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Parents Os Atlanta
Murdered Children
Speaks In Augusta
PageS
Volume 11 Number 22
Coke And PUSH
Make Covenant For
$34 Million
! The Coca-Cola Co. and
People United to Save
Humanity announced last
(week a “moral covenant”
worth $34 million that
ended the Chicago-based
civil-rights group's boycott
of Coca-Cola products -a
boycott that Coca-Cola
President Donald Keough
claimed had no impact on
his company.
The agreement called
for the following:
.Appointment of a
Black to the board of
directors.
Bottling franchises that
may be for sale will be
referred to a pool of
prospective Black investors.
Coca-Cola will appoint
32 Black-owned fountain
wholesalers and wine
distributors within the next
12 months, as well as
provide special training and
lists of prospective
customers at an estimated
valued of $1.3 million.
.A $l.B million
venture-capital fund will be
established for loans to
Blacks in areas associated
with the soft-drink industry.
Blacks Urged To Watch State
By Drtd B. Hl*. Redistnctlllg nationwide.
State Rep. Bobby Hill
said Saturday that 10 Black
state senators and as many
as 30 Black state
representatives can be
elected next year if Black
leaders closely monitor the
legislative and
congressional
reappcrtionment now under
way.
Addressing an
“emergency meeting” of
about 50 Black politicians
from around the state, Hill
said, “This is a real
opportunity for us to make
a dent in the political life
in this state." The meeting
was called by the Georgia
Association of Black
elected officials, the Voter
Education Project and the
NAACP.
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THE RAYMOND JENKINS SCHOLARSHIP FUND recently presented scholarships to Augusta College and
Paine College.
From left to right are Hawthorne Lee, Scholarship Fund Chairman, Mrs. Raymond Jenkins, Widow of Mr.
J—Has, Mark Atkina, Financial Aid Officer at Paine College, and James stallings, Financial Aid Officer at
Aug**** College,
Augusta Neuis-iHeuieiu
.Coca-Cola will double
its advertising budget for
Black-owned newspapers
and magazines and increase
its advertising expenditures
for Black-owned radio
stations, worth an
estimated $2 million. In
addition, a Black-owned
advertising agency will
become “agency of
record” for a Coca-Cola
brand, which has yet to be
deterimined, with an
estimated budget of $8
million.
.Coca-Cola will increase
its deposits and borrowing
with Black-owned banks
increasing the amount to an
estimated $ 2 million from
$250,000.
.Coca-Cola will fill 100
blue-collar openings with
Black workers over the next
12 months and increase its
percentage of Black
managers from 5 percent to
12.5 percent. The value of
the jobs is approximately
$5.2 million.
.The soft-drink
company will increase its
contributions to Black
organizations and
Georgia’s 56-member
state Senate now has two
Black members from
Atlanta, while the 180-
member state House of
Representatives has 21
Black members, elected
from the Atlanta,
Savannah, Macon,
Columbus and Albany
areas.
Atlanta Mayor
Maynard Jackson joined
Hill (D-Savannah) and state
Rep. Calvin Smyre (D-
Columbus) in defending a
congressional
reapportionment plan that
would create a Black
majority district in the
Atlanta area.
The plan is sponsored
by State Rep. Al Scott (D-
Savannah). Scott is the only
Blacks Urged
To Watch State
Redistributing
Page 1
institutions, including
endowing scholarships and
chairs at Black colleges and
universities. The initial
annual value of these
contributions is $250,000.
.Coca-Cola will increase
to sl4 million its minority
purchasing program.
At what one participant
described as a
"recovenening of the ‘6os,”
Black leaders from
Atlanta, Chicago,
Cleveland, Washington and
Buffalo, N.Y., gathered at
Coca-Cola headquarters to
listen to Keough and the
Rev. Jesse Jackson,
president of PUSH, outline
the agreement the two had
reached in private meetings
last week.
Keough said J ackson
had gone ahead with the
boycott when the
agreement, which PUSH
and Coca-Cola had been
negotiating for eight
months, was not ready to
be signed in time for
PUSH’S annual convention
in early J uly.
He attributed the
slowness in reaching the
Black member of the House
reapportionment committee.
The w committee,
however, is expected to
approve a different plan
that would leave Georgia
without any congressional
districts in which Blacks are
a majority.
Jackson responded to
an attack on Scott’s plan by
Atlanta Constitution
Associate Editor Bill Shipp
by saying that Shipp
“considers that if you draw
a Black district, it is by
definition a ghetto district.
We call him Mr. 8.5.”
Jackson also renewed
his criticism of the 1980
census, charging that the
census underestimated
Atlanta's population and
undercounted Blacks
August 22.1981
agreement to Coca-Cola's
unwillingness to commit to
anything the company
would not be able to live
up to.
In outlining the
agreement, Keough noted
that Coca-Cola “has
maintained a high level of
inovolvement in the Black
community through
corporate gifts and
scholarships' over the
years.
Keough referred to
PUSH’S boycott - which the
organization called a
“withdrawal of
enthusiasm”- as an
“inevitable period of
misconception" which
occurs in "any human
endeavor of this kind.”
Jackson said the
agreement represented
“everything we wanted and
more.”
In what he termed
“the crowning glory at the
agreement,” Coca-Cola
agreed to hire a Black
consulting firm to monitor
compliance and help search
for appropriate Blacks to fill
the openings created by the
agreement.
Jackson said that the
alleged undercounting is
"an insidious non-violent
means" of weakening Black
political influence. “If you
undercount us enough, you
discourage us from running
for office," he said.
