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The Augusta News-Review - December 1, 1979 -
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Mallory K. Millender • • • Editor-Publisher
J. Philip Waring Vice President for Research and Development
Paul D. Walker Special Assistant to the Publisher
Ms. Fannie Flono • -Reporter
Ms. Mary Boynton Advertising Manager
Harvev Harrison Sales Representative
Mrs. Rhonda Brown Administrative Assistant
Mrs. Mary Gordon Administrative Assistant
Mrs. Geneva Y. Gibson Church Coordinator
Mrs. Fannie Johnson Aiken County Correspondent
Mrs. Clara WestMcDuffie County Correspondent
David Dupree Sports Editor
Mrs. Been Buchanan Fashion & Beauty Editor
Roosevelt Green Columnist
i r byColumnist
Mrs. Marian Waring Columnist
Sterling WimberlyPhotographer
Roscoe Williams Photographer
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Mailing Address
Box 953 (USPS 887 820) - Augusta, Ga.
Phone 722-4555 Aw
Second Class Postage Paid Augusta, Ga. 30903 Swgßtj
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Tl r 11 1
Silver - Haired
Legislature
The News-Review is very proud
of the fact that two of its staff
members -- Mrs. Clara West, our
McDuffie County correspondent,
and Mrs. Bennie Mae Williams,
church reporter - are among the 17
black Georgian® elected to the
Silver Haired Legislature.
Mrs. Williams is a member of the
House of Representatives and Mrs.
West is a member of the Senate.
We applaud the concept of the
Silver Haired Legislature which not
King Memory
profaned?
By William Raspberry
Editor's Note: William Raspberry, one
of the nation’s leading black journalists,
writes a regular column for the
Washington Post, where this article was
originally published.
When Jesse Jackson was photographed
with his arm around the PLO’s Yassir
Arafat, I spent a lot of time on the
telephone telling irate callers that they
shouldn’t read too much significance into
that embrace,
I saw it not as an endorsement of PLO
terrorism but only as away of saying: “I
agree that the Palestinians have some
ligitimate grievances.” I do remember
thinking that I would have preferred a
simple handshake as the means for
conveying that sentiment.
I had another busy day on the
telephone when Walter Fauntroy was
filmed linking arms with Arafat and
singing “We Shall Overcome.”
Fauntroy, who likes to sing anyway,
had explained that he was only
responding to a specific request from a
woman who had spent time in an Israeli
prison, that his vocalizing had nothing to
do with any endorsement of PLO tactics.
I believed him, though I did find it
embarrassing. 1 rember thinking of the
pop recording of a few years back: “Look
What They’ve Done to My Song.”
In both cases, I thought the civil rights
leaden had it in mind to change Arafat,
to move him off his commitment to
destroy the state of Israel. I didn’t expect
them to be successful, but I thought their
effort was a long shot worth taking.
But now I learn that Hosea Williams,
head of the Atlanta chapter of the
Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, has presented Libyan
dictator Muammar Qaddafi with a Martin
Luther King Jr. peace medal, and I am no
longer embarrassed. I am outraged.
Williams has profaned America’s
foremost black hero.
A Martin Luther King Jr. peace prize
to the man who sent in troops to aid
madman Idi Amin? A peace prize to the
man who is accused of masterminding a
plot to assassinate Egyptian President
Anwar Sadat because of Sadat’s efforts to
make peace with Israel? A peace prize to
the man who has made his country a
haven for assassins and hijackers? A peace
prize to the man who, in the words of
columnist Jack Anderson, who visited
him in Tripoli, “has supplied arms and
sancturary to terrorists from Belfast to
Beirut?”
A diamond is considered flawless if no blemishes can
be detected by a trained eye using a jeweler's 10-power
magnifier.
Page 4
only allows senior citizens to learn
first had how the legislature works,
but also takes advantage of their
vast experience and wisdom.
We hope that this exercise will
not end up just as role playing on
the part of senior citizens, instead,
we believe that the Silver Haired
Legislature should serve as an
opportunity to hear from a segment
of our community that is too often
and too quickly stored away in a
closet of neglect.
And all in the name of Martin Luther
King Jr., the foremost apostle of peace
and nonviolence of our time?
Jesse Jackson, when he learned of the
citation, refused to be drawn into a
dispute over its propriety. He said only
that he supposed Williams had a “right”
to give it. I suppose he did.
