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The Augusta News-Review - December
(Augusta
Mallory K. Millender Editor-Publisher
J. Philip Waring Vice President for Research and Development
Paul D. Walker Special Assistant to the Publisher
Robert L. Darby Advertising Manager
Mrs. Rrenda Hamilton Administrative Assistant
Mary Gordon Administrative Assistant
Mrs. Geneva Y. Gibson Church Coordinator
Ms. Barbara Gordon- -Burke County Corresponden
Mrs Clara West McDuffie County Correspondent
Roosevelt Green Columnist
Al Irby -Columnist
K 4 . 11Z . Columnist
Marian Waring 2.
Michael Carr Chief Photographer
Sterling WimberlyPho ographer
Roscoe Williams Photographer
We cannot be responsible for unsolicited photos, manuscripts and other materials.
Mailing Address
Box 953 - Augusta, Ga. - Phone 722-4555 jflrlX.
Second Class Postage Paid Augusta, Ga. 30903 jljUkl
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The FBI - KKK connection
GUEST EDITORIAL
From the Detroit Free Press
Not even Pandora’s Box spilled as
many dark secrets as the FBl’s recently
opened files. The agency’s image was
already badly tarnished by surfacing
stories about its 15-year harassment of
groups and individuals it considered
radical. Yet none of these revelations
were quite so shocking as newly released
FBI documents suggesting that the
agency knowingly gave a Birmingham
Klan sympathizer information enabling
the hate group to waylay and viciously
beat two busloads of Southern Freedom
Riders in 1961.
This startling information came to light
as a result of a $1 million lawsuit filed
against the FBI by former Wayne State
Walking with dignity
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The real answer as to why Guyana
allowed this eccentric, religious cult head,
schizophrenic mulatto to set up an
agricultural commune appears to lie in
their shared Marxist ideology. Then, too,
there was the friendliness between the
cult leader, the Rev. Jim Jones, and many
prominent United Sates leaders, most of
diem Democrats. Some of the other
factors are the common Blackness of
most of Mr. Jones’ followers and about
half of the Guyanese people, and then the
large flow of fruit and vegetables from
the commune’s truck farms into
Georgetown, the Guyanese capital.
VENTURE IN BRAZIL
Moreover, this commune concept was
not unique; there are other such
agricultural ventures in Latin America.
One of them is in Brazil’s remote Amazon
fastness. Such agricultural experiments
have been set up in most countries at one
time or another in the past 200 years.
Some 4,000 distraught confederate
rebels, for example, fled Dixie for Brazil
in 1868. Their descendents continue the
tradition of Southern fried chicken, while
displaying the slave-oriented flag and
raising cotton, in Vila Americana, a dusty
town of the red sandy soil north of Sao
Paulo.
PROMINEMT U.S. DEMOCRATS
The Guyana story, of course, not only
for its violent outcome with killings and
mass suicides, but also for its origions.
Guyanese government sources are making
much of what they describe as the
closeness of the late Rev. Jones and
prominent United States Democrats,
including the late Sen. Hubert H.
Humphrey, Vice-President Walter F.
Mondale, and guess who, First Lady
Rosalynn Carter. Letters from these
individuals and numerous others to the
Rev. Mr. Jones have been released by
Guyanese authorities. The implications in
all this is that if such prominent persons
would unite in such friendly terms to Mr.
Jones, then he came with good
credentials. Guyanese officials say this
fact helped persuade them to grant the
Peoples Temple a 27,000 acre tract of
agricultural land 150 miles northwest of
Georgetown in an area knows as
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Page 4
University professor Walter Bergman,
who says his beating at the hands of the
Ku Klux Klan left him partially
paralyzed. FBI documents released to Mr.
Bergman’s American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) attorneys make a strong case for
believing the FBI was at best irresponsible
and at worse a willing accomplice to
violence heaped upon civil rights workers.
In one of the most bizarre - and
chilling - former FBI informant Gary
Thomas Rowe claimed that the FBI had
advised him to cover up his murder of a
Black man during disturbances in
Alabama in 1963. In addition, the family
of slain Detroit civil rights worker Viola
Ltuzzo has filed a $2 million claim against
the agency, charging that Mr. Rowe, who
was in the car with the men who shot
Mrs. Liuzzo, did nothing to prevent her
death.
The Guyana
holocaust
By Al Irby
Mathews’ Ridge-a remote region, given
the poor road system in the country.
