Newspaper Page Text
Man’s death in
county jail called
‘nothing unusual’
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Vol. 9 No. 38
Women achieving
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PAINE COLLEGE BOOKKEEPER Evelyn Etheridge also works college Switchboard, and is a full-time student. At right, she gets help from English professor Pierrette
Frickey.
By Fannie Flono
For some people, being in a
wheelchair might be considered
a handicap.
For Evelyn Etheridge, it has
been a challenge that she’s met
and conquered.
Mrs. Etheridge has
accomplished much that many
with full and unrestricted use
of their limbs have not.
And though many would
marvel at her many successes,
Evelyn Etheridge somehow
makes one feel she thinks no
special credit is due.
What she has done has
largely been due to necessity,
desire and a great deal of
competitiveness, she contends.
It’s her competitive spirit
that kept her going after an
accident at 15 years old which
left her with a broken neck and
confined to a wheelchair for
the rest of her life.
Owner of her own income
tax firm, a bookkeeper at Paine
College, active in church and
community affairs and recently
named Professional
Handicapped Woman of the
Augusta man dies in jail,
alcohol poisoning blamed
Richmond County Sheriffs
Department spokesmen said
there was nothing unusual
about the death of a
28-year-old Augusta man
arrested for public drunkenness
last week.
Robert Harris, of Meadow
Street, died in the Richmond
County jail less than an hour
after he had been arrested.
Results of an autopsy
indicated the man died of
alcohol poisoning, a sheriffs
department spokesman said.
“There was too much
alcohol in the blood system,”
Sgt. Ronnie Strength said the
autopsy showed.
Sheriffs deputies found
Harris about 6 aan. Thursday
lying in the front yard of his
Carrie Mays hospitalized
Former Augusta City
Councilwoman Carrie Mays is
in satisfactory condition in
University Hospital. She was
hospitalized a few weeks ago
but her illness was not
February is Minority Business Month
Augusta
Mrs, Etheridge named "Woman of the Year'
Year, Evelyn Etheridge indeed
seems to have made what could
have been a tragic story, a
successful and happy one.
But die’s not content with
the story as it is and as a
student at Paine College
majoring in English , she hopes
to make another dream come
true - that of being a writer.
Mrs. Etheridge would be the
first to agree with poet
Langston Hughes that “life for
me ain’t been no crystal stair.”
In the late 50’s, a teenage
Evelyn Etheridge had not
charted the course of her life,
but it was destined to be filled
with activity.
At 15 and a student at Lucy
Laney High School, she was on
the basketball team, president
of her class and an honor
student. She was popular and
well-liked.
But that year, life changed
for her.
On the way to a basketball
game in Atlanta, the car in
which she was riding was
sideswiped by a car the police
had been chasing. The car
residence. The smell of alcohol
was on his clothes and he his
clothes and he was soaking
wet, spokesmen said.
A relative of Harris’ had
called the sheriffs office
complaining that Harris had
been beating on the door of
the house.
Harris was arrested for
public drunkenness and taken
to the jail where dry clothes
were given to him after he had
taken a shower. Harris
reportedly collapsed after
getting out of the shower at
6:45 ajn. Efforts to revive him
were to no avail.
There were no bruises or
marks on his body, spokesmen
said. Harris was reportedly
unemployed.
divulged. Mrs. Mays suffered
two strokes in 1975. She is the
mother of freshman City
Councilman Willie Mays and
owner of W.H. Mays Mortuary.
’ —-L **”
Roscoe Williams
first black
to chair HRC
Page 1
P.O. Box 953
tumbled several times. When it
landed, three of the four inside
had been hurt, but none as
severely as Evelyn. Her neck
was broken and she had
sustained a spinal cord injury.
“I went through
despondency, anger and
bitterness,” she recalls. “It’s
difficult to explain something
like that to a 15-year-old. It
was difficult at first to make
the adjustment.”
One of the first things that
helped her make the
adjustment was a church
activity. Someone suggested
she work with a group of
young kids (eight and nine
years old) at her church, Elim
Baptist Church. The group was
called the Sunbeams.
“I really got involved in that
and started getting out of
myself, started thinking about
o filers.”
After graduating f rom high
school (a homebound teacher
had been visiting her), a
relative suggested she start
doing simple income tax
returns for people.
