
Black vote
Page 4
Vol. 8, No. 31
Jones had male lovers
hut forbade others: cult
Dr. Lowery
banquet
speaker
»y2*J w
Dr. Joseph Ixiwerv
The CSKA Business League
will hold its eighth annual
award banquet Dee. 8.
The keynote speaker will lie
the Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery,
president of the Southern
Christian Leadership
Conference.
for ticket information,
contact the CSKA Business
D'ague al 1208 Laney-Walker
Blvd., or . all 722-0994.
Blacks may soon direct
big Mississippi TV station
By Ernest llolsendolph
WASHINGTON-An '
18-y ear-old dispute over (
eontrol of \\ LBI, the largest
television station in Mississippi,
appears nearly resolved with a
plan to give control of it to
Blacks, according to Federal
officials and others familiar
with tlie situation.
The dispute reached a peak
in the late 1960’s when the
New York-based United
Church of Christ, dispite the
resistance of the E ederal
Communications Commission,
succeeded in blocking renewal
of WLBT’s license on die
ground that the Jackson
station had failed to serve the
region’s large Black
community.
The license of die Lamar
Life Broadcasting Company i
was ordered withdrawn in
1969 by Judge Warren E. |
Burger of the United States j
Court of Appeals. The judge, ]
who is now the Chief Justice of
the United States, also said at
the time that the E .C.C. had
overlooked charges ol racially
biased programming. Elis ruling
is generally considered to have
strengthened the hands of all
citizens groups challenging the
public-interest performance of
broadcasting companies.
A year later the commission 1
gave interim control of the
station to a biracial, nonprofit
group, which appointed
William Dilday as the nation’s '
first Black general manager of a
VHF television station.
Mr. Dilday desegregated the
station’s programming,
creating, for example, a
Romper Room show on which I
both Black and white children
appeared. He also expanded '
news and public affairs
programming.
The station, an NBC
Augusta Npuifi-ißenjrtii
By Pete Carey
Knight-Rildder Newspapers
GEORGETOWN GUYANA -
Jim Jones lived in a three-room
house with his mistress,
guarded by closed-circuit
television and equipped with
the latest radio and electronic
equipment, while his faithful
flock sweated on his land.
He also had homosexual
relationships but denied the
same sexual preference to any
of his flock.
His guards staked the camp,
armed with automatic rifles
and bows and arrows. His
assistants put tranquilizers in
the food of many campmates
who were being punished for
speaking out. Others were
locked in cramped, narrow
cells for days at a time.
Through all this, as Jones
ranted and raved over a public
address system late at night
while his flock tried to sleep,
he retained a fanatically loyal
following.
This is the image that
emerges in a scries of
interviews with halt a dozen
people who fled the camp after
the shooting last Saturday of
Rep. leo J. Ryan a;id four
others - an act of violence that
brought on the final orgy of
mass suicide.
The colony had gradually
surrendered so much of its
autonomy to its charismatic
leader that when he moved, the
residents moved with him like
faithful shadows.
When he went insane, they
went with him.
affiliate, reportedly remains
the most profitable station in
the slate, and its earnings arc
channeled into public and
educational television.
Since Mr. Dilday and the
other interim managers were
named, four groups, each w ith
some Black members, have
tried but failed to gain control
of the station.
Now the four groups, in a
tenalive agreement, propose to
form a fifth group to take final
eontrol. Although none of the
four groups rias a Black
majority, the membership of
the new organization, called
TV 3 Inc., would be 51 percent
Black. Mr. Dilday would
remain in charge of the
station s operations.
Division of Control
One of the four groups is
Civic Communications Inc.,
whose membership is about 30
percent Black. Its members
include Aaron Henry. a
longtime leader ot tire
Mississippi N.A.A.C.P., and
two figures in the Carter
Administration: Patricia
Derian, an Assistant Secretary
of State, and Hodding Carter
3d. a press officer in the State
Department.
The other groups, each of
which has a Black membership
of less than 15 percent, are
Channel 3 Inc.. Dixie National
Inc., and Jackson Television
Inc.
