Newspaper Page Text
Teacher
cleared
of rape
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VoL9No. 37
Augustans to battle
teenage pregnancy
Half of the 7,000 girls in the
greater Augusta area are
sexually active and 1,400 of
them will get pregnant this
year, with the greatest number
of pregnancies and dropouts
being among black teens, a
panel on Child Abuse and
Problems on School Age
Parenthood said Saturday.
These grim facts were
revealed at a mini-conference
at Immaculate Conception
School sponsored by two black
groups - the Citizen’s Ad Hoc
Committee and the Augusta
Chapter of Links, Inc.
Teenagers attending the
SCLC’s Lowery explains
Mid-East trip, Khomeini
By Mallory K. Millender
When the Rev. Joseph E.
Lowery, president of the
Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, went to the
Mid-East last summer to talk
with the Palestine Liberation
Organization and Israeli
leaders, many Americans -
black and white - felt that
they had no business getting
involved in foreign affairs.
Lowery said in an interview
last Tuesday: “We didn’t need
the government’s permission.
We had Christ’s commission:
‘Go into all the world and
preach the gospel.’”
Lowery, a member of
the Paine College Board of
Trustees, was the speaker for
Religious Emphasis Week at
the College last week.
SCLC was in convention
when former U.N. Ambassador
Andrew Young was forced to
resign, Lowery said. “We
thought Andy was involved in
the aggressive pursuit of truth,
and the convention told me to
take up the mantle. Since
President Carter didn’t appoint
me, he couldn’t ‘disappoint’
me.
“We didn’t go the Mid-East
to draw lines on maps. We
went to preach the gospel on
non-violence and justice. That’s
our job. That’s what we’ve
always done. That’s our
mandate. We didn’t need the
government’s permission, we
had Christ’s commission: ‘Go
into all the world and preach
the gospel.’” That’s what SCLC
is. We are the black church at
work in the social arena.
SCLC, he said, believes that
the only solutions to the
political and economic
problems are moral solutions,
and that’s why they haven’t
been solved. “We haven’t
solved them yet Because we
haven’t sought moral
solutions.”
While SCLC’s trip to the
Mid-East has not provided
solutions, he said that it did
result in progress. Palestine
Liberation Organization leader
Yasser Arafat sent wire stating
February is Minority Business Month
Auguata Nma-ißro
conference cited fear of being
called homosexual and the
availability of contraceptives
among the reasons youths
engage in sex.
“Don’t let people make you
think that as long as you’re
decent that you’re a
homosexual. That’s a jackass
mentality,” community worker
Addie Powell responded.
Constance Evans, a guidance
counselor at the Academy of
Richmond County, said,
“contraceptive means danger”
and called upon young people
to go back “to our heritage of
self-discipline and self-denial -
that his executive council had
voted to engage in a ceasefire
in Lebanon, Lowery said.
“Arafat assured us that since
they had initiated this cease
fire at our request that they
would honor it,” Lowery said,
noting that a cease fire was
already supposed to be in
effect imposed that the United
Nations, but neither side had
honored it.
“We are pleased at that
initial response to our request
because we had gone into the
heart of the worfd of violence
with a message of non-violence.
We had no way of knowing
how we’d be received.
However, we had asked for a
moratorium on violence in the
entire area including Israel.”
Lowery said that he is still
convinced that there will be no
meaningful progress toward
peace in the Middle-East until
the Palestinians have
prepresentation at the table
where plans are being
discussed. “It is unfortunate
that his country has taken the
position that we will not talk
to the PLO. I think it’s totally
unrealistic.”
Additionally, Lowery said
that SCLC has established a
new level of black presence in
world affairs. “Heretofore we
have only been expected to be
concerned about Africa. But
our lives are affected not only
by our foreign policy toward
Africa, but our foriegn policy
everywhere affects our lives
directly. We have established
the will and the determination
to help shape foreign policy.
Lowery said he was one of
the first to be invited to visit
Iran by the Iranian government
during the current crisis.
“I didn’t go because they
didn’t guarantee me I’d be able
to see the Ayatollah Khomeini
and the militants holding the
hostages.”
