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The Augusta News-Review September 3,1983
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
Mississippi Blacks
by Al Irby
“They don’t need a band. They
dance by the clapping of their han
ds.” We old
timers as WF
youngsters, dan- Ea H
ced to that
swinging tune, I
'Mississippi
Mud.’
But present
day Black- 91
Mississippians have more serious
things on their minds. They are
going to the voting polls in droves.
Blacks in Mississippi are voting
in increasing numbers, and many
hold public office. But there is
currently a missionary zeal among
Black leaders and grass-roots
workers to get even more Black
candidates running for office at
the local, state, and federal levels.
During the Aug. 2 Democratic
primary in Mississippi, activists
worked hard to get Black voters to
the polls. And though some
lawsuits have been filed over
alleged voting irregularities, the
statewide primary results indicated
that Mississippi will wind up with
at least 20 more Black elected of
ficials, most Black leaders predict.
Around the state, organizers
work in both urban and rural areas
to elect Black candidates. Two
brothers, Charles and Leonard
Brown, work in different ways.
Charles, who owns a timber
products firm in Water Valley,
says, “I battle for Black school
superintendents and ad
ministrators because I believe in
education.” Leonard was shot and
wounded last July 27 by an
unknown assailant while he was
doing community service work.
Many Black people in the area
suspect he was shot because of his
involvement in getting Blacks
to the polls.
“I thought we had made
progress, but I know now the bat
tle is far from being over,” said
Leonard.
Dr. Aaron Henry, who is a state
legislator and president of the
NAACP in his state. He ran a
losing but symbolic write-in cam
paign for governor in 1963.
As the good doctor sits in his
Civil Rights Journal
Labor Day is bleak holiday for unemployed
by Dr. Charles E. Cobb
The celebration of Labor Day is
designed to spur our appreciation
for the benefits
of being a part
the gAKI
American labor
On
close ■
those benefits
have not been , . ’*
equally distri- //
buted among
the entire population.
If we compare 1960 with the
present and look solely at income,
we continue to find huge
disparities between Blacks and
whites.
Page 4
drug store, he talks of the times
when Blacks ‘‘had no rights in
Mississippi,” under such Black
hating politicians as Sen. Theodore
Bilbo and Gov. Ross Barnett.
Dr. Henry lists what he sees as
the 1984 election goals for
Mississippi Blacks:
•Elect a Black to Congress,”
Robert Clark is the man,” says Dr.
Henry.
•Cark a state representative from
Lexington. He ran in the Delta
area in a predominantly Black
district, but lost to a white
Republican in the general election
in 1982.
♦Encourage Blacks to run for
every public office at the local
level. Blacks should be willing to
run as an independent or
Republican as well as a Democrat.
“White Democrats didn’t vote
for Clark in 1982,” Henry says.
“We do not owe that party any
undivided loyality.”
A late entry into the Mississippi
gubernatorial race was Charles
Ever, brother of civil rights leader
Medger Evers, who was cowardly
gunned-down in 1963.
Charles Evers, who announced
his candidacy a few weeks ago, is
running as an independent on a
platform agreed to by Black
leaders in Mississippi. Dr. Henry
and other Black leaders have ex
pressed dissatisfaction with the
Democratic Party primary held
Aug. 2, especially the voting in
Greenville.
There are many of the voting
machines broke down, and the
election was delayed until Aug. 9.
To a visitor from the North, the
new election day was just a routine
day in Greenville, with tem
peratures pushing 106 degrees in
the shade. Behind the scenes,
worried Black community leaders
were scurrying for voters deter
mined to stay away from the polls
after being frustrated a week
earlier.
No federal observers were
assigned to Greenville on Aug. 2,
although 325 were sent out to
□oiling places in eight selected
counties on that date. But U.S.
Assistant Attorney General
William Bradford Reynolds
detailed 75 observers to monitor
the second vote.
In a study released by the Center
for the Study of Social Policy en
titled “A Dream Deferred: the
economic status of Black
Americans,” these disparities are
brought to light. Although there
has been an increase in the Black
middle class, the income earned by
Black college graduates is about
the same as that earned by white
high school graduates. Fifty-four
percent of Black families are now
at income levels below $15,000 a
year compared with twenty-eight
percent of white families.
