Newspaper Page Text
Augustan Allegedly
Beaten By 7
Police Officers
Page 1
Volume 11 Number 23
' ’ **7
Joseph Jones Says
City Backs HRC
' City Councilman
Joseph C. Jones, tcid the
Augusta Human Relations
Commission last week that
he disagreed with the
county commission's
decision to withhold funds
from the HRC and he said
that the agency should be
getting more money, not
less.
"If anything, we
should put more money into
the Human Relations
Commission, because we
have been receiving more.”
Jones said.
The city is just as
(financially) responsible as
the county (for HRC
funding) and if we thought
Augusta Man Says He
Was Fired For
Involvement In Politics
Larry Pettigrew, an
employee of the Georgia
Power Company told the
News-Review he was fired
last week because of his
involvement in politics.
Pettigrew, who worked
in the campaigns of Gov.
George Busbee and
President Carter, is vice
president of the Young
Democrats of America.
Los Angeles Mayor
Will Bradley Run
For Governor?
With 1982 drawing
closer and closer, the more
certain it appears that Los
Angeles Mayor Tom
Bradley is going to make a
run for the governor’s seat
in California, one of the
nation's most papulous and
important states.
While he has stopped
shy of actually announcing
his candidacy, his
statements, like the
following one seem to
indicate where he proposes
to go.
“I have gone out to
test the waters to see what
the prospects are if I
should run for Governor.
Things look good.”
Bradley can say that on
the basis erf a recent poll of
possible gubernatorial
candidates which showed
him winning an election in
’B2 by a large margin.
However, there are several
notes erf caution before
Bradley calls in his tailor
for his swearing-in-suit.
The poll did not
measure how well Bradley
would do against the
incumbent Gov. Jerry
Brown, who at the time of
its taking was widely
believed to have his eyes
Augusta Netua-ißeuteiu
something was wrong we,
would be in that kind of
discussion (audit) too."
Jones said the county
commissioners want an
agency that will talk about
how good things are in
Augusta and not deal with
discrimination."
The fourth ward
councilman said he was
"not too concerned” about
the county withholding
HRC funds because
"enough business firms see
the need for HRC and
would support it.”
Asked to what extent
his views reflected the view
of city council Jones said,
“I believe a majority of the
members of council support
He said the company
terminated him without
giving a reason or a letter
of notification.
"I don’t know whether
this is a trend for Black
professionals' ’ hired by
predominantly white
companies..” but I do know
that we are living in a time
that if we as a Black race
are to survive, we must join
hand and hearts and get on
on the seat of Republican
Senator, S.I. Hayakawa.
Since then, Brown has
had several setbacks
including the embarassment
over the wrongful use of a
state computer in
fundraising efforts, and his
less than sterling
performance in dealing with
the menance of the
Mediterranean Fruit Fly.
His stock is at such a
low ebb, that it is not
inconceivable that he might
decide that he should run
again for governor and
forego the U.S. Senate.
And too, early polls are
deceptive, Ihose who look
like winners months ahead
of time. Often end up on
the outside looking into the
winner’s circle- much like a
disappointed would-be
bride. Finally, California is
notorious for doing the
unexpected.
In any event, at this
point, Bradley has to be
considered the front runner
based on the positive
After losing to Mayor
Sam Yorty in 1969 in an
ugly racist campaign,
Bradley won office in 1973.
He was elected to his
second term in 1977,
Man Says He
Was Fired For
Involvement In
Politics
Page 1
the Human Relations
Commission."
Jones made his
comments to the HRC after
the agency voted to hire an
attorney in an effort to
secure the funds withheld
by the County Commission
in a called meeting.
Moments earlier the
county commission had
refused a request by HRC
Chairman Roscoe Williams
to restore the funds based
on information that had
already been supplied to
the county auditor.
Williams told the HRC
directors the agency is “an
anathema" in the
community. “We were
. one accord," he said.
Pettigrew joined
Georgia Power in January
of 1978. He was the first
Black male employed in the
company's Residential
Energy Service Department
in Augusta.
Neil Gleason, a
Georgia Power official said
the company "did have
reasons (for firing
Pettigrew) and stated them
winning the primary with
59 percent of the vote, and
to his third term last April
with 63.9 percent of the
vote.
Considering that Blacks
make up only 17 percent of
reaction he elicits from the
voters of California,
the vote in Los Angeles,
Bradley has obviously made
heavy inroads in the white
and Hispanic vote -
support which is critical in
a statewide election.
When race is raised as
an issue, Bradley recalls
that "in Los Angeles we
settled that issue in 1973,"
referring to the race
againty Yorty.
The son of a
sharecropper, Bradley grew
up in Los Angeles. He
attended the University of
California, where he was a
440 yard dash runner,
worked as a Los Angeles
police office until he retired
as a lieutenenat after 21
years, and was a city
councilman.
If he is successful in
his quest for the office in
Sacremento, he will do
what no Black has ever
done before. Become
governor of a state.
August 29,1981
created for the reason that
people were being
oppressed and
discriminated against. So
we are not going to be
popular. But the 2,500
people who are the
beneficiaries of HRC
services are the ones who
are being hurt."
“One of the quietest
secrets is that we service a
substantial number of white
females," Williams said.
HRC board member
Magnolia Donahue said the
county auditor either “does
not understand (the
information made available
to him) or has been
instructed not to
understand."
LARRY PETTIGREW
to him. He had prior notice
and warning." Gleason said
the warnings were verbal
and he declined to give
reasons for the warnings.
In addition to his
involvement with the Young
Democrats, Pettigrew said
he is secretary of the
board of directors of the
CSRA Economic opportunity
authority and vice chairman
of its personnel committee.
