Newspaper Page Text
Black men accused
of failing women
during recent rapes
Page 1
VoLB,No. 48
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Black men accused
of failing women
during recent rapes
By Rob Green
Some inner-city women have
been observed sharpening
butcher knives for protection
against a rapist that has plagued
the area since the end of
January.
Mrs. Addie* Scott Powell, a
Twiggs Street area resident and
community organizer, said the
women do not look for
trouble, but they will protect
their homes and themselves.
“The day of the crying woman
is gone.”
She expressed
disappointment with black
leaders, black churches and
black men generally. “I would
have thought that the churches
would have gotten involved,
especially with the idea of
being ‘thy brother’s keeper.’ ”
Two churches have provided
a meeting place for the women
in the area, she said,
emphasizing that she knows of
no pastor who has delivered a
sermon relative to the rapes,
designed to move young men
to action.
A planned protest by black
ministers at the March 19 City
Council meeting failed to
materialize. A copy of a
statement from the Ministers’
Conference was sent to Mayor
Lewis A. Newman
(News-Review, March 24).
A few men have been
instrumental in organizing
security for the women, she
said, but they have not taken a
leadership role. And these have
been the “little men” in the
community. “But what about
the many organizations,
fraternities and groups?” she
asked.
“This is a reflection on the
AugustaNm&iUriau
men. This is not a case of a
white man and black women,
this is a black man raping black
women.
“The women are not
anti-male, but the men could
give an expression that they
don’t like what has happened.”
A neighborhood
organization, (BACA), the
Bethlehem Area Community
Association has met with
Mayor Lewis A. Newman,
Police Chief A.L. Scott and
volunteer members of the Rape
Crisis Line.
Chief Scott received
$15,000 for his department to
use for extra patrol of the area.
The money came from a grant
by the Law Enforcement
Administration Assistance
Program he said. Scott said he
has nothing new on the
investigation of the rapes, and
that he has “no idea as to why
the leads the police have have
come to absolutely zero.”
“I don’t want to give away
our game plan,” he said,
explaining that the
investigators do have a strategy
in use to apprehend the rapist.
Rape is a crime of violence,
Scott said, and all rapes should
be reported. If rapes are not
reported, Scott explained, they
continue with the criminal at
large.
One of the major problems
is awareness that there is a
problem,” said Mrs. Merlleen
Innis, coordinator of the Rape
Crisis Line (RCL). The RCL
offers free advice on the
prevention of rape and medical
assistance in the event of rape
and legal counseling if the
victim(s) want to prosecute.
“Very few persons call for
D.C. community
angered by murder
trial of 16-year-old
Page 2
P.O. Box 953
10,000 watch as parade
kicks off Black Festival
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preventive information,” she
said, most call after, and
our main function is to
counsel.”
Chief Scott said that one
danger of women arming
themselves is that innocent
bystanders could be
endangered. Scott did
recommend that the women
enroll in self defense classes if
possible, safeguard their homes
with locks, not set a pattern
coming and going, and that
they not travel alone. The use
of the paralyzer/mace was
recommended by the chief.
When • alone, women
walking the streets should walk
with a “strong appearance,”
said Innis. “The most likely
victims of rape are those which
appear least likely to defend
themselves, escape or scream,”
she said. Ms. Innis said, 75
percent of rapes occur in one’s
own race, and most are with
victim and assailant of the
same socio-economic level.
“But”, she said, “they happen
everywhere.”
Poorly lighted areas
encourage rape, Ms. Innis said.
“A rapist does not want an
audience,” she said.
The City Planning
Commission heard BACA’s
reply for better lighting in the
area, and, Mrs. Powell said,
they have begun installation of
fixtures in the area.
Police coverage of the area
has been good, and the police
are ’’doing their best”, she
added. “We are not judging
them on the basis of Scotland
Yard, they are doing all they
See “RAPE”
Page 2
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CONTROVERSIAL AWARD - Rep. Shirley
Chisholm (D-N.Y.) accapts an award from NOBC‘s
executive director, Dr. Cyprian L. Rowe, PMS.
Rowe presented the Gold Medallion Award on
behalf of The Black Catholic Ministeries and
Laymen’s Council of Pittsburgh, Pa.
Rep. Chisholm had been labeled a “poor choice”
for the award by “The Pittsburgh Catholic,” the
diocesan paper. This paper, which has no blacks on
its editorial staff, had decried Mrs. Chisholm’s
voting record on abortion and non-public school
aid. Rowe, who says that he is vehemently opposed
to abortion, defended Rep. Chisholm’s selection in
a statement entitled, “Life Already Here,” pointing
out that the crusial issue is not abortion, but what
is indeed “the real feeling of some anti-abortion
advocates toward all life.” (Photo by Robert W.
