Newspaper Page Text
The Augusta News-Review (USPS 887 820) - August 4, 1979 -
®he AugustaNefeß-jßrtnefn
Mallory K. MUlender :r.TV... Editor-Publisher
J. Philip Waring Vice President for Research and Development
Paul D. Walker Special Assistant to the Publisher
Frank Bowman Acting Advertising Manager
Harvey Harrison Sales Representative
Mrs. Kathleen Collins Administrative Assistant
Mrs. Mary Gordon Administrative Assistant
Mrs. Geneva Y. Gibson■ ••• • . Church Coordinator
Mrs. Fannie Johnson .Aiken County Correspondent
Ms. Barbara Gordon .7.Burke County Correspondent
Mrs. Clara West McDuffie County Correspondent
David Dupree-Sports Editor
Mrs. Deen Buchanan Fashion & Beauty Editor
Roosevelt GreenColurmist
A] IrbyColumnist
Mrs. Marian Waring Columnist
Sterling Wimberly - • • Photographer
Roscoe Williams• • ■ • • • • - Photographer
We cannot be responsible for unsolicited photos, manuscripts and other materials.
Mailing Address
Box 953 - Augusta, Ga. - Phone 722-4555 jXOvk
Second Class Postage Paid Augusta Ga. 30903
AMAUAMUKW*
J- PVBUMOHk NM.
M i mm—» I
The blackside of Washington —
When the House voted 210 to 206
recently after weeks of debate to
establish a Department of Education, the
Congressional Black Caucus split right
down the middle. This was not surprising,
because the Caucus had not been able to
agree on a position, for or against.
The problem is not a simple one.
Anti-busing, anti-affirmative action, and
anti-civil rights amendments have been
attached. And there is great fear that
some of the 210 supporters, like Mottl of
Ohio who is sponsoring a national
Anti-Busing Amendment, will vote to
instruct the House conference committee
to stand firm on all the amendments in
conference with the Senate committee.
In the unlikely event that the anti-civil
rights amendments should survive the
conference, then Mottl and his followers
would be home free, no longer needing
their Anti-Busing Amendment. So there’s
some clever footwork going on, and the
Caucus is aware of it and must be adjusting
its strategy accordingly.
Dellums is strongly for the bill without
the crippling amendments; Chisholm’ is
opposed to it both because of the
amendments, and because it does not
contain, she says, all the elements needed
for an effective department. She and
others also are concerned about the
dissolution of the House Education and
Labor Committee, if the Department of
Education is established, hereby robbing
it of Labor’s support.
However, Assistant Secretary of
Healtii, Education and Welfare Mary
Frances Berry, who is a front running
candidate for Secretary of the new
department, says all the essential
elements are in place and Labor’s strength
will continue to be felt.
Nevertheless, the Caucus remains split,
perhaps, as a stratagem with eight for, six
against, and the chairperson,
Congresswoman Cardiss Collins,
abstaining. Here’s the lineup, Yeas: Clay,
Dellums, Diggs, Dixon, Ford, Hawkins
(switched), Leland and Stokes; Nays:
Chisholm, Conyers, Gray, Mitchell,
Rangel and Stewart.
Q
While the 1980 political scenario is still
developing it is imperative that blacks
step up their political participation across
the nation, in the wards, districts, cities,
counties and states. Black Americans
must exercise their painfully won
franchise to vote under any circumstance.
But given the present pervasive,
negative climate, when the Ku Klux Klan
is resurging and formerly liberal friends,
supporters and allies are turning their
backs on affirmative action, school
desegregation and other hard-won civil
rights gains, and elected to
uphold the principles of our construction,
are instead representing narrow, special
interests inimical to our belief of fair play
and justice, the need for blacks to
become even more politically active and
to vote assumes paramount urgency. It is
one of survival.
For its part, the NAACP has stepped
up its voter education work. On April 13,
1979, the Association launched a major
voter education and registration
mobilization.
By Sherman Briscoe - NNPA
Our new day begun
By Benjamin Hooks
Caucus split
down middle
BLACK MAYOR HAS INFLUENCE
When President Carter came down
from the mountaintop recently, unlike
Moses, he brought no 10 Commandments
carved on stone tablets by Jehovah, but
he did bring the wisdom of American
leaders.
However, in his Sunday night’s speech
he attributed only one kernel of advice to
a traceable leader -a woman mayor of a
small Mississippi town. Since only one
Mississippi mayor was in attendance, Ms.
Unita Blackwell of Mayersville, she had to
be the one to whom he referred.
Her advice, whch the President said he
liked particularly, was: “The big shots are
not the only ones who are important.
Remember you can’t sell anything on
Wall Street unless someone digs it up
somewhere else first.”
