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Augusta News-Review - September 19, 19Ri T»- gusta News-Review Mallory K. Millender..Editor-Publisher Paul D. Walker... Special Assistant to the Publisher Barbara Gordon .Advertising Manager Rev. R.E. Donaldsonr Religion Editor Harvey Harrison Circulation Manager Mrs. Rhonda Brown Sales Representative Mrs. Mary Gordon Administrative Assistant Mrs. Geneva Y. Gibson Church Coordinator Mrs. Fannie JohnsonAißWCounty Correspondent Mrs. Clara W«tMcDuffie County Corresponsent David DupreeJports Editor Mrs. Been Buchanan Fashion A Beauty Editor Roosevelt Green Columnist Al IrbyColumnist Mrs. Marian Waring Columnist Philip Waring• Columnist Grady Abrams Editorial Cartoonist. Columnist Roscoe Williams Photographer Mailing Address Box 953 (USPS 887 820)- Augusta, Ga. Phone (404) 722-4555 Second Class Postage Paid Augusta, Ga. 30903 Published Weekly AMALGAMATED PUBLISHERS, INC. UaenMMattn Roy Wilkins We join the nation in mourning the death of civil right leader Roy Wilkins. His death marks the end of an era. He was the last of the giants of the hey-day of the civil rights movement. Os all the eulogies we’ve read, it was Wilkins’ wife who best summarized Wilkin’s distinguishing qualities. She was not commenting on his death, but on what originally attracted her to him when she met and married him in 1929. In an 1977 interview with the News-Review, she recalled: “His quick mind really stimulated me. And he had a kind of self-assurance that I liked.’’ The she added emphatically, “He was a gentleman.” The quality she believes endeared him to so many people was a sincerity which “shines through everything he does.” “He has a self-effacement that people admire and a humility that few people, have, who have reached where he has reached.” Where he has reached was evidenced by the people who attended his funeral including Vice President Bush, former Vice President Mondale, Senator Kennedy and a host of others of that level, a fair tribute to a man who never held a political office. He was often controversial as a result of his upbringing where all of his friends were white and his views did not always sit well with many Blacks. But he felt that his different perspective did not limit his ability to lead the Black masses. He said: “I don’t see that anything has hurt my leadership except my on personal limitations. It isn’t that I identified with Black people or that I identified with white people. It’s what you do about it.” And what Roy Wilkins did about it leaves the world in his debt.” Jack Greenberg NAACP Counsel I had the privilege of working with Roy Wilkins from 1949 until he retired. This was the period during which legally imposed racial segregation in the United States was being dismantled, exposing other often more difficult problems. During all of this time, Roy Wilkins* ’■lost Dr. Joseph E. Lowery President, SCLC .... Some careers are long without distinction and some are distinctive without longevity. Roy Wilkins had both. He was a statesman, a scholar and a servant. He fought a good fight in the toughest of battles. He fought for human dignity, and he possessed a personal sense of dignity that separate him from the crowd. The struggle for Civil Rights was enriched bv Rov Wilkins' astuteness Page 4 conspicuous quality was rationality. He had a broad vision which understood the complexities of American life and the means of accommodating them. He was generous, friendly, constructive and thoroughly decent. His life and work embodied his vision of what America should become. and scholarship and his graciousness which enabled him to take criticism and endure suffering without bitterness and achieve victories wiithout arrogance. He was able to adjust to changing times and methodologies and manage to maintain the respect of the “Young Turks” -- those more activist than he. He was a giant and he made his own footprints in the sands of the Civil Rights Movement I wonder .jA WHY BLACKS DON'T TRUST \ JAE! WU A seseoPOES INC. —~” Aftofttive Action The Need For Black Police With each passing day, the crying need for more Black police officers in urban areas becomes more apparent. Those who witnessed on national TV news the astounding sight of white police officer and hard-hats battling tooth and nail unemployed Black construction workers who were protesting the failure to uphold affirmative action regulations at a mid-town Manhattan building site are aware of this need. The thousands who have been rallying in Milwaukee protesting the death of an unjustly accused Black suspect at the hands of white police officers are aware of the need. Those who recall the brutal slaying of Black business executive Arthur McDuffie at the hands of white police, which sparked a massive conflagration in Miami, are aware of this need. Those who are subjected to the crudities and indignities of the swaggering, foul-mouthed, itchy-fingered racists that too often populate this nation’s police forces, are all too aware of this need. Black police officers have proven to the be more human, mere sensitive and less likely to resolve disputes by dint of armed force. As in so many other fields, the Reagan Administration’s actions will not alleviate this problem but will worsen it. Because of his “New Federalism” policies, which will reduce federal aid virtually 37 percent to localities, many cities will use this as an excuse to lay-off city employees in massive numbers. Black police officers who were the last to be hired, are marked to the first fired, if traditional seniority rules are followed. When the U.S. Conference of Mayors sent queries to 100 cities about the probable effects of the federal cuts, representatives of 68 said they planned to cut essential services and representatives of 58 said they would lay-off workers. Another city survey by Congress’ J oint Economic Committee alleged that more than one-half were already operating “in the red.” The committee warned: “The Federal Government many have to develop a policy for dealing with municipal default on other than an hoc basis.” Os course, if the city MISTRUST administrations would collect uncollected taxes