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The Augusta News-Review (USPS 887 820) - June 30, 1979
Augusta
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1 ». ..i, ■ ■■■■■ i AX •
108 •OMCNMO
CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS
M l *- President - let’s
K <£s, "1 really fight inflation
~ Rep. William L. Clay ————
It’s about time the nation’s chief
inflation fighters get out of the gym and
into the ring. As long as President Carter
only practices his inflation fighting on the
poor he will never get in shape to take on
the real champion.
Using the unemployed as punching
bags will not tighten his muscles for the
real Ali of the federal budget: The
Pentagon. Skipping rope with federal
employes’ cost of living increases will not
sharpen his footwork for the unbeaten
war machine of the defense spenders.
If, and I say if, Mr. Carter is serious
about his most important fight in his
short career then he must train in earnest.
Surely he knows that the champ is
proficient in the art of ducking and
dodging. So far the military budget has
been untouched by the President’s left
jabs in the fight against inflation.
Not once has Mr. Carter attacked
military spending as the most inflationary
element in the entire economy. He has
not even hinted that the Pentagon drives
prices way up by excessively spending
dollars, but producing no goods for
services. Inefficiency and waste are the
military’s two best punches. But Mr.
Carter’s fight game plan is to stay out of
the Pentagon’s way by use of fancy
footwork.
In fact, Las Vegas gamblers are giving
ten to one odds that Carter will not lay a
glove on the $25 billion annual waste,
duplication and cost overrun of the
defense budget. They are giving five to
one odds that in the first round of the
budget fight, he will be successful in
cutting funds for education, food stamps,
housing and social security recipients.
Walking with dignity
Om| 1979 desegregation
trauma
Ry Al Irby ■- 1
After 25 years, so-called liberal and
nulti-racial Los Angeles dodges and
hassles over court-ordered integration.
The voters oust backers of integration
and install a staunch foe. The condition
there now is like a camera slipping out of
focus. The future of school integration in
Los Angeles is suddenly badly blurry. The
picture was anything but cyrstal clear
even before city voters recalled school
board president Howard Miller in the May
29 election.
But that recall, which succeeded with
just one-quarter of those eligible going to
the polls, replaced an official who
publicly agreed to abide by the orders of
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Paul
Egly with a vigorous foe of so-called
forced busing. Roberta Weintrabu has
pledged to unearth stumbling blocks at
the every turn until students are no
longer being transported across town for
the purpose of desegregation.
The working relationship between the
school board and Judge Egly, thus far
civilized, may soon evaporate. The
California Supreme Court ruled in 1976
that local boards must take “a responsible
and feasible step to eliminate segregated
schools” and said local boards could
manage the desegregation plans as long as
meaningful progress was being made.
With the election of Mrs. Weintrabu, and
a resulting split of anti-busing and
pro-busing board members (one vacancy
will be filled in July), the court could
start issuing more specific and forceful
orders if the board proves recalcitrant.
Plaintiffs in the case, who brought the
action 16 years ago and saw the first
The odds escalate to eight to one that
by round four the Pentagon will have Mr.
Carter on the ropes pleading for an even
larger increase in defense spending.
Despite the fact that spending for war is
capital intensive, Mr. Carter will shout to
his trainers that only a billion dollars
more in defense will produce 48,000 jobs.
And his crafty trainees whom some
suspect of fixing fights surely will not
inform the staggering President that one
billion dollars spent in the private sector
will create almost 100,000 jobs.
Zing Magazine has quoted Jimmy the
Greek as saying, “Jimmy, the former
champion of the Georgian Gloves will to
TKOed in the tenth round.” The Greek
described the gory battle in typical
fisticuff jargon. He said, “Jimmy was
manuevered into a neutral corner,
pulverized by a series of rights and lefts
which sent most domestic programs
reeling.
A glassy-eyed Jimmy Carter could not
see how $lO billion more for defense
would knock down his chances of
providing adequate medical care for all
citizens regardless of ability to pay. A
bleeding nose, not a bleeding heart was
evidence that the President had gallantly
fought in vain to preserve 250,000
summer jobs for disadvantaged youth.”
