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The Augusta News-Review October 25, 1980 •
(Augusta
(USPS 887 820)
D s’w ( » lUender Special Assistant to the Publisher
£ aU D - Walker Director of Special Projects
Frank Bowman News-Editor
Ms. F <^ ie Flon ° ' n '• Editor
Rev. R.E. Donaldson Advertising Manager
Ms. Marye M. James ’ ‘ ‘Sales Representative
Harvey Harrison • • ’ ’ *'' Administrative Assistant
Mrs. Rhonda Brown Administrative Assistant
Mrs. Mary Gordon Church Coordinator
Mrs. Geneva Y, / ’'' Aiken County Correspondent
Mrs. Fannie. J^ nso McDuffie County Correspondent
Mrs. Clara West Sports Editor
David Dupree ..• •* ; Editor
Mrs. Been Buchanan Columnist
Roosevelt Green ‘ • .Columnist
Al Irby Columnist
Mrs. Marian Waring•••••• .Columnist
FhUI , D 'y?™ B / ■ ..... Editorial Cartoonist, Columnist
Grady Abrams photographer
Mailing Address
Box 953 (USPS 887 820) Augusta, Ga.
Phone (404) 722-4555
Second Class Postage Paid Augusta, Ga. 30903 Jj IHII
AMALSAMATID Published Weekly
kZZXi publishers, inc.
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Taking a stand
We wish to congratulate the Rev.
Clyde Hill, members of his church
and residents of the Wrightsboro
Road community, for going before
City Council and successfully
blocking the issuance of a liquor
license for a store near Mt. Calvary
Baptist Church.
As the Rev. Hill so eloquently
told Council, “Our people must
learn that our hope is not in a
!
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R
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For several years 1 have had the good
fortune of working in an area of work
which allows me to gain some insight into
the problems of the disadvantaged whites,
as they relate to black people. Their place
on the ladder of affluence is only a
couple of rungs above the disadvantaged
black.
In fact, whites represent three-quarters
of the nation’s families listed as living in
poverty, and among the urban poor
two-thirds are white. The inflation and
taxes brought on by the Vietnam war
bear as unfairly on them as they do on us.
Many whites who work with me see their
spendable income shrinking and their
hopes fading. In misplaced anger they
usually turn against us. Hearing of black
demands and of governmental programs
for black advancement and racial
equality, they get the impression that we
are being favored at their expense. They
even suspect that we blacks are being
used as tools of the establishment to keep
them down. Instead of seeing us as fellow
victims, they attack us.
It is politically imperative that we
break through the barriers of distrust that
exist between us and the disadvantaged
white. We must be led by the knowledge
that there is more to unite us than to
divide us.
Both the black and white
Letters to the Editor
Urges newspaper to keep functioning
Dear Editor:
My letter, is essentially one of thanks,
prompted primarily in response to
“Blacks victims of Van Winkle malady”
in your October 18th issue.
My sincere thanks to Agbara and Kana
for a highly perceptive and superbly
written article. (Almost mental
plagiarism, for the words may well have
been stolen from the mind of any person
who examines the evidence.)
I will not mention the essence of the
article to assure that the curious will look
back to page 4 of that issue, or those who
may have simply glanced may decide to
look again.
1 will add, however, that persons with
the sensitivity and concern evident in
their writing, should also recognize their
responsibility of assuring that this small
newspaper reaches as many needy souls as
possible.
bottle.”
It is encouraging to see our
people assume responsibility for the
quality of life in our commimity.
Alcohol and drugs have for too
long intoxicated and destroyed our
people and our families. It is most
significant that this community
took a stand. If our community is
to be saved, we will have to save it.
Think about it
Poor whites suffer
nearly like blacks
By Grady Abrams
disadvantaged are victims of a system
whose income distribution is so
inequitable as to be almost unbelievable.
In 1910 the lowest tenth of the
population received 3.4 percent of the
nation’s income; today it gets 1 percent.
If the disadvantaged whites are to ever
reach their goal of a livable life in this
country, if they are ever to escape the
poverty that grinds them down, too, they
must ally with the blacks who are
victimized, too. No matter if they suffer
less than we because their skin is not
black. They still are oppressed, and
together we must make common cause
against governmental laws that pamper
the rich and impoverish the poor.
But there is the danger that hate
between the black and white
disadvantaged will prey on these two
communities and will further divide those
who should be natural allies. The
economic disadvantaged white today is
displaying a new militancy-largely
negative and defensive and largely
directed against us. However, blacks
should recognize that this new militancy
is brought on by economic conditions.
And every chance we get we should join
hands together, both the black and white
disadvantaged to make the system
equitable and workable for all of us. Think
about it.
