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Black Augustan
to play in
Blue-Gray game
Page 1
Vol. 8, No. 32
KKK on the rise
6 We burn a cross to show the white race excludes darkness 9
By Boyd Lewis circle after a decade of FBI
Pacific News Service infiltration and relative calm
ATLANTA, Ga. -■ “We do following the heyday of the
not burn a cross but rather we Civil Rights movement,
light it to show that the According to the Southern
Christian religion and the white Christian Leadership
race excludes darkness,” the Conference (SCLC), reports of
speaker declared. “This is a increased Klan activity, rallies,
symbol that does not desecrate and cross burnings began
the cross but rather lights it up coming in over the summer and
and shows that light expells spring from Louisiana, Georgia,
darkness.” Mississippi, Michigan, Illinois
Several hundred men, and on military bases
women and children were throughout the country,
gathering in the furrows and Klan cross burnings and
stubble of what was ohce a intimidation shut down a voter
bean patch in north central registration campaign in
Alabama.To the front is a flat southeastern Arkansas
bed trailer where a half dozen operated by the Voter
speakers take turns addressing Education Project. VEP
the crowd over the roar of a officials in Atlanta have
portable generator. About 100 reported an outbreak of Klan
yards to the rear is a3O foot activity in the northern
high wooden cross wrapped in panhandle of Florida.
burlap and soaked in oil. The “There are a lot of white
air this night in early October people tired of being pushed
was cold enough but the words around, starting to wake up,”
the men spoke add an almost one man at an Alabama rally
electric chill: said bluntly. “I’m white, aren’t
“Our children, even we I,” a woman answered when
adults, are being brainwashed asked why she had come to the
day' after day, in race-mixing rally.
churches that preach the false Throughout the summer
doctrine of racial equality, on Black demonstrators and
television where we see TV Klansmen have been
program after TV program exchanging threats and at times
battling the white man, gunshots in Tupelo and
building up the nigger race. In Okolona, Miss.
the schook they call it social On the first and second days
studies where they teach Black of October, the Klan showed
history. They call Martin up in force at Collman, Ala.,
Lucifer Coon the greatest living about an hour’s drive north of
American.” . Birmingham to stop a march of
The Ku Klux Klan is back. Black demonstrators organized
Founded by Confederate by SCLC. The demonstrators
veterans of the Civil War in were attempting to march on
1867 the Ku Klux - which the Cullman County
comes from the Greek word courthouse to protest the
“kuklos” meaning circle - feels selection of an all-white jury to
its fortunes have come full hear the trial of a Black man
Castro challenges Carter
to release Black prisoners
By Roger K. Clendening
From the Miami Times
Cuban President Fidel
Castro has challenged President
Jimmy Carter to release up to
3,000 Black Americans in
prison for crimes committed
for money to live on in return
for the release of an equal
number of political prisoners in
Cuban jails.
If the Carter Administration
will “free a number of Black
Americans who have had to
commit crimes because of
unemployment, hunger, or lack
of schooling, and do it soon,
we will free an equal number
of counter-revolutionary
prisoners,” Castro says in an
interview published for release
in Penthouse magazine this
week.
“We’re ready to free as
many counter-revolutionaries
as they will Blacks who have
had to get into trouble because
of the American system,” says
Castro, who estimated there
are up to 3,000 political
prisoners remaining in Cuban
jails.
In the interview conducted
by Brazilian journalist
Fernando Morais, and
published in the magazine’s
December issue, Castro
describes Carter as a “sincere”
Augusta Nrins-Sntit’ui
man on the human rights issue.
But he also says that
capitalism and imperialism, the
cornerstone of America’s
economic and foriegn policies,
are responsible for the “state
of misery, hunger, malnutrition
and disease that millions of
people suffer in the
underdeveloped world,” a
statement that presumably
covers the plight of Blacks in
America.
Despite the favorable
portrayal of Carter as
“sincere,” Castro also suggests
that Carter is naive, saying the
president might not “fully
comprehend how important it
is to reduce military spending,
to end the arms race, and to
advance along the path of
peace.”
Rep. John D. Conyers,
D-Mich., has been a leading
spokesman, along with other
members of the Congressional
Black Caucus, for reducing
America’s defense budget, and
spending the money instead of
social and economic programs
that would aid Blacks and
other poor people.
