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The Augusta News-Review - May 3,1980 -
(USPS 887 820)
Mallory K. Millender '.Editor-Publisher
Paul D. Walker Special Assistant to the Publisher
Frank Bowman Director of Special Projects
Ms. Fannie FlonoNews-Editor
Rev. R.E. Donaldsonßeligion Editor
Henrietta Langford Advertising Manager
Harvey 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 DupreeSports Editor
Mrs. Deen Buchanan Fashion & Beauty Editor
Roosevelt Green Columnist
Al IrbyColumnist
Mrs. Marian Waring .Columnist
Philip Waring Columnist
Sterling Wimberly'Photographer
Roscoe Williams Photographer
We cannot be responsible for unsolicited photos, manuscripts, and other materials.
Mailing Address
Box 953 (USPS 887 820) - Augusta, Ga.
Phone (404) 722-4555
Second Class Postage Paid Augusta, Ga. 30903 By
AMALCAMATEP OI
PUBUSHER*, INC.
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Owens’ name result
of misunderstanding
Since the death of Olympic hero
Jesse Owens I have read several
accounts indicating that he was
born James Cleveland Owens.
According to Owens, that was never
his name. Neither was he born Jesse
Owens.
I interviewed Owens in 1976
after Wagner College in New York
had just conferred upon him his
fourth honorary doctorate. And he
explained the origin of his name.
He was bom J.C. Owens in
Dansville, Alabama. The J.C. didn’t
stand for anything, he said. Initials
are commonly used as names in
certain parts of the country.
Walking with dignity
1
The coup in Liberia has spoiled the old
cliche that this tiny country was the most
stable country in Mother Africa. The
black smart boys at the top are just as
abusive, unjust and conniving as their
white counterparts. Until now, there has
been continuity of government since
freed slaves from the United States
founded black Africa’s first independent
republic back in 1847. This early United
States connection with Liberia has made
the country an outpost unfailingly
sympathetic toward the US for nearly a
century and a half.
AMERICA’S LOOKOUT POST
It is a strategically useful toeful on the
bulge of West Africa into the North
Atlantic. The United States has been able
to have communications facilities and a
staging post there for its civilian and
military air traffic. Whether or not this
will now change remains to be seen.
Liberia was a late comer in establishing
diplomatic relations with the Soviet
Union. But there is little doubt that the
USSR would welcome any opening in the
present turmoil to increase its local
influence in West Africa at America’s
expense. Liberia is unique in black Africa.
It is the continent’s only country that has
never known European colonial rule.
When the United Nations was founded at
the end of World War 11, Liberia and
Ethiopia (which was briefly under Italian
colonial rule) were its only two black
African members.
SLAVE DESCENDANTS, BUT BIGOTS
Yet the men who have run Liberia
since the country was founded in the first
half of the 19th century were not strictly
indigenous Liberians. They were freed
black salves from the United States; and
naturally, the whites picked ultra -
“Uncle Toms” to send to Liberia. These
black from the United States
were funded oy American philanthropies
and the federal government during the early
twinges to soothe the slave-trading
America’s conscience. Under the former
alaves and their descendants, Liberia has
Strictly personal
By Mallory K. Millender
By Al Irby
Page 4
WllL
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Et
When Owens was ten years old,
he moved to Cleveland, Ohio. And
when he enrolled in school and his
teacher asked him his name, he
told her J.C., but he pronounced it
the way many Alabamians,
including my father, pronounce it --
“Jeh Cee.” Owens said the teacher
asked, “What?” and he repeated,
“Jeh Cee.” Owens said the teacher
repeated, “Jesse?”
“I said, yes. And my name has
been Jesse ever since,” he said with
a laugh, seemingly amused that his
acceptance of the teacher’s
misunderstanding resulted in the
name he made famous.
Liberia in
turmoil
hardly been a paragon of justice and
democracy. Yet the absence of a white
European presence running Liberia
lessened the pressure for revolutionary
change or revolt; hence, the long duration
of the oligarchy, or rule by a few persons.
