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IWAugusta News-Review October 1,1983 Mallory K. MillenderEditor-Publisher Paul Walker Assistant to the Publisher Wanda Johnson General Manager/Advertising Dir. Diane CarswellCirculation Manager 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 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 "THEAUGUSTA NEWS-REVIEW (USPS 887 820) is published weekly for sll per year in the county and sl2 per year out of the county. Second-class postage paid at Augusta, Ga. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE A UGUSTA NEWS-REVIEW p.-Q. Box 2123, Augusta, Ga. 30903-2123.” AMALGAMATED Nationi Advert Hat ReprewaUtbe PUBLISHERS. INC * The Mayor Comments Strengthening downtown by Edward M. Mclntyre Strengthening the development of our downtown should be of ut most impor tance to each ■ ' of us as I citizens of Augusta. Each of us ‘ has an invest ment in our JBfA downtown whe ther it is as a concerned citizen or as a business person. We all stand to benefit from our efforts of working together to improve our downtown physically and economically. I believe that the downtown businesses need a promotional of ficer like those hired for malls and shopping centers. I see the need for a person to be working full-time daily to strengthen the develop ment of our downtown. I will be asking City Council to fund a “nominal salary” for a downtown promotional director for one year, if downtown mer chants will agree to fund some promotional activities. The city needs the help of the downtown merchants in this endeavor. From page 5 These reasons provisions were made in the law of Moses for wor ship and religious exercises. All these laws and regulations, both secular and religious, were given at Mount Sinai, through Moses, and constituted what we call the First Covenant. Covenant Made From Mount Sinai the Ten Commandments were delivered (Ex. 20:1-17). To Moses Jehovah delivered many additional com mands and ordinances. See Exodus, Chapters 21-23. “And Moses came and told the people all UJI. Peetal Service STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP. MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION RepuinJ by 39 U.S.C. 3695) r IA. TITLI 0* PUBLICATION 18. PUBLICATION NO. 1 2. DATE OF Fi LING The Auguita News-Review_L. TfrFQUENCY OF issue 3A. no. of ISSUES PUBLISHED 38. ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTON S.FNEQUWWYW ANNUALLY PRICE 4. ADDRESS OF KNOWN OFFICE OF PUBLICATION (Street. City, Cowity, SMMand ZIP Code) (No?prta tert B. AMD COMPLETE MAILING ADDRESS OF PUBLISHER. EDITOR, AND MANAGING EDITOR (Thlt item MUST NOT be blanh) ~ PUBLISHER (Name and ComptoN Moding Add rem) Wt-lory Kt Millender, 1019 D*Aatinnac Street, Augusta, Georgia 30901 EDITOR <Ntoe and Compare MMHng Addreaa) and Compute Meding Addrete) it* namemi addreaa muat be tuted •nd Mao immediately thereunder the nama* and addrmea of atockhoiden f mfTf or hoidueg I parrenf or more of total amount of Hoc h If not owned by a corporation. the namaa and eddreaaea of the individual ownem tuuat ba Mean ffotmod by a portnevahip or other unincorporated flrm. lit name and addreaa. at wefl at that of each individual mutt be given. If the pubOce dan b pubUdiad by a nonprofit orpenUetion Ita name and addreaa muat ba Hated) (Item mutt be completed ) FULL NAME COMPLETE MAILING ADDRESS New-Grow. Inc, 1019 D’Antixnac JtreeFi HallsxiLK. Hlllerider. Augusta. Ga. Or. Latlner Blount'. 11. Augusta, S.C.iterbert- Boss, Charlotte. H-C. Charles C. Harris. Jr.. Au.iusta, Ga. Arthur D. Sims, Orlando, Fla. Otte liays, Augusta,, G«- George Thomas, Augusta, Gn. Oharlea IfcCatm.~Aunuata. Ga. 1 William ifclgl.t. Augusta, Ga. 8. KNOWN BONDHOLDERS MORTGAGEES. AND OTHER SECURITY HOLDERS OWNING OR HOLDING 1 PERCENT OR MORE OF TOTAL AMOUNT OF BONOS. MORTGAGES OR OTHER SECURITIES (If there are none, to Mate) ■” FULL NAME COMPLETE MAILING ADDRESS HOKE NONE ~ g FOR COMPLETION BY NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS AUTHORIZED TO MAIL AT SPECIAL RATES (Section 423.12 DMM oady) The purpoae, function, and nonprofit statu* of th« organization and the exempt itatu* for Federal income tax purpoM* (Check one) (1) (2) HAS NOT CHANGED DURING r—i HAS CHANGED DURING (If chanted. pubiiaher muat aubmit explanation of PRECEDING 12 MONTHS LJ PRE CEDI NG 12 MONTHS change with thia abatement > 3T AVERAGE HO. COPIES EACH ACTUAL HO. CORIESOFSIHCLf EXTENT ANO NATURE OF CIRCULATION ISSUE CURING PRECEDING ISSUE PUBLISHED NEAREST TO U MONTHS FILING GATE A TOTAL HO. COPIES Aw 3>OQQ 3.000 S PAID CIRCULATION 1. EHH HnrrMi dMHn and cRrMn. wwi -Mm and covnw *• ft XSWISIRW 1,27? 