Newspaper Page Text
Redd Foxx Has His
Lawyer Jailed On
Bad Check Charge
pagel
(mumwto News-Sir"
warren k wnDlet ;
Volume 10 Number 53
Bennie Dunn’s Dream Come
True: His Own Barber Shop
Owning his own barber
shop means a lot to Bennie
Dunn, who recently bought
Reese’s Tonsorial Parlor on
Twelth Street.
When he finished
Master Barber College in
1970 -- he was the first and
only Black at that time
he began working for Carl
E. Reese in the barber
shop he was to buy 10
years later.
After working for a
year with Reese, he began
working at Daniel Village
Barber Shop where he was
Augusta’s first Black barber
to work for a white-owned
and operated barber shop.
As might be an
ticipated, there were some
problems. “One old guy,”
he recalled "accidentally
Rally Leaders Say Local
Ministers Are Unconcerned
Speakers at a rally to
protest President Reagan’s
proposed budget cuts were
critical of local ministers.
“They’re not concerned
about you. Where are those
preachers that get up and
told about what Jesus said?
But if you can’t do what he
said ain’t no need to talk
about it,” said Wilbert
Allen, one of the organizers
of the rally held in May
Park Saturday.
Blondell Conley, of the
local chapter of the
Southern Christian
Leadership Conference,
urged those in attendance
Hooks Heads Leadership Conference
Benjamin L. Hooks,
executive director of the
NAACP, last week was
elected Chairman of the
Leadership Conference on
Civil Rights.
The 31-year-old civil
rights lobbying
organization, which serves
as an umbrella for 152
national civil rights.
Local NAACP Seeks To Raise SIO,OOO
Charles W. Walker,
director of the Augusta-
Richmond County Human
Relations Commission, said
last week that Blacks are
living in a twilight zone and
can’t find the enemy. “It
might well be that at least
part of that enemy dwells
right in our midst.”
Walker was the
speaker for the local
NAACP’s kickoff of a
SIO,OOO fundraising effort.
“We have met the
enemy and he is us,”
Walker said, a adding that
• the “greatest enemies of
the civil rights movement in
the eighties are com
placency, inertia, and in
difference. And that’s the
twilight zone in which we
live.”
In earlier days, he said
Blacks could easily identify
the enemy because they
used sticks and snarling
dogs and laws so clearly
written that anyone who
could read knew who the
enemy was.
“Because we don’t see
the snarling dogs and the
sticks and many of the laws
have cnangea, for some of
us that means the struggle
sat in my chair and I
started to put on my
barber's gown. He jumped
up and made a big scene.
He said he didn’t want a
nigger cutting his hair.
That’s exactly what he
said.”
One or,two employees
in the shop didn't take to
him too well either. “It
wasn't anything they said.
It was more what they
didn’t say -a case of
attitude.”
“But after a while we
got along pretty good. The
management was good, I
didn’t have anymore
problems.”
But after two years,
Dunn left to work in a
textile mill, cutting hair
part-time. The mill pay
to write their congressmen,
but she added, “and for
goodness sake let’s deal
with these ministers.
“The church is going
to be shut because there
ain’t going to be no
money to put on the
table.”
Mrs. Mary Utley,
director of the Hyde Park
Community Center, was
one of a delegation of
Aug us tans who went to
Washington, D.C. last week
to take part in a demon
stration against the budget
cuts.
“I’m 67 years old,”
religious and labor
coalitions, was founded in
Washington, D.C. in 1950.
It grew out of two
organizations, the National
Council for a Permanent
Fair Employment Practices
Commission (FEPC),
founded by the late A.
Philip Randolph, President
of the Sleeping Car Porters,
is over. That means we’ve
won the war and we can go
home now.”
But, he remained, his
audience, hunger, sickness,
malnutrition, prejudice and
discrimination remain.
St. Louis Students
Paid To Desegregate
The department of
Justice and the St. Louis
Board of Education have
proposed an innovative plan
to desegregate city and
suburban schools in the St.
Louis metropolitan area by
giving financial incentives
to both students and school
districts that participate in
a voluntary school
desegregation plan.
Attorney General
William French Smith said
the voluntary student
exchange plan was filed in
U.S. District Count in St.
Louis, Missouri, at the
direction of Judge William
L. Hungate who is con
sidering how to desegregate
Rally Leaders Say
Local Ministers
Unconcerned
pagel
was good and he soon
stopped barbering
altogether.
But in spite of the
money, he didn’t enjoy the
work. “I was a shift
supervisor and I hated
every minute of it.” he
said.
And he longed to
get back into barbering. “I
though if I ever got the
money to get my own shop
I’d get back into it.”
