Newspaper Page Text
The Augusta News-Review September 10,1983
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. lleen Buchanan Fashion & Beauty Editor
Wilbert Allen Columnist
Roosevelt Green Columnist
AJ kbyColumnist
Philip Waring Columnist
Marva Stewart Columnist
George Bailey Sports Writer
Carl McCoyEditorial Cartoonist
Olando Hamlett Photographer
Roscoe Williams Photographer
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Voice From The Wilderness
Mae, Ph.D.
by Marva Stewart
When asked how I spent my
summer vacation or how was it, I
tell casual
listeners that it
was fine or
that I didn’t do g|L. ~
much. The |
truth of the L&a,. -Mhjy
matter was %
that since the
beginning of
spring, the last few months have
wreaked navoc and much
emotional strain upon my family
members. But as the title suggests,
I don’t intend to talk about painful
memories that time will heal.
You’ll have to meet Mae to ap
preciate her. She just happens to
be a 74-year-old young woman
who has earned her Ph.D. from
life. That’s right. She earned her
doctorate from life’s university. In
other words, Mae, who is my aunt,
is a survivor.
She is the family’s griot and
historian as family storyteller and
record-keeper. She can either
amuse you with tales mixed with
fact and fantasy or make you
angry with actual happenings that
she was either told or has wit
nessed.
For example, I don’t think she
has ever gotten over the shock of
one of her ancestors selling a
portion of the family’s land for a
plug of tobacco. For any family
member who will listen, she says
watch as well as pray and hold on
to the family’s land and valuables.
As I put it, don’t sell-out to the
enemy for temporary pleasures.
„ Mae can also tell about how
much hard work her family and
other Black families have perfor
med just to provide comfort and
luxury for “others” to have.
Whether it was picking cotton,
beans or peas in the sufi’s, burning
heat or performing domestic work
by sweeping not only in but “un
der” somebody’s house, she felt
and saw the terrible effect that it
has had on her family and friends.
Stroke, arthritis, high blood
pressure—these are the social
security and welfare payments that
she and others have received as a
lifetime payment for services ren
dered.
Mae has seen and experienced
the indignities and lack of respect
shown to Blacks. She has heard
Blacks referred to “Auntie,”
"Coon” and treated as ignorant
Letter to the Editor
Backs Hollings for president
Dear Editor:
I know what Fritz Rollings’ ef
forts have meant to South
Carolina and I am proud to be
supporting him for President of
the United States.
In education it has meant in
novations such as the South
Carolina Technical College System
which remains today a model foi
the nation.
In economics it has meant that
during his time at the held of state
government new business invest
ment in South Carolina as a per
centage of all new investment in
the Southeast tripled.
In the United States Senate it is
Fritz Rollings who...
Calls for a sound defense
program that meets the needs of
the country without bankruppting
the government.
Understands the necessity of
Page 4
savages and no-class citizens.
In this respect, Mae is truly an
“educated” woman. She has
enough self-respect to let the
enemy know that she is not only
“Black and proud,” but she can
read and write well enough to read
between the lies of the oppressor to
get at the truth. So when he is
grinning and smiling and using his
sophisticated language to talk over
her head when he’s using a
“forked tongue” to put her down,
She knows. She may not tell h' m »
but she knows.
Mae has seen it all. She’s seen
and felt the harm caused by
medical and health services that
Black and poor people in rural
areas had to suffer with. She’s seen
strong proud men made humble
and weak by an evil landowner
who refused to allow them to farm
the land.
She’s seen women leave home at
the crack of dawn to travel miles
and miles just to labor all day in
factories or plants, which are
modern day cotton fields. In spite
of all she’s seen, she is a survivor.
In spite of all of the sad and evil
in her environment she has
stocially weathered the storm. Her
faith has shown me that I and
others must not give up hope.
She has taught me that we must
not dig up the past and worry
about what could have been if
Blacks did not have to live a hard
and harsh life, but we must see to it
that the lives of future generations
are not marred by the oppressor’s
crudeness and severity.
Finally she’s taught me that all
whites are not evil and all Blacks
are not good. Our brother or sister
is anyone who lends a helping
hand.
There have been times when her
father has fed many hungry whites
from his table, and other times
when if a white individual didn’t
come to the aid of her family, they
wouldn’t have survived.
In reference to the first
paragraph, Mae has taught me that
there’s a time to cry and then there
is a time to pick up the pieces and
carry on.
She’s taught me that by spen
ding some time with the older
members of the family is more
valuable than attempting to lavish
material items on them. There’s no
substitution for love, the sharing
of family lore and history, and
learning survival skills.
balancing the federal budget.
Authored the WIC program
which insures that disadvantaged
pregnant women, infants, and
children are properly nourished.
As citizens of South Carolina we
have had the opportunity to see
first hand the intelligent, common
sense approach that Fritz uses to
tackle our nation’s problems.
It is now up to us to rally behind
our senator in his race for the
presidency.
