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Augusta News-Review - December 29, 1979 ®je Augusta JMeftn-JRibidn 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 7Administrative Assistant Mrs. Geneva Y. Gibson Church Coordinator Mrs. Fannie Johnson Aiken County Correspondent Mrs. Clara WestMcDuffie County Correspondent David DupreeSports Editor Mrs. Been Buchanan Fashion & Beauty Editor Roosevelt Green. Columnist Al IrbyColumnist Mrs. Marian Waring Columnist Sterling WimberlyPhotographer Roscoe Williams Photographer We cannot be responsible for unsolicited photos, manuscripts and other materials. Mailing Address Box 953 (USPS 887 820) - Augusta, Ga. Phone 722-4555 y- Second Class Postage Paid Augusta, Ga. 30903 jfcjk AIAUAMAWk /WLmIJiV PUBLMMMt MIC. mb *oscmo sßh ••.waaoaee . w SCLC: Release hostages I condemn the holding of the hostages as illegal, immoral and in the long run self defeating. It violates international law as well as any reasonable standards of decency. President Carter is commended for his calm attempt to resolve the crisis through non-military channels. I welcomed the release of any of the hostages regardless of their sex or color. I hope and pray that tomorrow they will release others who may be long-legged, and the next day the bow-legged (if any) and so on until all the hostageshave been released -- unharmed. It seems to me that the release of the blacks and women was an attempt to identify with the powerless and oppressed. Blacks and women do represent the least powerful in this country and white males represent power. The Iranians perceive the U.S. and the U.S. supported Shah as the ruling class which is powerful and oppressive. However, such an attempt to idemify with the oppressed is rendered meaningless as long as the human rights of the hostages are being violated. The Ayatollah and the Council are utilizing the tools of the oppressor... and lose the support of those who otherwise might sympathize with their claims against the Shah. Meanwhile, the United States should petition the World Court at the Hague to assume responsibility for the Shah and conduct hearings that would provide X? .. ISK 1979 began with a stunned nation trying to understand the mass suicides in Jonestown and it ended with an angry nation concerned with Americans held hostage by Iran, in gross violation of international law and any standards of accepted diplomatic practice. In between came twelve months of continued hardship for poor people, some important gains for minorities, and some setbacks as well. Perhaps the most important plus in 1979 was the Supreme Court’s Weber decision. Especially after the disappointing result of the Bakke case the previous year, Weber brought fresh hope to millions. In its decision the Supreme Court upheld an affirmative action plan condemned by some as an unconstitutional quota system. The Court’s action gave a big boost to affirmative action just when it looked as if it might be swept away by the rightward tide. The Court also laid down some ground rules on what makes an affirmative action program acceptable. Since those rules are consistent with every such program I’ve ever heard of, the outlook for progress on this front is bright. The Weber case takes on greater importance since it came against the backdrop of continued high black unemployment and a predicted recession that may yet inflict heavy damage on black workers. That recession, now starting, was deliberately engineered to curb inflation. It’s the old story - you beat inflation by damping down the whole economy. If people lose their jobs, why it’s only a temporary inconvenience. They’ll be back at work when the recession ends, and inflation will be under control then. It’s a small price to pay for controlling inflation. Well, that kind of thinking is all wrong. Not only does it make the poorest people pay the greatest price for controlling inflation, but it won’t work. Tn the seventies, we’ve had both high inflation and high unemployment, qnd there’s no By Joseph E. Lowery opportunity for the Iranians to air their charges against the Shah... and for the Shah to offer his defense. The Shah should accept Egypt’s invitation to visit that country in the meantime. While my head in inclined to send the Shah back to Iran, my heart will not concur. The Shah should not, however, be granted permanent asylum in this country. Further, Americans should not adopt the methods of the Iranians by harassing and violating the rights of Iranian students in this country. Rather, we should set an example of how human rights ought be respected, and hopefully influence their behavior and attitude toward this country when they return to Iran. This is one way we can begin the process of reversing the intense feelings of hostility directed against America because of our support of the ruthless, oppressive regime of the Shah. Finally, this crisis underscores the need for an American foreign policy that is more sensitive to the hopes and aspirations of the oppressed in their struggles for liberty. For too often, we have been supportive of despots and dictators and oppressive systems, and therefore we have reaped the hatred of the oppressed. More blacks in positions of ■leadership in the State Department and more black involvement in shaping foreign