Dr. Leon Sullivan
Leon Sullivan
guest speaker
Dr. Leon Sullivan, founder
of the Opportunities
Industrialization Center (OIC),
will be the featured speaker
during Paine College’s
observance of Black History
Week, Feb. 10-15.
He will speak Feb. 14 at 7
pan. in the Gilbert-Lambuth
Chapel on the topic, “The
Preservation of a Legacy: The
Challenge for Black America in
the Eighties.”
See “BLACK HISTORY”
Page 2
February 9,1980
“For a while, I held my
breath,” she remembers of the
returns being filed. “But
everything worked out.”
She gradually moved on to
more complicated tax forms.
Later, an Easter Sea!
counselor suggested she go to
Georgia Rehabilitation Center
at Warm Springs, Ga. and take
a business administration
course at the rehabilitation
center’s school. Franklin
Delano Roosevelt attended the
same facility (the foundation
part where therapy is given)
while he was president.
Mrs. Etheridge remembers
her days there as “rigorous”
and somewhat akin to what
boot camp must be like for
soldiers.
“A lot of people who came
said they couldn’t take it.”
Mrs. Etheridge was also
apprehensive, but felt she had
to stick with it.
“I’m very competitive. It
was a challenge. I didn’t feel I
could cop out. It was like a
game, a game I wanted to
Roscoe Williams first
black to chair HRC
By Fannie Flono
The Augusta-Richmond
County Human Relations
Commission last week elected
its first black chairperson.
Roscoe Williams, associate
dean of student affairs at
Augusta College, officially
takes over his duties as chair
later this month.
The educator has been on
the commission since 1974
when he was appointed to fill
the seat of Dr. Lucius Pitts,
president of Paine College, who
had died.
Williams said he looks
forward to “continuing to
provide leadership” within
HRC.
“Some really fabulous things
have been done because of the
Human Relations
Commission,” he said, “The
quality of life has changed for
Ex-Councilwoman
Carrie J. Mays
is hospitalized
Page 1
win.”
After completing the course,
she was offered a job as a
bookkeeper at Paine and she
has been there 10 years.
She has had a hand in
making suggestions to make
paine Colleg- more accessible
to the handicapped.
The inaccessibility of area
colleges was one of the
stumbling blocks which kept
her from going to college when
she finished high school.
Augusta in general is
becoming more accessible to
the handicapped, she said.
More needs to be done inside
public buildings like the civic
center and in providing closer
parking facilities.
Mrs. Etheridge said she was
surprised at her selection as the
local Pilot Club’s Professional
Handicapped Woman of the
Year.
“Tm very happy and pleased
to have been nominated.” The
other women who were in
contention for the award were
all worthy of recognition. The
Roscoe Williams
many people.”
HRC has had an impact on
housing, employment, and law
enforcement, he said. “We even
made a stab at establishing a
public defender.”
Less Than 75% Advertising
others, one a triple amputee,
one a deaf mute and one with a
congenital birth defect seemed
more worthy than she, she
said.
Mrs. Etheridge admits she
finds it difficult at times for all
her many activities.
For five years she has been
married and must have time for
a husband also.
“He’s very supportive and
understanding.’
Her pursuance of a degree
in English is like going back to
her first love, she said.
“I’ve always wanted to write
and have been encouraged in
that direction.”
She is presently a junior.
The only thing she would
like to do that she hasn’t had
time to do goes back to her
days when she was on the
basketball team.
“Some people have talked to
me about coaching a girl’s
basketball team. That’s
something I would like to do.
But it doesn’t seem like I’ll
have the time.”
In the employment area,
large amounts of money have
been recovered for residents
who were discriminated against
in hiring and job placement,
Williams said. “This is money
that had previouslt been
virtually lost.”
Unlike some organizations
which were “bom out of
crisis” (the 1970 riot in
Augusta), the HRC has
continued to grow instead of
dying, he said. “And it’s
continued to grow in an
escalating fashion.”
Williams expects the HRC to
focus more on the handicapped
and aged in the future. He said
the HRC hopes to have some
“impact with teeth in it” and
to provide another option or
vent for the handicapped and
aged who have undergone
discrimination.
neau
Leon Sullivan
to speak here
Page 1
College pres, is
highest ranking
Army reservist
By Mallory K. Millender
John Quill Taylor King is
the highest ranking black in the
U.S. Army Reserve. He is only
the second black to achieve the
rank in the rank of major
general. Since 1965 he has
served as president of
Huston-Tillotson College, and
he is the first black to earn a
Ph.D. in pure mathematics at
the University of Texas.