Immediately, a great many blacks want
to know who the mayor is. Perhaps the
best source is a biographical sketch on her
in the Dec. 1977 Ebony. It explains that
the 46-year-old mayor, who has a son
studying engineering at Mississippi State
University, was a migrant worker,
chopping and picking cotton with her
ex-husband in Mississippi, Arkansas and
Alabama and around until she and some
of the others started talking about civil
rights and voting.
Then the white farmers turned
chemical weed killers and mechanical
cotton pickers, and informed the blacks
that they were no longer needed in the
fields. She and the late Fannie Lou
Hamer and others turned to SNCC and
civil rights organizational work. Black
studies in night school, a trip to China
with Shirley McClaine, and the University
of experience ahd hard knocks graduated
her to the civil rights movement.
Back home in Mayersville in 1976, Ms.
Blackwell succeeded in getting the county
seat town incorporated, making it eligible
for federal and private aid. In
appreciation, the town appointed her as
the first black woman mayor in the state.
In 1977, the citizens elected her to the
post.
At the Camp David summit, she had
good advice for the President, and gave it
to him.
Black voter
participation
Recognizing that the crisis of black
voter participation has shifted from the
South of the North, the NAACP
relocated its political education program
from Birmingham to Detroit under the
direction of 29-year-old staffer Joe
Madison.
His job is to develop a program and
strategy for mobilizing the 50 percent of
black people who are not registered or do
not vote and to get them out to the polls
along with every other voting age
American next year.
A key to this strategy will be to the
young black voters. There are 3.4 million
of them in the U.S. between the ages of
18 and 24. Yet in 1976 only 38 percent
of them were registered, and only 20
percent bothered to vote. These youths
also comprise of 23 percent of the black
voting age population, so their potential
strengthjS crucial to the group’s political
power.
Hie NAACP has also launched a
program, beginning in Michigan, to have
Page 4
|IW||N
L 0 I
O'
eh? V
©1979 BLACK RESOURCES \K)C. BtWJCOsi JR.
HARD OF HEARING
So often when local young people
leave for out of town new jobs,
promotions, etc. little is said in
appreciation of their past efforts. May we
utilize this space to say “So long, Mike
Carr. All of us appreciate your service and
assistance in Augusta.”
Mr. Carr, long-time Chief Photographer
for the News-Review, has been promoted
by his Delta Airline employer and
re-assigned to Jacksonville, Fla. A
graduate of Augusta College, an Omega
Psi Phi member, -athlete, .. and popular
music buff, he has served in many
constructive capacities in his hometown.
While Mike will be missed, 1 am
referring him to Eric Simpson, publisher
of the Florida Star newspaper. Mike’s
photographic skills, as noted in numerous
News-Review features, have been richly
developed and should be shared with
another black news organ. (Eric during
1956, in the finest tradition of the Black
Press, helped me along with the
Afro-American Life Insurance firm, Dr.
Warren Schell, black ministers and church
leaders and the Jewish Community to
successfully save the Jacksonville Urban
League. It had been figuratively attacked
by both the Klan and White Citizens
Council.)
NEW BROAD ST. STORE
Bravo to those who are organizing the
soon to be opened Charlies Department
Store in the former Davison building.
This is a timely move. Going Places has
long observed - that Broad Street and
downtown Augusta will make it. Profits
are to be made. Thousands of people are
not going the long distance out to the
malls preferring to continue long time
downtown shopping habits. Put high, low
or short, there are thousands of
Augustans who may be retired or of
modest income who day in and out will
be purchasing goods and services.
Augusta’s downtown is "the place. The
new coliseum and civic center will also
move things further along. The recent use
of the Great Savannah River by the
Harbour Queen and the other recreational
trips of this stream will spell - more
economic success for this area. I am
puzzled, however, with the slow
industrial use of the river. What gives?
URBAN LEAGUE SCORES AGAIN
The National Urban League, led by the
brilliant and genial Georgian, Vernon
Jordan, has done it again! The recent
69th annual conference drew more than
12,000 different persons into Chicago’s
Conrad Hilton Hotel over a four day
period. It is the nation’s largest annual
forum on race relations.
Four members of the President’s
Cabinet spoke. Hon. Michael Blumenthal
states require public high school
principals to be appointed deputy
registrars. We hope to have students
graduating with diplomas in one hand and
the franchise to vote in the other.
Assuming that 85 percent of black
voters went to the polls in 1980, that
would mean fully 10.6 million ballots -a
significant number.
Right now, the focus is on black vote
in the 1980 presidential election. But let
us not forget that a great many black
■K'-* ■
Going places
So long
Mike Carr!