Yet this version of minority
government may be crumbling with the
assassination of incumbent President
William R. Tolbert. He was gunned down
in the early hours of April 12 in his
official residence by a group of beer
drinking non-commissioned insurgents
from his own armed forces, led by Master
Sgt. Samuel K. Doe, a man in his late 20s.
WILL THE POWER REMAIN?
The ouster of the Tolbert government
still could prove to be no more than a
rebellion by a younger generation of
“Young Turks,” one with roots to a past
African experience and frustrated by an
old American guard’s continuing
monopoly of corupt power. It still has to
be definitively proven, however, whether
the coup means a complete transfer of
power from the oligarchy of Liberians
with the background of American
chicanery, probably no more than 10
percent of the population.
The indigenous Africans who, in recent
decades, felt increasingly they were not
getting a fair deal. Tensions against Mr.
Tolbert had been building up for exactly
a year. On April 14, 1979, riots in
Monrovia, the capital, against proposed
food price increases, turned into a
demonstration of political protest. Over
40 people were killed. President Tolbert
blamed the Progressive Alliance of Liberia
(PAL). This organization was organized in
New York in 1975 and in which the
moving force was one Gabriel Baccus
Mathews.
STRUGGLE FOR POWER
The annual summit of the Organization
of African Unity, under Mr. Tolbert’s
presidency, later in 1979 encouraged the
restoration of calm. But by early 1980,
things were on the boil again. Mr. Tolbert
apparently had recognized the need to
I *
AMERICA’S CONSCIENCE J
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S>i9i7 Black media iHc
A LONG WALK ON A SHORT PIER
Sr
The recent passing of Lonnie C.
Hamilton culminates more than 40 years
of outstanding service to the Augusta
community. He received an A.B. degree
from Paine College in 1933 and did his
graduate study in social group work and
community organization at the New York
School of Social Work at Columbia
University.
BETHLEHEM INTO ARENA
He was the first full-time youth worker
at the then new plant of the Bethlehem
Center during the mid-19305. He
organized youth clubs, scout troops,
coached athletic teams and helped
develop summer camp programs. Mr.
Hamilton’s activities, coupled with other
Bethlehem Center programs under the
famed Deaconess Thelma Stevens, Mrs.
A.W. Gardiner, Mrs. Bunice Pratt and
others, are often viewed as a model
multi-function community center
operation for the South. Many youth
families and others were helped in what
was one of the first high-level social
programs of its kind for our group in
Augusta. Lonnie trained and supervised
large numbers of Paine College students
who later entered education or the
human service field.
In 1941 he was employed by the
Augusta Housing Authority as manager of
its Sunset Public Housing Project. In this
experience he organized and operated a
unique youth and family development
project which again served as a model for
public housing projects around the
nation.
SPLENDID HOUSING LEADERSHIP
Promotion to director of management
came next. This was a breakthrough for a
black professional. After several years in
this assignment came promotion to the
directorship of Social Services in the
Authority network. Thanks to his skills in
administration and public housing
coupled with understanding of human
behavior, he was able to alert both
authority personnel and residents to the
vast changes and problems then occuring
in the nation. Because of this, plans were
made to bring about adjustment of
program services to meet these serious
human needs.
In December of 1977, officials from
the Augusta Housing Authority, city
council and county commission hailed his
36 years of continuous leadership with
the housing agency. He introduced
numerous novel ideas and proposals to
make the housing agency run smoothly
and help its residents to enjoy their
surroundings.
open up Liberian politics. He permitted
the registration of Mr. Mathew’s new
People’s Progressive Party (PPP) as a legal
party in opposition to his own True Whig
Party. (The latter had kept Liberia a
The life span of a termite is about 30 years.
Going Places
Lonnie Hamilton
gave top service
,By Philip Waring
OUTSTANDING PROFESSIONALS
He was member of Omega Psi Phi
fraternity, a former vestryman at St.