from big real estate owners and uncollected sales taxes from big retailers, there would be no fiscal crisis but the fact is that most mayors will use the specter of Reaganomics to put Black city employees on the unemployment rolls. Tliese lay-offs are expected to spell doom for all those Black police officers hired as a result of affirmative action thrust, but this does not have to be the case. For just as affirmative action is needed for those entering the police force, it is needed equally for those exiting from the force. Boston has just shown the nation what this means. Black and Latino police officers and firefighters filed a class action suit alleging that they were bearing the brunt of lay-offs because they were disproportionately among those recently hired; lay-offs according to seniority would have made affirmative action a hollow deception. Judge Andrew A. Caffrey argeed and ruled that Blacks and Latinos must continue to make up 14.7 percent erf the city’s Fire Department and 11.7 percent of the Police Department. These figures represent the percentages that existed July 6 when Mayor Kevin White initiated a series of lay-offs. Judge Caffrey also ordered the city to maintain separate seniority lists for whites and “minorities” to guide future reductions. Such agreements have been lauded by affirmative acton advocates but denounced by certain white officers. Indeed, the recent spate erf police killings and brutality complaints is seen by some as a form of “pay back" to the Black community by these racists. In any case, it is clear 'that this kind of opposition has been a major stumbling block to increasing the number of Black officers. For example, in 1978 the Orlando, Florida branch of Operation PUSH, along with a number of other predominantly Black groups filed a complaint with the Federal Office of Revenue Sharing, attempting to hold up the disbursement erf millions of dollars in funds because of the city’s terrible record in hiring i Blacks. This spurred the city administration to try to get their act together and they installed, belatedly, an affirmative action plan, which-if followed-will be a step forward. One would think that all would rejoice over justice finally reaching this bastion of Southern racism and reaction. But, also, this would be too much like right, as the old folks used to say. The Orlando Professional Firefighters Union, Local 1365, has filed a federal law suit challenging the plan, saying the goals result in “reverse discrimination toward white firefighters. These predominantly white unions do not recognize that the major lesson of the air controllers’s strike is that all public sector employees are under the gun and will need all the allies they can get to beat back the oncoming wage-slashing and union-busting drive. Alienating the Black community by such regressive tactics plays right into the hands of “divide and conquer” advocates. Yet, the events in Orlando illustrate just what affirmative action advocates are up against in trying to increase the number of Black police officers. Another Florida city, Daytona Beach, brings further evidence of the rampant racism affliciting city administrations. A recent report has charged that the city fathers have used "defacto segregated- job ladders, invalid selection techniques, supervisor stereotypes about (Blacks) and Civil Service hiring and promotional techniques that stress artifical requirements placing a premimiumon paper credentials”- all this and more was used just to avoid hiring Blacks. Thus, resistance to hiring Black police officers will stiffen as the disastrous effects to Reaganomics become clear. Not only will this harm the effort to obtain more Black officers but it will also weaken the effort to retain Blacks already on the force. A recent report in New York City predicts that the economic pressures being felt by police officers could lead to greater corruption in the city’s police force. Not only will Reaganomics mean smaller pay checks which will drive officers from the force -but it will also open up officers to charges of corruption. An example from the City of Brotherly Love- Philadelphia- provides an example of what may happen if what is going on in New York is a national trend. John Green, president-elect of the Guardian Civic League, has stated: “We’ve noted that there have been a lot of Black police officers going before the trial board Aboard of Inquiry) and we’re in the process of trying to determine a pattern and maybe a reason.” Basically, Green has questioned whether Black officers were being brought up on trivial and questionable charges, in an attempt to purge Blacks from the force. Black students in pu blic schools are suspended and expelled mere. Black professional athletes receive mere fines. With charges of police corruption expected to increase, expect more Black officers to be bounced from the ranks for this and other sometimes questionable reasons. Green has averred, “Thereis a definite concerted effort on the part of white supervisors to take Black police officers before the Review Board.” Similar charges have been made in other cities. Many Blacks who, as a result of affirmative action law suits, have begun to enter the police academies that are the training ground for future officers, have been complaining of harassment and petty indignities aimed at them in an attempt to get them to drop out. Apparently, this is under investigation in the corps of New York State Troopers but it is an issue that merits national scrutiny. N.0.8.L.E., the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, has raised the issue of increasing Black officers but more insistent voices need to join theirs. Especially is this so when Reaganomics expects to cut a prodigious swath through the already dwindling ranks of Black officers. Like so many others presently under siege, Black police officers should consider joining the NAACP, AFL-CIO and hundreds of thousands of others expected to descend on Washington on September 19th to let the President know directly just what folks think about his jelly-bean budget. In any event, it is no secret that increasing the number of Black