Newspaper Page Text
Rosa Parks
called ‘epitome’
of civil rights
Page 3
Vol 10 No. 1
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SPRING HAS SPRUNG, and, like thousands of San Franciscans, Sylvester and the
Two Tons o’ Fun have taken to Golden Gate Park on skates. The Tons are decked
out here in brightly-colored Spandex pants, while Sylvester plays it strictly casual in
jeans and T-shirts.
Left to right: Izora Armstead, Sylvester, and Martha Wash.
Dr. Whitney
We must shake apathy
By Fannie Flono
Boggs Academy president
Y.K. Whitney told a group
gathered at Tabernacle Baptist
Church last week blacks will
have to “shake out of our
apathy” in order to gain the
basic goals of liberation.
“We must shake out of our
apathy in two ways. There is a
very important election coming
up. We need to vote. It is a task
for this (NAACP) chapter to
muster all the troops to get the
vote out.
Whitney said blacks should
also become involved in an
NAACP membership campaign.
Whitney was the speaker for
the Augusta NAACP’s annual
Freedom Day Program.
Whitney focused on the
Brown vs. Topeka school
desegregation decision which
made the separate but equal
school system illegal.
In a sense, blacks become
“gullible and naive” after that
decision feeling that once the
barriers fell everything would
be alright, Whitney said.
(W.E.8.) Dubois predicted
some bad from that decision,
but I don’t think white
America realized the profound
nature of their own racism,” he
said.
Whitney said a black
Harvard law professor has
already proposed that whites
benefitted more from that
decision than blacks. “It
strengthened America’s
position in the cold war.”
On the other hand, blacks
lost 31,000 positions by 1970
due to the decision and the lost
of income in 1974 was about a
quarter of a million dollars.
“Schools are now
qu anitatively more
Augusta Nwa-Stuiw
desegregated, but it is doubtful
desegregation has improved
overall education,” he said.
“Things have changed far
less for blacks than we had
thought,” Whitney said
“In the final analysis, the
purpose of education is to
prepare you for life.”
Nothing is wrong with the
Brown decision, Whitney said.
“Today we still need an
education. We blacks have
always known whites preferred
for us to have common sense
and not education. That’s why
they didn’t want us to read.
“Education was prized by
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AUGUSTA’S THOMAS KETCH SR. was honored last week as Mortician of the
Year by the Georgia Funeral Service Practitioners Association, Inc. at their 55th
annual convention Awards Banquet.
Ketch was ill and the award was accepted by his daughters, Velvie and Thomasina,
extreme right.
Retired Thomson educator Clara West was given the Community Service Award.
Morris Brown College President Robert Threatt was the speaker in place of U.S. Sen.
Herman Talmadge.
Dorothy Height
commencement
speaker
Page 1
those who had it and envied by
those who didn’t.”
Now a wave of euphoria has
swept across the nation,
Whitney said. “We may have
lost an entire generation. The
attitude is 1 got it made. But if
we don’t unite we don’t have a
prayer.”
Rev. ' Otis Smith, who
welcomed them to the
program, agreed.
“The fight is still on and the
war is still raging. The NAACP
is the best organization to keep
the fighting going.”
Georgene Hatcher-Seabrook
is president of the Augusta
NAACP.
Eskew tells why he’s
leaving Paine for A.C.
By Mallory K. Millender
The athletic community was
stunned last week when Robert
Eskew, athletic director and
head basketball coach at Paine
College, announced that he had
signed a contract to work at
rival Augusta College next year
as an assistant coach.
Why does a head coach who
had a 26-8 record in his first
year join a rival he defeated as
assistant coach? For Eskew the
answer was simple: “They
made me an offer I couldn’t
refuse.”
Beyond “salary and
responsibility,” Eskew said,
“This was the type of
opportunity I didn’t want to
chance being available for me
next year.
“I always wanted to work in
a situation like AC -a larger
school with larger resources to
use my coaching expertise.
SURPRISED & FLATTERED
“I was surprised and
flattered that they would make
me such an offer. It’s like going
from second class to first class.
I didn’t even have this
opportunity at Tennessee State
(where he was assistant coach
prior coming to Paine).
“I won’t have to improvise
at AC. I’ll have the resources,
and I can recruit white as well
Dorothy
Height
Boggs
speaker
Dorothy Height, president
of the National Council of
Negro Women, will deliver the
Commencement address for
Boggs Academy on Sunday,
May 25 at 2 p.m. Her
organization reaches four
million women through 27
affiliated groups and 200 local
sections.
Ebony magazine included
Ms. Height in its most recent
list of the 100 Most Influential
Black Americans. She has also
received a number of honorary
doctoral degrees and
appointment to various
commissions on human rights.
This is the 74th Annual
Commencement for Boggs
Academy which is located in
Black catholics
victims of
racial bias?
Page 3
May 24,1980
as black athletes.”
As to why he accepted the
job of assistant coach, Eskew
said, “In order to get into the
white system you have to get
your foot in the door. I took a
lateral move.