A spokesman for the White
House said any comment on
the challenge most likely
would come from Patricia
Derian, the State Department’s
Chris Chambliss
says Reggie Jackson
put self above team
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P.O. Box 953
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accused of raping a white
woman.
The man, 26-year-old
Tommy Lee Hines, is retarded.
The trial had begun in Decatur.
Ala., but constant clashes
between SCLC and the Klan
resulted in a change of venue
to Culluman, about 35 miles to
the south.
The Rev. R.B. Cottonreader
assistant secretary for human
rights.
In the interview, Castro also
expressed . sympathy and
agreement with some
comments on human rights and
Cuban involvement in Africa
by U.N. Ambassador Andrew
Young.
Young, who has described
the presence of Cuban doctors,
technicians, and military
advisers and troops in African
countries as a “stabilizing”
influence, was depicted by
Castro as a man who “lends
prestige” to America in his
United Nations role.
Describing the Cuban people
as “Latin-African,” Castro said
that Young can understand
Cuban policies in Africa when
he makes such a statement.
“His statement is just. He
can understand we didn’t go to
Africa to fight for apartheid
but against it. We were never,
and are not now in Africa, in
search of raw materials,
markets, or investments...we
are there to assist those
countries to defend their right
to independence ... wetdon’t
only send soldiers, we send
medics, engineers, professors,
and
Castro saiclioung said a
is a project director for SCLC
and has led protests over the
trial in Decatur and Cullman,
Ala. In early October he led a
march to the Cullman city
limits where he was met by a
much larger group of whites,
Klansmen among them and
many of them heavily armed.
"We have the same white folks
we dealt with in the 60s. We
“number of things with which
I sympathize and am in
agreement - and I know that
those statements have created
certain internal difficulties in
the United States.
However, he said, some of
Young’s statements “deserve
the recognition and respect of
honest people in the world.
Young has worked to
implement the Carter
Administration’s Human
Rights policy abroad but has
been an outspoken critic of
that policy in America. He has
characterized many U.S.
prisoners as “political.”
Administration and
congressional officials, as
Castro noted, have attempted
to muzzle Young, and have
even called for his
impeachment.
Although he told a gathering
of Black journalists in Chicago
last August that he would
continue to speak Tom
Viola, a spokesman in Young’s
New York office, said the
Ambassador-has considerably
reduced his comments on
Human Rights issues.
Young thus declined
comment on Castro’s challenge
in the Penthouse article “at
this time,” according to Viola.
Jim Jones’
Black physician
blamed for deaths
Page 6
December 9,1978
have the same racism,”
Cottonreader said. “The only
difference is that in the 60s the
Klansmen weren’t robed. Now
they are.
“I don’t think it’s really a
revival. I think they’ve always
been here but they’re just
beginning to robe and come
out.”
The Klan is also flexing its
Jim Jones 9 personal physician
Black doctor analyzes Guyana deaths,
From San Francisco Sun Reporter
The deaths of more than
900 people at Jonestown,
Guyana, many of them Black
former residents of the Bay
Area, show how deeply
conmitted those people were
to building the society
espoused by the Rev. Jim
Jones, according to Dr. Carlton
Goodlett, personal physician of
Jones, and immediate past
president of the National
Newspaper Publisher’s
Association.
Goodlett was a long-time
friend of Jones and a firm
believer in the work of People’s
Temple, which Jones founded.
He had paid a visit to the
temple’s mission in Guyana in
his medical capacity last
August.
Goodlett blamed “the long
arm of the oppressor” for
reaching down into Guyana
and perpetrating the tragedy
that began with the
assassination of Representative
Leo Ryan and four others and
that ended with the apparent
mass suicide of 900 People’s
Temple members and the
scattering of hundreds of other
Americans, who comprised the
pioneering agricultural mission
in northern Guyana.
“This man offered hope and
promise,” Dr. Goodlett said.
“He spbke to the people who
were so oppressed by the
system that they would make
the ultimate sacrifice of hearth
and home to try to build a new
life in a distant land.
“But, when the long arm of
the oppressor reached six
See “JIM JONES”
Page 3
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muscles in Arkansas. Mrs. Mary
Budd, of Crossett, Ark., is
president of the local NAACP
chapter. The arrest of a
Klansman last month for
harrassing Black school
children at a highway school
crossing touched off a wave of
cross burning in Crossett and
throughout the delta country
of southeastern Arkansas. As a
receives blame for holocaust
Former San Francisco
Supervisor Terry Francois led
about half a dozen protesters
to the Sun Reporter offices
last ’ . week, charging
that the paper and its
publisher, Dr. Carlton
Goodlett, had helped to bring
about the holocaust in Guyana
by lending credibility to Rev.
