Newspaper Page Text
Millionaire Gaston
Trying To Buy
Pilgrim Insurance Co
See Story On Page 1
Volume 10 Number 49
CSRA Business League
The Reagan ad
ministration budget cuts
will force the CSRA
Business League to close its
door April 30 unless there
is high-level intervention,
acqflr'diiT£~-, to Business
League
A letter from Business
League officers dated April
2, said, “We have been
notified that the CSRA
Business League will not be
funded as of May 1. This
was done on the basis of
population for this Standard
Metropolitan Statistical
Area.” Population was
among the reasons, the
officers said, but the major
reason was the budget cut.
Business League
Executive Director Harvey
L. Johnson said, ‘Tm not
optimistic. I don’t know
Black Dentist Saves The Day For Calvin Peete
When Calvin Peete
played the first round erf
the Masters golf tour
nament Thursday, winning
was not on his mind. In
fact he was thinking about
quitting. He wound up
shooting a 75 for the day.
Thursday night he
visited Dr. Willis J.
Walker, a local dentist. On
Friday after he shot a 2
under par 70, he said,
“I've got no problems
right now. It was so bad
yesterday I wanted to
withdraw.”
Asked if he seriously
considered withdrawing, he
said, “Not seriously, but it
crossed my mind a couple
of times.”
His problem was not a
bad tooth. It was a gum
infection in the roof erf his
mouth. “The doctor had to
open it up, go m there
and drain it,” Peete said of
the aliment that peaked at
the Masters after bothering
him off and on for three
years.
Peete no longer wants
his mouth to be a focal
point when people speak of
him. In November he had
the two diamonds in his
front teeth removed.
His teeth now look like
polished pearls. “I felt the
novelty of the diamonds
Joe Louis, A Champ For All Seasons
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The Brown Bomber Is Gone
This week, Blacks, who
lived through the 30’s and
40’s, are talking about Joe
Louis. His death has served
tn remind us of the
Augusta
Paine College Library
what’s going to happen.
At this point it looks dim.
“It’s going to end
April 30th unless we can
get our congressmen to bail
us out.”
Congressman Doug
Barnard told the News-
Review he has been in
touch with the secretary erf
commerce and he is trying
to get the Commerce
Department to judge the
Business League on the
basis of the 11
counties it serves.
On that basis the
population would be more
than 400,000. That is
higher than the Savannah
SMSA, whose business
league was funded again
this year.
The CSRA Business
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Qivinftete
had worn off. I didn’t want
to be recognized as the
Black guy with the
diamonds in his teeth. I
wanted to be recognized for
my calibre of play and for
my character. I want people
to recognize me for what I
inestimateable role he
played in Black history.
While Hitler, was in
Germany, spouting his
racist venom and exalting
Black Dentist
Saves The Day For
Calvin Peete
See Story On Page 1
League was founded in
April of 1970 under a grant
from the Department of
Commerce through the
Minority Business
Development Agency.
Today it has 235
members, and has brought
almost sl2 millicm into the
community in the form of
loans and procurement
contracts.
It has other ap
plications for loans and
contracts still pending,
Johnson said.
The Business League’s
six employees will have to
find new jobs, if the agency
closes, Johnson said, ad
ding “Our jobs are our last
concern. Our primary
concern is that our clients
need our services.”
am and who I am.”
Calvin Peete is a
family-man. He and his
wife, Christine, have four
children, three boys and a
girl. Mrs. Peete was a 7th
and Bth grader English
teacher until she retired
the aryan race, Joe Louis
was in Madison Square
Garden knocking their
“heads off’’ and the rest
of us, (Blacks) particularity
in the South, had our head
stuck in the laughing
barrell. It was funny. It was
hilarious for us, who
happened to be kids.
Grown folks, who had to
deal with whites everyday,
had to contain their
emotions, they didn’t dare
laugh out loud. But white
folks knew they were
laughing on the inside. This
made them see red (they
turned red also). They
didn’t like joe. He was
king, a master of the
pugulistic art.
wnen Joe became the
heavy weight champion of
the world in 1937, Black
people in America didn’t
have much to laugh about.
It was the decade of the
soup line relief programs,
hunger and despair. We
desperately needed a
victory. Joe Louis gave us
the vicarious victory we
needed to keep our dreams
April 18, 1\
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last year to tour with her
husband.
She admits that she
had no interest in golf
before she met her
husband, and other than
him, she has not interest in
it now.
He said her presence
helps him mentally. “Now
I’ve got someone to talk to,
someone to throw my clubs
at when I get upset after
missing a couple of putts
someone to take it out on
(laughter).
“She helps me out. Til
sit down and go over my
game plan and a lot of time
there’s something I forgot
and she can always bring it
back.
“At the stage I am,
golf is more mental than
physical. I will probably
never be able to hit the ball
better than I can today, but
Til be able to manage it
better -- to know what shot
is your best shot; to know
what shot you're capable of
hitting and what shot
you’re not capable of
hitting.”