Legislating Remembrances Not Easy In
Drive For King National Holiday
More than 13 years
ago, when a national
holiday honoring Martin
Luther King Jr., was first
proposed, it seemed like a
straightforward,
uncomplicated idea. But as
it turns out, declaring a
GOP Chief Angers
Blacks And State
Republicans
Page 1
30901 -
Donald Keough and Jesse Jackson (below, 1-r) as they announced settlement of the dispute, with local civil rights
leaders looking on. Coca-Cola’s headquarters building is shown at left.
Republician Chief’s Remarks
Aggravate Local Party, Blacks
In a one-day visit to
Atlanta. Republican
National Committee
Chairman Dick Richards
managed to aggravate some
local Republicans and
Black leaders with two
separate statements, both
of which appear to
contradict the party rhetoric
Republicans have been
spouting since the election
of Ronald Reagan.
The first, that he might
national holiday isn't all
that simple.
For one thing, there is
no such thing as a
"national” holiday in the
United States. Congress or
the president can legally
designate holidays only for
the District of Columbia
and federal employees. It is
then up to the states to
decide whether they want
to go along and approve
the holiday for others
workers.
And shepherding such
a proposal through the
legislative thickets, state or
federal, is a cumbersome
process even if everybody
thinks it is a good idea. In
the case of a controversial
figure like the slain civil
rights leader, not everybody
does.
So far, despite the
yean of effort by King's
supporters, Congress has
not approved the holiday.
To put the pressure on,
backen of the proposal
have been lobbying around
the country to have states
designate holidays honoring
King.
"I can see the state
by-state strategy working
right before my eyes," said
Steve Klein, an official at
the Martin Luther King
Center for Social Change in
Atlanta. "When we get
over 45 states to pass
holiday legislation, the
pressure on Congress to act
will be enormous.”
discourage opposition
against congressional
Democrats who continue to
vote with Republicans in
the House, has left some
Republicans in Georgian
wondering whether they
can depend on the RNC for
financial support should
they decide to run against
incumbent Democrats.
The second statement,
that the GOP is wasting
time pursuing the support
Now it is the California
Senate's turn to decide. It
is scheduled to vote
Thursday on legislation,
already passed by the
Assembly, that would
declare a holiday on King’s
birthday, Jan. 15. The
state's 4.5 million public
schoolchildren would be
given a day off.
Supporters and
opponents of the legislation
agree the vote will be
close.
Whatever the
California Senate does,
confusion and controversy
are likely to continue to
surround the King holiday
idea, just as they do
observances for other
historical figures -for
example, the celebration of
Robert E. Lee’s birthday in
Southern states on Jan. 19.
. There are now nine
federal holidays,
established by legislative
action or presidential
proclamation: New Year’s
~Day, Washington’s
Birthday, Memorial Day,
Independence Day, Labor
Day, Columbus Day,
Veterans Day, Thanksgiving
and Christmas.
In practice, most states
observe federal public
holidays and for that reason
if no other supporters of
federal legislationa to make
King’s birthday a national
holiday will continue their
efforts in Congress, where
hearings will again be held
Move For King
Holiday Not Easy
To Legislate
Page 1
of Black leaders, stunned
the Rev. Ralph David
Abernathy who was the
most prominent Black
leader to endorse Reagan's
candidacy during the
election. Abernathy called
the statement
“regrettable,” and said it
jeopardizes the party’s
chances of attracting Black
support in 1982.
Richards’ remarks,
made during interviews
this fall, as they have
annually since his death.
It was just four days
after King was assassinated
on April 4, 1968, that Rep.
John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.)
first proposed making
King's birthday a federal
holiday.
Opponents of the
federal legislation argue
that only one American has
been so honored - George
Washington, leader of the
Revolutionary army, a
founder of the Republic and
its first president.
Columbus Day, they note,
is a celebration of the
landfall of Christopher
Columbus in the New
World on Oct. 12, 1492,
rather than an observance
of the explorer’s birthdate.
Even Abraham
Lincoln's birthday is
honored only on a state-by
state basis.
Some opponents of the
King measure also say it
would cost the government
millions of dollars a year to
close down for still another
federal holiday.
Supporters of the
federal legislation counter
that King’s efforts to
desegregate the nation's
schools and transportation
systems, and to correct
economic and social ills,
rank with the efforts of
George Washington.
According to Klein of
the King Center in Atlanta,
the civil rights leader's
25C ~
while in town last week to
meet with Southern state
Republican leaders, were
described as “incredible”
by some state Republicans
who reiterated the party
goal of winning control of
the House in 1982 by
attracting a broad base of
support, including
minorities.
"If you went along
with the policy that we’re
Continued on Page 2
birthday is now a holiday in
17 states and the District of
Columbia. But even here
there is controversy. Such
sources of information as
the World Almanac and the
Information Please Almanac
disagree on which states
have passed legislation
honoring King, but each
says it is less than a dozen.
But Chases’ Calendar
of Annual Events, which
has been recording holidays
for the last quarter-century,
agrees with Klein that "no
less than 17 states and
territories have named a
day to honor Dr. King with
a legal, optional or
commemorative holiday.”
The difference apparently
hinges on what constitutes
a “holiday.”
The battle lines are
sharply drawn in California.
Sen. John Schmitz, a
Newport Beach Republican,
an opponent • of the
legislation, said he thought
the bill might be approved
by a narrow margin.
Sen. David A. Roberti,
a Los Angeles Democrat, a
supporter, also predicted
the bill will pass.
Supporters of the King
bill predict other states will
pass legislation because of
pressure from Black voters.
The fate erf federal
legislation honoring King
may ride this year on a bill
authorizing Congress to put
a bust or statue erf King in
Continued on Page 2