Newspaper Page Text
The Augusta News-Review August 13,1983
Mallory K. MillenderEditor-Publisher
Paul Walker Assistant to the Publisher
Wanda Johnson General Manager/Advertising Dir.
Diane CarswellCirculation Manager
Yvonne Dayßeporter
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
Wilbert Allen Columnist
Roosevelt Green Columnist
Al IrbyColumnist
Philip Waring Columnist
Marva Stewart Columnist
George Bailey Sports Writer
Carl McCoyEditorial Cartoonist
Olando HamlettPhotographer
Roscoe Williams Photographer
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Walking With Dignity
Jesse and PUSH
by Al Irby
“Run, Jesse, run! Run, Jesse,
run!” This chant floated through
the air at the W
Peachtree Plaza
as Operation
PUSH (People -
United to Save SaL
Humanity) held aWk ’***
its 12th Nation
al convention in
good old Atlan- B
ta, Georgia.”
Convention leaders, most of them
preachers, were addressing issues
such as education, international
affairs, economics, and jobs with
words that had religious overtones
and political implications. They
stir delegates into a fervor in
behalf of a Jesse Jackson for
President movement.
But at convention workshops,
grass-roots inner-city delegates,
most under age 35, are concentrat
ing on. bread-and-butter topics.
These delegates are pleading: “Save
our children. Educate our children.
Return to prayer.”
They are more interested in
discussing youth problems, jobs
and education than a presidential
campaign.
The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson,
national president of Operation
PUSH and the Black leader who
traveled internationally to promote
the launching of a Black presiden
tial candidate, has so far refrained
from declaring his candidacy.,
At the keynote address in Atlan
ta, the noted “Country Preacher”
tempered his usual emotional style
with statements of policy that are
required of a national leader. He
discussed “a vision of a new course,
a new coalition and a new leader
ship.”
In the workshops, people were
speaking out on topics closer to
home. “The more education Black
parents get, the less they do with
their children. I don’t understand
that,” shouted Ollie Anderson
from Chicago.
She interrupted Alvin F.
Poussaint, noted Harvard Black
psychiatrist, when he said that he
advised unmarried teen-age
mothers to have their babies, but
give them up for adoption.
“These girls usually don’t know
how to take care of a baby, don’t
have any money or job to support
a baby,” he said. “They will not
complete their high school
Civil Rights Journal
Method in 'madness 9
by Charles Cobb
The idea of a Black presidential
candidate has captured the attent
ion of a large ' - fl|
number of
Blacks and
whites within * J> ;
the nation.
Many Blacks ■
say the
isn’t right and .
many whites say
it is sheer mad
ness. But Dick Gregory has said
that if God came to earth and tur
ned out to be Black, a lot Black
people would say the time is not
right. And to the sophisticated
Page 4
education.”
Mrs. Anderson responded,
“Let’s get down to business.
Children don’t know what they’re
doing. We should teach our girls
about sex.”
Statistics show that ap
proximately 50 percent of all births
to unwed girls under age 19 are to
Blacks. Shirley Roulhac-Lumpkin
of Miami, who had her first child
out of wedlock, said, “My parents
didn’t teach me anything about
relations with boys. They knew I
wouldn’t get in trouble.”
She said she got married and had
more children, and she has gone
back to school with them. She and
one of her daughters finished
college together and are studying
for a master’s degree.
“A lot of parents still have the
problem like my mother,” Mrs.
Roulhac-Lumpkin added, tney
don’t know what to tell their
children. In my community, I get
the health center to lead discuss
ions and teach young people about
each other.”
She says that she works in a drug
and alcohol abuse program. Mrs.
Anderson also talked about
prayer: “They took religion out of
the schools. Why don’t we tell our
own kids about prayer? Why don’t
we open our churches on Saturday
and teach our kids about right and
wrong? Other people talked about
getting Black churches more in
volved in community problems.
Preachers are key leaders in the
top PUSH project for youth,
PUSH-EXCEL. This project helps
potential dropouts and trouble
makers, encouraging them to stay
in school. It has received federal,
state and local funds to work with
school systems in several cities.
Black colleges were discussed in
various meetings. Speakers en
couraged parents to send their
children to Black colleges, alumni
to send their money to Black
schools, and white educators to
recognize these colleges as the
source of many of the nation’s
Black achievers.
At a preconvention meeting,
Black students were encouraged to
participate in voter registration
campaigns on the campuses and in
the surrounding community.