During the Masters he
hit well enough (290) to get
an automatic invitation to
return next year. For the
four days he shot a 75, 70, •
71 and 74.
alive. His victories were out
victories we lived every
exciting moment with him,
from the sound of the bell
until his opponents' knees
buckled and sank to the
floor.
Joe Louis was the
second Black heavy weight
champion this country had
ever known (the first was
Jack Johnson) boxing was,
in the main, dominated by
white men. Joe turned this
trend around and now all of
the would-be white
champions are content
doing missionary work.
Rocky Marciano, the one
white champion we have
had since Joe Louis,
whipped Joe then opted to
retire in a hurry. We are
glad he did. He saved his
face in more ways then
one. These Black boys
don’t like for white folks to
“beat up” their elders.
But Joe Louis was
every body’s champion he
was a gentleman in rought
territory. Born the son of a
sharecropper, he fought his
Mobile Lynching
Is Linked To
Mixed Dating
See Story On Page 1
Peete said he has
bought golf clubs for his
sons, ages 12, 11 and 10.
But he would prefer that
they become doctors or
lawyers.
Asked if being away
from them so much con
cerned him, he said, yes,
but “right now the priority
is trying to get some
money to take care erf the
family.”
He is a far cry better
off than when he worked as
a self-employed salesman,
selling clothes to migrant
workers in Florida. But that
job really provided him
with the time to play golf.
He didn’t start playing until
he was 23. He is now 37.
I didn’t work until on
the weekends. I wouldn't
think about collecting or
going to people’s house
until after 5 or 6 o’clock
after they got off. So that
gave me the time to do
what I wanted to do.”
The next thing he
wants to do is to win the
U.S. Open. He also
foresees winning the
Masters “provided I can
get here enough times.”
Next year he could be
the only Black playing at
the Masters. Lee Elder
missed the cut by two
strokes after shooting 77
Thursday and 73 on Friday.
way to the top.
Last Sunday, Joe Louis
lost the fourth fight of his
stunning career. He suc
cumbed to a heart attact.
He had been ailing for
several years, but Joe did
not die easily or quickly.
He was not an easy man to
whip and for all we know
he may be just catching his
second wind before the bell
sounds for another round.
Confined to a
wheelchair since 1977 the
indomitable Louis still
remained active. He spent
Saturday night prior to his
attack. watching Larry
Holmes successfully defend
his heavy weight title, a
feat which he accomplished
25 times during a reign
which lasted longer than
any other champion in his
class. (1937 - 1949).
The former champion
will lie in state Thursday at
Caesars Palace where he
served as a “greeter.”
The funeral will be held
Friday, April 17, with the
Rev. Jesse Jackson founder
of, the PUSH, officiating.
Less than 75 percent advertising
NEWEST SALESMAN--
Seven-year-old salesman
Cornelius Bryant is a recent
addition to the Augusta
News-Review staff. The
job was passed along to
him by his 16-year-old god
brother, John Freeman.
.... Cornelius has a neigh
borhood route in the “Hill”
section of town. His god
mother, Mrs. Dorothy
Gilbert, drives him within
the area and he takes the
papers door-to-door. Sales
are increasing on his route
and the youngster says, “I
don’t like to credit.... “I
like the customers who pay
in advance and give tips.”
Three White Men Held
In Mobile Lynching
MOBILE, ALA--A
gruesome pseudo lynching
that tight-lipped authorities
claim isn’t even a racial
case may have taken the
life of “a clean-cut 19 year
old-kid” mistaken for
another Black youth who
has dated a white girl.
Three white men are
being held.
The only theory of why
Michael Donald, a masonry
student was beaten,
strangled and left hanging
from a tree in a racially
mixed neighborhood, came
from his brother, Stanley
Donald of Biloxi, Miss.
“We have been told he
might have been mistaken
for somebody he. worked
with that was dating a
white woman,” Stanley
Donald said.
“We don’t know and
the police won’t tell us
anything.”
Michael Stanley’s body
was found Saturday
morning, March 20,
hanging from a tree with a
noose of plastic rope about
his neck.
An autopsy showed he
had been beaten and
strangled and was dead
when strung to the elm
tree.
But his killers ap
parently intended to leave
the impression he had been
hanged.
Ralph Hayes, 23;
J immy Egar, 22, and his
brother Johnny Edgar, 26,
have been charged with
killing Donald and are
being held in $250,000 bail.
Although they made
arrests, police have not
given any motive for the
slayings.
But both police and
Mobile County district
attorney Chris Galanos
called the mistaken identity
theory “speculative.”
