Newspaper Page Text
Paine Lions
defeat
Jaguars
Page 1
Vol. 9 No. 40
Leon Sullivan
OIC founder urges confidence,
competence and cooperation
By Fannie Flono
The founder of one of the
most successful organizations
to come out' of the civil rights
struggle of the 1960 s said that
black people need “confidence,
competence, and cooperation”
to overcome discrimination in
this country.
“We’ve got to teach our
people to believe in themselves
and to realize that anything
anybody else can do, they can
do, too,” said the Rev. Leon
Sullivan, founder of the
Opportunities Industrialization
Center, OIC.
When companies in
Philadelphia refused to hire
blacks, Sullivan said he
organized 400 black ministers
and boycotted them The first
company was “Tasty Cake.”
“We gave them two weeks to
hire blacks, and when they
didn’t we started the boycott.
At the end of a month, brown
girls began to type on those
brown typewriters and brown
men began to sell that brown
cake.”
The boycott met similar
success against Pepsi Cola,
Sullivan said. And when the
ministers went to see Coca
Cola, company officials met
them at the door saying,
“We’ve heard what you did to
Pepsi Cola. Don’t do it to us.
We’ll hire anybody you say.”
Those victories, Sullivan said,
came “because we learned
what we could do with our
own strength - confidence.”
Cop killer sentenced to death
By Billy W. Hobbs
A 33-year-old Richmond
County man was found guilty
of murdering a Richmond
County deputy and sentenced
to die in the electric chair. A
I
* V ■
AT JwHBWSK’''- |
Jagv Hk gi ■ L
f * - BB ■
PATRONIZE MINORITY BUSINESS MONTH KICKOFF - Dr. C.T. Vivian (second left) is featured speaker
here last week on strategies for the Minority Businesses in the 1980 s, holds news conference. Others (from left):
Harvey Johnson, Charles, S.W. Walker 11.
Augusta Nma-iUttjrMJ
But, he said, blacks also
need competence. “When the
doors of opportunity open, we
have to be ready to walk in. We
need competence, not
excuses.”
But most of all we need
cooperation, he said, adding
that the greatest problem that
black people face today is our
own jealousy division and
prejudice against one another.
He said that a few years ago
he asked members of his
congregation to invest $lO a
month for 36 months in
“cooperation.” At the end of
the first year, 200 members
had raised enough money to
begin construction on a $1
million apartment complex. By
the end of the second year, the
number had grown to 600.
When a young black couple
in the church were turned
because of their race when
they tried to rent in an
all-white apartment house,
“They came back and told us
and the next week we bought
the apartment house,” Sullivan
said.
The congregation built a
shopping plaza worth $3
million; the largest built by
blacks and without any
government assistance.
The group has now grown to
3,000.
“Today we own factories.
We are the only company in
the world owned by blacks
that can make things to go to
jury of eight men and four
women found William Kenny
Stephens guilty of murdering
Sheriffs investigator Larry
Douglas Stevens on Jan 24,
1979.
Richmond County Superior
Deputy’s killer
is sentenced
to death
Page 1
Rev. Leon Sullivan
the moon. We can make
engines for airplanes and
tractors, he said, adding that
on Friday morning his
congregation would dedicate
its second $4 million shopping
plaza.
Court Judge Albert M. Pickett
also sentenced Stephens to
serve a total of 60 years in
prison on three counts of
aggravated assault in
connection with a police chase
which ended in an exchange of
February 23,1980
Sullivan was at Paine College
Feb. 14 as part of the school’s
Afro-American History Week
celebration.
“Indeed we have crossed the
river, but the ocean lies ahead.
We’ve come a long way, but we
still have a long way to go,”
was the message Sullivan
brought to an audience at the
Gilbert-Lambuth Chapel.
“Black people in America
have come a long way,”
Sullivan said. “During the past
30 years, we’ve seen a
revolution of changes in
America for our people thanks
to the efforts of such
organizations as the NAACP,
the student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee...
These groups worked so hard
and fought violently for the
struggle.”
But Sullivan said black
people still have a long way to
go to “build the confidence of
our people especially young
blacks who still believe black is
inferior to white.
“We’ve got to teach our
young people that genius is
color-blind.”