By Phil Waring
spoke at the Federal Resources luncheon,
Secretary Pat Harris evaluated “The
Changing Face of the City,” Secretary Cy
Vance reviewed international affairs and
Secretary Ray Marshall addressed the
group on “Jobs in the Next Decade.”
Illinois Governor James R. Thompson
spoke on “The Future Quality of City
Life,” and U.S. Senators Charles Percy
and Ted Kennedy talked on energy and
inflation.
Other participants included: Dr. Eddie
Williams, Joint Center for Political
Studies; Lane Kirkland,
Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO;
John H. Perkins, president of the
American Bankers Association and Dr.
Arthur Jefferson, Detroit Superintendent
of Schools. In his keynote address Mr.
Jordan challenged President Carter to do
more for the poor and blacks.
A JOB WELL DONE MAGNOLIA!
Warm congratulations to Mrs. Mangolia
Donahue, upon retirement as a key staff
administrator of the Department of
Family and Children Services. One of the
top social workers in Georgia, Mrs.
Donahue is a graduate of Paine College,
holds the MSW from Atlanta University
Graduate School of Social Work and is a
member of the Academy of Certified
Social Workers. Her professional skills,
understanding and sense of compassion
for humankind has aided thousands of
individuals, strengthened family life and
helped advance human welfare
throughout Richmond County. She has
given solid leadership and outstanding
service. We in the social work profession
are proud of her accomplishments. We
now look forward eagerly for her advice
and participation in additional civic and
racial betterment challenges.
DYNAMIC SOUTHERN GOVERNOR
Florida Governor Bob Graham recently
issued an executive order requiring
affirmative action to bring blacks,
Hispanics, women and other minorities
into state government without delay. As
an example, the Flordia Highway Patrol
with some 1,600 employes contains less
than 100 blacks and just a small handful
of Hispanics and women. The agency is
now under Federal Court order to bring
about change.
Gov. Graham has called for “vigorous
enforcement of state and Federal civil
rights laws relating to equal opportunity
and affirmative action.” Each state
agency has 90 days to prepare an
affirmative action program. Afterward
there will be reports on a regular basis as
to accomplishments. We understand that
Gov. Reilly of South Carolina and
Governor F. James of Alabama are also
expanding civil rights programs.
candidates will also be in need of every
vote we can muster in 1980. As we saw in
1978, many of them are in trouble.
Despite ipressive gains since passage
of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, fewer
than 300 black incumbents and
challengers ran for office in 1978. Yet
they suffered a net loss of 10 seats. Thus,
the challenge for reversing this trend
should provide added incentive for Black
Americans to register and vote.
Walking with dignity
■
Nigeria steps
out again
Nigeria, the giant of all black Africa,
has come smoothly through the first of
five electoral stages intended to return
the country to civilian rule after 13 years
of military government.
The plan, carefully drawn up by the
nation’s Supreme Military Council, aims
not only at restoring parliamentary
democracy but also at controlling the
ethnic rivalries, which played all hell in
Nigeria’s early years of independence, and
contributed so much to the bloody
1967-70 civil war.
The Nigerians follow practically the
same rigmarole as we do going into an
election. The first step, elections to a
federal senate, was acted out July 7.
Members of the federal House of
Representatives were elected July 14, the
state legislatures (19 of them) July 21,
state governors July 28, and the President
of the Rebpulic August 11.
FREE ELECTION
Tribal feelings are the main obstacles
to black Africa’s continued growth and
strength. Nigeria’s 80 million people are
aware of a national, rather than a more
local unity. The reason for this is the
ethnic diversity and loyalty, dominated
by three main groupings - the Hausa
Fulani people of the North, the Yoruba
people of the west, and the Ibo people of
the east, who tried and failed to establish
an independent Biafra.
RICHES AND POVERTY
The temptation increased with the
country’s growing oil wealth. Then came
the urge by the upper echelon to get rich
quick, therefore, resorting to all types of
corrupting practices, the same old story
whether its black or white. The military
with its questionable piety has moved
cautiously but deliberately to ■ put into
effect guidelines intended to alleviate
these problems. First, to prevent the
largest from gobbling up the smallest; it
has divided the country into 19 states. It
started its independent history with only
If you missed last year’s debate over
the Panama Canal Treaties, don’t worry.
The scrap over the SALT II agreement
with the Russians promises to send off at
least many fireworks.
This attempt to de-escalate the arms
race will definitely escalate the rhetoric
about national security. Hopefully, the
debate will be responsible and rational,
but there are already signs that SALT’S
opponents will be playing on irrational
fears and fanning Old Cold War hatreds.
The most striking thing about SALT II
is how limited it is. This is no
disarmament pact. It leaves both sides
with enough firepower to roast everyone
on earth several times over.