officers is a matter of life and death. Walking With Dignity (UNREST MOUNTING IN TROUBLED ZAIRE) Consider Zaire, a country the size of the United States east of the Mississippi. It has 26 million people. Three quarters of them subsist on an annual incane of less than SIOO. Two-thirds of them are illiterate. Its president, Mobutu Sese Seko, who has ruled the country fa 16 years, millionaire many times over. This is the very thing why I can’t ever get enthusiastic over the achievement of Blacks, because they don’t care a good-damn about the teeming masses. The masses of Blacks in Africa were just as well off under Colonial whites, as they are under conniving so-called Black leaders. That is almost true of Blacks in the United States. MOBUTU-TYE LOVED BY WHITES .... The reason is his country’s raw materials, and its better to handle one “Uncle Smart” than a nation of altruistic progressive. The reason is raw materials fa sure; backward Zaire is rich in them. It has, for example, the world’s largest known reserves of cobalt (about 30 percent of the world’s total), as well as huge quantities of other resources essential to modern industry and defense including zinc, manganese, and copper. Zaire is also the wald's largest producer erf industrial diamonds. Next month when French President Francois Mitterrand visits the United States for the first time since unseating Valery Giscard d’Estaing, Zaire will be discussed, you better believe it. WITHOUT HELP FROM THE WEST, MOBUTU WOULD BE GONE .... President Reagan will want to know what action France will take, this time around, if a face from without tries to kick Mobutu out. Three years ago that very thing happened. On that occasion, the West joined hands to counter the attack Business In The Black Reagan Helps Rich Get Richer-Americans Run Abroad With Money By Dr. Charles E. Belle According to Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co., the accounting firm, money saved in taxes will be 28 times greater for the rich, ($200,000 per year income bracket) than the average household ($20,000), in 1981. The central question is can America benefit from this new tax bill? Billions of dollars may well be freed from the tax man, but taken where is the disquieting question. Out of the country may be the answer! All U.S. savings and loans have been losing deposits daily to money market funds in recent years. Money market funds are open- end diversified investment companies whose objectives are current high income and preservation of principal. Putting money into them by individuals is diverting funds from savings and loans associations who normally lend to people to buy U.S. constructed homes. Mortgage money is long term thus unsuitable for money market fund portfolios, invested mostly in high quality, short-term money market instruments, like corporation 1.0.U.’5. For example. General Motors’ Motor Company borrows from such money market funds using an instrument called commerical paper for a lower than bank interst rate at a set number of dates (18 percent for 29 days). GM has enormous overseas, as well as, domestic operations. By Al Irby French transportation, backed by military aid from Belgium and sl3 million in equipment supplied by the United States. Moroccan troops were flew into Zaire in a matter of hours to repel the invasion by so called Marxist guerrillas based in neighboring Angola. Without Western help, Mobutu might have become an ex-dictator, and Zaire’s masses could be no worse off. AFRICA AWAITS MITTERAND VIEWS .... At next month’s Franco-American summit, President Mitterand will tell President Reagan that this time, France’s response may not suit the United States. Under Mitterrand, France favors, at least in theory, staying cool and allowing African and other third-world countries to work out their own answers to their many problems. Not so with the “hard boiled’’ Reagan administration, which appears eager to lend a helping hand any time anywhere, especially if the problems take the form of foreign intervention. France sees the third world in a different light. Last month, for instance, Jean-Pierre Cot, the minister fa African affairs, ended a swing through Africa arguing that the continent’s vulnerability is rooted in economic backwardness and not in the threat of political destabilization. The answer is to send more development aid. For his part, President Reagan is ready to send some aid, especially to help Zaire, but many countries in Black Africa are shying away from the Reagan administration, accusing it of leaning too far to the racist-ruled South Africa. Meanwhile, Mobutu’s enemies multiply. The latest is famer prime minister Nguza Karl-I- Bond, who fled Zaire last month while still holding his post. He received exile in Belgium. Mr. Ngu2a said that he plans to overthrow Mobutu, and that his following in the Army is large. General Motors not only does a great deal of its business overseas, 28 percent of 1980 sales, but plans an increase according to its chairman Roger Smith when he spoke earlier this year at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Frequently money market funds will have as much as 60 percent of their portfolio investments in commerical paper, loaning to companies rather than U.S. home owners. Government statistics are still not available on how much of the portfolio investments in money market funds are being covertly funneled off to foreign subsidiaries of U.S. corporations. Indeed, the new tax bill plays to this foreign business development of overseas not domestic job creation. Consider for instance, individuals working abroad will be entirely free of federal taxes on the first $75,000 of income in 1982 with further $5,000 increments in subsequent years all the way up to a maximum erf $95,000. It will take more than American patriotism to stop individuals and institutions from taking the highest profit investment with their new tax savings in order to stop this flushing out of U.S. funds in the near future. The arguments about royalties and dividends returning in future years, unfortunately sounds too similar to colonialist exploitation-but that’s yet another new question.