Mary’s Episcopal Church, a U.S. Army
veteran of World War II and was
connected with numerous Augusta-area
civic, professional and housing
organizations. His late wife, Evie,
attended Paine College and was a
professional recreational worker for the
Richmond County Recreational
Commission for many years. They leave
three children, Ms. Julia P. Hamilton,
ACSW, currently a faculty member at the
Yale University School of Medicine at
New Haven, Ct.; Dr. Clark Hamilton, a
physician in Hartfort, Ct.; and George
Hamilton, a local school teacher who also
operates a special import-export business.
Well done Lonnie and so long! The
Augusta community is better because you
came this way.
MAY THEY REST IN PEACE
Over the past few months several
persons whom 1 knew have passed away.
Mrs. Adelaide Walker Jaquet was
funeralized in New York City where she
resided with her family for many years. A
graduate of old Atlanta University and
the Columbia University Social Work
School, she was a leader in the human
services profession. Adelaide was a
cultured and brillant person who made
her high mark. Then Harold Williams,
who spent his early life in the family
home at Wrightsboro and Picquett
Avenue, passed in New York City. He was
a gentle and well liked person. Story
behind the story, however, is the love
care given him off and on for many years
by his cousin, Bernice Williams-Smith in
the New York area. Just a few months
back Ulysses Ridley was buried in
Augusta. Member of an old Augusta
family, he too was well liked by many.
May they rest in peace.
RECOGNITION FOR EARL THURMOND
Going Places joins in with the recent
salute to Earl Thurmond given in timely
appreciation for his leadership as
principal of the C.T. Walker School. Now
elevated to a higher position in the public
school system, Earl gave steller service
there from 1963 until 1979. Many new
programs were put into operation and
thousands of boys and girls were trained
and motivated to move forward in life.
Then Earl was also recognized by his
peers in being elected chair of a
state-wide educational association. Nice
going and good luck, Earl!
de-facto one-party state since 1869.)
Three of Mr. Tolbert’s ministers have
been retained in the new cabinet.
Sergeant Doe has been appointed head of
state.
The view from my house
It should come as no surprise to us as
blacks that situations like the one in
Wrightsville, Ga. still exists.
And it would be a mistake if we were
to believe it could only happen in a town
like Wrightsville.
Wrightsville, Ga. is not unique in the
type of problems its residents face.
What is happening there can happen
here.
The racial strife in Wrightsville reflects
an attitude that is being reborn or maybe
more accurately revived in many cities.
No more affirmative action, that
attitude says.
For the Wrightsville residents that
means blacks will not be given a chance
for the good jobs in that city. And some
blacks, many more than the proportion
of whites in that city, face the prospect
of no jobs at all.
The Wrightsville, Ga.’s rise as
testaments to the continuing druggie for
blacks to regain an equal footing in
American society.
When the town sheriff of Wrightsville
Up »
The black male in America is a
subject not given enough thought by
blacks themselves. The black man in
disliked, feared, hated and misunderstood
by racist whites devoted to his
oppression. However, it is way past time
for black males and females to examine
their prospects and problems as a better
future is developed.
Howard University in Washington, D.C.
has a much needed research organization
called the Institute for Urban Affairs and
Research. The agency has some excellent
publications designed to explore the
prolematic and positive features of black
life in this country.
One publication, The Urban Research
Review, in its 1980 edition deals with
some interesting facts about black males.
A fairly reliable estimate suggests there
are over 12,069,000 black males in
America. That number is approximately
47 percent of the total black population
as cited in April of 1978.
Inadequate education, high
unemployment rates, the high infant
mortality rates, reduced life expectancy
and black-on-black male homicide
represent some of the problems discussed
in the Review.
Fifty-two pecent of all black males live
in the South with the rest residing in the
North and the West. The median or
average age of black males is 23.1 while
the same is 29.5 year for white males.
There are 8,565,500 black males over the
age of 16. Black males also represent 5
percent of the total U.S- resident
population.
Fewer black males than black females
exists in the black population and this has
been true since the early 1900 s. The
number of singe black males 14 years and
over numbered 38 percent in 1975.
Fifty-three percent of black males over
14 years were married with four percent
widowed, and four percent divorced.
