Newspaper Page Text
Court orders
district voting
in county schools
Page 1
VgL 8, No. 53
Local educator:
Blacks and whites behefit
from school desegregation
By Rob Green
Desegration of our nation’s
public schools has proven
beneficial to both blacks and
whites, according to Tubman
Junior High School principal
Tracey E. Williams Jr. “Some
people would like to go back
to segregation, but 1 am not
one of them.”
Since tire May 17, 1954
Brown vs. Board of Education
decision which made
segregation in public schools
illegal, black students have
gained advantages in
textbooks, equipment and
facilities, and white students
have gained better opinions of
blacks because of the ruling,
Williams said.
sSfrie black students have
capitalized on the better
books, equipment, and
facilities but the poorer black
NAACP official to speak here
The Rev. Harding Dunlap,
assistant national director of
fund-raising at the NAACP
headquarters in New York
City, will speak on May 17 at
7:30 p.m. in the Tabernacle
Baptist Church when the
Augusta NAACP branch
commemorates the 25th
? niverary of the U.S. Supreme
(?ourt Brown vs. Board of
Education decision.
The local branch will join
Pregnant mom
of six
shoots husband
After accusing her husband
of going out with another
woman, Martha Blount Owens,
25, shot him in the back and
smashed the windows of his car
last Wednesday, according to
sheriffs deputiy’s report.
Mrs. Owens is reportedly the
mother of six children and is
nine months pregnant.
A witness, Alonzer Fielding,
said Mrs. Owens entered a
building of the Georgia-Caro
lina Brick Co. at 6:10 a.m. and
asked him where her husband
was. Fielding asked her if she
was going to start any trouble,
and she saicMp, adding that
she loved her msband.
She then went into the
snack area where her husband
was and they started arguing,
Fielding said. Mrs. Owens
started looking for something
in her purse, he said. Fielding
left at this point, because he
felt like somthing was going to
happen, he told sheriffs
deputies.
Later the couple came out
of tiie snack area and Mrs.
Owens shot her husband,
Augusta Owens, 31, in the
back, authorities said. Mrs.
Owens smashed the windows
of her husband’s car with
bricks and went under the
hood of the car and tore loose
some wires, the deputy
reported.
Mrs. Owens got into the taxi
that, had brought her to the
brickyard and left, the deputy
said.
Augusta Ncttts-ilEitjt'iti
J ..Or
_ •
w ■■■■l
Tracey E. Williams Jr.
students have become more
confused, Williams said.
“We’ve lost identity with the
individual student,” and
personal relations between
with 1700 NAACP units in
special visitations to city halls
and state houses around the
nation in connection with the
anniversary. The NAACP
representatives will present
scroll-type proclamation to
city and state officials. They
will be presented
simultaneously across the
country at noon on May 17.
The documents will outline the
legal and educational interests
Mrs. Blount celebrates 100th birthday
Mrs. Elizabeth Gray Blount
was recently feted with a one
hundredth birthday celebration
at the Atlanta home of her
brother-in-law, Dr. Benjamin E.
Mays, president emeritus of
Morehouse College.
The affair was hosted by her
daughter, Miss Cordelia Blount,
and her nieces, Mrs. Rose
Thomas of Columbus, Ga. and
Miss Myrene Gray, whom she
reared, of Mexico City.
Mrs. Blount was bom April
30, 1879 on the plantation
that is still maintained by the
Gray family in Jones County.
She is the eldest of eight
children bom to Cordelia
Wyman and James S. Gray.
Her sister, the late Ms.
Emma C.W. Gray, was a
professor of English and dean
of women at Paine College for
many years. Her daughter,
Cordelia, succeeded Ms. Gray
and served in that capacity
until she moved to Atlanta in
1970.
The greater part of Mrs.
Blount’s married life was spent
in Moorehead, Mn., where her
daughter, Cordelia was bom.
She and her husband, James,
returned to the family home in
Gray, Ga. in 1937 where they
lived until his death in 1965.
Mrs. Blount resided with her
daughter in Augusta from
1965-1970. In spite of her
years, Blount has been
Mother of six,
9 months pregnant,
shoots husband
Page 1
P.O. Box 953
students and teachers, students
and administration have
decreased, according to
Williams.
“In the initial desegregation
of our schools, segregated
classrooms developed within
school systems.
“There have been incidents of
all the blacks being put on one
side of a classroom and ah the
whites on the other,” Williams
said, adding that race now
plays a very small part in
education. “All in all the 25
years after the Brown vs. Board
of Education decision have
been very progressive.