As Coretta Scott King, widow of the
martyred hero of nonviolence, pointed
out, the medal Williams gave Qaddafi was
not an official medal of the national
SCLC. No official of the national office
even knew it until after the presentation
had been made.
“Coretta ... doesn’t have any more
influence on me than I do on her,” said
Williams, whose unorthodox, often
erratic behavior led to his ouster by the
SCLC’s national board last April.
Indeed, it seems clear that Williams’
own Atlanta chapter was caught short by
the award, which, Williams said, he
decided to make only after he was
already en route to Libya last month.
But the point is not SCLC complicity
in the obscenity; the point is the
obscenity itself.
What was involved was not an attempt,
however farfetched, at converting
Qaddafi to nonviolence. The crucial fact,
from Williams’ point of view, is that
Libya has accumulated a lot of money
from its petroleum resources and that
money apparently has Williams smacking
his lips.
He said he went to Libya originally to
persuade Qaddafi to invest Libyan money
in black banks, black manufacturing and
black publications.
I don’t know if he succeeded. I do
know that his obscene gesture has
managed to cast a cloud over other civil
rights leaders - including officials of the
NAACP, the Urban League and the
national SCLC - who have indicated their
willingness to accept money from Arab
sources.
Their rationale is not that they are
willing to sacrifice Israeli interests in
exchange for money, but that this is one
of those rare instances in history when
morality (peace in the Middle East) and
economics (Arab support of black
programs) converge, They make clear
that, given a choice between morality and
money, they would opt for morality.
I believe them. But Williams’ decision
to award a “peace” prize to a man widely
viewed as the antithesis of peace could
make them all appear to be prophets of
profit
BLACK AMERICA
ROLL UP YOW? SLEEVES
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*BLACK FOLKS THEMSELVES ARE GOING
TO HAVETO NORK OUTMANYOF 7HEIR OUN
PROBLEMS, INSTEAD OF LEAVING/TUP TO THE
GOVERNMENT AGENCIES ANO PROGRAMS'.'
ROY WILKINS
To be equal
tests
challenged
mmwmwwm By Vernon E. Jordan ■ ■■■
A federal district judge in California
has thrown out that state’s use of IQ tests
to warehouse black children in classes for
the mentally retarded.
In the process, he has set in motion a
national questioning of those tests and of
the way black children are denied their
right to an education.
The judge, Robert F. Peckham, cited
statistics showing that while blacks are
only about a fourth of the students in
most of California’s school districts, they
account for nearly two-thirds of those in
classes for the mentally retarded.
The basis for such assignments was the
student’s IQ score. That meant many
children of normal intelligence who
scored low were doomed to miseducation
and consequently prevented from
achieving their potential in adult life.
Reliance on IQ and similar tests is a
tragic mistake. On the simplest level, we
all have off-days and a kid operating
below his normal aptitude could score
low. The result should not - must not -
be a class assignment that affects his
future irrevocably.
But far more serious is the inherent
inability of IQ tests to measure what they
purport to measure - intelligence.
IQ tests measure learned
characteristics. They measure verbal
proficiency. They measure how well a
person has learned and adopted to certain
social and cultural class backgrounds. But
they do not measure innate intelligence.
The judge came to that conclusion
after careful questioning of “expert”
witnesses, including people whose job it is
to design those tests.
He said that there was overwhelming
agreement that tests do not objectively
“measure innate, fixed intelligence.” And
witnesses from the companies who
produce the tests admit that “We can not
truly define, much less measure,
intelligence.”
And yet, on the basis of those tests,
countless children were denied an
education. When you think about it, it’s a
wonder this was a civil, not a criminal,
case.
Racists are fond of using IQ tests as
“evidence” of black inferiority. Blacks
traditionally score lower than whites on
them. Which all goes to prove not black
Walking with dignity
n
Is peace now at hand, I mean real
peace for war-weary Zimbabwe? After
years of war and weeks of hard political
bargaining, a settlement on
Zimbabwe-Rhodesia may finally be
within grasp. Gloom over the eventual
out-come of the sometimes-bitter London
talks gave away to optimism with a major
breakthrough Nov. 15 that could move
the territory to legal independence after
14 bloody years of rebellion. The British
and Zimbabwe Rhodesia governments as
well as the Patriotic Front, which has
been waging a fierce guerrilla war for the
past seven years, now are agreed on a
transition period leading to hopful new
elections.
inferiority, but that the tests measure
white middle class culture from which
blacks are excluded.