The study further noted that
although Blacks have made some
gains since the Civil Rights
Movement, the economic gap bet-
DOCTOR THE GOOD MEWS
IS-O4AT THE FEVER OF INFLATION
IS BROKEN... THE BAD NEWS IS
THAT THE PATIENT IS DYING
r
\w/\ fe
To Be Equal
Blacks get raw deal at State
by John E. Jacob
The United States is one of the
World’s few truly multi-racial
nations, but
you would! . ■
never know it WB
from the way
Blacks are rare W
visible posts
in our State
Department. J
The underre-
presentation of
Blacks there has been a sim
mering scandal. 1 remember Henry
Kissinger’s feeble attempts to ex
plain the lack of Blacks in policy
positions at State. And I recall the
continuous affirmations of suc
ceeding secretaries of state to
correct the situation.
But not much has changed. In
some ways, it has gotten worse.
Under the Carter Administration,
for example, there were 14 Black
ambassadors. Now there are only
seven—a drop of 50 percent in just
a few years.
Os those seven, the single Black
ambassador to a major embassy is
being moved to a lesser embassy to
make room for a newly displaced
assistant secretary of the Depar
tment.
Within embassies, Blacks are
found in the least highly con
sidered sections. The action in the
political and economic sections,
for example, but Blacks are more
likely to be in the consular section
or in minor administrative posts.
Almost half of the tenured Black
Foreign Service officers are in the
consular section. Opportunities
ween Blacks and whites remains
wide and is not diminishing.
On measures of income, poverty
and unemployment, wide
disparities between Blacks and
whites have not lessened or have
even worsened since 1960.
For over two decades, Blacks
have constantly surpassed whites
in terms of educational gains.
From 1960 to 1981, Black males
made a gain of 4.4 years of
schooling on the average, com
pared with 1.9 years for white
males. However, the financial
rewards for education are far dif
ferent for the two groups. Forty
seven percent of Blacks with four
years or more of college earned
there are more limited than in sec
tions dealing with important
diplomatic matters.
A look at senior Department of
ficials reveals a near-absence of
Blacks. The president’s present
national security adviser became
the number two man in the State
Department only after hearings
revealed his lack of experience in
foreign affairs. Meanwhile, ex
perienced Black diplomats are
passed over for senior spots.
No Blacks serve as assistant or
deputy secretary of state. None
head regional bureaus. Only
one—head of the equal oppor
tunity office—is in a senior
executive service position.
The promotional route is a
tough one for Blacks to crack. Ac
cording to Congressman George
Crockett, only 12 Blacks were
among the 513 officers getting
promotions in 1981.
State has been wrestling with its
staffing problems for a long time.
Back in 1977 a report of a task for
ce appointed by then Secretary
Cyrus Vance said the Foreign Ser
vice had an image of being “elitist,
self-satisfied, a walled-in barony
populated by smug white males, an
old-boy system in which women
and minorities cannot possibly
hope to be treated with equity in
such matters as promotions and
senior level responsibilities.”
Three years later Congress
passed the Foreign Service Act to
spur “implementation of policies
and procedures, including affir
mative action programs, which will
facilitate and encourage entry into
20,000-40,000 dollars a year, while
the same percentage of whites with
no more than high school
education earned incomes in that
range. This clearly suggests that
the income gap between Blacks
and whites is less related to
education than to available job
opportunities.
When we look at unemployment
we find that the ratio between
Blacks and whites has remained
virtually unchanged, ap
proximately two to one.
Over 45 percent of Black men do
not have jobs while for whites, this
figure is approximately 30 percent.
While Blacks have made
significant educational
and advancement in the Foreign
Service by persons from all
segments of the American
society.”
As we’ve seen, since that law
was passed the number of Black
ambassadors has been halved. The
State Department’s policies have
been criticized for years but few
results are now visible.
This is bad for the Department,
bad for Blacks, women and
minorities, and very bad for the
country.
If America has any hidden high
card in the international diplomacy
game, it is the diversity and ethnic
range of the American population
itself. The best answer to foreign
critics of America’s policy is the
breadth and ethnic depth of
America’s representatives abroad.
Someone in the White House
ought to tell the State Department
that this world is three-fourths
non-white; that the non-white
nations of the world stand astride
strategic geographic locations, and
that they harbor deep suspicions of
America’s traditional racism,
suspicions confirmed for them by
the relative rarity of Blacks among
America’s diplomats.