GUYANA HEAVILY BLACK
Moreover, there appears to have been
considerable affinity between Mr. Jones
and several Guyanese leaders, perhaps
including Prime Minister Linden Forbes
Burnham. After all they both espoused a
socialist doctrine and the Rev. Mr. Jones
concepts of communal agriculture fit
neatly into Guyana’s own economic
philosophy of cooperatives. Likewise, the
fact Mr. Jones was part-Black and that
many of his followers were Black cannot
be overlooked. Guyana is led by a
government more heavily Black than East
Indian, the country’s other major racial
component.
TOP-NOTCH FARMERS
Then too, Mr. Jones came with the
promise of significant food production at
a time when Guyana sorely needed to
boost its agricultural activities. It was not
lost on Guyanese officials that native
Guyanese prefer to live and work in the
narrow costal strip from Georgetown to
New Amsterdam over near the Surinam
boarder. The result of the cult’s
agricultural activities in the past three or
four years has born out this promise. A
steady flow of good-quality fruit and
vegetable, perhaps, as much as one-third
of the produce in the markets of
Georgetown, came from the Peoples
Temple truck farms. Unites States
Representative Leo J. Ryan, whose
on-the-scene investigation of the cult led
to his death November 18th-was quoted
before that tragedy as saying that fruit
and vegetables-particularly the
tomatoes—were of high quality. That
seems to have been the impression shared
by others in Georgetown. There are still
many unknown aspects of the cult’s
activities, but the evidence now available
corroborates a well-known Russian truism
“that the Cult of the personality is bad”
and most Black ministers practice it to a
dangerous point. The average Blacx
church membership will not attend when
the pastor is away. The Church should be
the focal point not the ministers, with all
due respect to them.
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©1978 BLACK fAEOIA CO-OP 1
ALSO RAN
Woman s World —■
j| Black women
achievements
K against the odds
By Marian Waring -
Women
• They were women then
My mama’s generation
Hisky of voice - Stout of
Step
With fists as well as
Hands
How they battered down
Doors
And ironed
Starched white
Shirts
How they led
Armies
Headragged Generals
Across mined
Fields
Booby-trapped
Ditches
To discover books
Desks
A place for
Us
How they knew what we
Must know
Without knowing a page
Os it
Themselves.
By- A. Walker
AUTUMN ACTIVITIES
During these beautiful fall
months, I was delighted to
receive invitations to attend
several outstanding meetings.
This gave me the opportunity
to meet and congratulate many
fine Augustans who were
praised and received tributes
for their exceptional service to
the community.
Congratulations to Mrs.
Margaret Beard for winning the
Palmore Award at the Tau
Gamma Delta Sorority’s 33rd
Boule held in Raleigh, N.C.
This award is given to the soror
with the most outstanding
scholastic achievement.
Mrs. Beard has completed all
courses required for the Ph.D.
in Nursing at Texas Women’s
University.
November 15, 1978, was
Phyllis Wheatley Day at the
YWCA, 924 Greene Stree.
Thanks to the Ladies Service
League who sponsored the
program to an overflow
audience. Mrs. Wilhemina Dent
introduced the speaker, Mrs.
Wilhemina Sanders, who have a
brief documentary summary
which highlighted the
accomplishments of Phyllis
Wheatley. The Rev. Mrs. Essie
. Mclntyre, President of the
Southside Center, also served
as Chairperson.
Other YWCA members who
assisted were Mrs. Ollie Reese,
vice president, Mrs. L.A. Jones,
secretary; Mrs. Wilhemina
Dent, recording secretary; Mrs.
Betty Swain, publicity
chairman; also Mrs. Mary Way,
Mrs. Lillie Franklin, Mrs. Annie
Hudson, Mrs. Hattie Thompson
and Mrs. Elizabeth Butler. All
Satcc'te
of the Augusta area is indebted
to the Women’s Civic Club, a
diligent and hard-working
group of women who have
been together for 27 years. It
was Mrs. Richard A. (Jerrylyn)
Dent’s dream to form a welfare
committee and help the needy
children in Augusta, and it was
Mrs. H.L. Thompson who
started the organization wheels
turning.
Mrs. Thompson was elected
the first president of the club
and the group has been moving
smoothly since 1951.
This group has advanced our
community by providing food,
clothing, counseling, and
school aid to large numbers of
needy Augusta children. These
achievements are both laudable
and historic. I greatly enjoyed
attending their 27th
anniversary program. Program
participants included Mrs.
T ompson, Mrs. J.M. Tutt, Mrs.
V.I. Calhoun, Mrs. L.H.
Hudson, Mrs. 1.8. Buchanan,
Mrs. J. Robinson, Mrs. R.
Blount, Mrs. M.E. Braxton,
Mrs. C.S. Hamilton, and the
Women’s Civic Club Ensemble.