He saved his money
and in January of this year,
his chance came.
But there was at least
one other important factor:
his wife died last year. “I
had to work out something
in order to spend more
time with my daughter.
That had something to do
,she said, "If they cut our
program what is going to
happen to us? We done
worked and made the
money, but now they are
going to take it back.”
Accussing the Reagan
administration of stealing
from the poor and giving to
the rich, she said, “Ain’t
no way Fm gang to stand
up and watch a rich man
take my money. Let’s get
up off our stools of do
nothing and fight.”
And signaling a
warning to the President,
she said, “There’s a God
that sits high, but looks
and tne National
Emergency Civil Rights
Mobilization Group,
Founder of the Leadership
Conference were Randolph,
Arnold Aronson, a social
worker, and Roy Wilkins,
NAACP executive director
emeritus, who served as
the conference’s first
chairman.
“The obvious has been
replaced by the subtle
judicial discretion, selective
prosecution, and harmless
errors.
At best, he said, Black
people have been going in
circles and at worst we
public schools in me
metropolitan area.
Tlte plan also proposes
establishing four more
magnet schools in the city
to attract city and county
students who wish to
participate in aspecialized
instruction program.
Under the plan, white
students in suburban
districts who agree to
attend predominantly Black
schools in St. Louis and
Black city students who
agree to attend white
suburban schools would
receive a half year of
tuition-free education at any
Missouri state in
stitutuvmnmx xigher
May 16,1981
with it, too.
A native of Beech
Island, S.C., he credits
Reese for smoothing his
path. “I got a lot of
cooperation from Mr. Reese
that I wouldn’t have gotten
if I had started my shopt
from the ground up.
In buying Reese's
Tonsorial Parlor, Dunn
acquired a shop that dates
back to 1946. And Reese
has been an agent working
out of the Secretary ot
State’s office since he was
appoinnted to that position
by former Gov. Carl
Sanders in the mid-60s.
Asked if the reality of
ownership lived up to his
expectations, Dunn said,
“It’s a little better than I
expected, for starting off.”
low.
City Councilman Willie
Mays chided people who
pack city council cham
bers to block a liqour
license but who walk out
after that vote when there
is on the agenda a vote
that would provide millions
erf dollars to help poor
people.
“Numbers make a
difference,” he said, urging
the sparse crowd to attend
public meetings. They
(elected officials) enjoy
being in public office. Your
presence makes them say
yes when they want to say
no.”
Dr. Hooks, NAACP
executive director since
1977, succeeded Clarence
Mitchell as LCCR Chair
man, becoming the 4th
official to chair the civil
rights group. Mitchell, the
retired director of the
NAACP Washington
Bureau, is presently a
consultant to the NAACP.
have failed to recognize the
enemy and we fight among
ourselves
"We must conduct our
own surveys and develop
our strategies based on
what we know about our
own needs.”
education for each year
completed in the school
integration program.
All costs of the plan
would be borne by the
state. The total extra cost
to the state would Lc in the
neighborhood of S 6 million,
including transportation.
The 23 suburban St.
Louis school districts, as
well as school districts in
neighboring St. Charles and
Jefferson Counties, would
be encouraged but not be
required to participate in
the plan, and participating
districts would be reim
bursed for all expenses of
educating the transfer
students.
Suit Claims
Woman Was Ali’s
Mistress At 12
page 3
st .
BENNIE DUNN
Fired Coach Goes Beserk,
Charges Into Truck, Dies
PINEVILLE, Ky. - A
teacher dismissed as head
football coach at Pineville
High School erupted at his
home, breaking glass and
furniture, an later ran from
a hospital into the path of a
trailer truck and was killed.
Eddie Bishop, 24, a
father of one, died of
severe head injuries several
hours after the incident
despite frantic efforts to
save him.
Redd Foxx Has His Lawyer
Jailed On Bad Check Charge
Z WliiL '
REDDFOXX
LOS ANGELES - Actor
-comedian Redd Foxx was
not in a joking mood when
he discovered a lawyer he’d
been paying SI,OOO a week
had foreged two 55.000
checks and deposited the
510,000 into his personal
account.
An angry Foxx, already
upset over what he called
his being "white ■ balled"
in the entertainment in
dustry. had Atty. David
Welford Williams Jr.
arrested.
Williams, 39, son of
U.S. District Court Judge
David Williams, had bail
set at SI,OOO.
It had been reported in
the media that Williams
had a check problem in
Less than 75 percent Advertising
Stunned students
talked quitely over the
weekend about the young
man who played football at
Pinevill and later came
back to coach at his alma
mater.