policy are obvious needs. Let us pray for the safety of the hostages and for a peaceful solution to this crisis. To be equal a mixed year By Vernon E. Jordan reason to expect conventional economic policies to work now. The nation’s economic problems may be a factor behind the withdrawal from support for minority rights and for the rise of fringe groups like the Klan. When the economy is expanding, the majority isn’t worried about competition from minorities. But in hard times, everyone takes a “me-first” attitude and sees justice for others as a personal threat. . That’s also part of the reason for the disarray of the old civil rights coalition in the seventies. The last and most devastating blow to the coalition came in the summer, when Andy Young’s resignation from his post as UN Ambassador led directly to increased tensions between Jews and blacks. Young’s departure from the Administration set off shock waves of anger in the black community. It has still not been fully explained to most people’s satisfaction. But the immediate effect was to intensify friction between blacks and Jews, since Young’s resignation came in the wake of his meeting with a representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Long-smoldering resentments about numerous issues broke to the surface and the groups are now engaged in dialogues to try to re-establish their past partnership on behalf of civil rights. In away, the break may have been healthy in that it provides a basis for realistic coalitions based on each group being completely aware of the other’s position. Sometimes a fractured bone, when it heals, is stronger than it had been before. Both blacks and Jews will benefit from a healed, reconstituted creative alliance. For most minorities, 1979 continued as a year of hardship, high unemployment, high prices, eroding conditions. Discrimination continues to be an integral part of our society, and there were few signs of any renewed national commitment to the ideals of equality that once were so important to so many Americans. Page 4 1979 *Clara West, retired McDuffie County School teacher and Fort Valley College professor, won seat on McDuffie County School Board. 1975 •Wallace Branch Library almost closed because of poor book circulation. •Herman P. Stone, former advertising executive with Ebony magazine, was named new vicar at St. Mary’s Church. •Connie Blakeney, Augusta’s first black TV co-anchorman, was later fired by WRDW. •Paine dean Dr. W. Coye Williams Jr. was named to newly created post of assistant vice-chancellor for academics of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. •Presented We Want Our Share to mayor Augusta, calling for improved conditions in Augusta. 1976 •Black coaches charged discrimination in county recreation department. ♦Yewston N. Myers elected to city council. •Black Festival started. 1977 •Three black youths were shot at the Augusta National by a security guard. The boys had entered to fish. •CSRA Business League was named No. 1 in the nation. •Gloria Butler was named head of the Opportunities Industrialization Center in Augusta. •Ed Mclntyre appreciation banquet held; Ku Klux Klan picketted the banquet. •Mclntyre accused of using Black Festival funds for own benefit. •William James, former Augustan, was appointed director of the University of Kentucky Law Library. •Deputy Edwin Sherrod ran unsuccessfully for sheriff. •Andrew Chisom, former Augustan, was named U.S. Marshal and later special assistant to the president of the University of South Carolina. ♦Rev. C.S. Hamilton ran for mayor. •Walter S Hornsby was the first black elected president of the United Way campaign. •Atty. John Ruffin Jr. was elected president of the Georgia Association of Defense Lawyers. •Dr. Sharon R. Tolbert was hired as Paine College’s first woman vice president. •Black citizens filed three suits to strike down at-large voting. 1978 ♦Ann Daniel was the first woman elected to the city council in Thomson. •Carrie Mays was elected secretary of the Democratic Party of Georgia. •An Aiken man hanged in a chinaberry tree was thought to have been lynched and castrated. Coroner ruled suicide. 1979 •James Dunn was named second black assistant superintendent in the Richmond County School system. ♦Laney-Walker museum, a teaching museum for Afro-Americans, was kicked off. Asks Laney alumni support Dear Editor: The Lucy C. Laney Alumni Association takes great pleasure in informing you that the many attempts by the Richmond County Board of Education to close Laney failed. At the close of the 1978-79 school term, the enrollment at Laney was less than 600. Now the enrollment is approximately 800. The Haines Alumni Association, along with the Laney Association submitted a rezoning proposal to the Board of Education which was accepted. This accounted for the increased enrollment. The Lucy C. Laney Alumni Association is involved in many other activities, such as teacher-parent relationships, community awareness, awarding scholarships, establishing alunni “HIGHLIGHTS” Continued from Page 3 ♦The Augusta Area Technical School was found to discriminate against blacks, women and the handicapped. •Willie Mays elected to city council. •Banker Joe Jones elected to city council. •Georgene Hatcher-Sea brook named first woman president of the local NAACP. ♦Ann Brown was named president of League of Woman Voters in Augusta area. She is first black woman to bold the title. ♦R.A. Dent, state representative, elected chairman of legislative delegation. Nationally, the decade found the U.S. still embroiled in the Vietnam conflict. 