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The Augusta News-Review - Jim 27,1911*
The Augusta News-Review
Mallory K. MiUenderEditor-Publisher
Paul D. Walker Special Assistant to the Publisher
Barbara GordonSaks Representative
Rev. R.E. Donaldsonßeligion Editor
Harvey Harrison Circulation Manager
Mrs. Rhonda BrownSaks Representative
Mrs. Mary Gordon Administrative Assistant
Mrs. Geneva Y. Gibson Church Coordinator
Mrs. Fannie Johnson Aiken County Correspondent
Mrs. Clara WestMcDuffie County Corresponsent
David DupreeSports Editor
Mrs. Ileen Buchanan... Fashion A Beauty Editor
Roosevelt Green Columnist
Al Irby Columnist
Mrs. Marian Waring Columnist
Philip Waring Columnist
Grady Abrams Editorial Cartoonist, Columnist
Roscoe Williams Photographer
Maßbg Addrass
Box 953 (USPS 887 820)- As«Mta, Ga.
Phone <404) 722-4555
Second Class Postage Paid Angnsta, Ga. 30903
Published Weekly
AMALGAMATED Jjk
PUBLISHERS, INC.
Walking With Dignity
By Al Irby
Voting Rights May Be Last
Os Civil Rights
VOTING RIGHTS MAY BE
IASI OF THE CIVIL
RIGHTS
. . . . The most
important civil rights
battle of the year has
begun on Capitol Hill. The
issue is whether to extend
a key provision of the 1955
Voting Rights Act for 10
more years. A major
symbol of the movement for
racial equality, the law is
probably the most
successful civil rights
legislation ever passed. It
brought the right to vote to
hundreds of thousands of
Blacks in the southern
states.
BUBBLES IN A BAR OF
SOAP
.... Those who wish to
destroy the law say that it
has done the job tor which
it was intended and is no
longer needed. But the
need for safeguarding
minority voters still lingers,
say those who want to keep
all provisions of the act
intact and in force. From
now until the end of the
June they will be testifying
before a House Judiciary
subcommittee in an effort
to prove that need.
Before the Voting
Rights Act was enacted,
relatively few Blacks were
registered to vote in the
South. In Mississippi, the
most extreme case, only 6.7
percent of eligible Blacks
were on the voting rolls. By
the mid ’7os, the figure
jumped to 67 percent.
Benjamin Hooks,
executive director, of the
NAACP, recalled the earlier
days during testimony
before the subcommittee.
He told of watching Blacks
intimidated by Southern
voting officials who tested
them with questions such
as ‘‘How many bubbles are
there in a bar of soapf’
and ‘‘How far can the little
dog run through the
woods?
SENATOR STROM
THURMOND
LEADS THE ATTACKS
.... Those days are
long gone, swept away by
the Voting Rights Act,
which outlawed literacy
test, poll taxes, and a host
of other harassing
techniques that had
effectively kept Blacks off
the voting rolls. No longer
is voter registration or
intimidation the issue. Now
it’s a question of cities and
counties changing election
rules and thus weakening
the minority vote. The two
most common methods are
annexing a mostly white
area to a city or switching
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Page 4
to an “at-large” voting
scheme for councilmen. (At
large elections permit the
entire city or country to
vote for each councilman,
making it almost impossible
for a racial minority to win.
Minorities have a better
chance in smaller
districts). The most
controversial provision of
the Voting Rights Act aims
at baiting such actions.
That provision, which will
expire in August 1982
unless renewed by
Congress, targets those
states which once had
devices such as literacy
tests and areas where few
minorities voted. Most of
the South is included in the
target area, plus Alaska
and parts of about a dozen
other states.
THE VOTING ACT
SHOULD
COVER ALL STATES
. . . . Under this
disputed provision, every
time a local government in
these included areas wants
to change its voting
procedures, it must “pre
dear" the plan through the
United States Department
of Justice and give
evidence that the new plan
will not weaken minority
voting. That rankles many
southerners. "It’s big
brother federalism taking
care of certain parts of the
country,’* said James
Raster, legislative liaison
for Gov. William P.
