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The Augusta News-Review January 8,1983
The Augusta News-Review (usps 887 820)
Mallory K. MillenderEditor Publisher
Paul Walker Assistant to the Publisher
Barbara Gordon Advertising Dir/Gen. Manager
Wanda Johnson Administrative Assistant
Alfredia Rodd Sales Representative
Yvonne Day Reporter
Rev. R.E. Donaldsonßeligion Editor
Mrs. Geneva Y. Gibson Church Coordinator
Charles Beale Jenkins County Correspondent
Mrs. Fannie Johnson Aiken County Correspondent
Mrs. Clara WestMcDuffie County Correspondent
Mrs. Ileen Buchanan Fashion & Beauty Editor
Roosevelt Green. Columnist
Al IrbyColumnist
Philip Waring Columnist
Marva Stewart Columnist
Carl McCoyEditorial Cartoonist
Olando HamlettPhotographer
Roscoe Williams Photographer
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Speaking Out
Black struggle
beneficial to all
by Roosevelt Green Jr.
The black civil rights movement
of the 1960 s was and is a great
thing for America, and blacks in
particular. The
measured sue-
cess of blacks /
in this effort f
has caused 9
some whites to
realize that
they, too, are
not free of cer
tain repressions
and op
pressions.
The women’s rights as well as
other ethnic and racial minorities’
movements all owe a debt to the
struggles of blacks. Still, no group
wants to really identify with blacks
and their ongoing battle with
racism and discrimination.
The significant gains of blacks
during the 1960’s are now
threatened by a national climate
characterized by anti-black at
titudes and behaviors. We are still
the last hired and the first fired
during this economic recession,
which one could also call another
major depression.
Last hired blacks who owe their
progress to affirmative action
programs of the public and private
sectors of this society must now
watch the erosion of gains through
disastrious federal economic
policies, and job systems geared to
worker seniority. It is seniority not
merit that will insure many jobs of
white employees.
As Dr. Benjamin E. Mays often
says, he who enters the race late
must run twice as hard to stay in
the race. Although hard work has
not really paid off for black slaves
ahd their ancestors, it is still
necessary that blacks work even
harder to compete in the American
mainstream.
The civil rights movement was
an indicator that blacks want a
piece of the economic rock, a
chance for racial equality, and
Civil Rights Journal
New Year resolution for
the poor, unemployed, hungry
by Charles E. Cobb
The time has again arrived for
many Americans to begin for
mulating New
Year’s resolut-
ions.
The majority
the promises
we make to
ourselves nor- B
mally last I
through the Pjßr
month Jj-
January and ~
then slowly become forgotten as
we return to business as usual.
However, this year not as many of
us will be returning to business as
usual simply because there is less
business to which we can return.
The abysmal economic circum
stances in which the nation and the
Page 4
racial pride. Many blacks have
taken advantage of the many op
portunities newly available to us.
But what about those, who
through the fault of others or of
themselves, failed to take advan
tage of the dawning of a new day?
As economic hard times inflict
whites as well as blacks, there is
very little concern about the
welfare of blacks, poor whites, and
other minorities. During times of
prosperity and plenty, white
liberals were a dime a dozen.
Although few whites admit voting
for the current president, most
now call themselves “conser
vatives,” or the “new right.”
It is difficult to understand how
anybody one to two pay checks
from poverty and welfare
eligibility can be a conservative. A
conservative should have
something to conserve beside skin
color and prejudice, and the wall
between him or her, the black, and
poor. The new right is simply “old
bigotry” parading under a new
banner.
Since we are back to times of
racial relations similar to the
1950 s and before, it is time to
launch another great drive for
political, economic, and
educational equality. This time a
quest to “intergrate” with whites
must take a back seat to interac
tion with economic and political
power.
Meaning, we now understand
that whites define intergration as
the loss of black identity coupled
with their rejection of black power
in a society dominated by white
power. Must the new drive for
black progress once again be left
up to idealism of black youth and a
new form of sit-in movement.
The new drive calls for study
ins, work-ins, computer-ins, vote
ins and outs, build-ins, invest-ins,
business-ins, preach-ins, teach-ins,
church or temple-ins, and stand-,
ins until the victory is a reality
rather than a dream. Right?
world are currently embroiled does
not lead one to a sense of hope. It
is a popular belief that things will
get worse before they get better, in
spite of the most glowing promises
of recovery.
1983 resolutions will certainly
take on a deeper sense of reality
reflecting the kind of desperate
straits in which most of us find
ourselves.
What will be the resolution of
the unemployed, the poor and the
hungry? How will they resolve to
better their condition? What will
be the resolution of the new
Congress entrusted with the
nation’s growth and security?