EXPOSURE
“I don’t care how many
games I would have won at
Paine, I still wouldn’t have
gotten the exposure on the
national scene, being head
coach at Paine College. Paine
College is only recognized in
the circle of private
church-related schools.
“This is what I wanted, to
progress to the point where 1
can go to, say the University of
Georgia as assistant coach or
Georgia Southern as head
coach.
“Where I want to go, I need
the exposure from A.C.”
Where Eskew wants to go is
coaching at the national level
and ultimately in the National
Basketball Association. He
reasons that there are only 13
blacks serving as coaches in
basketball out of 249 major
colleges. Only one is a head
coach in football.
“Since basketball is more
progressive, that’s where the
jobs will be for black coaches.
They are not going to fill those
Birkett
to speak
The Rev. Timothy
Birkett, pastor of the Soul
Saving Station, a
Penecostal Church in New
York City with a
$5 00,000 government
grant to deal with teenage
pregnancy, will speak at
St. Mary’s Parish House on
Pine Street Thursday at 8
pjn.
A consultant on urban
ministries, he will discuss
how his program works to
combat teenage
pregnancy, drug abuse and
related urban problems.
He will also speak at the
morning worship service at
Antioch Baptist Church.
Keysville, Ga.
The public is invited to
attend this program as well as
the traditional community
Fellowship Dinner which
follows the ceremony.
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NATIONAL FUNERAL DIRECTORS’ ASSOCIATION President Jerome Primm
(center) presents award to past state president W.D. Willis (left). State President
Cl ay bon Edwards looks on.
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Robert Eskew
vacancies with the head coach
from Paine or Tennessee State.
They are not going to dip into
the black leagues to pull a
coach out, they’re going to
take black assistant coaches at
Blacks organizing around
food stamp problems
By Fannie Flono
Problems with the food
stamp program may have
spawned the formation of
grassroots organizations which
may aim to pressure local, state
and federal governments into
providing needed benefits for
the minorities poor and
elderly.
One such organization got
off the ground last week.
The group which came
together as Concerned Citizens
in a meeting at the Wallace
Branch Library plans to fight
problems not only associated
with food stamp benefits, but
“whatever the needs of the
people are,” said temporary
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to speak at
athletic banquet
Page 6
white schools. They feel that
he has been trained and he has
the expertise.”
„/
Asked why he didn’t take a
job in California or New York,
president, Gary Allen.
Allen called the meeting
after it was said that
supplemental funding for the
food stamp program might not
be provided.
Since that time Congress has
approved the supplemental
funding, but there is still a
possibility of a funding delay
and a loss of benefits for at
least a month.
Wilbur Allen, of the Georgia
Citizens Coalition Against
Hunger, one of two persons
invited to speak before the
group, said if the supplemental
funds are not available for
distribution in time for the
lime benefits, recipients would
as opposed to Paine’s chief
rival, Eskew’s answer was
simple again: “I didn’t get an
offer from California or New
York. I got offers from black
schools, but not white colleges.
“I said, ‘Hey, Bob, here’s the
opportunity you’ve been
looking for. Why wait another
year?”
Eskew will be the first black
coach in the history of Augusta
College. And he says that will
probably help draw the
community together.
Eskew did prove his one
year at Paine that you can have
a winner over night. His team
had won the district when it
was revealed that a player was
ineligible because he was one
hour short.
But equally important to
him was the “myth” he had to
erase. “What I had to erase was
the myth of a lot of white
coaches that they feel black
coaches are successful because
they have superior talent. I
established the fact that with
less talent, no scholarships, I
was able to take rejects from
other schools and beat white
schools.
“That was a determining
factor to influence (Augusta
College head coach Marvin)
Vanover to seek my services -
my coaching ability from a
strategy standpoint was one of
superb talent.”
have to wait until July. “That
would be very bad. More than
50,000 persons in this area are
on food stamps.”
Cal Thornton, administrative
aide to U.S. Rep. D. Douglass
Barnard, also spoke.
Allen said the shortage of
stamps came about as a result
of a change in food stamp
requirements which enabled
more persons to qualify. When
food stamps did not have to be
bought, “people who were at
the very bottom of the
economic ladder began
participating,” Allen said.
Allen said about one million
people were added to the food
stamp rolls because of it.
Congress was aware of the
depletion of funds for the
program, Allen said, but many
legislators wanted to cut it out
and saw this as the time to do
it.
Mass write-ins and marches
all over the South in eight
southern states mainly spurred
a change in this attitude, Allen
said. Now the program has
been given supplemental
funding for the remainder of
the year.
But Allen said the food
stamp program may still be in
trouble in September when
new funds are to be
appropriated.
Mr. Thornton said the food
stamp program is almost
assured no interruption this
year.
But he noted that many cuts
in order to balance the budget
are being made on the backs of
the poor because they are the
ones who can holler the least.
Thornton noted that
Barnard has voted for the food
stamp program.
Both Thornton and Allen
said grassroots efforts are
needed to make many changes.