Cottrol)
Atlanta vice-mayor
to speak at church
Cad Ware, vice-mayor of This program is sponsored by
Atlanta, will speak at the Aiken-Augusta Alumni
Tabernacle Baptist Church Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi
April 20 at 8 p.m. The Fraternity.
Walker-Baptist Choir will sing. No admission charged.
Deadline,
Wednesdays
TV causes blacks
to be accomplices
to own destruction
Pagel
April 14,1979
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Lerone Bennett
TV causes blacks to
aid in own destruction
By Mallory K. Millender
Lerone Bennett, historian
and senior editor of Ebony
Magazine, said at Augusta
College last week that the
survival of black people in this
country “constitutes the
greatest crisis we’ve faced in
this country since slavery
time.”
The protracted pains of the
city, the agony of the
educational system and the
health and social welfare
systems, he said, are reflections
of a larger and more dangerous
fact-the American system is
not working. “It’s not working
for white people and you know
it’s not working for black
people.
“It hasn’t worked in fact
since the 1920 s without
artificial stimulation, and it is
never going to work without
radical surgery and radical
re-ordering of our priorities.”
Bennett, the author of
“Before the Mayflower” and
“What Manner of Man?”, was
one of the speakers of the
Cullum scholars series at
Augusta College. He said he
recently heard President Carter
promise that there won’t be
another recession in this
country during his
administration. “I’ve got news
for him. A recession would be
an improvement in Black
America. At the height the
Great Depression of the 30s,
the unemployment rate for
whites was 24.9 percent. The
unemployment rate for the
black community has been
higher than that for ten years
and it’s getting worse.”
Bennett said there has been
a “lot of talk in this country
about the extraordinary
progress of black people. While
he conceded that there has
been progress, particularly in
the South, he added that “the
fundamentally neo-colonial
Threat against
set-aside for minorit
businesses dropped
Page 2
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relations between the black
communities of America and
the white communities of
America have not changed.
And, as a consequence tilings
are getting worse for black
people not better.
“Thirty years ago the rate of
unemployment for black
people and white people was
about the same. Today the
black rate is twice as high
officially, and four and five
times as high unofficially.
“In 1948 the eight percent
unemployment rate for black
teenagers was, in fact, lower
than the unemployment rate
for white teenagers.
“Today the black rate of
unemployment is 30, 40, 50,
60, 70 percent across the
nation.”
This crisis, he said, threatens
white America “for black
America cannot suffer without
white America suffering. And
if we continue to iet the black
unemployment rate go up and
up and up, I don’t want to
think about the scenes of
horror that await this country
in 2001.”
We have witnessed “the
institutionalization of a new
age of permanent black
depression,” he said.
The Clarksdale, Mississippi
native said that the media,
particulary TV, have had a
disastrous impact on black
c ulture and black
consciousness. “The news
media are pacifying us. They’re
making us accomplices in our
own destruction and
degradation. We survived
slavery and segregation in this
country. It remains to be seen
whether we can survive
television and the Beetles.”
The media have been more
“dangerous and dubilitating in
their impact than the whips
and chains of slavery.”
Bennett said it also remains
25'
to be seen whe her white and
black America s have the will
to deal with the collapse of the
white supremacy of the 19th
Century and the define of all
A meric aX institutions which,
he said, are no longer relevant
to reality or anything else.”
The nation is technologically
overdeveloped and
sociologically underdeveloped.
Bennett said
“The so-called taxpayer
revolt is a confused in
alienated response to America's
inability to make the system
work. It is confused and
alienated, in my view, because
it is colored with racism and
conservatism. It is a childish
and aimless revolt against the
wrong target and the wrong
people.
“I have been waiting for
some seer or TV commentator
to tell the American people
where babies and taxes come
from. I’ve been waiting for
someone to tell the American
people that the American
economy is in trouble today
not because of the pennies we
spend in education, health and
welfare, but because of the
billions of dollars conservatives
forced America to bum up,
literally bum up in Viet Nam.
Because of the billions that
conservatives, not welfare
liberals, are forcing America to
spend at this hour on guns,
lasers and nuclear hardware
that doesn’t work.
“I’ve been waiting for seer,
some politician, some college
professor, some writer to say
to white people and black
people in this country that
their problems have nothing to
do with welfare.
“Our problems are deeper,
they require the best thinkers,
and the best blacks and the
best whites that we can put on
the gjobe at this time.”