Newspaper Page Text
Local Group
Organizes To Help
Ex-Chemical Co.
Workers
Page 1
Volume 11 Number 26
Workers Tell Their Story a 1—
....I—l.
Black Workers Say Company Never Told Them
They Worked With Cancer-Causing Chemical
More than a thousand
former workers at Augusta
Chemical Co , almost all of
them are Blade may have
been exposed to a cancer
causing agent on a day-to
day basis. No treatment has
been linked to cancer for
more than 100 years.
Ninety percent of the
workers involved are Black,
and they say they were
never told they were
working with a substance
known to cause cancer.
Willie Hall, one of
seven former employees
who has filed a class-action
suit since last June 15
against E.L Dupont de
Local Group Organizes
To Aid Ex-Chemical
W orkers
Local Blacks are
organizing to come to the
aid of former workers of
the Augusta Chemical Co.,
many of whom may develop
cancer due to possible
exposure to toxic chemicals
on the job.
The recently organized
group, The Council of
Concerned Citizens, is
chaired by the Rev. Bobby
Truitt, pastor of Broadway
Baptist Church.
The group is receiving
assistance from the A
Phillip Randolph Institute,
based in New York City.
At a meeting in
Augusta Thursday night,
Chuck Brimmer, national
director for safety and
health occupations for the
A. Phillip Randolph
Nation Mourns NAACP
Giant Roy Wilkins
Roy Wilkins, who
carved into an art form the
strategy of using the
federal courts to attack
racial discrimination on all
fronts, died of kidney
failure last Tuesday at New
York University Medical
Center.
Wilkins, called “Mr.
Civil Rights” by his
successor as head of the
NAACP, was 80. He was
admitted to the hosptial
August 18. with a cardiac
condition and several other
medical problems
complicated by the Kidney
Condition. He had a history
of heart trouble.
Wilkins, the longtime
executive director of the
National Association for the
Advancment of Colored
People, devoted his life to
turning his knowledge of
the governmental system
into an armful of legislation
benefiting minorities.
Among the bills
Wilkins’ strategies guided
Cenffwi IM
Angus ta N ews -Heuiew
Nemours and Co., Inc. and
Synally Corp., doing
business as the Augusta
Chemical Co., charging the
firm with negligence, had
to have his bladder, a
kidney and some of his
intestines removed because
of cancer.
He believes it is a
result of his former job of
"grinding” up beta
napthlamine (BNA), a
substance used in making
dyes. It has been linked to
cancer and other problems.
In an interview, Hall
related: “I started working
there in 1957, and worked
for three years. Then, I
Educational Fund, said his
organization would provide
“basic information,
education and resources to
Black workers in this
community.
“Our particular interest
is in the Black workers
because nine of ten of the
workers involved are Black.
"It's kind of sad to see
a row of men in their 50s
all walking on canes," he
said referring to former
workers of the Augusta
Chemical Co.
Brimmer said he also
has a personal interest
"My father worked in a
chemical plant. He died at
55 years of age, and his
death was job-related.”
He said his group will
help the men get disability,
Civil Rights Acts of 1957,
1960 and 1964 and the
Voting Rights Act of 1965.
But Wilkins the
strategist could’ also
be Wilkins the field fighter.
As a young man, he
traveled from New York to
the Deep South, posing as
an indigent laborer to
investigate undercover the
treatment of Blacks working
on flood-control projects
along the Misssippi River.
During the 19305, that
foray easily could have
meant death for a Black,
but Wilkins lived to detail
the injustices he found. His
published report let to a
congressional investigation
and legislation against
unequal pay and
exploitation by employees.
But it was the 1954
U.S. Supreme Court
decision directing public
schools to desegregate that
Wilkins called his greatest
victory.
The desegregation suit,
filed by the NAACP,
Pastor Wins
Suit Against
Natalie Cole
Page 3
went back in 1968 and
worked for four more
years.”
He said he did most of
the grinding of the BNA
which had to be cracked
and put into liquid form to
ship.
‘‘The fumes (from
BNA) would hit you in the
face so bad you could
hardly stand it,” he said.
“They used to give us
masks to wear, but that
only lasted for a while.
They said they ran out.”
He said he was never
warned that the chemical
he was handling each day
was known to cause cancer.
medicaid, and medicare.
"The government is
probably at fault. The
company is probably at
fault. But one thing is for
sure, these workers were
not at fault. But they are
getting the highest risk of
cancer on any group in this
country that we know about
because of their exposure
to this deadly chemical.
“We feel these men
should know (if they have
been exposed to the
carcinogen) and have tests
and get treatment and the
Medical College of Georgia
is an excellent facility to
give this care.
“Few people in this
community think the
workers deserve anything.
embodied Wilkins deep
rooted belief in integration
as the route to Black
progress in America, a
belief that sometimes put
him at odds with other
rights activists.
Despite criticism
during the violent 1960 s
from Blacks demanding
faster progress - and
sometimes separatism-
Wilkins remained
committed to his ideal.
“Integration.” he said, "is
the only way for a minority
to go. Separation would be
suicide.”
Wilkins, grandson of a
former slave, was born
Aug. 30, 1901, in St. Louis.
His mother died when he
was 4, and his father sent
him and his younger sister
and brother to St. Paul,
Minn, where they lived
with an aunt and uncle.