Twenty-eight percent of white males in
the 14-years-old and older bracket were
single, two-thirds married and “neglible
numbers” were divorced or widowed.
Figures on the health status of black
males were quite alarming. Sixty-two and
nine tenths is the life expectancy for
black males while 68.9 is the figure for
white males. Black women have a life
expectancy rate of 71.2 years. It should
also be noted that the infant death
(mortality) rate for black males and
females is 27.7 per 1,000 while it is 14.1
for whites. Also, the death rate for black
males “continues to exceed that for black
females.”
High blood pressure or hypertension is
a major health problem producing many
deaths in the black community. Thirty
and six tenths per 100 black males ages
18-44 have serious high blood pressure
problems. White males have 21.9 per 100
serious problems in comparison to the
black male rates. Black and white males
ox=__ r wfIMPFK
\v" a WHAT
The word hour is derived from a Greek word meaning
"season.”
Racial strife reflects
prevalent attitude
By Fannie Flono
claimed outside agitators were the cause
of his city’s troubles, it seemed like an
old song to most of us.
During the civil rights activity of 60s
and 70s we heard the phrase almost daily
from the mouths of people like Bull
Connor who ordered water hoses sprayed
on demonstrations and from former
Alabama Gov. George Wallace who stood
in the doorway of his state’s university
blocking the way of black students
wishing to enter. It was a familiar chant.
To most of us, those words then and
now signal resistance and mean only that
we will be kept from fulfilling the same
aspirations as our white counterparts.
The people of Wrightsville are right in
protesting conditions that restrict their
movement into the mainstream of
society.
We should join with them, not so much
on the actual marching field though some
of us could do that too, but in spirit and
with the knowledge that we too could
live in a Wrightsville.
Just because no Sheriff Attaway stands
in our path doesn’t mean we don’t.
Speaking out
Little thought
given to black male
By Roosevelt Green
ages 45-59 had 46.2 and 45 per 100
respectively, giving tm similar rates in
1975.
Older black males age 60-74, had much
higher numbers with significant high
blood pressure in comparison to white
males. The black male in this age category
is 54.9 per 100 while it is 38.6 for white
males. High blood pressure or
hypertension is responsible for the
highest number of death of black males.
The four major causes of deaths of
black males in terms of ranking are heart
disease, cancer, cerebrovascular disease
and accidents. The same 1976 study
presenting these health figares conclude
the six other major reasons for death
among black males in terms of rank are
homicide, influenza, mortality in early
infancy, cirrhosis, diabetes, and suicide.
The first two major causes are also the
first two major causes for white males.
In terms of employment and
unemployment rates in the 1980 Urban
Research Review article, there were
5,334,000 black males ages 16 and over
in the labor force in December of 1979,
with 4,717,000 actually employed. The
unemployment rate for black males was
11.6 percent while it was 4.5 for white
males. Os course these figures are much
worse today with no real hope of relief in
sight.
Mocing on to income levels for black
males, we learn that over one third of all
black families lived below the poverty
level in 1977. Only seven percent of all
white families were below the poverty
level the same year.
Hopefully, the statistics presented in
this article will cause us to rethink our
professional roles, attitudes and behavior
in the black community. Space will not
permit the citation of all the shocking
facts and figures presented in this timely
research report. May I suggest that you
write to the organization for more
information if you are interested.
The name of the organization and its
address are Institute for Urban Affairs
and Research, 2900 Van Ness Street,
N.W., Washington, D.C. 20008. Why not
give a copy of this well documented
report to those blacks or Negroes who
feel they have it made, and do not forget
those “conservative” and “liberal” whites
who are not knowledgeable about black
life in America.
It seems that we as blacks must build
stronger black families with a strong
belief in the extended black family
concept. It is now time for us to care for
all black children and black elderly
persons whether they are related to us or
not. May I hear from you, black brothers
and sisters about your thinking as it
relates to building a stronger black family
and community. I would like to devote a
column to your responses to this request.
Harambee!!!!!