I actually sense a kind of fear or
trepidation on the part of the
American people as to what 1983
see Journal page 5
V \ I /I II
so* OJ
BLACK RESOURCES INC.
To Be Equal
End of a hard year
by John E. Jacob
Not many people will be sorry to
see 1982 fade away into history’s
dustbin. It’s been a bad year, a
year of economic Depression and
polarization.
The unemployment figures went
to nearly eleven fl :
percent by year- 1
end. Several I
million people
were added to ■
the poverty fl
rolls. Business I
and personal I
bankruptcies
mounted.
The impact of the budget cuts
meant terrible suffering for
millions of people who are poor or
near-poor, as their so-called safety
net was torn to pieces.
The lethal combination of the
budget cuts and tax cuts tilted
toward the affluent meant the
reversal of the trend toward
reducing income inequality. The
net effect of national policies was
to transfer income from low in
come families to the highest in
come groups.
Given all this, and the many
other indicators of the unfairness
and hardship inflicted on
Americans over the past year, it
may seem perverse to look for the
year’s bright spots. But I think we
should, for the alternatives is to
give way to despair and
hopelessness.
Besides, there were some in
dications in 1982 of anew realism
taking root among many
Americans who are repelled by the
direction in which our nation is
Going Places
mounted.
Black dean at Princeton
by Phil Waring
The Rev. Eugene Y. Lowe Jr.
has just been appointed Princeton
University’s
dean of student W
affairs and also W*.
associate dean r |B|
of the college. ■ " «
Princeton ' JmL
president W.G.
Bowen said this IK
was an SI
“historic first” in the institution’s
237-year-old history.
Rev. Lowe’s father is from
Augusta, and the 33-year-old
minister is a native of New York
City, but has visited Augusta
relatives. A 1971 Princeton honor
graduate, he worked with the
Chase-Manhattan bank from 1973
to 1978, rising to a vice presidency
where he helped establish and
direct a division on corporate
responsibility.
Later, however, he decided to
enter the ministry and was or
dained an Episcopal priest. Now
an assistant rector at a New York
City Episcopal church, he is com-
moving.
In January, I wrote that for “all
who are concerned with the terrible
pressures placed on poor people,
1982 will be the time to take off the
gloves and come out swinging
against further attempts to weaken
the weak. We must build coalitions
to protect the interests of the
forgotten and neglected.”
That is just what did happen in
1982. Or at least, that is what
began to happen. Some attemptes
to go after programs for the poor
were beaten back. The coalitions
concerned with justice and equity
were more successful than they
were in 1981, when the New Right
steamroller was everything in
sight.
By the end of the year,those
coalitions were beginning to win
some victories. For the first time,
the swollen Pentagon budget came
under fire. The MX missile and
other costly new weapons systems
were attacked by a coalition of
businessmen against larger budget
deficits, military experts against
useless and dangerous weapons
systems, and citizens who rightly
say military waste as taking milk
from babies as nutrition programs
were cut to feed the Pentagon.
When the year started, public
opinion was against federal jobs
programs and for steps to cut in
flation. After a year of crunching
interest rates and Depression,
opinions changed.
The Federal Reserve backed off
from its ruinous monetary policies
and as a result interest rates are
coming down. Polls of business
leaders indicate inflation isn’t a
worry anymore and that unem-
pleting work on his doctoral disser
tation from Union Theological
Seminary in New York where he
has already earned two master’s
degrees.
At Princeton, he also will be on
the teaching staff of the Religious
Department.
His father, a top-flight New
York human services professional,
was one of the co-founders of
Augusta’s Community Forum
during the mid-19305. This group
helped form the Community
Library. Father Lowe’s uncle,
Rufus J. Lowe, is a long-time
human service staffer with the
Richmond County government.
Job Bias Cases On The Move
My files on race relations and
employment continue to fill up
with recent newspaper clippings.
In New Orleans a federal judge has
ordered a large commercial bank
into trial on a job discrimination
charge, while in Alabama, another
federal court has ordered Bir
mingham and six adjacent cities to
immediately move to upgrade and
ployment is the number one
problem.
At the start of the year, federal
job creation programs were dead;
by the end of the year, Congress
was considering a number of job
programs including one backed by
an Administration that persistently
denied the need for “make-work”
programs.
Perhaps the most significant
event of the year was the election
that amounted to a rejection of
national economic policies. .Urged
to “stay the course,” voters clearly
indicated they wanted to change
course.
They voted for more gover
nment intervention in the
economy, for jobs programs, and
for protecting the safety net social
insurance programs from further
cuts.
They also rejected the New
Right ideologues who think that
banning abortions is more impor
tant than feeding hungry children
and praying in school more impor
tant than learning basic skills.
