Newspaper Page Text
Augustan’s hit tune
may be biggest ever
by a black group
Pagel
VoLB, No. 35
Emancipation Day speaker:
Black students fared better
under segregated system
Blacks need to develop the
same kinds of institutions
under integration as were used
under segregation, the Rev.
Roosevelt Green told a
cheering Emancipation Day
audience at Tabernacle Baptist
Church Monday.
Green, a News-Review
columnist and assistant dean of
the graduate school at Penn
State University where he is
completing his dissertation for
a doctorate, said he believes
that “blacks did better with
segregated schools than we are
doing today.”
"Blacks are being displaced
and ignored under integration,
he said. “We need people like
my black principal who would
tell us to stay in school and to
stay out of jail.”
In his address, entitled,
“Nobody Does it Better: A
Case for Black Survival,” Green
said black survival depends on
the effective development of
.five institutions -- tip; family
Augustan’s hit tune may be
biggest ever by a black group
By Mallory K. Millender
Augusta’s Alfa Anderson --
lead singer of Chic, the group
with the nation’s hottest tune
“Le Freak” - has an
unexpected problem: people
expect her to play the role of
the star.
She was in Augusta during
the Christmas holidays visiting
her family. She talked about
her success and how she is
dealing with it.
“People look at me
differently because people are
impressed by figures and
statistics. They figure you have
changed. I have not changed.
I’m the same person. I’m just
doing something I have always
wanted to do.”
Nevertheless, the statistics
are impressive. The hit tune
“Le Freak” is already double
platinum. A record is platinum
when it sells a million copies.
“Le Freak,” as a single, had
sold 2.4 million five weeks ago.
As an album, it sold 1.2 million
during the first month.
“I believe there were only
three platinum records this
year and ‘Le Freak’ was one of
them. There have been only
nine platinum singles in the
history of the recording
industry,” she said.
“The record company
predicts that ‘Le Freak’ will go
quadruple platinum. And the
album is definitely going to go
double platinum. No other
black group in the country has
gotten a double platinum.
We’re the first,” she said.
Yet she tries to keep a level
head.
“People expect me to play
the role of the star, with all the
trappings. And I am not
interested in that because 1
realize that whoever sang the
song would have been the star.
It just happened to have been
me.
“I feel that I’m talented.
And I’m not trying to
minimize it. But the things that
come along with it - the
limousines, the expensive
lunches at Club 21, the
invitations to go on someone’s
yacht, or fly in their private
plane, I have to realize that the
Augusta Nrurs-Kfujpui
rj
Rev. Roosevelt Green
education, economics, politicis
and religion.
The black family has held
together in spite of the ravages
of slavery, he said, but in many
instances the “stud-mentality
and the slave morality live on.”
They bred us like cattle, he
said, “but I want you to know
that if you’re responsible for
■j - itic*
Alfa Anderson
invitation is for me only as
long as I’m with Chic, and as
long as I’m making money.
Whoever is the next person will
get the invitations, and I’ll get
the door slammed in my face.”
If Alfa doesn’t sound like a
typical pop singer, it’s because
she’s not. She graduated from
Paine College in 1968. Five
days later she went to New
York where she earned a
master’s degree from Columbia
University’s Teachers College.
From there she began teaching
English at New York’s Hunter
College.
Since the success of “Le
Freak,” she has taken a leave
of absence from Hunter, but
hopes she won’t have to go
back to teaching. “I got very
disillusioned with education,
because it’s not what it’s
Augustan to play
in black college
all-star superbowl
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P.O. Box 953
bringing children into this
world, it’s your duty to care
for them.
“When it comes to being a
mother, nobody does it better
than the black mother. She had
to care not only for her own
children but iso for ‘Miss
Anne’s children.”
We were brought to this
country for economic reasons
- cheap labor for ungodly
capitalists, and all we got was
welfare, he said.
“There is something wrong
with a system that has free
enterprise for the poor and
socialism for the rich.
“There are more white
millionaires in Thomasville, Ga.
than there are black
millionaires in this country,”
he said.
“We need to take a look at
the economic system and plan
to change it or destroy it.”
The black church, the
Athens, Ga. native said, is the
only institution blacks own
and control. “It has been a
supposed to.be. I get kids who
cannot read. They cannot write
me a sentence, much less a
paragraph. If I ask them to
write me 350 words, it’s like I
asked them to dimb Mt.
Everest.
“You’ve got a very volatile
situation in this country
because we’ve got a lot of
people who go to college -
they’ve bought the line, ‘You
go to college and you come out
and get a job’ - And when they
come out they realize THERE
ARE NO JOBS! The American
dream has become a
nightmare.”
Yet she urges students not
to drop out of college for
careers in the performing arts.
“I encourage them to stay in
school so they will have
something else to do in case
symbol of protest since its
inception.
“The reason the white
church doesn’t stand up for
what they know is right is fear
of economic reprisal. We have
to learn that economics control
politics and everything else.”
He chided black
church-goers who, he said,
spend $lO-$ 15 to go to hear
Lou Rawls, then go to church
and leave 15 cents.
He called on black churches
to develop programs that
“meet the needs of our people,
including political education
programs, consumer education
programs, tutorial programs
and day care centers.
“And we need preachers
who are not afraid to stand up
to political leaders and say,
‘Thus saith the Lord!’
“When we really want
something, nobody does it
better than black folk. And
with the help of tire Lord,
someday we will be free.”
they don’t make it as a
performer.