Under the agreement, Civic
Communications would own
30 percent of the new
operating company, Channel 3
would have 20 percent, and
Dixie National and Jackson
Television would have 25
percent each.
Although each of the
contending parties appears
pleased with the agreement,
substantial obstacles remain,
according to Judge Reuben
Barnard,T almadge,
Nunn rated on their
civil rights records
Page 2
P.O. Box 953
And when he died, they
died.
“Jones used to sav that the
only perfect heterosexual
around was him. All of Us had
to admit that we were
homosexuals, said Gerald
Parks, 45.
“Then we found out that it
was him. He was having sex
with guvs. The guys thev (I
brag about it right up front.
Parks and another survivor,
Chris O’Neal, 27, said that one
homosexual offender was
beaten on stage before an
audience.
“it was nothing bad what
the guy did. but Jones took the
law into his own hands,’
O'Neal recalled. “They beat
him up on a stage in the
compound. The blood was
running down the aisles. The
people were asked to beat him
some more.
“So they hit him: and Jones
said, Kick him where he
deserves it. And thev did.
O’Neal continued, his voice
trembling: “He just swelled up,
that poor guy- I couldn’t
believe it. Nobody ever told me
this stull was going on.
\\ lien persons in the eamp
spoke yearningly of returning
to the United States, said
O’Neal, Jones would have them
imprisoned, beaten, or put on a
punishnrnt detail and fed
tranquilizers.
A lew tried to escape.
Gerald Parks recalled the
See “JONES"
Page 2
Anderson of Hines County
Court and a founding member
of Channel 3 Inc.
Judge Anderson, who is
Black, said in an interview that
the parlies still must work out
an arrangement tor purchasing
the station from Lamar Lib'
and then must form a board ol
directors to guide the station.
He said those steps would
probably take two to three
months.
The final controlling
corporation will have two
directors from Dixie National,
one each from Channel 3 and
Jackson Television, and three
from Civic Communications.
Os those seven, three will be
Black. An eithth member will
be named bv the three Black
members.
The agreement also provides
for a three-member arbitration
panel to settle issues on which
the board splits four to four.
One of the arbiters will be
named by the United Church
of Christ.
The final agreement on
purchase and control of the
station must be approved by an
F.C.C. administrative law
judge, Leonore G. Ehrig, and
by the commission.
Watching on the sidelines is
Everett Parker, head of the
United Church of » Christ s
Office of Communications,
who says that careful scrutiny
must be given to the financial
arrangements, which he
considers possibly more
important than the
composition of the owning
corporation.
“You can’t bar anyone from <
selling his individual interest
somewhere down the line, and
you can’t say to whom he can ,
sell,” Dr. Parker said. “But
somehow it must lx’ made
certain that Blacks have <
control, as the court has held.” I
December 2,1978
Black-owned taxis cannot
pick up passengers at Bush Field
by Mallory K. iMillender
Black taxi cab companies
arc not allowed to pick up
passengers at the Augusta
Municipal Airport (Bush f ield)
and are excluded from
participation in other con tracts
to which thev may been tilled,
according to < itv Couneilmen
ILL. Deni and Dr. IE.
Washington.
Dr. Washington, chairman of
the city’s Transportation
(Committee,said the airport taxi
cab situation is a “sore thumb
situation, because it excludes
tile Black cab companies as
wi ll as the smaller while cab
companies.
“The effect has been that
Black cab companies have been
excluded whether it was
intended that way or not.
There are small while
companies that have been
similarly excluded, but tin
fact still remains (bat these
Black companies are still being
excluded, he said.
Dr. Washington explained
that cab companies bid on th
airport e-mtrni! and ill jla-r
cab companies are excluded
from doing limine-" at the
airport,
Contracts “ridiculous"
“There is no reason that the
airport should be different
from any other place in the
(ity ,” he said. “The city owns
llie airport, Other taxis who
pay taxes and buy licenses to
operate can serve I he ( ity . W hy
can’t they serve tin airport the
same wav?