Certainly all the predictions of the
ring-wise protectors of an overkill defense
budget will come true if the average
citizen does not inform his or her
representative in Congress that President
Carter’s misdirected punches and his
ineffective infighting will reek havoc on
the ecoonmy.
significant desegregation begin last fall,
continue to urge Judge Egly to expand
mandatory busing. Some 300 schools,
half of the entire system, still have 70
percent or higher minority enrollments.
Two-thirds of these have 90 perecent or
higher minority enrollments.
SCHOOL BOARDS ARE NIT-PICKING
The school board began desegregation
on a limited basis chiefly because the
sheer size of this system, some 560,000
students prohibited any thorough
overhaul in just one year. But the
plaintiffs, the American Civil Liberties
Union, the NAACP, and the Los Angeles
Center for Law and Justice, will push for
the effort to be brought this fall. Those
opposed to busing, led by a group Known
as “Bus-stop,” say desegregation has
disrupted their lives, provoked white
flight, and has been, in the words of Mrs.
Weintraub, an abysmal ffailure. They
advocate a voluntary program. Some
30,000 white students left the system,
undermining the flexibility of the busing
program. More than 38 percent of the
city’s students are Hispanic, 29.5 percent
are white, and 24.8 are black.
Hearings on the merits of the current
desegregation plan will begin later this
summer. Judge Egly has .made it clear
that he believes the current level of
desegregation is only a first step in
accomplishing the job. But whatever
decisions he makes short of halting
busing, Bus-Stop will appeal.
CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUE
Page 4
—i WAY
TO
GO
©1979 Black R6SOORCK IMC BtActCtooi
A TURN TO THE RIGHT
—The blackside of Washington —
Is high court a
handicap to blacks
Bv Sherman Briscoe. NN PA ■—
Soon now the U.S. Supreme Court is
expected to hand down its decision in the
Weber case. Either it will approve of the
voluntarily adopted training program
developed by a Kaiser Alumimum plant
of Gramercy, La., and the United'
Steelworkers Union to help correct the
effects of longstanding discrimination
against blacks and women, or it will
decide for Brian F. Weber, the white
$20,000-a-year lab technician who
brought the suit.
In the latter case, affirmative action
training for upgrading will join Bakke in
the twilight zone, and blacks and
women will have received a setback that it
may take decades to overcome.
You know the case, Kaiser Alumimum,
located on the Mississippi between Baton
Rouge and New Orleans, is loaded down
with government contracts. To keep these
contracts, it must not discriminate against
blacks and women in its employment
rolls. But it did. The Department of
Justice knew it, the Department of Labor
knew it, and EEOC knew it. And a
discrimination suit arising in one of its
nearby plants resulted in a $255,000
award to black employes.
As the government tardily began to
breathe hard on Kaiser’s neck, it and its
chumny Steelworkers Union decided to
establish a one-to-one craft training
program to upgrade both blacks and
whites. Applicants for the training were
chosen on the basis of seniority out of
two separate pools of workers -- blacks
and whites.
It was a good try and deserves to be
sustained, but along came Weber, who
had been passed over in the white pool.
He said he had more seniority than some
of the blacks chosen and, therefore, he
was being discriminated against. With a
wink, both the federal district court and
the circuit court of appeals agreed.
Weber’s low court victories were based
on the supposition that Kaiser did not
discriminate. So why should it develop a
discriminatory craft-training program to
correct the effects of discrimination
which never existed? It’s up to the High
Court to decide.
However the Court decides, it seems,
to be high time for America to take a
Further complications loom from a
legislative effort to place a measure on
the state ballot in November asking voters
to approve or reject an amendment for
the state constitution that would outlaw
busing as a means of achieving
integration. That measure is likely to
make the ballot and could easily be
approved by voters.
Both Mrs. Weintraub and Bus-Stop
president Paul Clarke firmly believe that
Dear Editor:
As a subscriber to the Augusta
News-Review, I am writing in regards to
the article “Every Man Has His Price”
(April issue) by Mr. Paul D. Walker. I will
say in few words, speaking only for
myself, on this one article alone I would
Letter to the editor
Likes Paul Walker column
long look at this antiquated institution,
found in few countries other than the U.S.
and Liberia. Why not let the President
and the Congress override the Court for
starters?