On a budget so modest I dare not
estimate, it contends, FOR US. against
those with millions to spare, who would
rather that we were eradicated from this
earth, housed behind locks, or reduced to
animalistic servitude. With little effort, it
molds their thinking, and over the years it
has influenced ours-for we see ourselves
not as we are, but through the eyes of the
white- dominated media.
Our responsibility, then, is to assure
that our black press functions, and that
we all subscribe to our life sustaining
communications system.
I would like to mention Rev. Bobby
Truitt’s recent letter as worthy of being
read again. Mr. Abrams, while not as fluid
as some others, is yet quite poignant and
timely. The Rev. Green while different,
also adds significant breadth to our
newspaper, with philosophies worthy of
in-depth analysis.
Finally, to you, and your functional
Page 4
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9<Srauely
November 4 has been called a
“National Political Shopping Day,” with
the store being open from early Tuesday
morning until early evening. Black people
must come out and vote. They must shop
not merely for a president, but also for
their own civic interests. November 4 will
set the nation’s political course for much
of the 1980 s.
It is most important that we vote here
in the CSRA. There must be expanded
interest in our political status. There are
still twelve good days including two
weekends to mount a “Get Out The
Vote” campaign. There are over 100
black churches. Their ministers, officers
and members constitute a solid base. In
this sector and others named later in this
column, a simple plan to carry one or two
loads of individuals or families to voting
places can be organized. There are some
13 Greek-letter units, two large Masonic
organizations, along with their auxiliaries,
coupled with the Voters Leagues and
civic groups such as the Women’s Civic
Club, Links, National Council of
University Women and others.
Several neighborhood associations such
as the Bethlehem Area, Laney-Walker
Association, the Sand Hills and Hyde
Park groups can easily go into the local
neighborhoods. The SCLC, Ad Hoc
Committee, the Committee for
Community Betterment and others have
great potential. Then the NAACP has
been in this field for many years. There’s
no excuse for people not coming out and
exercising their civic duties and
responsibilities. An old Alpha adage
states: “A Voteless People, Is A Hopeless
People”.
During the 1976 national campaign the
black vote helped carry Richmond
County for Jimmy Carter. (I was here on
vacation to help with the Black
Bicentennial project which saluted the
Augusta J.E. Carter Family and the late
Congressman Robert Smalls). Will there
be active participation and voting in the
November 4 election? Are the issues
understood?
Agrees with editorial
Dear Editor:
Scores of highly respected and
Augusta-loving citizens fully agree with
the News-Review’s timely editorial
critizing the Chronicle Herald program to
get rid of Human Relations Commission
Executive Charles Walker.
We should be thankful that during the
staff, inclusive of Mr. Waring and Ms.
Flono: Whatever your motivations, 1 trust
that you will continue with our help, for
the job you do is critical to our survival
Paul Walker
P.O. Box 2808
Going Places
Political shopping
set for election day
By Philip Waring
CONGRATUALTIONS
Congratualtions to Mrs. Margret J.
Weston on the gound breaking of the one
million dollar health center named for her
at Clearwater, S.C. After a hard campaign
overcoming many barriers the federal
Farmers Home Association, the former
HEW, and others have now allocated
funds to make it a reality. There will be
over 17,000 needy people coming into
the public health center for medical and
dental services. Hers is an excellent “case
history” in public health community
organization and service. This column will
highlight more information on this hard
fought but successful health betterment
story later. And let’s hope it will gamer
the national publicity rightly deserve.
SUPPORT OUR MINI THEATRE
One of the most valuable cultural
institutions is the Augusta Mini-Theatre.
Its November 1 dramatic program,
“Ceremonies In Dark Old Men”, will ehlp
kick off the 1980-81 season. Tyronne
Butler, staff, advisory board and
associates deserve our cooperation and
support.
CHIT CHAT
Our condolences to the family of the
late Rev. Willie Russell, publisher of the
Albany Times. He was a colorful and
active leader in Georgia Black Press
activities. Our own Mrs. Mary Gordon
received her early newspaper training and
experience at his Albany
Times... Augustans were proud to note the
photo of Ms. Karen Brown (brilliant
daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Allen Brown) on
the front page of the August edition of
the Crisis magazine with the Dance
Theatre of Harlem...lt was good to see
Fannie Flono’s story on Governor
Andrew Brimmer’s appearance in Augusta
being featured nationally by the
Sengstacke publications.
past decade or so The New South
- education, government,
communications, etc. - has been busy
moving towards bring about equality of
treatment and better understanding
among all the people of our Region. This
has not happened with our
Chronicle-Herald, and it stands out like a
sore thumb!