He said that many blacks
resented Khomeini’s releasing
black and women hostages. I
did not resent it.” Lowery said,
“I wanted him to release the
pidgeon-toed the next day,
then the blondes, and the
Mclntyre
gearing for
next race?
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P.O. Box 953
say ‘No.’”
Some of the conference
participants were less
optimistic about stopping sex
among teenagers. “It’s here.
They’re going to do it. What
are we going to do to get them
to use contraceptives,” asked
Lucy Laney High School coach
David Dupree, citing a
two-month pregnant teenager
who told him that she was
“elated” about her pregnancy.
Panefist Emily Young said
that modem lifestyle makes it
easy for teenagers to become
pregnant. “They start dating at
13 and 14, get a learner’s
lewfl
I
blue-eyed until they are all
released.
“What Khomeini was trying
to do was to identify with the
oppressed and the powerless of
the world. He negated that
effort by using the tools of the
oppressor in violating the
human rights of the hostages.
That’s what I wanted to
discuss with him.
“He must understand that
the black movement is still
committed to non-violence. We
don’t believe you can achieve a
noble end through an ignoble
means. I wanted to
communicate to him that
holding the hostages defeats
the purpose. But they couldn’t
guarantee me I’d see him and
that’s too far to go so sing
Christmas carols.”
He said he still would have
permit at 15 and the family car
at 16.” These cars, she said
serve as inexpensive “motels”
for many teenagers.
“We have to say you’ll not
date at 13 and 14, and you’ll
not get the family car at 16.”
Mrs. Hettie Copeland
suggested more family-oriented
activities.
In the United States more
than a million teenagers age
15-19 become pregnant each
year, as well as 30,000 girls
under the age of 15. The risk
of dying of pregnancy is 60
percent higher for young
teenagers, conferees were told.
Rev. Joseph E. Lowery
gone, if other ministers hadn’t.
Lowery emphasized that
SCLC is not neglecting
domestic issues. “We are
fighting the Klan,
discrimination in professional
sports, in housing and jobs. We
want to look at the State
Department which is among
the least integrated
departments. Blacks do not
have key senior positions
particularly in foreign service
where blacks make up about
1.5 percent, even as it relates
to Africa we’re less than six
percent,” he said.
“We know that you’re not
going to resolve some of these
domestic issues until you
change your foreign policy.
The more we spend for guns,
the less we spend for butter.”
Julian Bond
running for
Senate whip
Page 2
February 2,1980
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TEENAGE PARENTHOOD -- Panelists (from left) mini-conference Saturday at Immaculate Conception
Constance Evans, Emily Young and Hettie Copeland school.
discuss problems of teenage pregnancy at
By Billy W. Hobbs
A North Augusta school
teacher was cleared last
Tuesday of rape and sodomy
charges by a 23-member grand
jury.
The defendant, Nathaniel
Williams, 37, Was accused of
raping a white woman more
than a year ago.
The woman identified
Williams, a then-Burke County
School principal as her
assailant after spotting him in
two Augusta-area night clubs.
Authorities arrested Williams
in December 1979, but
North Augusta Watergate hero
Who remembers Frank
Wills?
Want some clues? He is
black. Not enough? He was
once a professional security
guard. Got it? Some have
called him the hero of the
decade. He received awards. He
went on a speaking tour. Plans
were made for a movie called
“The Frank Wills Story.”
It never got made. Few
groups bother to ask him to
speak anymore. He is
unemployed. A forgotten hero.
Eight years ago, Frank Wills
was employed as a security
guard at the Watergate office
building in Washington, D.C.
He found some tape blocking
the locks of the building’s
doors. He called the police.
Watergate was bom, and two
years later, Richard Nixon was
removed from the presidency.
Without Frank Wills, the
burglars enter the Democratic
headquarters, plant buts, take
photos of sensitive documents,
quietly leave by the basement
door. No Watergate. Richard
Nixon finished his term. But,
Frank Wills changed history.
Right?
Not quite. He did, but not in
the way we have been led to
believe. According to a new
investigation by reporter Jim
Hougan published in Harper’s
magazine, Wills had a little.
help.