Remember, it’s the court of Bakke, of
Dred Scott, of Plessy v. Ferguson, of
slavery itself and fugitive slave laws. But
more than that it’s the court that FDR
sought to pack because it stood astride
the upward path of his “Common Man.”
FIRST BLACK WOMAN GENERAL
President Carter has nominated Col.
Hazel W. Johnson to be a U.S. Army
Brigadier General -a first for black
women. It was long overdue.
Unfortunately, Colonel Johnson’s
mother will not be present for the
swearing-in. She died recently and the
Colonel was home from Korea for the
funeral when the President called her to
the White House and informed her of his
plans to promote her.
Tliis chief nurse of the U.S. Army
Medical Command in Korea has been in
the Army 22 years. She was bom and
reared in Westchester, Pa., and educated
at Villanova, Columbia, and Catholic
Universities.
BUNNY IS DOING A JOB
When Marhta “Bunny” Mithcell left
the White House several months ago, and
Louis Martin moved in, some folks
started counting. 1 am glad+i-disappoint
you; Bunny is doing okay at the Small
Business Administration.
For the first time that agency may
really begin serving blacks in a meaningful
manner, not window dressing. She has
excellent plans for reaching sections of
the black community that have never
been touched by SBA. Congratulations.
LANCASTER TO BE HONORED
Emmer Martin Lancaster, who did so
much for black business people during his
30-year tenure in the U.S. Department of
Commerce, is receiving the Univeristy of
Akron Alurmi Honor Award this week
along with four others.
court appeals eventually will overturn the
desegregation plan, even though boards of
education in other cities have failed in
similar efforts. But with the court’s
history of ordering busing, regardless of
public sentiment, it appears that more
confrontation is likely in Los Angeles
befory the court is satisfied with a
desegregation plan that is constitutionally
acceptable.
cnoose him as the “Columnist of the
Year.” It was a truthful, excellent and
inspiring column.
Yours honestly,
Miss Alberta Robertson
725 Fleming Ave.
Our new day begun
Rhodesian
11 fir sanctions
drO
By Benjamin Hooks
.voH
President Carter’s dilemma on the
Rhodesian sanctions question was
understandable. Confused over the many
explosive issues in the struggle for
genuine majority rule in the former
British colony, many white Americans
(and even some blacks) simply opted for
the easy course. Not only were they not
interested in Africa’s development in the
first place, but the inclination to go to
the “rescue” of the privileged white
minority seemed the only natural thing to
do.
So, led in Congress by such
conservatives as Senators Jesse Helms of
North Carolina and S.I. Hayakawa of
California, they stepped up the pressure
on President Carter to lift unilaterally
sanctions against that troubled country in
violation of the United Nations Security
Council imposed economic and military
embargo.
The NAACP strongly opposed the
lifting of those sanctions and will
continue to do so given present realities.
The NAACP expressed this opposition
before a hearing of the House
Subcommittee on Africa on the question.
The NAACP is convinced that the
so-called internal settlement and the
Rhodesian constitution that was
master-minded by the lan Smith
government wUI provide no lasting
solution to the problem of white
minority rule there. Likewise, the recent
elections that resulted in Bishop Abel
Muzorewa’s election as Prime Minister
was equally unfair. It requires no deep
wisdom to see how flagrantly the handful
of white residents in Rhodesia continue
to flaunt the will of the majority citizens
and the international community.
Specifically, we note that the so-called
constitution which was adopted by less
than four percent of the population in a
white-only election last January
guarantees that the European settlers will
continue to control the military, the
police, the civD service and the judiciary.
Needless to say, these are the primary
centers of power.
In addition, the allocation of 28 of 100
seats in the Rhodesian parliament to
To be equal
B Carter right
on Rhodesia
I— »y 'emon E. Jordan ““““■■■■■■
President Carter acted boldly and
decisively in deciding to maintain
economic sanctions against
Zimbabwe-Rhodesia.
He was bold because he acted in the
face of an overwhelming Senate vote in
favor of lifting sanctions. The Senate
bought the idea that since that country’s
elections were nominally fair, sanctions
ought to be lifted.
The President said there were three
basic reasons for his decision. Keeping the
sanctions would be in the best interests of
the United States and in the best interests
of the people of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia.
Finally, the progress made there has not
been sufficient to justify lifting sanctions
according to the guidelines set by the
Case-Javits amendment.