The White Rose Circle of the
Trinity CME Church met the
early part of November at the
home of Mrs. R.A. Dent Rev.
Jerry Poole is the pastor of the
church.
Officers of the Circle include
Mrs. Maude Parks, president,
and Mrs. Dent, secretary. As a
guest, I enjoyed it
tremendously. It gave me
another opportunity to
congratulate Mrs. Luvenia
Pearson for being named
Woman of the Year by the
Augusta Chapter’s Tau Gamma
Delta Sorority. She is one of
the outstanding pioneers in the
teaching of cosmetology.
Speaking of beauty, here are
a few spiritual beauty hints.
Wrinkled brows - try the
well-known cream,
SWEETNESS OF TEMPER.
Lips - use the marvelous
lipstick - SILENCE. It is
particularly good for lips that
have been distorted by
uncharitable gossip.
For lovely hands - there is
really one preparation
GEN, ROSITY - get a
large-sized jar.
For facial tone - expose the
face to the morning air. On
Sunday, go to church -
particularly refreshing and
uplifting.
For clear eyes - faithful care,
with tried and true protective
preparation - modesty. For
best results we recommend you
carry it wherever you go.
An ideal conditioner and
beautifier - A CLEAR
CONSCI ENCE.
May I suggest that we name the new
public park located at D’Antignac,
Adams, Ninth and Eighth Streets “The
Dr. M.L. King Jr. Park.” This has several
distinct advantages: (1) Memorializing the
name and accomplishments of one of
Georgia’s greatest sons. You’ll recall he
won the Nobel Award and was the first
Black Georgian to have his picture placed
in the state capitol rotunda and was
subsequently honored by both the
President and the Congress. (2) It would
be a role model and- example for
thousands of young people here and yet
to come. And (3) it would at last put
Augusta into the vanguard of those
hundreds of cities and states which have
honored this great Georgian.-Scores of
streets, hospitals, parks, museums, etc.
throughout the land have been named for
him. Can Augusta do less?
May I hear from you? *
ON PAYING DUES IN AUGUSTA
Recently this question was put to me
downtown by a media respresntive: “Mr.
Waring, you’ve just come to Augusta,
what gives you the authority to call for
residents in the Laney-Walker community
to organize? What do you know about
this town and its background? Have you
ever served it”?
LANEY-WALKER COMMITTEE
As these questions were honest and
timely, I shall not identify the
representative. First, however, 1 pointed
out that there already was a movement to
advance this neighborhood led by William
Brown, 111, educator and leading Black
Catholic layman in Augusta. There were
others assisting including: Dr. C.S.
Hamilton, L.B. Wallace, Miss Louise
Laney, William T. Johnson,
Commissioner Ed Mclntyre, Booker
Mears, James Starks, Frank Delley,
Havard Chester, members of the CSRA
EOA Center at Mill Street and
Laney-Walker Blouevard, and others. I
simply issued the formal call to organize.
EARLY LOVE FOR AUGUSTA
My mind, however, reflected back over
my life span in reviewing whether I’d paid
my dues to Augusta. I was really infected
with a solid love for Augusta as a small
boy. This was at my father’s restaurant
adjacent to the Lenox Theatre many
years ago. Such men as Dr. C.T. Walker,
Dr. George Stoney, Dr. Walter Hornsby
Sr., Dr. S.S. Johnson, Bob White, Tom
Newsom, Johnny Moss, Clarence Wigfall,
Willie Wilburn, Dr. Art Kendall, Dr.
James E. Carter Sr., and others would
come in to discuss Augusta’s past
greatness and future, etc.
FIRST PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICE
I recall my own role in the mid-thirties
in helping via the Community Forum in
the city-wide drive for books to organize
the first public library service for Blacks.
Joining hands were: Joel Wallace, our
president, LB. Wallace, Jimmy Charles,
Sarah Williams, E. Yerby Lowe, Geneva
Yancy, Ike Washington, Father Charles
Dukes, Mrs. Lilly B. Harris (Viola’s
mother) with Deacon H.B. Garvin and
W.C. Ervin as consultants.
GOING PLACES 31 YEARS
I looked at my Going Places column
started in 1947 in the Weekly Review
Caught in the middle
Black Americans are caught in the
middle, and there is very little they can
do about it. The more educated they
become the more they are aware of the
hopelessness of the Black struggle in
America; and possibly the Black struggle
in the world.
Because of better paying jobs and
greater economic mobility, Blacks, and
probably through no fault of their own,
have been caught up in disco-mania.