“Progress has been made in
job opportunities for blacks in
Richmond County because of
desegregation,” Williams said.
Public schools are now
better than private schools
because of their diversity of
students and programs,
and concerns of the NAACP.
Dr. Benjamin Hooks,
NAACP chief, points out that
while the Brown decision was
one of the most important in
civil rights history and helped
break the back of legal
segregation, there still remains
25 years later questions about
the nation’s commitment to
equal rights and desegration.
In Augusta Mrs. Georgene
Hatcher Seabrooks, branch
very active and spry until she
recently broke her hip in
February of this year.
Although she is confined to
bed, she delights in having
visitors and relating the
experiences of her childhood in
Jones County. Her favorite
pastime has been making and
displaying her fancy
< ■ 115? ■ A-w
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Mrs. Elizabeth Gray Blount
according to Williams.
Although there are
hostilities between black
students and white teachers
and vice versa, the relationship
between the two depends on
whether or not the teacher is a
“good” teacher, Williams said.
“We’ve been fortunate here in
Richmond County that there
haven’t been too many racial
incidents. During the ‘cooling
off period the children are
calming down,” he said.
“Many white students have
said they appreciate the
opportunity to go to school
with blacks. The whites said
they got to know blacks better
and formed more accurate
opinions of them,” he said.
Other whites have fled the
public schools because of
desegregation, but those who
have stayed have appreciated
it,” Williams stated.
president, will meet NAACP
leaders and city officials at
noon at the Municipal
Building. Mrs. Seabrooks stated
that a special salute will be
given to the students and
families who participated in
the Acree case which instituted
legal desegration in the
Augusta public schools during
the mid-19605. Past presidents
of the branch will also be
recognized.
The public is invited.
needlework, particularly her
quilts and aprons.
She is a graduate of Haines
Institue in Augusta and is
herpahs the oldest alumnae.
She is a mem er of the CM.E.
Church and served for over 25
years as president of the
Missionary Society of her
church.
I
Helpful woim...
kidnapped,
May 19, 1979
1
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-*»*« •'
“‘■"■l 1
♦ Constance Brimm of
Cairo, Ga., an
18-y ear old fresh nan
biology major, models
in a poolside fashion
show at Valdosta State
College.
Sponsored by the
VSC College Union,|
the show featured
latest in beachwear.
Nkomo
Morehouse
speaker
Rhodesian freedom
fighter Joshua Nkomowill
be the Commencement
speaker at Morehouse
College Sunday at 3 p.m.
He is president of the
Zimbabwe African People’s
Union.
The Commencement
exercise will be held in the
Martin Luther King Jr.
Memorial Chapel.
Woman
kidnapped,
robbed
An Augusta woman rolled
down the window of her car
Friday to give a man directions
to Fort Gordon and was
kidnapped and robbed,
according to police records.
Kathryn S. Smith said at
7:55 a.m. she was stopped at
the intersection of Twiggs
Street and Laney-Walker
Boulevard for a traffic light,
when an unknown man came
up on the passenger side of her
car and asked for directions to
the post. Mrs. Smith rolled
down the passenger window
and the man got into the
vehicle with her, she said.
He pulled a pistol on the
woman and made her drive to
an undetermined location in
the county, police said. Mrs.
Smith said she was robbed of
$35 to $45.
After robbing Mrs. Smith,
the culprit got out of the
vehicle and fled, police
reported. Police and sheriffs
deputies are investigating,
according to police.
robbed
Page 1
Funds reported missing
from Paine business office
Paine College President
Julius S. Scott Jr. told The
News-Review Friday that a
“displacement of funds” was
discovered in the school’s
business office and that
“immediate steps were taken
to preclude any further
displacement.”
Although rumors of the
missing funds have circulated
for weeks, Dr. Scott previously
declined to comment on the
reports, saying only “We can’t
say anything because we don’t
know ourselves. There will be a
statement when the
investigation is complete,” he
said.
He said Friday that he made
a formal presentation to the
board of trustees April 21 of
District voting ordered
for county schools
A U.S. judge declared
unconstitutional Richmond
County’s method of electing
members to the board of
education.
U.S. District Court Judge
Anthony A. Alaimo ruled the
election of the board’s 16
members by countywide vote
violates the constitutional
rights of minorities, who are
not adequately represented.
The judge signed a consent
order which establishes six
school board districts with two
representatives each.
