Newspaper Page Text
Atlanta Leaders Kept
Racial Turmoil at Bay
in sO’s/6O’s
LIB
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Augusta Nms-S
Volume 10
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Mrs. Viola Elam
MRS. VIOLA ELAM was honored at the NAACP
annual banquet Thursday night. A member of the
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, she spearheaded a drive
in which the sorority got more than a hundred new
members for the local NAACP chapter.
... .Mrs. Elam challenged other sororities to match
the feat.
... .The Citizen of the Year Award went to the Stoney
Medical Dental Pharmaceutical Society. Mrs. Ann
Brown accepted the award.
Vandals Harrass
Bel Air Residents
Residents of Bel Air
Hills Estates have been
recently plagued with
vandals who have
knocked down mailboxes
and driven cars through
the yards.
These incidents have
been repeated several
times during the past
nine months, residents
said.
David C. Brown, 1538
Flagler Road, said a car
drove through his yard
early Sunday morning,
Atlanta Leaders Kept Racial Turmoil at Bay in sO’s 6O’s
....In 1957, Gov. Marvin
Griffin vowed that
Atlanta’s city buses
would remain segregated
even if he had to dispatch
National Guard troops to
drive them. State
Adjutant General G. J.
Hearn, encountering
Police Chief Herbert
Jenkins on one of those
tense days, called out:
“Chief, if I have to
take over those buses,
can I count on you to help
me?”
Jenkins responded
deftly:
“General, that
depends on whose side you
are on. I’ll be on the side
of the federal court and
the Third U.S. Army.”
Recalling that
encounter recently,
Jenkins commented,
“That was the only
defense I had on some of
those days back then. The
federal court and the
Third Army can’t be
wrong, I’d say - and they
aren’t going to lose,
either.”
vr Atlanta moved to the
brink of racial mob
Number 36
making ” doughnut-type
circles” around a pine
tree. He said a similar
incident occurred a
month ago when someone
drove through his yard
knocking down azealea
bushes and other flowers.
AT the same time
most of the mailboxes
along Flagler Road were
knocked down, he said.
The incidents have
been reported to the
Richmond County
Sheriff’s Department
Brown said.
voilence repeatedly d
uring the late 1950 s and
the 19605, but the
explosive rage that
scorched Los Angeles,
Newark, Jackson, Miss.,
and dozens of other
American cities never
was ignited here.
The city was viewed
as a haven, relatively
speaking, to those who
wanted Martin Luther
King Jr. to retreat here
because of threats on his
life.
King, whose memory
was praised here last
week, was honored
openly by Atlanta’s civic
community in 1965, and
the massive funeral after
his assassination in 1968
was orderly and well
protected.
If Atlanta was safer,
if it was different, then
why?
Was it true that
Atlanta really was “the
city too busy to hate?”
Not likely. History does
not support the idea that
hate took no hold here.
Blaqk police Major
Joe Amos recalls vividly
Three Augusta Women
are Raped
\ IY r
>Page 1
I BRfiW * I
Ex-Dropout, Offender Heads Indiana NAACP
Fiono Will Be Missed
News-Review, News-Editor Fannie Fiono has
accepted a position as copy editor as the
Greensville News in Greenville, S.C.
Fannie’s contributions at the News-Review
were exceeded only by her sacrificial attitude.
Fannie came to us a year and a half ago saying
she wanted to work for us. She had just left the
Augusta Chronicle, the first black to work full
time for that paper.
We told Fannie we wanted to hire her but we
didn’t have the money.
A first place winner for investigative
reporting by United Press International, she
replied: “I’ll work for you for the minimum
wage.” Frankly, we couldn’t afford that, but there
was no way we were going to turn her down.
In order to make ends meet, she worked part
time at University Hospital and as a stringer for
the Atlanta Journal. When another reporter
applied for a job for which we had no money.
Fannie said, “We need him, give him part of my
salary.”
It goes without saying that we wish her well
in her new opportunity for professional growth.
We will sorely miss her. But we are very grateful
to have had her, even for a little while.
CoaHtion Supports
Augusta News-Review
The members of a coalition of black
organizations would like to express our support of
Mallory K. Millender and the Augusta News-
Review in their struggle to control and print that
which is in the interest of the black community.