“It’s like taking Pinch Gul
or Turpin Hill or some other
seilion of the city and saving
we re going to allow only the
cab company that wins the bid
lo go into this area. I his is
ridiculous.
Dupree says attitude
makes ivinning athlete
Ask Liny Lancv High
School football Coach David
Dupree what scouts look for in
a star athlete and he answers in
one word - ‘‘attitude.
Thai’s lhe first tiling the
scout asks you, Dupree said.
‘He already knows about his
ahililv . Then he asks y on about
his grades.’’
Hut altitude is the prime
question said Dupree,who has
15 Lancv grads presently
piav ing college loothall. Six of
his players have gone on to
play professionally.
Four of them play ed in the
national football league al the
same time - Robert Wells (San
Diego Chargers), George
Harold (Baltimore Colts), and
Emerson Boozer and Bear
Taylor with , the New 'I ork
Jets.
\\ hen a scout comes in here,
we’ve had such great success, a
lot of colleges don t even want
to look at films. They just take
our word on a boy - ability.
“1 hey want to know ‘Are
you coachable? Can vou lake
criticism? Are you a
know-it-all? Are you humble -
not the talk-back kind? Always
smiling even when things go
wrong:
“Attitude, to me,” Dupree
continued, “is the greatest
tiling an athlete can have. You
look at Duane Thomas - one
of the greatest running backs
you can find. He could have
been one of the most
outstanding backs in America.
But he had a bad attitude.
Blacks have only
2 percent of TV’s
off-camera jobs
Page 3
-Mbs joh
|. - .■
■I It -
B.L. Dent
ILL Dent, who raised tile
issue of the treatment of Black
eab companies at city council
meeting last week when he
effectively held up a resolution
'hat would have given Radio
Cab Co. an exclusive contract
lor the TOTE program
(Transportation ol the elderly),
said, 1 tie situation al the
airport isn t fair.
‘ And you’ve never had a
Negro on the Bush Field
Authority . And I have tried lor
10 years to get one appointed.
No mayor has ever appointed a
Black, and I have served under
three.
‘■llie first of the year is
coining. II somebody doesn t
get behind the mayor it will
never lie done, said Deni, who
was tile first Black elected to
citv council and is now llie
first Black to serve as vice
(hairman on the Finance
(Committee.
Asked why the exclusionary
clause has not been done away
with. Dr. Washington said, “I
really think that somebody
I
1 I
J I
1 8
♦C 7
i
T ■ !
J i / •.J
*“ / I
I * J / I ~
Emerson Boozer and Coach David Dupree
Photo by Mike Carr ,
“He’s not the only one.
Richie Allen, the baseball
player, is the same way. You
have to be coachable. Nobody
wants a guy with a bad
altitude. A guy with a bad
Less than 75% Advertising
~ ? aw
mHI £ i
Dr. I.E. Washington
somewhere has looked at this
as a gold mine and has decided
to try to get exclusive rights .
and have gotten it.’
Dent said officials delending
the exclusive contract “always
bring up you’ll have trouble
with this and trouble with that,
regulating the cab companies.
Fhai s no proLl 'in. I' you set
down llie law everybody must
adhere to it. If not, expel them
from out there.
Other exclusionary areas
Dent said there are other
areas where Black cabs are
excluded.
“I don’t know whether it’s
civic organizations paying for
tile kids lo be picked up and
carried to school and brought
back from school each day.
But Ido know that a company '
has a contract for that, and !
they are hauling Black
students.
“I understand they are paid
by civic clulis. I don’t know.
But 1 know that Negroes out
here don’t get any of that
business. 1
. - ,
attitude can destroy a whole •
team.
“All of the Laney athletes, 1
who made it, had good ’
attitudes.”
i
i
says Nazis unite
Blacks and Jews
Page 3
“They make it look good.
They give it to a Black driver.’’
“I do know that you have
another program,’’ he
continued, where they (taxis)
go to these schools and pick up
kids from the regular schools
and take them perhaps to
another school for special
courses, then take them back. I
don’t know who pays for it ”
Still unsatisfied
Dent said he is still
unsatisfied with the way the
iiroposed TOTE contract with
lad io Cab Co. was handled.