Sullivan said the OIC was
started as an effort to build
confidence.
Now, the OIC, the first
training and retraining program
of its type in the country is the
largest employer of black
executives outside the
government, Sullivan said.
“The program has been
phenomenal,” Sullivan said.
Since its beginning, OIC has
gunfire between the defendant
and several sheriffs deputies.
The death sentence carries
an automatic appeal to the
Georgia Supreme Court,
Defense attorney Charles L,
“Les” Wilkinson 111 said he
Elderly man
is shot I
to death I
Page 2 |
trained more than 300,000
men and women. More than
250,000 people have been
placed in jobs, earning about
$3 billion a year in annual
income.
Sullivan attributes the
success of the program to
results, he said.
“We’ve helped people in a
tangible way. We’re established
in the community to serve the
people.”
Sullivan said the
organization, which started in
an abandoned jail, was
designed as a low-key group.
“I planned it that way. I’m
not the type of person to stand
on a soap box. I think we need
those kinds of efforts also, an
orator to inspire people.
There’s no substitute for that.
Bur 1 build bridges. That’s it,
I’m a roadbuilder.”
Sullivan, who has been
highly critical of the housing
industry in its treatment of
blacks, remains critical. “For
the most part, de facto
segregation still exists.”
The push for full
employment has lot its
momentum and so in general
has the civil rights movement,
Sullivan said.
“There is a reticence in the
black community, almost an I
don’t care attitude. There’s not
the enthusiasm, a desire to see
conditions change.”
Sullivan said black people
should not give up. “We’ve got
to keep on trying. We’ve got to
keep on pounding on the
tables.”
will file a motion this week for
a new trial on on “general
grounds”.
See “KILLER”
Page 14
Allen, Gilmore join Ruffin firm
Benjamin Allen and
Columbus Gilmore have
recently joined the law firm ol
Atty. John H. Ruffin Jr. as
staff attorneys.
Allen is a native Augustan
and a Glenn Hills High School
graduate. He graduated from
Augusta College in 1975 and
from the University of Georgia
Law School in 1977. He was
later admitted to the Georgia
Bar Association.
He joined Ruffin in January
after being associated with the
Augusta Regional office of the
Georgia Legal Services.
He is married and has one
child.
Gilmore grew up in Dublin,
Ga. where he attended Oconee
High School. He served in the
U.S. Army from 1958 until
1961. Later, he attended
Georgia State University in
Atlanta and received his law
degree from John Marshall Law
School in Atlanta in 1974.
From 1969 through 1977,
Less Than 75% Advertising
JM
j#' < a s w
iM .. ' 1 v 2
Jv £ a? V_ y-
w Z t I By &
|w" \
* , s
11 Os 1
'"OrWHw r
■aLBB '
W ,
\‘"": 2<< ’M U'. *• ?'/> f
■ ' ■■ 3■ J J - |W
-?
.■* •* '1 -J '****'■
‘ *’ .T ' ‘ -- >>i “ 5 >’*’**’**’*•»’«
MISS HOMECOMING -- Miss Sharrell Grubbs was crowned Miss Homecoming
for Augusta College at the recent Homecoming game at the Augusta Civic Center.
Miss Grubbs is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Grubbs of 614 East Cedar St.
Sharrell is a junior and is a member of Thankful Baptist Church.
W
w®
Wy AIR v ‘ \
Benjamin Allen
he served as a bank officer of
the First National Bank of
Atlanta.
Gilmore joined Ruffin Feb.
1 after serving as the managing
3
I join
Ruffin firm
Page 1
TO
Columbus Gilmore
attorney with the Augusta
Regional Office of the Georgia
Legal Services.
He is married and has two
sons.
25 c
• IN
Dr. Robert E. James
Dr. Robert E. James,
president of Carver State Bank
in Savannah and pastpresident
of the National Bankers
Association, will speak to the
minority Business Month
seminar at Paine College Feb
23 at 10 aan. in the
Haygood-Holsey Room.
A panel discussion will
follow and involve Ms. LaQuita
Booth, University of Georgia;
Dr Donald Markwalder, August
College; John Pitts of Paine
College, and Dr. Ronald
Spearman of the Medical
College of Georgia.