Teacher cleared of rape
Who remembers Frank Wills?
Less Than 75% Advertising
released him the following
morning after a $5,000 bond
was posted.
Williams’ attorney, Vernon
Neely, told the News-Review
that the grand jury most likely
ruled “no bill” because the
complainant’s description did
not match Williams’ height,
weight, age or facial features.
Neely said the woman first
said her attacker had
“processed hair” and later said
he worse a short afro. “Neither
of those descriptions fit
Williams,” Neely said, adding
that he thought the woman
had “fixations” on Williams
In fact, according to
Hougan’s reconstruction of the
Watergate burglary, it is
probable that Wills was assisted
by James McCord, the leader
of the burglary team that
night.
Hougan, in a careful
description of who did
what-and when-on the night of
the burglary, contends that
McCord did everything he
could to make sure that the
mission failed, including setting
up his own arrest. But, McCord
actually spent less than a day
in jail for his participation in
Watergate.
As for Wills, the
reconstruction points to some
very strange behaviors on the
night of the break-in. The
security firm that hired Wills
said that he was a good worker
- that he followed orders and
was a “meticulous guard.”
The “official” version of the
break-in confirms that opinion.
Wills did his job and caught the
burglars.
But, consider Hougan’s
reconstruction. On the hight of
June 16, Wills was the only
guard on duty at the
Watergate. He checked in
shortly before mid-night, and
routinely checked the doors
finding the famous tape for the
first time. He called his
superior, who advised him to
/MKIIIShI, I i/\ JUUU I
Lumple Copy
morin Augusta
Watergate hero
still forgotten
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because he was possibly the
only black man in the two
night clubs in which she saw
him.
Neely said further that there
was a “believability factor”,
involved in reference to the
complainants charge that
Williams had taken items from
her house. “Mr. Williams, being
an educator with his good
standing in die community,
would have been a factor to be
argued in court,” Neely said.
“The evidence presented in this
case was simply not enough to
indict this man of rape and
sodomy,” he concluded.
check the other doors. He was
instructed, if he found more
tape to phone the police.
Wills did not do that,
however. He went to the
building’s lobby where he met
a young law student, who
happened to be the last person
to leave the Democratic offices
that night. They talked awhile
and decided they were hungry.
The pair went together to a
restaurant across the street.
Wills bought a take-out meal
and returned to the Watergate.
At that point he talked by
phone with another superior,
who told him to do the same
thing the first had told him. So
Wills checked the doors,
finding tape on the latches for
the second time.
The only problem with that,
according to Hougan, is that he
waited at least an hour before
calling the police. There is no
evidence to explain what he
did during that hour.
The reconstruction of the
actions of Wills and McCord
that night are filled with
similar discrepancies, backed
by contradictory statements.
In addition, the reporter proves
that there was a third man in
the vicinity of Watergate, and
implies that it is entirely
possible that he and Wills were
in touch with each other.
That man was never
Rape is punishable in
Georgia by death, life
imprisonment or imprisonment
for not less than one or more
than 20 years.
Rate Increase
Effective Feb. yearly
subscription rates to The
News-Review will go up to
$9 in Richmond County
and $lO outside the
country. Street sales will
be 30 cents.
arrested, or even identified by
the police. Hougan identifies
him for the first time in his
article, and points out that that
man moved from a seedy
boarding house in Washington
to a luxury apartment in the
suburbs soon after the
burglary.
Frank Wills did not fare so
well. The FBI issued a “gag
order,” prohibiting Wills from
talking the press about
Watergate. Aside from a flurry
of speaking engagements and
honors received from a number
of black organizations. Willis’
life has gone steadily downhill
since the break in.
Today, Wills is unable to
speak coherently of the
eight-year-old events that
brought him national
prominence, according to
Hougan, and he “is obsessed
with codes, illusions and the
occult.”
What the investigation
reveals is that the accepted
version of Richard Nixon’s
downfall is severely flawed.
And, like the assassinations of
King and the Kennedy’s, the
Watergate events were
permeated with the foul smell
of conspiracy, hidden powers
and the suspicion that the
American people are the
victims of a government they
no longer control.