Cecelia Perry, the
victim’s older sister, said
she too had heard the
mistaken identity theory but
thought “he was just in the
ABC’s Max Robinson Honored By SCLC
A very successful
Second Annual Martin
Luther King Jr. Memorial
Drum Major Awards Dinner
highlighted the 13th an
niversary of Dr. King’s
assassination in Atlanta,
Georgia. A host of very
renown local and national
dignitaries participated in
what turned out to be an
inspirational as well as
entertaining fundraiser for
Funeral Services
Held For
Champ Joe Louis
See Story On Page 1
Millionaire A. Gaston
Seeks To Buy Pilgrim
Millionaire A.G.
Gaston of Birmingham, Ala.
is seeking to buy the
Augusta-based Pilgrim
Health and Life Insurance
Co., according to a
spokesman for the Booker
T. Washington Insurance
Co., owned by Gaston.
In a letter dated April
2, Louis J. Willie, executive
vice-president of the
Booker T. Washington
Ifisurance Co., told Pilgrim
stockholders - that the
Insurance Commissioner of
Georgia has approved the
application erf his company
"seeking permission to
attempt to obtain control”
of Pilgrim.
The Birmingham-based
company already owns
7,900 shares of Pilgrim
wrong place at the wrong
time.”
Fellow workers in the
newspaper mailrocm of the
Mobile Press-Register,
where Donald worked part
time, said there was un
confirmed speculation he
was dating a white woman.
Friends said Donald, a
quiet, introspective youth,
kept to himself and never
said much about his private
life.
But Galanos said he
had no information that the
slaying was racially
motivated.
“I know of nothing
that would link Mr. Donald
with any white woman,”
he said. “This story has
surfaced in numerous
versions from the outset.
We sent somebody over
to the newspaper Saturday
night and they weren't able
to get any confirmation on
it. This is one of the more
unfortunate spinoffs to what
obviously is a tragic
situation.
“I can truthfully tell
you that I know’ of nothing
at this stage that would
indicate the crime was
racially motivated. I have
no knowledge that this
young man had any white
female friends, much less a
girlfriend.
Police Capt. Sam
McLarty said tjie three
white suspects “appeared
to be junkies” but refused
to say if drugs were
suspected as a motive.
Galanos would neither
confirm nor deny that drugs
may have been involved.
He said investigators had
described Donald as "a
cleancut 19-year-oid kid.”
“Everyone we talked
to that knew Michael had
nothing but good things to
say about him,” Galanos
said.
In a related
development, Mobile
County Sheriff Tom Purvis
citicized an Atlanta NAACP
official's call for a federal
the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference-.
Award categories
included government,
education, the performing
arts, law and justice,
business and com
munications. A special
award was presented to
civil rights pioneer Dr.
Septima Clark for her more
than 65 years of dedicated
service in civil and human
25C
stock, and, according to
Willie, is seeking to acquire
“only an additional 12,101
shares or such number as
shall represent 50 percent
plus one share of the
outstanding stock of Pilgrim
Health and Life Insurance
Co.' 1
Booker T.
Washingotion is offering to
buy Pilgrim stock at SSO a
share.
Augusta atty. John B.
Watkins has been hired by
the Booker T. Washington
Co. to solicit the sale of
Pilgrim stock, Willie said.
Solomon W. Walker 11,
Pilgrim’s board chairman,
was unavailable for com
ment, and President W.S.
Hornsby 111 had no com
ment.
investigation into what he
called a “lynching.”
“There probably has
never been in this century
a more publicized or more
heinous series of murders
than what has taken place
in Atlanta,” said Purvis.
“I would not presume
to tell them what to do to
ease their situation and I
don’t think anyone should
tell the Mobile police or
the mayor of the city of
Mobile how to do it.”
In Mobile, Dr. Robert
Gilliard, president of the
Mobile chapter of the
NAACP, said “We are
extremely pleased the
police department has made
some arrests.”
An Atlanta NAACP
official had called on the
Justice Department to
investigate the “lynching.”
In Washington, Rep.
John Conyers, D-Mich.,
also asked Attorney General
William French for a
federal inquiry into the
slaying.
Conyers said there had
not been a lynching in the
nation since the last
documented case in
Poplarville, Miss, in 1959.
Donald, one of seven
children, was last seen the
night before his body was
found when he left his
aunt’s house in a housing
project to buy a pack erf
cigarettes at a nearby
service station.
The white men booked
in the murder were
described as “street
toughs.”
Ron Tate, a spokesman
for the State Department
of Corrections, said the
younger Edgar was paroled
in 1979 after serving about
a year erf a 20-month
sentence for carnal
knowledge and burglary.
Tate said Hayes served
four months of a one-year
sentence for convictions of
burglary and marijuana
possession. He was paroled
in 1978.
ights.
Atlanta's own Mayor
Maynard Jackson and
California Congressman
Ron Dellums received
awards in government. In
accepting his award,
Dellums commented that
we live in a time “when
(Americans) are to be
radically rethinking the
Continued On Page 6