Those guidelines require free elections
open to all political groups, and
demonstration of willingness to negotiate
with the Patriotic Front whose armies
pushed the old Smith government into
making concessions the black majority.
There’s been a lot of talk about the
fairness of the April elections in
Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. But parties opposed
to the new Constitution were not allowed
to participate in any meaningful sense.
Whatever the conduct of the elections
themselves, there hasn’t been much
attention given to the fact that the black
majority was excluded from the real
decision -- to approve or disapprove the
new Constitution.
That document provides for real power
to reside in the white population - four
percent of the nation’s people. The 96
percent who are black were not allowed
to vote. The Constitution was imposed
upon them. Those April elections were
for Parliament, not for the Constitution.
So they were rigged long before any
blacks went to the polls.
The merits of providing some
temporary assurances to the white
minority that their rights will be
recognized is not the same. The issue is
that minority advantage
disproportionate representation in
Parliament, control of the army, courts,
;V
Deadline Wednesdays
Hain
whites and the concrete guarantees of
absolute veto power provided them.uV’
mocks any rational claim to genuine. iG
majority rule.
The concrete guarantees given to the
white four percent of the population that'
their control over nearly 50 percent of
tire country’s prime land will continue—*
under the interim settlement only
perpetuates a grave injustice in Rhodesia.
The widely publicized steps taken last
October to abolish statutory racial
discrimination only ensures that another
form of injustice will continue. Fof-, y
replacing overt discrimination has been a
system of economic and cultural
requirements which effectively continue
to assure racial dominance by the white
minority.
In effect, the internal Rhodesian
settlement is a sham and a farce. These
steps very sadly represent a myopic
attempt to solve a problem that demands
an honest recognition of genuine realities.
And these realities are that nothing short
of genuine majority rule for the people dfv
the region will provide for a lasting; 11
peaceful settlement of the rapidly >
spreading conflicts there.
Americans who understand the fufl’- 1
extent of the President’s dilemma must
applaud his forthright rejection on June 7 7
of demands to lift sanctions. He vowed as
he announced his decision to “dri e
everything I can within my power” to
prevent Congress from moving on its own
to lift sanctions.
Mr. Carter deserves our support. The !
U.S. government must be pressed to
develop a meaningful and lasting policy
on Die continent that recognizes the
interests of African nations, especially' l
those on whom this country’s actions will
have a direct impact, as well as our own.
With South Africa’s strong support, the 11
sanctions battle will intensify in the
Congress.
For Congress to do anything other
than support the President, however,
would be to place the U.S. on a very
dangerous and self-defeating path that
will surely lead to faUure simflar to
Vietnam.
police, and the civil service - is frozen
into the Constitution blacks could not
vote on. And future reforms will be
impossible because of the built-in veto
power enjoyed by the white majority.
So the fairness of the April elections is
a phony issue. The real test is whether the
country has a majority government, and
that test cannot be met by simply having
blacks installed in top government posts.
lan Smith’s continued presence in the
government is symbolic of the power he
and the small minority he represents still
wield.
If the President had gone along with
the Senate’s inclinations, the United
States would have been the only country
in the world, aside from South Africa, to
formally recognize the new govemmerit
and to break the UN ban on trade.
That would have been disastrous ttjr/'v
American foreign policy. The long,
patient process of overcoming our pastj,
racist image on the continent would have
been destroyed.
And it would have been an invitatidrf
to the Russians and the Cubans to
escalate the military struggle in South
Africa, with all the bloodshed and
suffering for black Africa that would <1
mean. kill
In essence, the President has left his
options open. By maintaining the;
sanctions he’s putting heavier pressure on
the Zimbabwe-Rhodesia government to
negotiate with the dissidents. He’s servirtg
notice that the U.S. takes its world
citizenship seriously and will nps
unilaterally break the world’s boycott.
And he’s letting the Patriotic Front know
that we continue to support democratic
solutions to the formation of a neyy
nation. toil
Justifying his decision, the President
said: “It means a lot to our country to db
what is right, and what is decent, arttd .a
what is fair, and what is principled.”
His decision fulfills those
and demonstrates the kind of active
leadership we hope he will increasingly
supply in fighting Congressional
intransigence on the domestic scene. y