5,711 BLACKS DIED When the war finally ended in 1975, 5,711 blacks had died in Vietnam. It was little consolation that the unpopular stance Dr. Martin Luther King took opposing the war was in the end the stance many Americans took. Economically, the 70s ended much like the decade began with a dismal mix of recession and inflation. Unemployment soared. Also highlighting the 70s were: •The conviction of the Chicago Seven, which included Bobby Seale for crossing state lines to incite rioting at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. •Muhammad Ali, who had spent 43 months outside the boxing ring for refusing military service for religious reasons, came back and won, lost, won, lost and won again the heavyweight boxing crown before he retired this year. •A former North Augustan, security guard Frank Wills, discovered the Watergate break-in. Five intruders were caught trying to bug Democratic National Committee headquarters. President Richard Nixon resigned. Gerald Ford, appointed vice-president, became president •In 1975, the country witnessed the highest unemployment rate since 1941. •In Africa, Rhodesian black guerrillas began a new fight against white minority rule. •A band of Hanafi Muslims held 134 hostages in Washington until ambassadors for three Muslim nations persuaded them to surrender. •South African nationalist leader Steve Biko died from police beatings. The action kindled days of rioting following Biko’s funeral. •Alex Haley’s book “Roots” about his ancestors from slavery to modern times, drew the largest TV audience in history when the material was televised. ♦9OO followers of Jim Jones of the People’s Temple in Guyana committed suicide. Most of them were black. ♦The Bakke case said there was such a thing as reverse discrimination, but the Supreme Court held the race could be a factor in student-admissions policies. •President for Life Idi Amin, accused of various atrocities, was ousted from power in Uganda. •U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young resigned after having contact with the Palestine Liberation Organization against U.S. policies. Letter to the Editor chapters throughout the United States, and to register 1000 alumni in 1980. The above goals can only be met with the dedication and support of alumni like you. Our annual membership drive, now in progress, will be highlighted January 25 with a banquet at the Augusta Hilton. We are inviting you to join the alumni association by returning your completed application form along with the annual membership fee of sl2 (it is tax We also invite you to support us by attending our meeting? each -fust and third Sunday at 7 pjn. in the Music Building at Laney. Beauford Golphin, President Lucy C. Laney Alumni Assoc. Walking with dignify UW* #-A > ' There has been so much idle and baseless talk going around about President Carter’s lack of leadership until the unthinking person in the street has joined in this senseless sophistry. Most people really are lacking in the ability to comprehend leadership in the complex presidency. President Carter entbraced the best qualities of calm strong leadership in his news conference. In the trying situation of the continued captivity of American citizens in Iran, he conveyed to the American people a sense of composure, dignity, and resoluteness. He did not say “never” to the use of military force in the Iranian situation, an option he could not politically or diplomatically rule out. RESPECTED IRANIAN HOLIDAYS But, this column is happy to say the president chose to put the nation’s weight in the scale of restraint and peaceful diplomacy. No doubt he sought to persuade Americans of the continuing need to keep their own tempers in check. The next few days, as the Iranian people emotionally celebrated a religious holiday and voted for a new Islamic constitution, especially called for public calm in the United States. What struck me as particularly significant in the President’s remarks, however, had less to do with Iran per se than with America’s place in the world generally. Mr. Carter warmed most to a question many Americans have on their minds these davs: namely, is Iran but the latest in a succession of events proving that American power has declined? And what does this mean for US foreign policy in the 1980 s? PRESIDENT IS PEACEFUL Mr. Carter, rejecting the idea that the United States has lost its superior military, economic, or moral strength, nonetheless made this forceful point: “The United States has neither the ability nor the will to dominate the world, to ... ... -S w Millions have moved to the sun belt during the past decade. This era has also witnessed die return of a number of former Augustans living elsewhere. They’ve come home largely for retirement, and a few to pursue their careers. Augusta should be especially proud of these solid and talented sons and daughters. Virtually all of them could have easily remained “Up North.” My Augusta hometown -- which has its faults and shortcomings just like any