Blacks realize that they want the same
things as white Americans, but unlike
white Americans they aren’t totally
prepared to pay the moral price for it.
Blacks sincerely believe that they support
the struggle of the masses in South Africa
and Rhodesia, but if the Black Africans
are successful, how will it affect the
economic lives of Black Americans when
the Black Africans demand more for their
labor and resources. And .if we don’t
support them who will help us or should
help us out if white America turns against
us.
It should be obvious to most Black
Americans that President Carter has
deceived Black Americans. His stand on
full employment and providing more jobs
for inner city youth and the hard core
unemployed have met with devastating
results.
His deception in the development of
the neutron bomb as a threat against
communist tank invasion of Europe is a
farce. And I think most Black Americans
should become aware. It is ? fact that no
Going places
Name new park
for Dr. King
By Phil Waring
under the editorship of that excellent
Christian gentleman, the Rev. M.J.
Whitaker. It continued in the late sixties
under the editorship of Attorney John
Watkins. We picked up again one month
after Mallory Millender started the
News-Review in March of 1971. This
column has also been featured in other
Black papers around the nation. We feel
most proud, however, of its contacts with
former Augustans living elsewhere.
Thanks to my travels with the Urban
League Movement, NAACP, Frontiers,
National Association of Social Workers,
etc. I touched off in some twenty
different cities in my 35 year career. In
each I’d look up a former Augustan for
an interview. Many were put in touch
with the old hometown. Some returned
to visit and retire. This is the only service
to Augusta. Is that paying dues?
AUGUSTA-AIKEN REUNION
In the early 70s when on an Eastern
Urban League assignment I joined hands
with Lavozier Lamar. We organized the
“Augusta-Aiken Reunion Project”. It met
one Sunday each July in Newark, NJ. It
brought in hundreds from five eastern
states and even up from Augusta. Again,
this kind of Georgia-Augusta fellowship
resulted in decisions by many to return
for retirement. Is this interested in
Augusta?
NAMING OF LANEY-WALKER BLVD.
In September of 1973 wji flew down
from St. Louis to formally suggest that
Gwinett Street be changed to
Laney-Walker Blouveard. There was a
press conference and the local print and
electronic media gave excellent coverage.
But there was considerable opposition for
almost three years. Thanks to the backup
leadership by James E. Carter HI, and his
Black Heritage Committee it moved
forward. Mallory Millender and the
News-Review conducted a survey and
gave solid support. So did Charles Walker
and his Human Relations Commission, as
did Councilman Ike Washington and
Commissioner Ed Mclntyre. And also the
late Louis Harris. Dedication on May 31,
1976 was a highlight of the Bicentennial
era here.
BLACKS HELPED BUILD AUGUSTA
So we could bring alive again a Black
History Movement. I instituted a Blacks
Who Helped Build Augusta series in the
News-Review. Not only did I write
features but others drafted materials on
their own families, churches, etc. The late
Howard Woods, NNPA vice president,
said: “This is excellent use of the Black
Press and citizens effort to capture and
highlight Black history.” This thrust has
subsequently spread into other sectors of
Augusta. We need many different people
or organizations into Black History. We
may also note that there is a Blacks Who
Helped Build Augusta Historical
committee which is planning several
projects. ,
FAMILY SELF-INVENTORY FORM
We’ve also traveled home to Augusta to
edit several special historic editions of the
News-Review done while on vacation
time. So as to answer the challenge to
“Roots” there has been developed a
Black Family Achievement Self-Inventory
as a short-cut to family history. I am
proud that these few projects have been
done on my own time and expense. Have
the dues been paid?
Letter to the Editor
white man ever plans to use a bomb in
Europe, which only kills people (white
people). But let us look at where a bomb
of this type would serve the most useful
purpose for the white race.
1. Middle east - whete tremendous oil
and natural gas resources are found and
the heavy industry that would be
destroyed by present day nuclear bombs
and growing anti American resentment is
present.
2. South Africa and Rhodesia - where
gold, diamond and uranium deposits are
found and the Black freedom fighters are
Marxist-oriented and if they are
successful would more than likely
embrace a communist form of
government, and heavy industry, would
prevent use of present day bomb.
Black Americans should let the
Jonestown tragedy remind us that we are
Black and are a member of the Black race
and that many times we are tricked by
our white oppressors into a suicide life
style. For us to remain silent by the
growing threat of American use of
neutron bomb for it aim of world
imperialism is nothing short of taking the
cynanide poison as our tragic brothers
and sisters did in Jonestown,Guyana.
Committee to Stop
Development of the Neutron Bomb -
and Better Life for the Common Man
Joseph Can
2014 Grand Blvd.