Other groups used to score even lower
than blacks on IQ tests. Now, as
immigrant groups have become
assimilated into American culture as as
they’ve risen on the social ecsocial and
economic ladder, their IQ test scores are
at or above the national average.
The use of IQ tests to sort, select and
stratify children was spearheaded by an
English psychologist, Cyril Burt, who has
since been exposed as a fraud. Burt
falsified scientific papers and invented
experiments - all to back his own strange
notions about hereditary intelligence. But
even his recent exposure hasn’t stopped
some people from pushing for greater use
of IQ testing.
Environment, not heredity, determines
intelligence. And the political, social,
economic and cultural environment that
discriminates against blacks is responsible
for inadequate education and for low
scores on culturally biased tests.
The California court ruling must be
extended to other cities and states that
deny black children a chance for a decent
education based on spacious test results
that have nothing to do with their
capacity to learn.
The educational profession has to rid
itself of the idiotic faith in test scores and
in quantifying the unquantifiable, and
start dealing with children as individuals
capable of being taught.
By a curious coincidence, the same day
the judge threw out those tests in
California, New York City’s Board of
Education announced what blacks
already knew -- that half the students
entering high school never complete their
studies.
Children were admitted into high
school without acquiring the skills
needed, and then allowed to stew in their
frustrations until they became dropouts.
“Pushouts” is a far more accurate term.
It is clear that our educational system
is failing black children. Whether it is
California labelling them retarded or New
York pushing them out of high school, or
whether it is some other outrage
elsewhere, the system cannot or will not
be responsible and accountable to black
children and their parents.
Zimbabwe’s
acerbic peace
By Al Irby
NKOMO SAW THE LIGHT
Mr. Joshua Nkomo emphasized just
how close the parties were to a complete
settlement when he said in a radio
interview before the last round of talks,
“We seem now to have got an
understanding on all those issues that
were sticky.” The only thing standing in
the way now of a complete settlement is
technical negotiations on a cease fire.
The breakthrough came after late night
negotiations on specific British proposals,
with the Patroitic Front acception of the
proposal with only one major change.
The same day brought word from
Salisbury that former Prime Minister lan
Going places
■ Journey into
the past
"-By Philip Waring
I’m just back from a 2,100 mile trip
which took me to Stamford, Conn.,
Washington, D.C., Charleston, S.C.,
ending up at Walterboro, S.C.
It was a delightful chore to speak and
participate at the tenth anniversary
ceremonies of the Urban League of
Southeastern Conn. They saem Conn.
They saluted my leadership as its
organizing executive director (1969-73).
It was a sense of elation and vindication
as my programs and organizing structure
were reviewed. More staff and services
have been added. G.D. Rozier, who was
my deputy, returned earlier this year.
Great progress is also being made under
his leadership. It was good to see young
people who had been placed on jobs years
ago and note their steady upward
movement within business firms and
corporations. While Stamford has
experience significant physical growth,
much industry in other parts of New
England has moved to the Sun Belt. I had
so many questions about the “New
Atlanta”.
LOVES NEWS-REVIEW
William Marshall, a former Augustan
now a supervisor with the Conn. State
Employment Service, sends regards to
relatives and friends. He praised the
sample copy of the News-Review shared
with him. Os course, he’s now a new
subscriber. It should be noted that many
former Augustans in New England now
subscribe.
BRIEFING IN WASHINGTON
My return trip was made via
AMTRACK with a stop in Washington,
D.C. My, but our Federal City has grown
into a metropolis with many new
buildings and a subway! Thanks to some
old friends - former Urban League and
NAACP leaders who are now within the
Federal government - I received an
excellent in-depth briefing. Much of this
solid information will be shared with
News-Review readers. And also used as
needed with the Black Leadership
Committee and the Blacks Who Helped
Build Augusta Historical Committee.
CHARLESTON: A HISTORIC JEWEL
As Td seen Savannah’s nationally
acclaimed historic district in 1978, I
wanted to tour Charleston’s. It calls itself
“America’s Largest Colonial City”. It was
Smith and his Rhodesan Front colleagues
in Parliament have agreed to accept the
new constitution, which could become
law as soon as Nov. 23. Bishop Abel
Muzorewa’s delegation which had
accepted the British proposals Nov. 5,
agreed to a change as one of text rather
than substance.