Clements of Texas, in a
telephone interview. If it’s
such a good deal, let
everyone be under it.”
Sen. Strom Thurmond
(R.- South Carolina),
perennial opponent of the
law, has fought and lost in
two earlier extension
battles. Almost as soon as
he took his new post in
January as chairman of the
Saenate Judiciary
Committee, Mr. Thurmond
spoke out against pre
dearance. He suggested
that if the South needs
permission from the Justice
Department to make voting
changes, so should the rest
of the nation.
The good South
Carolina Senator may have
a point, if one uses school
integration as a criterion,
on that issue, the North is
a disaster. Attorney-General
William Smith has indicated
his support for the basic
safeguards of the right to
vote. Vice-President George
Bush told a commencement
audience at predominantly
Black Howard University
that the administration
supports the right to vote.
188888
SLACK RESOURCES INC.
Tony Brown's Journal
Why James Earl Ray Was Stabbed
James Earl Ray was
stabbed 22 times by three
Blacks convicts and one
white convict at the Brushy
Mountain Prison where he
is serving a 99-year
sentence for killing Martin
Luther King, Jr.
What makes this
incident so unusual is the
flurry of recent revelations
and allegations about the
Congressional investigation
of the King murder and the
peculiar chain of events
associated with Ray’s
incarceration.
Ray’s wife, however,
says she knows why the
stabbling took place. Anna
Sandbau Ray said the
attack stemmed from recent
trip she made to New York
to talk with a publisher
about an upcoming book
about King’s “real killer."
I don’t believe it.
Why would Ray wait
10 years to spill the beans?
He wouldn’t. He’s a 53-
year-old small-time crook
doing s 99-year sentence.
Ano why would the former
television station artist
marry a man doing a
lifetime jail sentence? She
could be using the attack
to build up interest in the
book.
But how does one
answer some of the other
nagging questions about
Ray-going all the way back
to the killing? In 1977 be
managed to escape from
Mitt er and, France And The Establishment
Recent municipal
elections in Britain and the
Presidential election in
France show that the much
touted swing towards the
conservative point of view
is short lived. In Britain
the conservatives were
soundly beaten, so much in
fact that if national
elections were held the
Labour Party would control
Parliament by 100 seats. In
France, the constitution of
the Fifth French Republic
was hand tailored by
General De Gaulle to
ensure national stability
under moderate
conservative tutelage.
France now has a Socialist
the same prison in which
he has now been attacked.
And he now has access to
all -prisoner-areas. Why?
Why did Jesse Jackson
feel it necessary in 1978 to
visit with and speak out on
Ray’s behalf? Jackson says
be was “compelled”
because of a conspiracy.
To take a step as
drastic as defending the
man convicted of killing bis
former boss, Jackson
should have then- and
should now-share his
conspiracy information.
Instead, he has behaved
improperly without any
public disclosure. Or does
Jackson know something
that we don’t?
Hosea Williams,
another one of King's
inner-circle, challenged the
House Assassinations
Committee’s conduct of the
investigation of King’s
death and its findings.
Williams told me on a
television special that he
was barely contacted and
brusquely interviewed.
He was willing, he
said, to explain that there
were probably informers
among the SCLC insiders
prior to King’s death.
This line of questioning
was conspicuously absent
from the. committee’s
published report and the
unpublished records have
been "sealed” for 50 years.
Another convenience?
President following the
defeat of the conservative
backed Valery Gis cared D-
Estaing.
The French
establishment has a long
and undistinguished
history when dealing with
the popular masses. It
bungled the situation
leading the French
Revolution by ignoring all
the legitimate demands of
the French people until, in
desperation, they revolted.
In 1936 in Germany and
Italy.. The banks and the
large corporations made it
virtuallly impossible for the
Popular Front Government
to survive because of the
By Tony Brown
Not only have some of
us become suspicious of
these and other events
associated with the King
murder, but many are
outright defiant towards the
official conduct in this case.