Local Southern daily newspapers are
now read and distributed throughout our
Region. Its impossible to hide what the
communications media is doing or not
doing to furthering racial understanding,
equality and justice for women, balcks
and the disadvantaged. Unfortunately,
again, the Chronicle-Herald stands up like
a sore thumb. An example: When many
forces throughout the South and the
nation were hailing Georgia on the
Walking with dignity
Chicago, with the third largest public
school system in the United States, has
won at least one more year’s delay in its
20-year battle against parental, state, and
federal pressure for desegregation. Under
an agreement worked out with the United
States Justice Department, the Chicago
Board of Education has until next March
to come up with an acceptable
desegregation plan to be implemented for
the 1981-82 school year.
The agreement, described as a
“landmark” by some and a “sellout” by
others, comes:
*Two % years after a State of Illinois
report concluded that Chicago has “the
most highly segregated public school of
any large metropolitan area in the
country.’.
* Eighteen months after a United
States Department of Health Education,
and Welfare study found that Chicago has
“intentionally created and maintained a
racially discriminatory dual school
system.”
* Eleven months after HEW turned the
Chicago case over to the Justice
Department for prosecution. Advocates
of the preliminary desegregation
agreement, announced Sept. 24, point
out that it won unanimous support from
Chicago’s new school board. For the first
time this board has a black president and
its three white members are outnumbered
by five blacks and three Hispanics. Yet
critics are angered that the agreement lays
down no quotas for racial balance in
schools in Chicago, and accepts that a
number of schools will remain all-black.
INBALANCE, ONLY ABOUT 10%
The NAACP, which helped initiate the
Justice Department action, accuses the
federal authorities of watering down
earlier desegregation demands. The
agreement states, in part, that “this will
provide for the establishment of the
greatest practicable number of stably
desegregated schools, considering all the
circumstances in Chicago.” According to
school board spokesmen, a key limiting
factor on any desegregation plan is the
overall racial balance in the city’s public
schools. Last year 60.7 percent of the
passage of its Fair Employment Practice
Law (in state government), our two local
daily papers fought it with a passion! This
does not make for progress Or better
understanding in Augusta. While our
nation, and in large measure the South,
has established program services to bring
about change and human betterment -
women’s rights, fair practices in housing,
jobs, education, CETA and other
programs ■ the record will show that the
Chronicle-Herald has opposed all of them.
Admitted, a paper has a right to its own
opinion’s. But few of them show one
sidedness and lack of balance in not even
occasionally giving the opposite side of a
question. So many Augnstans are
embarrassed.
Many Old Time Augustans state that in
past decades the Chronicle exhibited a
Chicago dragging
feet on desegregation
By Al Irby
480,000 public school students in
Chicago were black; 20 percent were
white, and 17.2 percent were Hispanic.
This year, whites are expected to drop to
18.5 percent of enrollment citywide. The
result, say officials here, is that there
simply are not enough whites to go
around. Accordingly, the new agreement
calls on the city to provide special
educational programs to upgrade
standards for schools that cannot be
integrated.
SEPARATE BUT EQUAL’
The school board view is that the
agreement is a breakthrough because,
unlike earlier voluntary desegregation
agreements forced on the city by legal
action, this one is being closely
monitored by a United States District
Court-as was the case in Boston’s widely
publicized desegregation program. Thus,
although the guidelines appear to some to
allow a return to “separate but equal”
status, at least there is provision for
federal oversight and enforcement.
School board officials also point out that
it would have been wrong to come up
with “some instantaneous, overnight
solution which would have ruled out
community input.”
PLAN THAT IS VIABLE
Under the new agreement, the U.S.
Department of Education is providing a
$422,000 grant that will pay for a
full-time planning staff, outside
consultants, and a program to encourage
community participation in drawing up
the final desegregation plan for Chicago
over the next six months. Another
safeguard built into the agreement is that
mandatory measures can include
redrawing school attendance zones,
reorganizing grade structures of schools,
pairing and clustering of schools, and
busing of students. “Allocation of any
new federal funds will be closely
monitored by the Justice Department to
ensure that they are going to use all
resources in the most effective way to
end segregation.
fairer and more responsible editorial
position. Let’s hope that these examples
will be copied. There is agreement that
their positions on race relations by the
daily papers could not possibly hold
currency. May we congratualte the
News-Review for its courage in going into
the heart of the Charles Walker matter.
Let’s all strive for more progress, fairness
and growth of Augusta!
DESPITE DISAPPROVAL BY THE
U N.» GREAT RELIGIOUS AND
HUMAN RIGHTS BODIES AROUND
THE WORLD, THE
CHRONICLE-HERALD HAS BEEN A
STAUNCH SUPPORTER OF RACISM
AND APARTHEID IN SOUTH AFRICA!
James M. Gaulden
1217 Augusta Ave.