1 ,037 C. TOTAL FAIO CIRCULATION 15... (Ml NM IOW; 1.5 51 0 FREE OWTRIEUTIOH SV MAIL. CARRIER OR OTHER MEANS SAMPLES, COMFLIMENTARV, AHO OTHER FREE COPIESI.QCQI.OS7 I TOTALOMTWISUTIOH <S™ 2.111 1.103 F. COPIES HOT OISTHISUTEO yjQ JJJQ L22 isa » . ■ , editor. OR PREFER manmentorneirniemMm I am planning to meet with downtown merchants and ask them to evaluate the office for a year. If the office is as successful as I think it will be, I believe the merchants should meet the city government halfway and fund the salary and promotional activities of the office on a 50-50 basis. The Mayor’s Committee on the New Downtown Excitement has endorsed the idea of a promotional officer. I have always emphasized the working together of the private and public sector for the good of all our citizens. It is through this strengthening of our downtown that we should see an increase in job opportunities for our people and an increase in sales. As concerned citizens you can support the downtown merchants by coming to the many activities provided for your entertainment and enjoyment and by shopping in the many fine stores available to you. It is by working together, whether as a citizen, a downtown merchant or a city employee that we can move Augusta forward for a better Augusta. Covenants the words of Jehovah, and all the ordinances.” To all of which the people repli ed, “All the words which Jehovah hath spoken we will do, and be obe dient” (Ex. 24:7). Then Moses “took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, this is the blood of the covenant which God commanded to you-ward” (Heb. 9:19; Ex. 24:7, 8). Thus the covenant was ratified and sealed. This covenant Paul calls the “First Covenant” (Heb. 8:7; 9:1,18). ...continued next week. Page 4 fwinKfiMF be ep ! beep/ HOW'S LIFE IN fl <0 1 THE SLOVJ L ANE ’ x —/Wa z\ Ti z\ SLACK RKOORCES ING- Walking With Dignity $ credits pit church, state by Al Irby Proponents of tuition tax credits for parents of parochial school students have ■ won a key ■ skirmish in (he MjCgk courts, but that victory could wHk eventually mean K&y ;• r- ‘ ‘||| a defeat in Congress and possibly a reversal by the courts. The United States Supreme Court recently upheld a plan to give tuition tax breaks to parents of students in both public and private (including parochial) schools. This ruling actually may help rally First Amendment ad vocates and those who believe in a clear-cut separation between chur ch and state. Civil rights groups, many con stitutionalists, and some in the religious community at first were discouraged by the court’s 5-4- decision. It upheld a Minnesota law allowing a partial tax deduc tion for educational expenses, a benefit that would apply primarily to parents of parochial school students. They still don’t like the ruling. But now many say they don’t see it as the damaging frontal assault on the “wall” of separation they first did. Some even say it could help block broad-based legislation, now before Congress and backed by the Reagan administration, which would permit tax credits to parents of children attending private To Be Equal Fair housing action needed by John E. Jacob The world’s most neglected law has to be the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Intended to end housing ■ discrimination, it has gathered dust. Rarely ® the law has failed I to discourage I housing discrimi- JM nation. The betrayal of the promise of the fair housing law is a national scandal that should be rectified by passage of tough enforcement provisions. Those provisions should have been there from the beginning, they weren’t because of a naive faith that people will obey the law even if there is no serious penalty attached to violating it. That hasn’t worked out. And an Administration not noted for its toughness on bigotry has not pressed the fight on housing segregation. The Justice Department, for example, has filed only five housing discrimination lawsuits, compared with an average of 32 a year in previous Administrations. Worse, it concentrates on minor suits involving redress for in dividuals, rather than broader, precedent setting suits that would schools.” The decision by the Supreme Court in Muelier vs. Allen to uphold