The refusal of L.D. Waters to print authorized
materials because of personal sentiments is a
direct violation of the first Amendment (1791) of
The Constitution of the United States.
Since the existence of The Augusta News-
Review (“Tell It Like It Is Paper”) the black
community has been educated and represented by
a staff that prints information and issues that are
relevant to the black community.
We, therefore, understanding that our
struggle is one, have united to support Brother
Millender by any means necessary.
One Struggle, One Fight,
The Black United Front-Ernest Louis,
Chairperson
The Sand Hill Organization - Mrs. Willie Mae
Cuffie
Coalition On Hunger - Wilbert Allen, President
that a childhood friend
was short-changed by a
white grocer when sent to
the store with the
family’s only food dollar
for a week. When the
boy’s father came to
protest, Amos said, he
was called a liar,
arrested without a
chance to explain, and
then had to pay $7.50 to
get out of jail.
“Those things
happened
frequently... And as a
grownup, you knew when
you were at Rich’s
spending your hard
earned money, you had to
be fast. It nature called
urgently, you had to run
to Terminal Station to use
a restroom. It gave you
an understanding when
some people became
violent.”
So the seeds of Black
rage were sown and
cultivated here, as
elsewhere.
But history shows
that Atlanta’s leaders,
both black and white,
responded with wisdom
at certain crucial times.
January 24, 1981
For example, Chief
Jenkins, under the
leadership of Mayor
William B. Hartsfield,
hired black police
officers as early as 1948.
And when
demonstrations came in
the 19505, Jenkins made
sure the presence of the
police was felt strongly.
That still
distinguishes Atlanta. As
recently as 1979, police
were nowhere in view of
Decatur, Ala., and
Greensboro, N.C., when
blacks and whites
clashed violently with
weapons.
The Atlanta Transit
Authority’s buses were
desegregated peacefully,
largely because Jenkins
and Hartsfield
'communicated directly
with the Rev. Martin
Luther King Sr. and the
Rev. William Holmes
Borders.
At Rich’s department
store, where blacks
focused their lunch
counter demonstrations
in 1959 and 1960, chief
executive Richard Rich *
Tennis Star Goolagong is
Aboriginal;
Recalls Being Called Nigger
Page 1
John Bennett
Yvonne Goolagong
Recalls Being
Called A‘Nigger’
After 10 years as one
of the top women tennis
players on the pro tour,
Evonne Goolagong-
Cawley has finally spoke
out on her roots as an
Aborigine and admitted
she has been called a
“nigger.”
The 29-year-old two
time (1971 and 1980)
Wimbledon champ,
whose honey complexion
has sparked conversation
that she is something
other than white, said she
delayed talking about her
heritage because she has
been too busy playing
tennis and suffered only
“isolated incidents” of
racism while on the pro
tour.
when he finally agreed
after a year of resistance
to desegreate the
counters - went all the
way. He did not stage
separate retreating
actions at the beauty
parlor, then the barber
shop, then the dressing
rooms.
Other merchants
followed that lead.
Long before the
street demonstrations,
however, Atlanta’s black
citizens experience the
power of the vote.
For generations,
blacks could vote only in
general elections after
whites made the real
choices in white-only
primary elections. But
early on, in the 19305,
Atlanta’s black voters
tasted victory in a real
election, when
progressive Mayor Jim
Key faced a recall vote.
“Key advocated
greatly disturbing things,
such as Sunday baseball
and alcohol sales,”
recalled Junkins, 74, then
a rookie cop assigned to
Key. “The blacks never
Less than 75 percent advertising
“We never grew up
with racism or anything
like that,” she says of her
family’s life as the lone
Aboriginal group in
Barellan, Austrailia. Os
her parents, who are
Aboriginal “with some
white blood mixed in,”
Mrs. Cawley notes they
are light-skinned. Yet
her four brothers (of
eigh' children) are dark
skinned.
lan, the youngest, is a
student at Southwest
Texas State University
and is a member of the
eightman tennis team
there.
continued on page 2
before had been allowed
to vote when it really
counted. But a recall
election is like a general
election. They organized
and rushed to the polls.
They voted in a bloc. Key
was the beneficiary of the
first bloc vote.”
The elder King,
Borders, A.T. Walden
and other blacks then
asked Key to hire some
black police officers.
They mayor responded
with understanding,
Jenkins said, but said
that such a step would not
be possible for some
time.