I’ve recently joined the “Ernest
Money” program, which allows all
South Carolina to take part in the
historical movement by making a
small commitment to Fritz. I en
courage my fellow citizens to join
me in support of a true statesman
and a great South Carolinian, Fritz
Rollings.
Paul D. Weston, M.D.
820 St. Sebastian Way Suite 6 D
DAMMIT/
MblMllA V7 dfc W DOM’T
Jtffi TMIIImI i CX>\ too uke
me?
E>M\CK PE SOURCES, IMC
To Be Equal
Poverty: Whose fault?
by John E. Jacob
Poverty is on the rise. Despite
the supposed economic recovery,
there are more
poor Americans || v. y.
than
there have W
been for 9|
almost twenty
years. Last
year the pover
ty rate arose to
15 percent;
since 1978, the numbers of the
poor increased by 10 million
people, or 40 percent.
The Black poverty rate rose to
36 percent, triple the white rate.
Half of all Black children are poor;
a fifth of all children are poor.
The rise in poverty has touched
off a search for the causes. One
popular target is the Ad
ministration, whose policies have
been based on the “Trickle down”
theory that assumes that if you
give tax breaks and other incen
tives to the rich, they’ll invest and
spend more, and the prosperity will
filter down to the have-nots.
That hasn’t happened. In fact,
the reverse has been true —the gap
between affluence and poverty has
widened. Worse, the cuts’ in
programs aiding the poor and the
jobless have meant not only more
poverty, but more extreme pover
ty. For example, the unemployed
got less help in this recession than
in the deep recession of the mid
seventies. Then, two-thirds of the
jobless got unemployment
Walking With Dignity
A dream vs. reality
by Al Irby
In the 20 years since Dr. Martin
Luther King’s March on
Washington the
United States I
has advanced ELI
impressively to- C 29
ward the 1
dream he
enunciated so I
dramatically—a B|
dream of
equality and freedom for Blacks as
well as whites.
Since then segregation has been
banished in employment and
Blacks have gained access to
management positions and highly
visible jobs. Millions of Black
Americans have been registered to
vote and have made their political
power felt.
Rousing segregation has been
substantially ended. And schools
have been widely desegregated, a
process begun in 1954. Considered
against the background of more
than 300 years of discrimination,
this is progress of astonishing
speed. Yet Dr. King’s dream is not
yet fully realized.
Unemployment for Black teen
agers is 53 percent, twice the rate
for white teens. The reason for
that is because white employers are
saying, if they have to pay
minimum wages, they will pay it to
white women and white teenagers.
That condition is blatantly un
derstandable to all but our Black
leadership.
benefits; now just over a third do.
Sensitive to the political im
plications of rising poverty and
hunger in America, the Ad
ministration is taking defensive
steps. The President named a task
force to find out what’s behind the
mounting reports of hunger.
A good place for the task force to
start would be to examine the im
pact of federal cuts in nutrition
programs; cuts that save the
government some small change
while inflicting suffering on
millions.
One disturbing aspect of the
search for the causes of rising
poverty is the old game of blaming
the victim. In its latest form that
means blaming the increase in
female-headed households for the
rise in poverty, especially among
Blacks.
This explanation is becoming in
creasingly popular as many take
the grain of truth in the fact that
female-headed households start
off with an economic strike against
them, and blow it into a mountain
of falsehood.
Female-headed households are
far more likely than others to be
poor, but such families are poor
not because they are headed by
females but because women—and
especially Black women —face
massive discriminatory barriers to
employment.
Not enough people go beyond
conventional thought to question
why society refuses to provide the
day care facilities that would
enable more mothers to worked and
The quality of education is
sinking in predominatly-Black
public schools of inner cities.
Good housing seems increasingly
out of the reach if many Blacks, as
well as many whites. The number
of Blacks and whites living in
poverty has begun to increase, with
grave concern raised that many
single-parent households with
children, especially minority
households, are in danger of
becoming permanent economic
underclass.
Most challenging of all, the
driving energy which formerly
fueled a national commitment to
achieve equality for all Americans
now seems diminished. It is as if
white Americans now are less
aware —or uninterested—that the
promise of equal opportunity
remains to be fully filled. But
Black Americans know better and
make the point frequently,
outlining the need both in general
and specific terms.
The need now is for major U.S.
political leaders —including the
President, members of Congress,
and governors—to call publicly,
consistently, and vigorously on the
nation to be true to its ideals and
make all of Dr. King’s Dream come
true.
The words need to be followed
steadfastly by such government ac
tion as is necessary to aid the
process, but mostly it is the climate
for progress which again must be
set forth. This is the way the
why it refuses to provide the
training and job opportunities that
would help them out of poverty.
The rise in female-headed
households is actually a result of
poverty, not its cause. It is
associated with the extraordinary
deterioration in job opportunities
for Black men, and with numerous
social stresses related to poverty.
Nor does it explain the different
poverty rates between white and
Black female-headed households.
White families headed by women
suffer a poverty rate of 28 percent,
but among similar Black families,
the rate is 55 percent.