In a television poll
conducted on my program
on King’s death, 70 percent
initially did not believe that
Ray acted alone.
Gene Johnson, the
deputy chief counsel for the
Slelect Committee on
Assassinations, however,
reassured us that they
found no evidence that
there was a conspiracy.
“We have not been able
during the two years that
we investigated the
assassination, to come up
with any corroborative
evidence to support the
conclusion that in fact there
were co-conspirators.”
However, Rev.
Williams, who was at the
Memphis motel where Dr.
King was shot, did not
believe that Ray pulled the
trigger. Williams said be
was certain that Ray did
not act alone and thought
that "the investigation was
a whitewash." Williams
also contended that
although the investigation
stated that Ray escaped
from Memphis in a White
Mustang, he firmly
believed that Ray’s car
never left Memphis.
The allegation that a
By Laura Parks
fear that the Popular Front
would clip the massive
powers and the wealth of
the establishment. The
Germany of Hitler was
preferred to France under
the Popular Front. And so
began the fatal policy of
establishment appeasement
of fascism that led directly
to the fall of France, during
the Second World War.
President Mitterand of
France is a socialist. Once
again the establishment
may engineer, within the
next few years, rightist
coup against Mitterand.
This fear is particularly
acute in light erf the recent
coup attempt in
power struggle was going
( on inside SCLC and that
certain members of the
organization were guilty of
misusing SCLC funds was
also discussed. Atty.
Johnson responded by
stating that he and all of
his distinguished collegues,
which included Chairman
Stokes, gave the
investigation everything
they bad and that there
was no evidence to support
the claim.
On the other hand,
Rev. Williams again flatly
stated that the
investigations were not
true; that be himself, a top
official of the SCLC and a
witness to the crime, was
not thoroughly questioned.
Williams said that be bad
information which he tried,
repeatedly, to get to the
authorities but was
unsuccessful in his
attempts.
After listening to
Williams and Johnson and
the opposing arguments,
the audience was asked to
the same question again:
“Do you believe James
Earl Ray acted alone in the
shooting of Martin Luther
King?”
This time, a
commanding 83 percent
answered “no” to the
question.
Tony Brown's Journal, * s
shown every Sunday on
WRDW-TV 12 at 12:30
p.m.
neigbobring Spain and by
the admission of former
British Labor Prime
Minister Harold Wilson that
bis Government was aware
of plans for a right wing
coup in Britain.
Failed economic
policies and political
instability tempt the coup
makers to act in order to
salvage the establishment
world. They are known to
have suffocated
governments and
assassinated public figures.
But the would be coup
makers must certainly
reckon with the fact, that if
successful, they would be
dressed up with nowhere to
To Be Equal HSE?
By Vernon E. Jordan. Jr.
Who Gets Those
Housing Subsidies ■mdl
High on the list of the
budget cutters are housing
subsidies for the poor.
Washington seems to be
walking away from the
unmet housing needs of low
income families just when
those needs are mounting.
It is estimated that
some six million households
live in seriously
substandard housing--leaky
roofs, hazardous electrical
wiring, and faulty floors
and walls. A third erf those
are minorities, and over
half live in metropolitan
areas. Four out of five
families living in
substandard units are
eligible for federal housing
aid.
Many others living in
standard housing are
paying more than they can
afford for rent or for
mortgage payments. Many
face the cruel choice of
paying the landlord or
skipping meals.
The poor pay more and
the poorest pay the most.
Millions of poor families
pay over half their income
for shelter.
All of this takes place
in the face of a long
standing national
commitment to produce
600,000 housing units
annually for low income
families. But only once has
that goal been met-in
1976. The Administration’s
current budget would
provide only a third of the
annual goal.
Housing is a basic
necessity, like food and
health care. A humane
society has the
responsibility to assure that
the basic of life are
available to all. That is the
rationale for federal
bousing programs. And the
failure to meet the housing
needs of the poor
underscores the need for
more, not less federal
bousing aid.
Many will object that
the government already
spends billions on such
bousing aid. True enough.