Wilkins majored in
sociology at the University
of Minnesota and was night
editor of the school paper,
nut helped mm latw a
September 19,1981
“I started urinating
blood while I was still on
the job, but they told me it
probably was just a herina
from lifting 55-gallon drums
of the stuff.
“I got to where I
couldn’t control my bladder
and I would stuff a towel in
my pants, and the other
fellows would joke with me
about it.”
His problems got more
intense after he quit the
company, and finally, one
doctor told him he sould
have an operation because
of the possibility of cancer.
“But at that time, I
They’re going to get a one
time screening at the
expense of the government.
That’s all we’ve gotten.
Dr. Knute Ringen told
the local group the cancer
may take seven to 30 years
to show up. “If we can find
cancerat the earliest time,
we can treat it very
effectively with a minimum
of surgery.’’ He said
bladder cancer is 70
percent curable if caught
early.
Some of the workers
started working at the
company as early as 16
years of age and have no
medical coverage.
Approximately 850 of
the men still live in a 50-
mile radius of Augusta, he
said.
after graduation in 1923 at
the Kansas City Call, a
Black weekly newspaper.
While still a student,
sometimes working as a
baggage porter, waiter and
stockyard laborer. Wilkins
was so affected by news of
a Black man’s lynching in
Duluth, Minn., that he felt
compelled to enter his
university's oratorical
contest.
His impassioned
speech againt lynching won
the contest. And his
reputation as a persuader
and an advocate of civil
rights began to take shape.
Preferring quiet
diplomacy to table
pounding, Wilkins
continued his crusade
against lynching, using the
NAACP as a forum. He
went to New York in 1931
to begin work with the
nation’s oldest civil rights
organization as an assistant
executive secretary. He
later added the job trf
Rosa Parks
Refuses To Cross
PATCO Picket Line
Page 3
couldn’t afford an
operation...! had six
children to feed.”
Eventually, Hall had to
have the operation to save
his life. He now receives
social security disability,
but the medical bills that
he must pay continue to
mount.
“If I known what I
know now, I never would
have went to work there,”
he said. “I started to get
my son a job out there, but
Fm sure glad I didn’t.”
James Sturgis is 50.
He has lived within two
miles of Augusta Chemical
Co. all of his life. He began
If HhMffil
Concert Pianist
To Culminate
Centennial
Convocation Weekend
Dr. Raymond Jackson,
a noted concert pianist will
perform at Paine College on
Saturday, Sept. 26 at 8
p.m. in the Gilbert-
Lambuth Memorial Chapel.
Dr. Jackson’s performance
is the final event erf the
Centennial Convocation
Weekend.
In addition to the
Solidarity Day
Millen Group To March
MILLEN-- Some
citizens from Millen are
expected to participate in
the Sept. 19 Solidarity Day
march on Wasington to
protest President Reagan's
budget cuts.
working the company while
he was still in his teens.
"They didn’t tell us it
was dangerous. They
didn't tell us nothing,”
Sturgis said in a recent
interview.
Although the company
stopped the production of
BNA in 1972 after federal
investigators came to the
plant, farmer workers were
not told why, nor were they
advised to get regular
medical checkups, he said.
He learned of the
hazard in January of this
year from an article in a
local newspaper, he added.
Dr. Raymond Jackson
standard classic repertoire,
Jackson plays a varied
program of Black
composers.
Works by
Beethoven, Chopin and
Samuel Coleridge Taylor
will be included in his
concert. A brief reception
for the artist will be held in
Peters Campus Center
Charles Hughes,
president of Local 372 New
York City Board of
Education Employees,
spoke in Millen Aug. 30
and offered to furnish bus
transportation to MtybM
Nation Mourns
NAACP Giant
Roy Wilkins
Page 1
Sturgis worked for
Augusta Chemical Co. for
21 years. He began as a
laborer after his stepfather,
also employed there, lost
two fingers in an industrial
accident. The family needed
the money.
Sturgis worked himself
up to shift leader, where he
supervised friends and
relatives. A son, two
brothers two cousins and
numerous neighbors .
The plant is located
on Glass Factory Avenue.
Sturgis left the
company in 1967. He said
he has had four hosptial
following the performance.
Dr. Jackson has
performed internationally as
a recitalist and orchestral s
soloist. He has won
numerous national and
international prizes
throughout the career. He
began his musical studies
in Providence, R.L at the
age of five.
desiring to join other
groups from across the
nation voicing their
opposition to the cuts in
the; social programs.
The Ito*.- W.B. Tomlin,
25C
stays as a result of
urinary-tract problems, but
added, “Fm not as bad off
as some of these fellows.”
According to death
certificates, three former
Augusta Chemcial Co.
employees have died of
bladder cancer, and six
other workers are know to
suffer from the disease.
As many as 50 may get
cancer because it is only
now and in the next ten
years that the disease is
likely to show up, according
to epidemiologist Paul
Schulte.
He received his
bachelor of music degree
from the New England
Conservatory of Music then
received his master’s
degree and doctorate at the
Julliard School of Music.
Currently, Dr. Jackson is
an Associate Professor of
Music at Howard
University.
pastor of Morrison Grove
Baptist Church is
coordinating the trip.
Invitations have been;
extended to citizens of
Jefferson and Burke
counties to join the march.