Gregory A. Szymik, transit
planner for the Augusta-
Richmond County Planning
Commission, said letters had
been sent to every eab
company in town and only one
responded.
Dent said his own
investigation showed that
letters had been sent to only
two companies. “When 1
checked with the Black call
companies, 1 found out that
Back to Bakke
this time it’s
women and workers
By Joel Dreyfuss
Pacific News Service
(Joel Dreyfuss is the author
of a book on the Bakke case to
be published by Harcourt,
Brace, Javanovich in 1979. He
is a former staff reporter for
the Washington Post and the
New York Post.)
Their names may not be
very familiar at this point, but
chances are that James Cramer
and Brian Weber will become
as much a part of the nation’s
vocabulary in the future as
Allan Bakke was during the
past year. These two while
men have filed charges of
“reverse discrimination ’ that
could have an even greater
national impact than last year’s
highly touted racial melodrama
involving the space engineer
who wanted to become a
doctor.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s
Bakke decision last spring
primarily affected university
adrrissions procedures. The
suits brought by Cramer and
Weber challenge voluntary
affirmative action programs
that give preferential treatment
to minorities and women in
employment. .And since the
issue here involves jobs, a
Supreme Court decision could
affect thousands of programs
and millions of jobs.
Cramer and Weber, who
were seeking positions at
opposite ends of the social and
economic spectrum, asked the
courts to determine how much
special consideration should be
gien to women and minorities
when there is no established
proof of past discrimination.
Weber, a 31-year-old
laboratory technician at a
Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical
Co. plant in Gramercy, La.,
applied for a training program
that would lead to a skilled
craft job. But the company,
finding that there were only
five Blacks among 273 skilled
workers, had signed an
agreement with the United
Steelworkers Union to admit
one Black for every white
selected for the program until
Black representation reflected
the Black population of the
area around the plant When
Weber was turned down he
sued the company and the
union.
they did not receive a notice,”
he said.
"Certainly no money will be
contracted by the city until
they come up with something
that is fair. "
Outburst feared
Dr. Washington said he fears
an ‘outburst ’ if Black cabs
continue to be excluded.
“If they were left out one or
two times, that's all right But
when they are consistently left
out over a long period of time,
they begin to build up certain
types of animosities in their
minds, and they get together
and sometimes if we don’t
correct it, we're going lo have
some type of outburst.”
“So what we’re concerned
about at this point is that the
minorities get a fair break on
the contracts that the city lets.
“Many people who can
See “TAXIS”
Page 2
Cramer, a 32-year-old
sociologist, taught at Virginia
Commonwealth University for
i a year and twice applied for
, permanent positions in his
department When women
were hired for both spots,
; Cramer sued, contending that
he was not considered because
he was a male and that the
women hired were “less
qualified.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has
not yet agreed to accept either
case, but the same political and
economic pressures that forced
it to confront the issued raised
by Bakke are at work on behalf
of Weber and Cramer. In
ordering Bakke admitted to the
medical school of the
University of California at
David, the Court ruled that
race could be a factor in
university admissions but that
rigid racial quotas were unfair.
However, the narrowness of
the ruling and the multiplicity
of opinions among the Justices
left many issues unresolved.
Weber’s case would force the
court to address the issue of
voluntary affirmative action in
employment while Cramer
would extend the debate into
the area of sex discrimination.
Opponents of affirmative
action have had little success in
challenging programs instituted
after past discrimination was
documented. After Bakke,
officials at the Equal
Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) felt that
voluntary programs, often
reached through out-of-court
settlements, were still safe. But
last year’s sth Grcuit Court of
Appeals ruling on behalf of
Weber threatens these
voluntary agreements. “There
can be no basis for preferring
minority workers if there has
been no discriminatory act that
displaced them from their
‘rightful place’ in the
employment scheme, ’ the
Fifth Grcuit said in a 2-1
decision.
Companies say the
decision leaves them in an
unacceptable bind: If they
don’t adopt voluntary
See “BAKKE”
Page 6
25'