“But Key told me
right then, ‘Some day,
you’re going to work with
black policemen. You
ought to be prepared.’
“Hartsfield, later,
saw what was coming
clearer than anyone,”
Jenkins said. “When he
saw a story about the
Supreme Court ruling in a
Texas case that the
primary was
unconstitutional, he
cont inued on page 2
Ex-Augusta Drop-Out,
E x-Offender
Heads Indiana NAACP
Page 1
EVANSVILLE, IND.-
- John Bennett, a native
of Augusta, Georgia,
moved to Evansville,
Indiana in March of 1966.
When he arrived in
Evansville, Bennett was
like too many young men
of the 60s. He was a high
school drop-out as well as
an ex-offender.
After working
several non-productive
jobs between 1966 and
1969, he decided that a
>?rson who was a high
school drop-out and an
ex-offender had little
hope of ever being more
than a person relegated
to menial jobs and
obscurity.
He also saw that an
ex-offender could easily
find one’s self again
violating the law. His life
changed. And last month,
he was elected president
of the Evansville
NAACP.
In 1968, Bennett
obtained his high school
equivalency certificated
and enrolled at Indiana
State University of
Evansville.
During this time, he
became involved in the
civil rights movement, a
member of the national
staff for the election of
presidential candidate,
Eugene McCarthy
Involved in SCLC’s
Operation Bread Basket.
Between 1969 and
1973, he was the assistant
director of the Unity
House, a component of
the Community Action
Program of Evansville
(CAPE). He was later
promoted to the assistant
program director of the
multi-purpose service
systems and again
promoted to the position
of manpower coordinator
of the entire CAPE
agency.
While being deeply
involved with his CAPE
activities, he found time
to volunteer to work with
the newly formed
Three Women Raped
Three Richmond
County women were
raped last week.
A Northon Drive
woman told sheriff’s
deputies that a man
entered her home
through a window, woke
her up, and threatned to
kill her if she made any
noise. The man struck
her on the head with a
pistol then raped her
before leaving with her
pocket book and personal
papers.
A Second Avenue
woman said she was
walking home from work
when a man approached
her in the Sears parking
lot. She accepted a ride
from the man who took
her to a service station to
get some air in a tie and
then said he had to stop
by his house before
taking her home.
The woman said she
tried to get out of the car
but the man reached
behind her and locked the
door. He keep his hand in
his right jacket pocket,
she said.
25<
community organization,
Evansville Black
Coalition, Inc. The
coalition was involved in
trying to lower the racial
barriers in the
construction industry.
While working with
that organization, he was
an intragal part in the
development of
Evansville Plan for equal
employment opportunity.
He saw each respective
construction trade lower
its racial barriers and
accept for the first time
Black Journeymen,
apprentices, and
trainees. This, he
confided, is one of his
most satisfying
accomplishments and is
still closely affiliated to
the coalition, being its
treasurer since 1978.
In 1973 he accepted a
position with the Circuit
Court as the assistant
coordinator of counseling
services for parolees.
This program was housed
at the University of
.Evansville. In 1973, he
became director of the
Evansville Police
Community Relations
Project. This was a part
time position where he
worked to improve the
image of the police
officers in the black
community.
From 1974 to 1977, he
was the director of
Operations for the
Community Action
Program of Evansville.
In this capacity, he was
responsible for the
direction of seven
programs. He supervised
a staff of eighty-nine
persons and budget of 1.5
million dollars. While
working as the Director
of Operations for CaPE,
he founded Bennetts
Janitorial Service in 1977
and is its owner.
Since the founding of
his janitorial service, he
has formed a second
Continued on Page 5
At his house In the
Southgate Villa
Apartments, the woman
said he opened the car
door on her side, took her
to his apartment, and
locked the door.
He then said, “You
have to trust someone,
You may as well as start
now.” He then raped the
woman.
In a similar case, an
Augusta Avenue woman
was raped at 2202
Southgate Drive last
Friday.
The woman said her
husband had left her at
Hill Food Store on
Wrightsboro Road. As
she was walking home,
a .nan offered her a ride.
She said she declined,
but later accepted after
the man said he was
married.
Once in the car,she
said the man pulled a
revolver and said he was
looking for a man named
James. He took her to the
Southgate address where
he raped her.