But outside of the workshops,
the convention leadership con
tinued to prime the pump for the
charismatic Rev. Jesse Jackson as
a candidate for president.
politcial analyst there is a method
to the so-called “madness.”
The influence and power of any
presidential candidate is much
broader than what we may per
ceive. All presidential candidates,
once announced, have the duty
and obligation to their supporters
to have their name placed on as
many state ballots as possible.
This means that each candidate
must organize a group of suppor
ters in every state. This group then
begins to organize the local elec
torate around their particular can
didate. Each of these groups then
selects a number of candidates to
see Candidate, page 3
WHEN I SUGGESTED MERIT
PAY RAISES FOR TEACHERS
| HAD NO IDEA THAT COULD
ALSO BE APPLIED TO ZWMIW
GOVERNMENT OFF ICIALS!
] rx
L x ' ©was y)
■BEAtJDoN JR.
BLACK RESOURCES IKC.
To Be Equal
Tax credits bad idea
by John E. Jacob
One of the strangest responses to
the concern about the decline of
America’s pub
lie schools is S
the renewed in- WK
terest giving
tax breaks to V
parents o f M
private school
students.
The Ad
ministration is
pushing a tuition tax credit plan.
There is considerable support for it
in Congress. And the Supreme
Court recently approved a version
of tax breaks for parents of
schoolchildren.
Previously, the Court struck
down such state laws on the
grounds that they violated the con
stitutional ban on government in
volvement in religion by sub
sidizing parochial schools.
In the Minnesota case recently
decided by a 5-4 vote, the Court
found that since the state offered a
tax deduction for school-related
expenses to all parents with
schoolchildren, the state law
passed the test of constitutionality.
In effect, what the Court did
was to show backers of a tuition
tax credit how to recast their pet
plan to meet constitutional objec
tions. The key is to extend the
credit to all parents, not just those
with kids in private school.
Os course, that’s just a legal fic
tion. The expenses incurred by
public school parents are minimal.
Pencils, notebooks and gym shorts
don’t add up to a fraction of the
by Marian Eldelman
Twenty years ago this summer,
the largest assemblage of
Americans ever to gather in the
history of the civil rights struggle,
marched through the streets of
Washington.
Twenty years ago, we rose and
gave witness to our oneness of
beliefs in Martin Luther King's
dream of little Black boys and girls
joining hands with little white boys
and girls as brothers and sisters.
Twenty years ago, Black people
from all walks of life marched and
boycotted and organized to claim
our full measure of justice in this
our American homeland.
tuition payments for which private
school parents would get a tax
credit.
The Court might still strike
down a federal tuition tax
credit—it would just take a change
of mind by only one Justice. But
that’s a slim hope now. Supporters
of public education would be ad
vised to try to ensure such
legislation never gets past the
Congress.
For a tuition tax credit would be
a body blow to public education.
Its effect would be to drain tax
dollars away from already finan
cially undernourished public
schools, where 90 percent of all
American children are educated.
Incredibly, the tuition tax credit
is being sold as an idea to improve
education. But in reality it is just
another tax giveaway, expected to
cost the Treasury some $3 billion
by some estimates. And this sub
sidy would take place while already
inadequate federal aid to public
education is slashed still further.
By offering parents financial in
centives to take their children out
of the public schools, a tuition tax
credit would subvert public
education. Instead of helping to
make public schools better, the
government would undercut public
support for the schools and further
retard equal educational oppor
tunity.
In some places, a tuition tax
credit would subsidize white flight
from the public schools, leading to
lessened public support for
adequate school budgets.
No one disputes the right of
parents to send their children to
Child watch
Twenty years ago, I, like many
of you, felt a great surge of hope, a
heady belief that at last Black
America, I, we, our folk, our
children would once and for all
break the shackles of oppression,
poverty, inferior education,
discrimination and unequal op
portunities —felt that better time
our old folk had sung about and
prayed for indeed had come.
And for the thousands of us who
became middle class, moved
through college and professional
schools, and into jobs previously
labelled “white only”, life did im
prove measurably.
But twenty years ago, forty per-
private schools, but there is no
valid reason for the Treasury to
subsidize their choice.
Instead, there are compelling
reasons for the government to but
tress the public school system. For
that is where the future of
American education will be played
out, and that is where the over
whelming majority of disadvan
taged children will get their
schooling.