What SALT does do is place some cap
on offensive nuclear weapons and place
limits on the makeup of each country’s
arsenal. I won’t get into the details here,
but in the coming months the public will
be subjected to a barrage of detailed
information about arcane subjects only
the experts really understand. And they
disagree among themselves!
The real importance of SALT is that it
continues the process of detente and
strategic arms limitations. It’s a long,
arduous ste'p by step process, complicated
by the fact that neither side fully trusts
the other.
But SALT 11, if it is approved by the
Senate, will lead to further negotiations.
And the result will hopefully be a real
cutback in deadly weapons systems and
in the possibility of nuclear war.
That’s why critics of SALT II who
reject it because it doesn’t bring about
immediate disarmament are wrong. They
should understand their goals can only be
met over a long period of time and
through limited agreements of the SALT
variety.
Stronger opposition comes from those who
fear the treaties will weaken our national
security.
There is no evidence the treaty will
give the Russians an advantage over us.
Most comparisons of the two nation’s
strategic weapons strengths show a rough
parity, and if you throw the NATO allies’
arsenals into the balance, there is an edge
for the West. But it’s an edge we probably
don’t need, simply because either side can
destroy the other, with SALT or without.
Deadline Wednesdays
By Al Irby
three states. And to secure an election as
federal president, the successful candidate
must get at least 25 percent of the vote in
at least 13 of the 19 states. Second, to
tackle corruption, a Federal Election
Commission has screened nearly 10,000
candidates at all levels from state
legislatures to the federal presidency and
disqualified more than 2,000 of them.
Nearly all the disqualifications were for
nonpayment of taxes. One presidential
candidate, Alhaji Aminu Kano of the
People’s Redemption Party (PRP) - the
smallest of the five major parties and the
only one with a leftist ideological leaning
was disqualified.
OLD MEN DON’T GIVE UP
Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the
septuagenarian first president of
independent republican Nigeria, is trying
to make a “Rocking Chair” political
comeback. The old man got only a
conditional clearance to run. Dr. Azikiwe,
known familarly as “Zik” and is a 7
member of the Ibo tribe, naturally the •
old fellow did not support the Biafra
breakaway attempt. He is one of two
old-timers aiming for the presidency.
The other is Chief Awolowo, leader of
the opposition in the federal Parliament
when independent Nigeria was bom in
1960. The old boy is a Yoruba. Dr.
Azikiwe is the presidential candidate of
the Nigerian People’s Party (NPP) and
Chief Awolow that of the United Party of
Nigeria (UPN). The other major
contender for the federal presidency is
Shehu Shagari, candidate of the National
Party Nigeria (NPN), who is a former
premilitary interior minister and a
Hausa-Fulani from the north.
PAST HATRED MAY BE EMERGING
There are some people who think that
with Dr. Azikiwe, Chief Awolowo, and
Mr. Shagari running for the presidency,
Nigeria may just be reverting to the past
rather than moving into a future freed of
the terrible tribal hatred of the past that
brought on the bloody Biafra Civil War.
To be equal
Salt debate
will be bitter
By Vernon Jordan
Defense experts and military
authorities have testified that SALT II
will not weaken our security, is verifiable,
and is sound. < Getting into some of the
technicalities doesn’t change the big
picture.
Most of the discussion turns around
whether SALT should be ratified. We also
ought to consider what would happen if
it is rejected by the Senate or if it is
encumbered with restrictive resolutions
that lead the Russians to back off.
First, the arms race would go out of
control. With SALT’S restrictions out the
window, both sides would go on a binge
of strategic arms development that would
just take the world to a new, higher level
of insecurity.
Second. relations between the
superpowers would be destabilized. With
detente dead, a new Cold War era would
begin, more dangerous than the last one
because it would take place between
rivals more equally matched, and
conducted against a background of
disillusionment and distrust bred by
SALT’S rejection.
Third, our allies would be shaken
severely. Our NATO partners are strongly
in favor of SALT. Rejection would
damage the alliances, and might tempt
some nations to adopt neutrality rather
than remain dependent on an uncertain
and apparently adventurous ally.
Almost as worrisome as Senate
rejection of the SALT treaty is the price
the Administration may pay to ensure its
passage. Already the President has
approved the notorious MX missile
program, a costly plan to dig twenty -mile
long trenches and shuttle heavy missies
around within them so the Russians
wouldn’t know exactly where they are.
That folly would cost S3O billion. And
that’s before the inevitable cost overruns.
The only reason for reviving this
once-rejected plan is to win support from
Senators still on the fence on SALT.
As we get down to the wire, attention
will focus on a handful of Senators who
will withhold their vores pending even
greater concessions in the form of new
and unnecessary weapons systems. Giving
in might mean winning the SALT battle
at the cost of losing the war to restrain
the arms race.