How is the State Department
supposed to represent all
Americans if it is overwhelmingly
made up of only some Americans?
How is the elite, old-boy network
that has helped enfeeble American
influence among the non-white
nations to be infused with fresh
ideas and new people without a
conscious effort to increase Black
and minority representation at all
levels of the Foreign Service?
achievements and increased the
numbers of middle class
Americans, we still can conclude
that in terms of economics, on the
whole we are not faring significan
tly better than in the 19605.
This Labor Day comes at a time
when the nation is suffering from
staggering levels of unem
ployment. Along with this we are
witnessing a roll back in affir
mative action policies which
provided much of the impetus for
Blacks to enter the labor market.
So as we observe the past, let us
more importantly plan for the
future in order that the 25 million
Black Americans on whose backs
the country was literally built can
truly celebrate Labor Day.
Going Places
1963 march
a great event
by Philip Waring
When this is read our readers
will have seen and read all of the
drama in last ’ -• <
week’s 20th
anniversary
March.
My warm
salute to Mrs.
Coretta Scott f '
King, the new
Coalition of ’ __5S
Conscience, who planned it, and
all who attended and participated.
The 1963 March helped bring
about a better measure of
Freedom: long overdue civil rights,
attention to the environment, a
war on poverty, women’s rights,
etc.
But unfortunately, it did not
bring about equality as called for
by Dr. King’s Dream and the U.S.
Constitution. May we hope that
the 1983 event will bring about this
change.
The 1963 demonstation was a
great day of spiritual and moral
renewal for America with many
whites, labor, educational leaders
and others present. Dr. King stole
the show. His “I Have A Dream”
has been accepted as one of the
greatest orations ever. But it was
old man Randolph, the NAACP,
the Urban League, SCLC, UAW,
the Jewish, Catholic and other
units who threw in to help the
Black community put over the
greatest public event of its kind.
And let’s hope the recent project
will help get the M.L. King Birth
day bill through the Congress.
’ It was good to note that former
President and Mrs. Jimmy Carter
donated one thousand dollars to
last week’s march while President
Reagan sulked at his West Coast
mountain cattle ranch.
August 1963 March Great Event
May I share my memories of
August 27-28, 1963 which were
probably two of the most fruitful
days of my life. Our plane from St.
Louis was loaded with a splended
interracial grouping: Catholic
priests and nuns, Jewish rabbis
and key members of the Jewish
community, our city-wide church
federation head, white and Black
Protestant ministers of all
denominations. (How good it
would be to get this coalition back
together again!)
The St. Louis NAACP and
other groups had dispatched
several buses with over a thousand
persons on Tuesday for the Thur
sday Washington program.
Our other white folk, that is the
elected officials, did not follow the
steadfast examples of those of
other cities. They did not care to
participate in the march.
(Strangely, however, they hailed
and warmly welcomed Dr. King to
St. Louis after he received his
Nobel Peace Award). Therefore,
on August 27-28, my fellow Fron
tiersman, James Hurt, vice
president of the board of
education, and Phil Waring, then
executive of the Municipal Human
Relations Council, were the two
official representatives to his
historic national event.
Jim and I were fortunate in
meeting Dr. and Mrs. King in the
Washington airport and had pic
tures taken with them (It along
with photos with President L.B.
Johnson, Alex Haley and my St.
Louis Black Press Award are most
cherished).
The next morning in the Hilton
Hotel lobby I had a warm and
pleasant reunion with B.L. Dent
and Rev. C.S. Hamilton. They had
brought up a full railroad car from
Augusta.
There also were former
Augustans in Washington from all
over the nation. I drafted a quick
news story and fowarded it to Rev.
M.J. Whitaker and the Augusta
Weekly Review. This was the only
communication ever on this sub
ject about Augustans at the march.
Among the 250,000 present, I
saw and reunited with former
schoolmates from Haines, Paine,'
West Virginia State and Columbia,
as well as Urban League, NAACP,
Frontiers and Black Social Worker
associates.
I met an old army buddy whom I
had not seen since March of 1945
when we both ducked into a ditch
during the Northern Italian cam-
(See Page 7)