It is of overriding national im
portance of those public schools to
be sharply improved, and the
various proposals now being
talked about—merit pay for
teachers, tuition tax credits, and
even school prayer—would have
either no impact on public
education or a negative impact.
Historically, the public schools
have infused Americans with a
common culture and values. Prac
tically, they are the only source of
potential quality education for
disadvantaged children. They are
one of the few remaining
American institutions with at least
the potential to bring together
people of all races and classes.
No one is satisfied with their
current performance. The public
schools need to be drastically im
proved. And one important way to
improve them is to allocate the
resources they need, not to dangle
tax breaks to encourage people to
desert them.
The schools need more money,
more community involvement and
more public support. Tuition tax
credits would simply ensure that
the alarming decline of public
education is accelerated.
cent of our people—our children,
our future, our heritage —hadn’t
been born. Today, the marches are
memories for some, unknown to
others.
There is a whole generation of
Black children and youth who have
never been touched by King’s
dream —our dream.
In America today, millions of
our children exist at the edge of
our society—a voiceless, powerless
minority. Their education, shelter,
health, and well-being depend
totally on the fairness and protec
tion of others.
There are 9.3 million Black
see Children, page 3
Going Places
Don’t
merge
our schools
by Phil Waring
Persons attending the recent an
nual conference of the National
Urban League
(NUL) in New
Orleans—more J,
than 12,000 f
were there— il
really got in a ■ (
well-balanced 13L
view of all kinds X
of questions in- IJU
volving American race relations
and related subjects.
As an example, Clarence
Thomas, Savannah born and Har
vard-law educated staff director of
the federal EEOC, spoke out on
how discrimination was now hurt
ing women, Blacks and Hispanics,
coupled with the need for more
federal action to stem this.
His counterpart, Bradford
Reynolds, Justice Department
director of civil rights, presented a
vigorous defense of the Reagan
Civil Rights programs saying
“they were quite satisfactory.”
Putting this entire matter out in
front was Dr. Mary Francis Berry,
former assistant secretary of HEW
in the Carter administration.
Dr. Berry, in a calm and well
prepared presentation, ticked off
the failures and negative charac
teristics of the Reagan Civil Rights
policies. One great feature of the
NUL is its ability to present
various points of view and different
kinds of persons.
While I was on the St. Mary’s
church picnic in Savannah and did
not hear it, I understand that
Frank Thomas put together and
moderated the program, “It’s This
Way...Community Viewpoint”
which dealt with the feasibility of a
female or minority offering for
president in 1984.
It featured Pat Marcus of the
League of Women Voters, Willie
Mays of city council, Phil Kent,
editorial writer for the Augusta
Chronicle and Herald and Dr.
Ralph Walker, Augusta College
political science professor.
This topic and related issues are
being discussed all over the nation
and we should be grateful to Frank
for kicking it off in Augusta.
There should be, however, many
more local programs of this kind.
Don’t Merge Our Black Colleges
If you’ve kept up with the news,
you will agree there’s quite an up
roar in Georgia regarding inter
gration of its higher educational
system. The federal government
has again told Georgia that it is not
pleased on the matter of race and
higher education.
Continuing, the U.S. Depar
tment of Education indicated that
the state has done a poor job on
the recruitment of students, staff
and faculty, and there needs to be
greater upgrading of the three
long-time historically Black
colleges.
The NAACP stated that when
the state moved to merge the three
colleges into three nearby much
younger white colleges, it is
making the Black victims pay for
crimes committed by others. The
burden, states Dr. Elias Blake of
Clark College in Atlanta, “has
been on the poor performance of
the university system in getting
more students, staff and faculty.
SCLC, in strong disagreement
with Gov. Harris, pointed out that
the three colleges have made much
better strides than the other 30
predominately white colleges and
universities, having white
enrollment ranging from 13 per
cent up to 17 percent plus as com
pared with less than five percent
for the others. The president oi
Savannah State expressed surprise
that the three Black institutions
would have to pay the ultimatt
price.
Dr. Joe Lowery is urging al
Georgia community institution:
and organizations to contact th<
governor’s office on this matter.
Furthermore, declared th<
NAACP, it is these three college
that are graduating the overwhelm
ing bulk of Black, college-trainei
young people coming from th
Georgia public higher education
system. We understand that th
Georgia Legislative Black Caucu
and GABEO are steadfast in op
position to the merging of the thre
colleges. What do you think?