The Moral Majority and “social
issues” supporters of the New
Right found themselves frozen out
of the power they thought was
theirs. Now it looks as though they
face a decline—none too soon for
the good of the country.
Now none of this adds up to
reason for rejoicing. Let’s face
it—l9B2 was an awful year that
bled a lot of people. But as it ends,
we can stand back take stock, and
see the seeds of a new realism that
may help us out of the morass. It is
as important to nurture these slim
seeds of change as it is to bewail
the current situation.
employ blacks in their municipal
government.
Here in Georgia a federal judge
has opened doors for over 1,000
current and former black em
ployees to seek legal relief from
past discrimination in employment
and promotions at the state Mental
Health Center and Hospital in
Milledgeville.
Up in Atlanta, several hundred
past and present employees have
filed charges with the federal Fair
Employment Practice Commission
(FEPC) to hear charges of past and
current job bias at Rich’s depar
tment stores.
Over at Fort Stevens, adjacent
to Savannah, the FEPC will hear
individual and group action cases
of job discrimination among
civilian employees at the giant tax
supported military base.
One may hear complaints of
“heavy handed force” by the
federal government, but the
NAACP, SCLC, ACLU, Urban
League and Southern Regional
Council will tell you that there are
virtually hundreds of job
Walking With Dignity
Dr. Love
believed in
schools
by Al Irby
Dr. Ruth B. Love, Chicago’s
black superintendent of schools,
believes the in
ner-city schools
can be revived.
ftW Do th e
-1 nation ’ s hig
city schools—
filled with
F disproportion
ate numbers of
Up ,3*"'o economically
disadvantaged and minority
youngsters—face an insurmoun
table educational challenge? Ms.
Love, the dynamic brown-lady
pedagogue, says n o. “I believe an
urban renaissance in public
education is possible, and I think
we know how to do it,” she insists.
“I am as convinced as I am of
anything that you can make a dif
ference by zeroing in on standar
ds.”
The one crucial ingredient, in
her progressive view, is deter
mination. “I don’t think we can
have a renaissance unless the
climate is such that people see a
need for it, and are excited about
it,” she says. “I hope I’m wrong,
but I sense there may not be a clear
philosophical understanding these
days of what public education is all
about.”
The articulate lady continues to
cogitate verbally, “I sense a kind
of elitist attitude and a pull
yourself-up-by your-bootstraps
philosophy when you have no
boots. It’s almost as if they’re
saying, ‘Educate yourselves’ or ‘lf
you don’t have an education, it’s
too bad.’
“But this society is only as
strong as its public schools. You
cannot say you’re going to educate
just some of the people, that these
people are going to have a chance,
but you’re not. That’s fodder for
revolution. That’s why we have
them (public schools).”
This year, as most recent years,
Chicago’s public schools opened in
the midst of a last-minute fisca
crisis. But Dr. Love stresses that
she is talking more about “will”
than about money. At issue, she
says, is an apparently widespread
loss of confidence in the public
schools’ ability to do the job.
This lady Ph.D. views the sup
port for President Reagan’s tuition
tax credit proposal, aimed at
helping parents of private and
parochial school students, as one
more sign of this/Dr. Love, who
came to Chicago in March 1981,
after six years as superintendent of
schools in Oakland, Calif., blames
both public pressure on the schools
and educators themselves for let
ting standards for academics and
marketable skills slip in recent
years. “I think for a couple of
decades we did lower the standar
ds—there’s no doubt about it,”
she says.
“I really believe the disciples of
John Dewey misunderstood hi:
mission and got us on a path ol
false progressive education that
didn’t stress real basic education tel
the extent I think he intended. A®
the same time the public wal
saying, ‘You’re pressuring th!
students too much.’ The net result
was to give excuses to people wh®
didn’t want to see public education
succeed.”
Dr. Love puts a premium on act
countability and progress in th!
classroom. Standardized tests!
dropped in the Chicago school!
since 1975, have been resumed!
Specific goals—on everythin!
from academic progress to im!
proved attendance and reduce!
vandalism —are stated frequently
and assessed at year’s end.
A new “high school renaissai!
ce” program she is launching new
fall is aimed at stepping up basfl
skill achievement by adding moifi
reading and math specialists. <
This learned lady would like tl
see urban schools strip away son®
of the many extra duties they’w
been handed since the mid-1940’1
“Schools have been far too williifl
to accept total responsibility f<H
solving everybody’s problem, thl
must be stopped,” she says. |
discrimination cases waiting in tfl
wings in many states and cities. Vfl
must keep alert and informed fl
supporting our Black Presl
NAACP, etc. I