When Bishop cut
himself by smashing fur
niture and glass at his
house, his wife, Aretha, his
father and a brother took
him to Pineville Community
Hospital for treatment.
Bishop appeared calm
dealings with Mickey
Rooney and actor Lou
Gossett.
“Hell, I tried to help
him. I knew about the
trouble he was in with
Mickey Rooney and I
though this would be away
he could sort of redeem
himself." said a fuming
Foxx.
The famous en
tertainer. who made it big
before a national television
audience in his former
series, “Sandford and
Son." declared:
’ ’ You know’, I think
along the lines of helping
my fellow man. I gave him a
break, but he did me in. I
think all that law he
studied might have tangled
Local NAACP
Seeks To Raise
SIO,OOO
pagel
Hurrah F or The Champ
. . . . We wish to congratulate heavyweight
champion Muhammad Ali for his example of
leadership in donating $400,000 in reward money to
help catch the killer of young people in Atlanta.
We are impressed by the fact that he did not try
to put on some kind of fundraising activity. He had
money and he gave it.
While it is commendable that he gave without
being asked, we believe that the Black community
should require our celebrities to share their financial
success with the community instead of idolizing them
as they strut around like peacocks in their fine
clothes and expensive cars.
Contrary to the Reagan philosophy, we are our
brother’s keeper, and we should neve think other
wise. We are all being attacked and we should not
have to wait until we become the victim before we
become concerned.
We should remember that this is not the first
time that Ali has stepped forward in a time of crisis.
When the NAACP was on the verge of extinction due
to an unfavorable court ruling in Port Gibson,
Mississippi in 1976, Ali gave a hundred thousands
dollars.
Ali has a lot of mouth. History will confirm that.
But let the record also show that he had mouth and
backup, in and out of the ring.
in the hospital, but then he
jumped up and - with loved
ones and hospital personnel
in pursuit- ran about a half
mile down the nearby
interstate highway and into
the path of a semi-trailer
truck.
Bishop's mother, Inez,
said “It seems like it was
about complications with
his job. He was only given
a little spell to prove
himself. You think your
services don't seem to be
up his brain. I gave him a
job at a thousand a week,
trying to rehabilitate him,
and look what happened.
“I still have some
investigations going on.
There ain’t no tellin’ how
much he got me fa. But he
isn’t a thief. If he had been
a thief, he would not have
cashed both of those checks
and then deposited them in
his own account,” Foxx
said.
“But then I gave him a
break when he first came
here and I knew he was a
croook. He told me he was
sorry he ripped me off and
asked me to give him a
break. He didn’t give my
money a break, and now he
broke me. I can’t even go
to Mel’s Kitchen."
Foxx complained that
Williams had signed Foxx’s
name and that of his
partner, Prince Spencer of
the Step Brothers, to the
two checks.
Asked if he would
prosecute, Foxx said,
“Hell, he prosecuted my
money, didn’t he?”
said he and
Spencer discovered the
forgeries while checking
their bank statement.
He said the first
forgery was on a check
dated March 3, 1981. He
did not specify the date of
the second.
In an interview with
the Los Angeles Sentinel’s
James H. Cleaver, Foxx
said.
“I think ’he man needs
help I don’t want to
necessarily see him in jail,
but I want my money. And
in addition to this, I lost
EDITORIAL
appreciated.”
Bishop was a football,
basketball, and track
standout at Pineville High
and later played football at
Morehead State University.
Pineville hired him to teach
physical education and
coach football in 1979.
But after two seasons,
in which the team played
roughly .500 ball, school
officials decided last
December not to retain him
as football coach.
three cases in court by
default because of him. I
thought it was funny that
everytime, there was some
money around, there he
would be.
“He even told me that
because of the fact that my
checks from Tandem
Productions were coming to
an end, I would have to fire
everybody on my staff. So I
fired everybody. There was
nobody left but him, and I
ain't even working,” Redd
Foxx charged.
Angered apparently by
the current set of cir
cumstances, Foxx turned to
his career. “I’m damned
sick and tired of being
white-balled and that is
exactly what’s happening to
me. There are no Black
people in the position to
hurt me. I’m being white
balled. These are w'hite
folks doin' this to me,” he
said.
“Just let a white actor
or comedian have a hit
series and they get to do
specials and guest shots
and all the rest. I begged
for it and they kept tellin’
me all kinds of stuff. But I
never got one. Now,, on
top of all this, I getnone erf
my own ripping me off and
telling me he didn’t mean to
rip me off.
“What the hell did Jie
mean to do. Kiss me?”
Williams, a graduate of
University High School,
attended Stanford
University for his un
dergraduate work and
completed Howard Law-
School. He is married and
has two children by a
previous marriage.
25C