That indicates racial
discrimination and lack of
economic opportunity are at the
root of rising poverty, not the sim
ple fact of more female-headed
families. Those families have
enough burdens to bear without
being blamed for their own pover
ty.
Along with discrimination, a
long stagnant economy painfully
undergoing restructuring is behind
the rise in poverty. For the past
dozen years we’ve had one
recession after another, each
deeper than the last. Jobs have
been wiped out, especially among
people whose skills are limited and
not transferable to other in
dustries.
So if we are serious about wan
ting to know why we are poor,
we’ll have to stop blaming the vic
tims of poverty and adopted
policies that end poverty instead of
spreading it wider.
United States achieved its greatest
civil rights progress in the 19605.
President Kennedy’s enun
ciations of the goals were followed
by President Johnson’s successful
insistence that Congress bring
them about.
In individual states the situation
was similar. In the early 60s sub
stantial civil rights progress began
in Georgia under the leadership of
Gov. Carl Sanders; backsliding
appeared in the late 1960 s when
Lester Maddox, perceived as anti-
Black, was governor. Today many
Black Americans are concerned
that national backsliding has
begun in civil rights and that much
progress made in the past 20 years
could be negated. No one believes
there will be a return to segregation
and the state and local laws that
enforced it.
Rather the concern focuses on
the amount and quality of
education, employment, and
housing.
It is on the leadership of its elec
ted officials that the United States
now must depend to see that there
is no backsliding of hard won
gains, and that proper progress
continues. And to ensure that in
Dr. King’s words, “we will be able
to transform the jangling discords
of our nation into a beautiful sym
phony of brotherhood.”
Unlike voting rights, or housing,
poverty is a slippery target, its
sources not completely known; its
see Dream, page 2
Going Places
Johnson
Plaza
planned
by Phil Waring
On behalf of the Augusta Black
History Committee (ABHC) may I
recommend to
Mayor Mcln
tyre and the
Augusta City
Council that the
new juncture of
Wrightsboro, <
Ninth and Jf
Twiggs be de- ' ®
signaled “Dr. S.S. Johnson
Plaza” in memorial to this late,
great beloved physician and
businessman who resided adjacent
to this site. It is long past due for
us to get our history together.
Secondly, the ABHC is recom
mending the formation of a tem
porary Dr. S.S. Johnson Memorial
Committee for the purpose of pur
chasing and having erected some
type of plaque or suitable
memorial on this site.
This location came about as a
result of some physical changes of
the various streets here. Under
Mayor Mclntyre’s administration,
the site has already been
beautified.
My research tells me that the
Johnson family has resided in the
vicinity of Turpin Hill for over one
hundred years.
S.S. Johnson Sr. was a slave and
driver for one of Augusta’s
families. With freedom he was able
to put together a team of horses.
From this came Augusta’s oldest
and largest local transportation
businesses beginning with horse
drawn hacks.
This was followed with
automobile taxi cabs during the
World War I era. George and
Marion Johnson were familiar
sights meeting trains and transpor
ting people all over the city.
The other brother, S.S. Junior
attended Haines, was a football
star at Lincoln University (Pa),
and received bis. medical degree
from Howard University.
Dr. Johnson passed in 1940 after
many decades of medical practice
and also operation of a drug store
at the Twiggs and Ninth Street in
tersection. His home remains there
today.
He gave stellar '.eadership for
many years as chair of the Haines
Institute trustee board, helping
Miss Lucy C. Laney keep its doors
open, therefore, affording an
education to hundreds of young
people.
He was also a trustee of the
Penny Savings Bank which had
made possible loans to Black
people for small businesses, homes
and personal effects. As a member
of the Knights of Pythias and
American Woodmen, he neipea
advance the common good of the
Augusta community.
As a member of the local Omega
Psi Phi, he urged expaision of its
youth scholarship projects. Dr.
Johnson served as key volunteer
leader of Christ United
Prebysterian Church for a long
time, helping expand that religious
body.
A quiet, unassuming person, he
often called himself “An Augusta
Medical Missionary” as he served
large numbers of low income per
sons who had little or no means to
pay. He volunteered for the well
baby clinics, and his drug store and
office on Twiggs was a center of
neighborhood activity.
Dr. Johnson left a wonderful
legacy. His wife, Mazie, headed
the Amelia Sullivan Old Folks
Home on Eighth Street for many
years. His son, Marion is an out
standing Los Angeles physician
and was a medical officer during
World War 11, while his son
Robert served with distinction in
combat in the South Pacific.
Dr. Marion Johnson’s daughter
is now a physician in northern
California, but served as a volun
teer medical officer with the
Salvation Army for two years.
Another son, S.S. 111, still resides
in the family home being retired
and operating the family drug
store for sometime.
Dr. Johnson was a solid and in
volved member of the Stoney
Medical Dental Pharmaceutica
Society and was an officer or
several occassions.
May I suggest that in the for
mation of a Dr. S.S. Johnsor
Memorial Committee that il
largely include those who knev
see Plaza, page 2