Prospects are bright for a successful
outcome to the conference, although all
sides still maintain public postures of
concern. With agreements secured on the
constitution and on interim period, the
issue still to be negotiated is the
cease-fire, which all sides agree must be in
force before an election can be held.
Whatever way the London
constitutional talks go real peace for war
weary Zimbabwe seems to be far away.
Indeed, the very opposite appears true.
All three armies engaged in the
seven-year-old slaughtering of brothers
against brothers in a gigantic effort to put
more men into the guerrilla conflict.
Their aim either to exploit the cease-fire,
if and when it comes, or to strengthen
their own position in the new elections
scheduled to be held under British
supervision.
TENATIVE AGREEMENT REPORTED
If this report is true, the world will be
watching to see how each side will
behave. When the Salisbury government
headed by Prime Minister Abel Muzorewa
imposed a ban on maize (grains)
shipments from South Africa through
Zimbabwe Rhodesia to Zambia. It is said
that this was done because Zambia
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| TODAY
THE
W NEWS-REVIEW
■UKMMR
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T- .1 . • -1-
One Year in County SB.OO
One Year out of County $9.00
supurb indeed! Whenever I visit other
communities, there’s always an attempt
to work in past black history coupled
with the present living status od citizens
of color. In this case, I wanted to visit the
spot where Civil War pilot Bob Smalls
made away with a Confederate Navy
warship and delivered it from Charleston
into the hands of the U.S. Navy. He was
then freed from slavery and
commissioned in the U.S. Navy.
The many historic and scenic places in
Charleston attract thousands each year.
And it rakes in millions into the tourist
industry. Further, this is translated into
jobs, more taxes, econmic strength and
progress. They are renovating old
buildings and putting in new hotels,
motels, etc. Augusta could use a bit of
what’s happening there in terms of a
faster pace in the rebuilding of Broad
Street and downtown. Thank God we
have two viable organizations thrusting to
re-kindle past Augusta history.
WALTERBORO A BUSY TOWN
As my previous visit to Walterboro had
been during World War 11, its current
economic growth and change was a
welcome sight. My hosts were my three
cousins and their families. They were:
Retired U.S. Army Captain Ervin Lewis,
now at the Charleston Navy Yard; Harry
Tracy, Jr., and Dr. Ralph Waring Tracy.
The latter two brothers operate a funeral
home, a burial vault factory, a cemetary
and a flourishing drug store-pharmacy, all
of which serves a busy tri-county area.
This family reunion was an item i’d
looked forward to for many years and am
appreciative to the God Lord for it. My
three cousins send greetings to their aunt,
Mrs. Edith Buchanan; cousins Walter and
Been Buchanan; Mrs. Josephine A.
Richardson, and Rep. and Mrs. Richard
Dent. I returned home last weekend.
MISSISSIPPI POLITICAL PROGRESS
Earlier this month 15 blacks were
elected to the state house and two won
entrance into the state senate. Three
Mississippi counties elected county
sheriffs. There are now 21 county
supervisors (county commissioners) and
one elected county superintendent of
education. There’s over one mißion
blacks in this state. All of this progress
came only because Federal courts ordered
a thorough re-districting. I want my local
friends who are still holding out for
“at-large” to read this very carefully.
continued to foster the infiltration of
guerrillas into the country across the
Zambezi River. Officials claim that
previous assurances given by Zambia that
rail and power installations would not be
attacked by guerrillas of Joshua Nkomo’s
wing of the Patriotic Front appear to
have gone by the board. The guerrillas
have been attacking targets that for much
of the past year had been left alone.
“DEVIL AND DEEP BLUE SEA”
While the British government has
announced that it will not renew the
Rhodesian sanctions, Salisbury itself has
introduced a new, if not terribly
effective, short-run economic sanction
against Zambia in the form of the maize
transport embargo. On the military front,
far from scaling down their efforts, the
externally based guerrillas appear to be
bent on stepping up their attacks inside
Zambabwe Rhodesia. In the past month,
there have been two urban bomb attacks
in the eastern border city of Umtali,
injuring a total of 100 people. Since the
London peace talks in Lancaster House
started on Sept. 10, the number of
guerrillas inside the country is estimated
to have increased from about 13,000 to
15,000 and the figure is still growing.
YOUNG BLACKS KEEP ON DYING
At the same time, the
Zimbabwe-Rhodesian security forces are
claiming admittedly limited and
unspectacular success, but success all the
same.