Representatives will be elected
by voters in their home
districts.
And two school board
members will be elected by the
voters of Districts 1, 2 and 3
and two by voters of Districts
4, 5 and 6. These at-large board
members may reside in any of
the three districts within their
group.
Each district representative
must be a resident for one
year. All school board
members, who will continue to
serve four-year terms, must
have resided in Richmond
County for two years.
Current school board
members must within 60 days
assign themselves to the seats
created by the order. The new
alignment must be filed with
Alaimo.
The seat of a school board
members who moves while in
office will become vacant
immediately, and the position
will be filled by special
election.
However, the new
requirements are not
retroactive and do not affect
current board members.
This decision does not
constitute any judgment,
opinion or findings of fact
concerning the propriety or
impropriety of conduct in
office of any of the individuals
currently holding office on the
County Board of Education...
or of any other named
defendant,” according to the
order.
The action stemmed from a
civil rights complaint filed last
November by six black county
residents. They are the Rev.
C.S. Hamilton, Ha.ward
Chester, Georgene Seabrook,
Augusta, GA 30901
struggling
to survive
Page 6
Less than 75% Advertising
“all data then known by me
with back up data from the
auditor.” The trustees were
satisfied with the report and
steps taken to that time, he
said.
Dr. Scott said he also
informed the college’s legal
counsel, sponsoring agencies
and “other appropriate
persons” including the bonding
company and the auditor.
The school has been assured
by the bonding company that
there will be no loss of funds
to the college, the president
said.
Dr. Scott still declined to
say where the missing funds
came from but he did say that
no money from the United
R.E. Donaldson, Augustus
Lanham and Frances L. Lewis.
Defendents are the board of
education, board of elections
and individual members of
both.
Attorneys for all sides have
worked since November on the
proposed plan, which is based
on the 1970 census, 1978
population estimates of the
Augusta-Richmond County
Planning Commission and
registration records of the
county board of elections.
Not all the new districts fall
within U.S. Justice Department
guidelines, which require a 5
percent plus-minus population
“tolerance factor.” This means
a district should be within 5
percent of the ideal district
size.
Richmond County’s ideal
district size for 1978
population figures is 31,232.
Deviations are: District 1:
29,275 (minus 6.26 percent);
District 5: 33,643 )plus 7.71
percent); and District 6:
33,389 (plus 6.9 percent).
However, the districts will
be allowed during experimental
implementation of the plan. If
1980 census data is available,
all parties will review the plan
in January 1982 to determine
whether modifications are
needed.
“We’re very pleased with the
plan,” said plaintiff attorney
Robert W. Cullen. “This means
all the people will have
adequate and equal
representation. I do not forsee
any problems. The order is so
designed that any potential
problem.’ will be alleviated.”
Two similar redistricting
complaints are pending against
the city and county
governments. Cullen said the
suits “will be resolved on their
own merits.”
School Board Attorney
Leonard O. “Pete” Fletcher Jr.
declined comment on the plan.
Plaintiffs in the school board
suit alleged the effect and
purpose of existing election
methods was to dilute black
voting strength and to ensure
the board remained
predominantly white.
They claimed Augusta and
Richmond County have “a
history of racial
Negro College Fund drive was
involved.
Some employes were
suspended after an internal
audit confirmed that money is
missing. An investigation is
being conducted by the
Richmond County district
attorney.
Dr. Scott said that he first
became aware of the shortage
when he returned from a
March visit to China.
Paine officials have
discounted rumors that the
money may total as much as
$50,000. Dr. Daniel A. Collins,
chairman of the board of
trustees, said he didn’t believe
that the amount would be
“earth shaking,” certainly not
as much as $20,000.
discrimination... including
discrimination against blacks
attempting to exercise their
right to register •* vote.”
Plaintiffs alleged they have
been unable to elect blacks or
whites who support their views
and interests.
The former methods of
election required that a school
board member reside in the
ward or district he represented,
but board members ran at-large
and were elected by majority
vote.
Alaimo ruled the method of
electing school board members
“denies plaintiffs and their
class equal access to the
political system in derogation
of their rights under the 13th,
14th and 15 th amendments to
the U.S. Constitution.”
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Frank Thomas
WINS MEDIA AWARD
-- TV newsman Frank
Thomas won a second
place award at the recent
West Augusta Rotary
Club’s annual Media Day
Program for excellence in
electronic news reporting.
He won the award for
his coverage of the county
commissioners’
deliberations on the new
liquor sales program.