“It’s a combination of
talent, luck and divine
intervention; the right
accountant, the right lawyer,
the right look, being in the
right place at the right time.
“A lot of people who are
very, very talented never make
it. It’s not about talent all the
time.”
Was the success of “Le
Freak” an accident? Alfa says
no, although she did not
expect the song to be a hit
when it was first presented to
the group.
“It’s all planned. The people
who write the music (the base
and guitar player) have a
formula for writing: simplicity
of lyric and a driving funky
beat. Funky enough to get
blacks but not so funky that
you drive away the whites.
“As a pop record they’re not
looking at us as black anymore.
We’re going to Europe in
January and they’re inviting us,
as the best dressed American
group - not black, not white.
“When we made our first
album, no one knew it was a
black group. That’s why it got
over so. And that was
intentional. Not putting black
faces on the album cover was
also intentional.
“The people who come to
our concerts are about 50-50
black and white. We’ve brought
whites to concerts in places
whites have never been.
“And we’ve pushed out
Barbara Streisand and the Bee
Gees and some other top white
acts to become the number one
record in the country. For
some reason we are breaking
through that barrier. For some
reason it’s a song that
everybody agrees on.”
If there is anyone who is not
surprised by Alfa’s success, it’s
her mother, Mrs. Essie
Anderson. “I’m not a bit
surprised,” she said. “Alfa has
always been a very, very alert
person. She’s always known
what she wanted. Whatever
See “LE FREAK”
Page 5
High cancer deaths
among blacks may
be pollution related
Page 3
January 6,1979
Dr. Canute M. Richardson
When retired Paine College Vice
President Dr. Canute M. Richardson
died December 26th, the Augusta
and the national community lost a
distinguished citizen.
He will, perhaps, be best
remembered for his work as
acting-president of Paine after the
resignation of Dr. E. Clayton
Calhoun in 1970 and again after the
death of Dr. Pitts in 1973.
When a local official suggested
that Dr. Pitts’ successor needed to
be a white man, Dr. Richardson
responded: “Blacks at this college
need a black president as an
identity and as a symbol. They
need to identify with the
achievements of a black
president.. When you say that it
takes a white man for the job, you
eliminate all the black men who
have achieved some eminence. It
would be hard to tell our students
that there’s not another black man
Dr. Canute Richardson with then-Governor Jimmy Carter for signing of College Tuition Bill
Black Press workshop to focus
on circulation and advertising
WASHINGTON (NNPA) -
All aspects of newspaper
circulation building and
advertising salesmanship will be
the focus of the Annual
Mid-Winter Workshop of the
National Newspaper Publishers
Association - the Black Press
of America - meeting in
Memphis, January 17-20.
Announcement of the
Workshop program plans was
made recently by John H.
Sengstacke, president of NNPA
and editor-publisher of the
Chicago Daily Defender, New
Pittsburgh Courier and eight
other papers in his chain.
Less than 75% Advertising
who can help this college achieve its
rightful place.”
Paine’s faculty unaminously
endorsed a resolution supporting
Dr. Richardson’s position.
He ruled himself out as a
candidate for the job, saying the
college needs “a younger, more
vigorous person.”
During his tenure at Paine
(1947-1977), he also served as
chairman of the Department of
Education, acting-dean, academic
dean, and worked at the State
Department of Education from
1950 1954.
He served as chairman of the
Richmond County Bicentennial
Committee. He was appointed by
then-Governor Jimmy Carter as a
member of the Georgia Council for
the National Bicentennial
Celebration, and served on the
executive committee. He was the
He pointed out that John L.
Procope, first vice president of
NNPA and publisher of the
New York Amsterdam News, is
the program chairman and is
developing discussion plans and
other agenda activities for the
Workshop.
Sengstacke said that Procope
has succeeded in getting two
specialists to lead the
circulation and advertising
discussions. They are: Daniel
Orr, president of the
International Circulation
Managers Association and
circulation director of the
Boston Globe; and Arthur
AOUW ' Sample Copy
Joyce Tutt
is bride of
Lamar Cherry
Page 5
EDITORIAL
Segall Sr., manager of general
advertising of two leading
mid-South newspapers - the
Memphis Commercial Appeal
and the Press Scimitar.
These experts will be joined
by panels of Black Press
publishers and advertising
executives in discussing
circulation and advertising over
a two-day period. Procope has
submitted to die experts a list
of questions relating to the
special problems of the Black
Press so that they may speak
more specifically to them.
The Workshop will be held
only black to serve on the
Bicentennial Council of the 13
original states. And he was a charter
member of the Georgia Hall of
Fame Commission.
After he retired from Paine
College he and his widow,
Josephine, former registrar at Paine,
went to work at Boggs Academy in
an effort to shore up that
institution which had many
problems similar to those they
experienced at Paine.
A native of Bluefield, Nicaragua,
he received the B.A. degree in
chemistry from Morris Brown
College and the master’s degree in
education from Columbia
University. He was a member of Phi
Beta Sigma Fraternity.
He was a steadying force and
particularly effective in times of
difficulty. The world will miss his
cohesive strength.
in the beautiful new Hyatt
Regency Memphis. A tour of
the city is scheduled for the
first afternoon, said
Sengstacke. It will cover the
Lorraine Hotel where Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was
assassinated, Beale Street
where a statue of Blues King
W.C. Handy stands, LeMoyne
College, and the area where Mr.
Ida B. Wells Barnett’s Free
Speech and Headlight plant
was burned to the ground by a
mob in 1892 because she
protested the lynching of four
blacks.
25*