He is a member of VOTE,
a district 87 representative
for the local Democratic
Party and a trustee and
New Zion Baptist Church.
Three Officers Indicted
In Deaths Os Blacks
A state grand jury has
indicted two deputies and a
probation officer on charges
of criminally negligent
homicide in the drownings
of three Black teenagers
that sparked racial unrest.
The youths, arrested
on marijuna-possession
charges June 19 during a
celebration, drowned when
a 14-foot boat the officers
were using to ferry the
youths to a command post
across Lake Mexia capsized
about 80 feet from shore.
The three officers swam to
safety.
The celebration is
called Juneteenth. It is' a
state holiday marking the
day Texas slaves learned of
the Jan. 1. 1863,
Emancipation Proclamation
abolishing slavery.
The drownings
outraged the Black
community, which claimed
the youths’ arrests were
racially motivated. The
J ustice Department said in
June it was investigating
the incident at the request
of the National Association
3 Officers
Indicted In
Deaths Os Blacks
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PEACHES & HERB HIT THE SOAPS - Recording
artists Peaches & Herb, whose brand-nw single,
“Freeway,” is always climbing the R & B charts in
anticipation of their new album, Sayin’ Something,
recently made a cameo appearance on the popular ABC
TV soap opera, The Edge of Night.
Man Says He
. Was Beaten By
Seven Policemen
James Norman, 1209
Holden St., filed a
complaint with the local
NAACP last week, charging
that he was beaten by
seven police officers August
16.
Norman said he was
walking on O’Keefe Lane
when he saw police officers
arrest a group of men and
put them in a squad car.
One of the men in the
car called him, Norman
said, and asked him to
“come and get them out of
jail.”
One officer asked him
to get away from the car,
and as he started to do so,
another office said, “Put
for the Advancement of
Colored People.
A caravan of cars,
vans. pickups and
motorcycles rolled into town
last Saturday for a rally
protesting the drownings of
three Black youths.
Almost 40 vehicles
made the 90-minute trip
from Dallas to Lake Mexia
where Carl Baker. 19;
Steven Booker. 19; and
Anthony Freeman, 18;
drowned in shallow water
during Juneteenth, a June
19 celebration
commemorating the day
Texas Blacks learned of
their civil war
emancipation.
An estimated 400
people, most from Mexia
but many from Dallas.
Austin and Houston who
came in the caravan,
participated in the rally.
The drownings
occurred at an area called
Comanche Crossing, and
many of the caravan
participants Saturday
carried banners say,
“Remember the
his.... in the car,"
according to norman.
Then an officer
Norman identified as Ivery
grabbed his arm and hit
him in the chest and head.
"I hit him back. I was
then attacked by seven
policemen, handcuffed and
kicked and punched whiled
I was on the ground, then
taken to jail.
“I was hurt and they
refuse to take me to the
hosptial. I went on my
own and I am still under
the doctor’s care,” Norman
said in the complaint.
He said he asked for a
polygraph test but was
refused.
Commanche 3.”
“We want to be
respected by the system
and protected by the
system, but we don't want
to be neglected by the
system." said Rep. Al
Edwards. D-Houston, in a
brief address to the crowd.
Coroners’ reports
already have indicated two
of the victims had no
marijuana in their blood at
the time of their deaths.
Attorney Pat Simmons
said grand jurors would be
given a 500-page transcript
from a board of inquiry
hearing that determined
there was no criminal intent
in the drownings of the
three men on June 19.
The officers were
ferrving them to the other
side of Lake Mexia when
the boat overturned. The
three Black men died and
the officials survived.
Black witnesses have
said the men were
handcuffed and did not
have lifejackets in the boat.
Deputies say there were no
Will Tom Bradley
Become First
Black Governor?
Page 1
The doo played
themselves in a night-club scene where they sang their
hit song, “I Pledge My Love.”
Pictured with Peaches A Herb on the set is Irving
A. Lee (far left), who plays Detective Calvin Stoner on
the show.
Don’t Be Fooled By
The Augusta Chronicle
Editorial
We hope that no Black person will be
foolish enough to join in the effort of the
county commission and the Augusta
Chronicle and Augusta Herald in their
attempts to get rid of Charles Walker and
the Human Relations Commission.
We hope that Black people will realize
that it is not Charles Walker and the Human
Relations Commission that are being
attacked. It is the victims of discrimination
that are under attack. And in America,
more than anybody else, that means us.
The audit is not the issue. The issue is
racism and racist efforts to keep it alive.
Charles Walker was absolutely correct
when he told the County Commissioners
that they have been “hiding behind the
forest of an audit” to continue their racist
assault on the Human Relations
Commission.
What is often ignored is that Charles
Walker can’t act alone. He is responsible to
a board of directors. And that board and its
chairman have backed Walker throughout
this controversy.
Walker was correct again when his said
that if the HRC had done something wrong,
the county commission would have made
that known and taken action long ago.
No one should be surprised that The
Chronicle-Herald has called for Walker to
resign. And we hope that no Black or
intelligent white will support such a request.
No one should be surprised that the
Chronicle and Herald are asking the county
commission to “rescind its ordinance
creating the HRC,” thereby doing away
with the agency. Blacks have repeatedly
warned that this whole effort has been to
control if not destroy the Human Relations
Commission. If the county commission is
foolish enough to follow the Chronicle-
Herald’s advice and abolish the HRC, then
replace it with another agency, we hope that
Black people will have the good sense to
refuse to serve on such a board. We hope
that Black people will refuse to participate
in their own destruction.
We think that the Human Relations
Commission, its chairman, Roscoe
Williams, and its director, Charles Walker,
should be supported by the Black
community as never before. Remember,
they are not the issue. We, Black people,
are.
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