Newspaper Page Text
Miss America
sought only
money, exposure
Page 1
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Volume 13, Number 23
Drug Smuggling Conspiracy
Ex-chief deputy charges district attorney
took bribe to protect Red Evans pilot
A former Lincoln County
sheriff’s deputy told the News-
Review this week that convicted in
ternational drug smuggler Larry
Doug “Red” Evans told him on
several occasions that Kenneth
Goolsby, district attorney for the
Toombs Judicial Circuit took a
payoff tb protect a member of the
drug operation.
Goolsby’s office closed at noon
Wednesday and he could not be
reach for comment prior to press
time.
Willie Glaze, 29, served as chief
deputy of the Lincoln County
Sheriffs Department until June
when he was fired after his under
cover work and court testimony
convicted ten of the men involved
in the operation and sent the
leader, Evans, to jail for 40 years
without probation, plus a $285,000
fine.
Glaze refused to testify in court
until he was guaranteed immunity
from prosecution.
At that time, Glaze also fingered
another prominent Lincoln Coun
ty figure, Paige Prater, who was
released on $600,000 bond and has
not yet been sentenced.
First Black Miss America
sought only money, exposure
It was never Vanessa Williams’s
dream to become Miss
America —she wanted to be a
Broadway star.
Saturday night the 20-year-old
Miss New York contestant won the
pageant she had to coaxed to enter,
the first Black ever to be crowned
Miss America.
Overnight, Miss Williams, who
was supposed to begin her junior
year at Syracuse University this
fall, became a celebrity, trailed by
chaperones, dogged by reporters
and telephoned by President
Reagan.
Part of Career Plan
“It’s a jolt,” she said. “I guess I
still haven’t been albe to realize it
yet. It’s interesting to know I’m
making history.”
Black leaders across the country
applauded her selection and the
choice of another Black con
testant, Miss New Jersey, as first
runner-up.
The new Miss America entered
the pageant not as a crusader, she
said, but as a realist, for the money
she will be able to put toward her
education and the push she hopes
it will give her career as a Broad
way singer, dancer and actress.
Miss Williams won $25,000 in
Charles Evans enters 6th Ward race
A half hour before the deadline
Monday, Educator Charles Evans
qualified for the 6th Ward City
Council seat held by Oscar Baker.
Evans will also face businessman
Tom A. Myer who ia also seeking
to unseat Baker.
A graduate of Lucy Laney High
School, Evans earned his
bachelor’s degree from Albany
State College and has done further
study at Georgia Southern Univer
sity.
He said that one of his concerns
is recreation. “I’m getting sick and
Man robbed
of more than SSOO
in his home
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Glaze said that Evans told him
“on several occasions” about a
pilot whose plane crashed in Lin
coln County on April 12,1979 and
how the pilot went to a well-known
lawyer in Thomson along with
Goolsby.
According to Glaze, Evans told
him that he paid Goolsby a large
sum of money so the pilot
wouldn’t have to come to court.
Glaze said that he secretly taped
seven or eight of his conversations
with Evans.
Glaze also raised questions
about bond money stemming from
the incident that the county, he
said, never received.
“Lincoln County received
$25,000 of the cash bond that was
put up. But that was only half of
it. The question that I’ve been
asking all along is what happened
to the other half,” Glaze said.
Glaze, who worked at the same
time as an informant for Evans as
well as for the FBI and the Georgia
Bureau of Investigation, said that
Evans told him, “If we get caught
you do something to mess up the
warrant and we’ll pay Mr. Goolsby
off and we’ll get out of it.”
scholarship money, and is expected
to earn more than SIOO,OOO in ap
pearances across the country, said
Albert Marks, the pageant’s
chairman of the board.
“I needed the scholarship
money,” she said. “I thought even
if I didn’t make it, I would get
some money and exposure out of
it. So far it’s paid off tremen
dously.”
The exposure so far, she has
found, has focused less on her
dancing and singing talents than
on her race, a situation she said she
alternately laughs at and resents.
Her most vivid memory of the
pageant, she siad, is of lining up
with the three other Black con
testants for endless photo sessions
and answering endless questions
about what it felt like to have a
chance to become the first Black
woman to win the crown.
It was not until 1970 that the fir
st Black woman entered the Miss
America pageant, Cheryl Browne
from lowa. In the pageant’s 62-
year history, two Black contestants
have become finalists, Mr. Marks
said.
This year, four Black women en
tered die contest. Two became
finalists—Miss Williams and
Suzette Charles, Miss New Jersey.
tired of kids playing in the street
when the (Wood) park is closed
and the kids don’t have anywhere
else to play.”
He said that with adequate
recreation, elderly people in the
area could have something to do in
arts and crafts and cer amines.
wood Park, located in the 6th
Ward, has only one light in it, he
said. The summer is the only time a
park is open.
A Richmond County teacher for
17 years, Evans said that anyone
on the Augusta police force should
Willie Glaze
Miss Charles, as the first runner
up, received a prize of $17,500.
Her home is in Mays Landing, 15
miles west of Atlantic City.
“I was chosen because I was
qualified for the position,” Miss
Williams said. “The fact that I was
Black was not a factor. I’ve always
had to try harder in my life to
achieve things, so this is regular.”