The secret to success, he
says, is preparation, sacrifice
and luck. “You’ve got to be
prepared, but you’ve got to
have some luck. You can be
the smartest person in the
world. But with no luck you
won’t get it.
“You don’t do these things
on your own. People say I was
in the right place at the
time and knew the right
people. That’s true. But how
did it happen? It didn’t happen
by happenstance. It’s part of a
divine plan. I firmly believe
that.
“The hand of God moves in
an invisible way. And that’s the
hand of God moving,” he said
in an interview after delivering
an address at Fort Gordon
honoring Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. recently.
A lay leader in the United
Methodist Church, he also
credits his family for his
achievements.
“My family had to make a
sacrifice for me to do it,” he
said, pointing out that while he
was taking correspondence
courses to keep up his
eligibility for military
promotion, he was also
working toward his Ph.D.,
teaching full-time at the
college, and working part-time
in the funeral home his mother
owns in Austin, Texas.
“We’d go on picnics and I
would study on the picnic.
When I got my doctorate
(1957), I knew it wasn’t mine
alone. That was a family
degree. They participated in it.
They shared it.”
In 1965 he was elected
president of Huston-Tillotson
College, after having served for
five years as dean. But he kept
active in the Army Reserve.
“I decided I was going to be
as active as long as I could so
when those promotions came
available I would be standing in
line and they’d either have to
promote me or overlook me.
And I tried to prepare myself
so that if they overlooked me
it would have to be racial and
not on die basis of
qualifications.”
The preparation began a
long time ago for the
59-year-old Memphis native.
He earned a bachelor’s degree
in math from Fisk University
in 1941. Then he went to
Huston and earned another
bachelor’s degree in business
and attended mortuary school.
He said he had planned to
work in his mother’s funeral
home and thought the degree
in business would be helpful.
In 1947, the president of
Huston College needed
someone to teach freshmen
math to the large enrollment of
veterans and he “twisted my
arm to do it” until he could
find someone.
“We both had the
understanding that I would
teach one year. But I was so
intrigued with teaching that I
felt that was really my calling.”
At the same time his wife
got a job teaching in the Music
Department at Tillotson
College, and they both decided
that if they were going to
continue to teach “we could
John Q. Taylor King
not effectively teach in college
with just a bachelor’s degree.”
So in 1949 they took a leave of
absence and went to Chicago
(his wife’s home) to DePaul
University to earn die master’s
degree.
“In Chicago we thought
we’d have somebody to help
take care of our three children
(they now have four). But my
wife’s mother got sick after we
had been there about a month.
Instead of having someone to
keep our kids, we inherited a
fourth child -- my wife’s sister’s
child her mother was keeping -
and a worried father. But we
make it because of the good
Lord.”
“I went to school at night,
and my wife went during the
day. And we would literally
exchange driver seats at the
“el” station. Td take the kids
to the el station. She would get
off the train and drive the kids
home. I’d get on the train and
go to school. We did that from
October of 1949 until the end
of the school year.”
King needed the same kind
of determination in the
military. “I tried to join the
Army Reserve when I came out
of high school. No way. 1 was
black.”
After he came out of the
Army, he treid to join the
Texas National Guard, but was
turned down because he was
black. He tried to join again in
1962 when it was open to
blacks, but there was no
vacancy for a lieutenant
colonel. So he said he earned
retirement points by taking
correspondence courses. At the
same time he was dean of the
merged Huston-Tillotson
College, still teaching two
courses, and involved in
community activities and the
civil rights movement. In 1973,
as a senior colonel, he was
tapped for a post in the Office
of the Chief of Reserve
Components at the Pentagon.
And in 1974 he was promoted
to Brigadier General.
“At that time I was only the
second black general in die
history of the U.S. Army
Reserve. I don’t say that
proudly, because it’s a shame.”
Benjamin Hunton was the first
black general in the Reserve in
1972. There are now only four
black generals and only two are
active.
When King was promoted to
major general in 1978, he said,
“There was a fantastic
promotion ceremony put on
by the Texas National Guard,
just for me.”
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