Jim Jones and helping to
convince people that he was a
man who could be trusted.
Francois also returned to Dr.
Goodlett the Merit Award he
received from the paper in
1957. “It’s lost its meaning for
me,” Francois said, his hands
trembling and his voice shaking
with emotion. “I think you’re
making a mistake and
contributing to the tragedy.
Goodlett said the incident in
Guyana makes this “a very
trying period for this
community.” He said the Black
community should be drawing
all of its strengths together in
this trying time, but he
welcomed Francois’s criticism
and termed it “part of the
continuing dialogue we carry
on about the things we agree
and disagree about.”
Francois said that, as a
physician, Goodlett should
have realized that Jones was
suspected when reports began
to emerge that the People’s
Temple leader had faked
“miracle cures” on some of his
Paine College Library
1235 15th St. -
Augusta, GA 30901 Samp i e Copy
VxXMOAICIIgeS
Carter to release
3,000 Blacks in jail
Page 1
result, the voter education
campaign run by Mrs. Budd
collapsed for fear of what the
Klan might do next.
“It was a disaster,” she said.
“Not right away, but people
just gradually pulled out. They
refused to be part of it,
because we were told they just
didn’t want to get involved
with the situation.
For Bill Wilkinson, Imperial
Wizard of the Invisible Empire
of the Ku Klux Klan, this and
other confrontations have won
many new members for his
organization. “Look at the
tremendous response we’ve had
at the rallies,” he said. “At our
first Decatur rally - 5,000. Our
second rally - 11,000. Our
march on the Cullman
courthouse -- over 1,000 people
inside of four hours, just by
placing a sign on the grass.”
“Since spring and early
summer of 1978, the Invisible
Empire has over doubled its
membership nationwide. And
I’d say a large proportion of
that was in the South. There’s
no doubt in my mind that
before ’7B is out we will have
tripled, and if things keep
accelerating at the rate they
are, we may quadruple our
strength.”
An official at the Atlanta
office of the FBI said he had
no information about
expansion of the Klan’s
membership.
Resurgence of Klan rallies
and membership has puzzlied
many political observers, but
Bob Hall, editor of Southern
Exposure magazine in Chapel
Hill, N.C., doesn’t find it
surprising it all.
“It’s been a relatively short
period of time that revulsion
Newsmen huddled around as Terry Francois (left)
confronted Dr. Carolton Goodlett (right).
parishioners. Goodlett said he
did question Jones about the
alleged faith healing and Jones
indicated he believed in the
power of mind to overcome
problems, but the late pastor
“never said he was a faith
healer,” Goodlett noted.
existed in the South or even
nationally against the Klan or
against lynching,” he pointed
out.
“With a shrinking economy,
with suspicion of public
officials and with a general
frustration at trying tc make
ends meet, look for
scapegoats. We had a period
when Blacks were not allowed
to be used as scapegoats. Now
that time seems to be over.
“What happens is that the
sheriffs and the mayors and the
businessmen allow the Klan to
come into the community,
have some rallies in a very
religious atmosphere. Then
they become intimidated or
they become supporters so
they won’t lose any popularity
themselves.”
Cullman County, Alabama is
unlike most counties of the
Southern blackbelt. It’s 60,000
residents are virtually all white.
The land wasn’t right for
cotton in the last century, so
there were few slaves. Neither
was there much Klan activity
or, in the last decade, an active
Civil Rights movement.
But 77-year-old William
Matthew Boyd, the grandson
of slaves, remembers a sign
which he says once decorated
the Cullman City limits:
“Nigger, Read and Run. If You
Can’t Read, Run Anyhow.”
William Boyd lives in the
only Black residential
community of the entire
county, seven square miles of
rolling hills and dirt roads to
the southwest called “The
Colony.” The children of the
See “KKK”
Page 6
‘‘Everybody has
twenty-twenty vision in
hindsight,” Goodlett told
Francois and a cluster of
reporters who showed vp for
the protest. “ The question is,
How did we see things before
all this happened?”
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