The pageant’s judges this year
were Rod McKuen, the poet;
Christopher Little, a freelance
photographer; Marion McKmght
Conway, Miss America in 1957;
Lois Geraci Ernst, president of To
Woman, Inc., an advertising con
cern; Tandy Rice, president of Top
Billing, Inc., a musical booking
agency; Jerry Vale, an entertainer;
Marguerite Piazza, a former mem
ber of the Metropolitan Opera;
and Jeanne Maxwell, former
president of Dance masters of
America.
Marks said Miss Williams’
crowning as Miss America “should
prove that you can be tops in
America without regard to your
color, as it should be.”
“I can assure you that this
young lady got there on her
merits,” he said.
If there are any lessons to be
drawn from her capture of the
have at least two years of college,
and offiers should be paid for their
education so they will have an in
centive to go to school.
“If you know how to talk to
people, you would not have some
of the problems that you have.
“When money is tied to
education you’ll get quality
people.
“As it is, you are putting
perhaps the greatest
question—when or whether to take
a life—into the hands of some of
the least trained people.”
Charles Evans
runs for 6th Ward
city < x
„ ' ■ C.T ■ , ''- 4/f
September 24,1983
Miss America crown, Miss
Williams said, they are those of the
value of hard work and education.
“It shows that all things are
possible,” she said. “To make it
for any minority or any person,
you’ve got to have a good
education. I want people to respect
me and think I’m better. I’m am
bitious, I have a lot of drive, and I
work hard to get somewhere.”
Parents Are Teachers
Her work started as an elemen
tary school student in the West
chester County town of Millwood
when she started taking dance
lessons. Her parents, who are both
elementary school music teachers,
taught her piano, French horn and
singing. Her father, Milton A.
Williams Jr., said it was a family
rule that both Vanessa and her
younger brother, Christopher,
now 15, study music until they
were 18.
Once, he recalled, his daughter
ran away (into the woods in the
back yard) in a futile effort to per
suade him to let her quit. He told
her to continue, he said, because
he was convinced of the value of a
musical education.
(From the New York Times)
The Morgan Road Elementary
School physical education teacher
said that poor lighting in the city
encourages rapes and other crime.
He also favors downtown
redevelopment. “Many Blacks,”
he added, “can’t get to the malls,
but they can get a bus and go
downtown.”
He said he would also explore
the possibility of using block grant
money to establish tutoring centers
for deflcient students.
Babcock product
among top 100
in the world
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Glaze said his iob would have
been to make an error in the
preparation of the warrant so that
the case would be thrown out of
court.
According to the FBI Evans’
operation funneled more than
77,000 pounds of marijauna and
unknown quantities of cocaine and
quaaludes into Lincoln County
from South America over a four
year period.
Asked l if he is concerned for his
safety, Glaze said, “I’m not
worried right now about Mr.
Evans because he is not the type of
person that kills anybody. He likes
to break bones.”
He said that Evans often
bragged about people he had
“messed up.” He said that his only
concern is for his wife and two
boys.
“I have always had to watch my
back. I’m not depending on
anybody to look after me, not even
the FBI, because I feel like I can
take care of myself. That’s the
reason I’m fighting to put that
badge back on, because there are
still somethings in that county that
ain’t right.”
Miss America
Editorial
We were surprised and
delighted to see Vanessa
Williams become the first
Black Miss America
Saturday night.
We were delighted but
not surprised when Susette
Charles was announced
first runner-up, for we’ve
grown accustomed to
seeing Blacks whose talen
ts qualify them for first
place wind up second. One
still hoped that Miss
Williams would win the
crown but dared not
assume it.
With all the credit that
she is due, we believe that
the judges deserve equal
credit for having the
courage to award her the
title that her talent and
beauty earned her.
We regret, however,
that Miss Williams ap
pears not to have a full
appreciation for the
significance of her
achievement. She said that
she won because she was
qualified and that race was
Charles Evans
He said drugs are still being traf
trafficked in Lincoln County and
there is “just another form of
segregation going on there.”
Glaze worked for the Augusta
Police Department in 1976 prior to
becoming the first Black law en
forcement officer in Lincoln
County in 1978.
“The only people who are
bothering me up there with then
propaganda are the county com
missioners and the people on my
job. And the reason is that they
still believe that I could win that
sheriffs race (in August of 1984).
“I still believe to the day that I
can, too.” Glaze noted that
Georgia has never had a Black
sheriff. And he said Lincoln Coun
ty political leaders “can’t stand the
thought of a Black sheriff in the
county. And my goal is still to run
regardless of what they say.”
Editor’s note: Next week Glaze
talks about how he gained the con
fidence of Red Evans and how he
brought down the multi-million
dollar drug smuggling operation.
not a factor.
She reportedly resented
the attention giving to the
racial factor. What she
seemingly does not under
stand is that she is not the
first Black woman who
was qualified to win.
Historically, it has not
mattered how qualified a
Black was. The applicant
was rejected because he or
she was Black, period.
Race was the only factor.
We are, of course, hap
py to see the apparent
progress. But
discrimination in the
pageant is not dead. A
Black contestant will still
find discrimination at the
local and state levels, if
not at the national level.
And for that reason we
still need the Miss Black
America pageant and
other institutions in the
Black community that
have given us a means to
develop our skills, express
our aspirations and realize
our goals.
Harris to go
to White House
Paine College President William
H. Harris will join other presidents
of historically Black colleges at the
White House, Sept. 26, to par
ticipate in Black Colleges Day.'
Throughout the country a series
of seminars will be held on issues
of higher education and the role of
the Black College in the larger
realm of American higher
education.
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