other city or town - nevertheless has a unique quality of warmth and hospitality. It often embodies in people a deep remembrance of their heritage and past. A sense of roots. I first noticed this social process during our annual Augusta-Aiken reunions held in Newark, N.J. during the early 19705. And also last June at the national Haines Alumni reunion. OUTSTANDING EPISCOPAL PRIEST Who are some of these returnees? A start is now on with its completion in a subsequent column. There’s Father Richard Horton, member of a pioneer family on the Sand Hill. He’s had successful priestly assignments in Episcopal churches in Detroit, Los Angeles and Boston. He most graciously accepted our invitation to come from Boston to St. Mary’s. And this little church has not been the same since. Then there’s Dr. Marguerite S. Frieson, holder of an outstanding college and university teaching record in North Carolina. Ex-soldier James Young decided on his Augusta hometown after military service. From this comes a dream for a Laney-Walker Afro-American Museum. Elbert “Spunkum” Blocker was tagged as a Masonic leader by his New York peers. You’ll note, if you he is now the Imperial Potentate for our local unit of the Shriners. His wife, the former Bunice Pratt, often substitutes her Washington, D.C. teaching experience with students in our local school system. Geneva Yancy Gibson had garnered a key administrative position with the Detroit public school prior to return. She’s the church coordinator for your r/zl 1/11 r J 1/ go, ‘s/'can '\L!< T / GC, I y Z-X _- ,<vQ - : 11 Lt-J During the Middle Ages, baths were usually taken only on a doctor's request! Mr. Carter: cool and collected By Al Irby interfere in the internal affairs of other nations, to impose our will on other people whom we desire to be free to make their own decisions - if anybody thinks that we can dominate other people with our strength or economic power - they are wrong. That is not the purpose of our country. Our inner strength, our confidence in ourselves, is completely adequate.” This new sober view offers Americans food for thought. If is voiced at a time when many people - in the government, in the media, in academia - seem obsessed with and depressed by what they perceive to be a growing United States weakness in the world. ‘HAS AMERICA LOST ITS CLOUT?’ The headline on a recent cover of Newsweek asked that frightening question, which is indicative of the mood of the country. The magazine’s analysis points to the political changes in Iran and Nicaragua, the Soviet inroads in xfnea and Afghanistan, the rise of OPEC, and other “blows” to America’s pride and prestige. Yet, the United States prospects look much better than do those of its chief rival, the Soviet Union with its bankrupt ideology and indolent economy. This type of authoritarianism is not the model the world looks to for its progress and whose foreign policy “gains” could be built on shifting sands. Our purpose is not to weigh the relative geo-political strengths of the United States and the USSR but to make the point again that both superpowers today function in a world of rapid political change requiring each side to moderate its actions. The United States feels no need to “dominate” the world. But it will continue to influence others constructively through the force of its own economic, political, and moral vitality. This policy should help all Americans keep Iran in the right perspective. Going places Welcome home By Philip Waring News-Review and holds a state-wide position in our baptist church community. Louise Pope Coke was an administrator with the New York City Transit System before looking back towards her Georgia birth place. Albert Horton, completed a U.S. Army assignment and a business career in Detroit after which he headed for the Sun Belt. TOP CLOTHING MERCHANT Booker Mears, one of Augusta’s top business executives, closed out a busy clothing enterprise in the downtown Brooklyn Bridge neighborhood of New York. Today his two local Hi-View cleaners and clothing stores are the “in” places. One of my boyhood friends, Joseph Gaudy, came in last month. He had a twin assignment in Philadelphia, Pa. He’s retired both from the U.S. Postal Service and as a long-time auditor-executive with a business firm there. Wilhelmenia Bums Ivory was a top administrator with the New York City Department of Social Services (Incidentially send a “get well” card to her daughter, Leah, now recovering at home from surgery). Addie Scott Powell put in an outstanding stint in the New York City Library Service .before returning home. She’s now one of the most valuable leaders in Augusta. And let’s not forget Carrie Young Killenham who as a teacher of special education and NAACP leader in Queens, New York prior to her welcomed trip back. SOCIAL CHANGE FOR THE 1980 s We’ll continue writings on our returnees as well as several non-Augustans who are now here and making rich contributions. All of the aforementioned are doing several things which are right, and they include: (1) Reading and subscribing to the News-Review, (2) Membership in the NAACP, (3) Registration and voting, and (4) Getting ready to support our organization striving to bring about racial change and community betterment during the 1980 s. A very Happy New Year! retirees!