But what it spends is not
enough to meet the needs
for adequate shelter. And it
spends far more on housing
subsidies to the non-poor.
Those subsidies to the
well-off are neglected int he
debate on housing policy,
but they are real and they
The Great Non-Hoax
By Marva Stewart
Recently a newspaper
columnist condemned
people like J anet Cooke
and Alex Haley for filling
the print media with
hoaxes. Whether they did
nor did not create great
hoaxes is not for me tc
dispute. I think one should
closely scrutinize a society
which causes people “to
sell their souls to be in
show business” to use the
words of Gil Scott-Heron.
It is a success-oriented
society like this that forces
young people to sell their
souls for grades instead of
encouraging them to pursue
knowledge and wisdom.
This is the type of society
which forces a husband to
neglect and abandon his
family in order to pursue
the apex of the corporate
structure.
Any society which is
filled with manufactured
myths about its past and
present ain’t worth prime
fertilizer. And this is no
go. They arrive on the
scene at a time when
nobody seems to know what
to do with the economy or
any other of the world’s
major problems. They
preach high morality, law
and order an powerful
nationalism supported by
even mere powerful nuclear
weapons. Their policies
must lead to domestic
repression and war.
Yet their path to power
will not be smooth. They
will be faced by populations
and long lived organizations
whose collective memory
vigilantly monitors their
plans and deeds. The coup
makers of today cannot
are massive. They are
buried, however, since they
are not spending items but
revenue losses that don’t
show up in the budget.
Homeowners can
deduct local taxes and
mortgage interest payments
from their tax bill, The cost
of this subsidy amounts to
about S3O billion, and is
expected to reach almost
SBO billion by 1986. Most of
that huge subsidy goes to
the affluent; the top ten
percent of taxpayers get the
lion’s share.
They differ from low
income subsidies in another
important way too:
homeowner deductions are
entitlements taken by all
who qualify; low-income
housing subsidies only go
to one out of ten families
who qualify.
It’s hard to understand
the attacks on low income
housing programs based on
so-called budgetary
restraints. If you add up
the total cost of all of those
programs, going back to
their beginnings in the
1930 s and continuing to the
present, they amount to
less than the cost of
housing-related tax
expenditures on
homeowners in 1980 alone.
Those tax breaks are
also fueling the high
inflation in today's housing
market. Affluent people use
them to shelter income
from taxation, and so there
is a flurry of home-buying
and condominium
conversion, driving up
bousing costs.
The nation’s housing
needs would be better
served by putting a cap on
the growth of homeowner
deductions, either through
a limit on how much an
individual could deduct, or
conversion of the
deductions to a tax credit.
Such a move would
benefit low and middle
income families while
stemming the unrestrained
loss of federal revenue from
the few who can benefit
from the present system.
At the same time,
funds would be available
for a renewed effort to
decently bouse America’s
poor, many of whom now
are forced to live in
substandard housing
conditions.
hoax! Also, any society tha
forces an individual to fee
inadequate worthless am
inferior due to his religion
color, creed, income or lacl
of income ain't worth primt
fertilizer!
You want to talk about
hoaxes! I bet Blacks, Jews,
and Indians wish that
slavery, mass extermination
and Indian reservations
were hoaxes. But they were
not. They were a cruel,
bloody, excruiatingly
painful Hell-ridden Reality.
You say why don’t you
forget the past and let the
Continued on Page 6
point to any major right
wing nation as a model to
be emulated. They must
move with an uncertain
caution in a world where
the masterminds of the
coup and rightwing rule
have long been vanquished
in a world war.
Establishment instincts
know this. They are not
certain that a coup will
work today. They are
divided on the issue. They
advocate the new
conservatism of harsh
cutbacks for certain
elements of the population
and huge incentives for the
corporations.
In the interim if
establishment uncertainties
and rising pressure on the
people resistance to the
establishment will increase
to the point where coup
attempts will be crushed.
The politics of France,
for the next seven years,
will be determined by this
conflict between the
establishment and the
people.