a- Minnesota tax deducation for parents of school children has increased the chances that the Reagan tuition tax-credit plan would be declared uncon stitutional,” insists Donald N. Jensen, research associate at Stan ford’s Institute for Research on Educational Finance and Gover nment. Mr. Jensen, a national expert on education funding, says he doesn’t believe the Reagan plan can say it met the litmus test originally set up by the Supreme Court in 1971 and followed, at least in part, in the Minnesota decision. This holds that to be con stitutional, a law assisting private schools or parents of children in those schools must: (1) have a secular purpose; (2) have a primary effect that neither advances nor inhibits religion; and (3) not lead to excessive entanglement between church and state. Justice William H. Rehnquist writing for the majority in the Minnesota case, cited “facial neutrality” in the Minnesota law. He explained that on its face, it does not distinguish between public and private schools, religious or secular. He conceded, however, that the tax deduction benefited mostly parents of parochial school children—since more than 95 percent of Min nesota’s private school students at tend religious schools, few public have wider application. The Department of Housing and Urban Development withdrew the regulations implementing the Fair Housing Act and still not replaced them with new regulations, an in dication of where housing discrimination stands in the order of priorities. HUD’s fair housing office spen ds a hefty part of its limited funds and manpower in peaceful per suasion to encourage voluntary compliance with the law. That is a worthy effort, but I wouldn’t call it tough enforcement. A better job of education could be done with a few well-timed lawsuits and by publicizing offenders. The existing enforcement mechanism is so cumbersome that it is no bar to discriminatory prac tices. It stresses conciliation to the point where a home can be long off the market by the time a case is resolved. While the Justice Depar tment can handle cases of systemic discrimination, it has been lax in doing so. So the law is not working. That’s something even the Reagan Administration admits. It has finally introduced a set of proposed changes in the law that would allow the Justice Depar tment to handle individual com plaints and to raise the ante for school students incur deductible expenses. Jensen and others point out that the current federal tax-credit legislation does not cover any public school expenses and focuses on a tax "credit” rather than on a “deduction” for private-school families. The Stanford scholar suggests that other court decisions” in dicate that tax credits maybe a stronger form of aid to religion than are tax deductions.” And he adds that a bill chan neling funds only to those atten ding nonpublic schools cannot be considered “secular.” In Minnesota, taxpayers may claim a deduction for certain school-related expenses, such as tuition, textbooks, and transpor tation. There’s a limit of SSOO for elementary-school students and S7OO for those in upper grades. The proposed federal tax-credit is dollar for dollar forgiveness against the net payable tax after all deductions and exclusions have been taken. Jensen says that the courts may decide that tax credits involve the state more deeply in assisting sectarian schools than do either tax benefits or deductions. Meanwhile, some constitutional lobbyists, including church groups such as the American Jewish Committee, the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs and Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU), say they are ready to do battle in each state to head off public funding programs for parochial schools. bigots by providing for hefty fines—up to SIOO,OO0 —for lan dlords and realtors who discriminate. Better still is another plan, being considered in the Senate, that would establish a system of ad ministrative judges to hear housing complaints. The judges, appointed by a presidential commission, would have the power to award damages and fine violators. Cases would be referred to the judges by HUD and their decisions could be appealed, ensuring fair ness. So critics complaining about the power of the housing judges are off-base; that power would be tightly controlled. Such a system would have many advantages. It would short-circuit the slow complaint process under the existing law, a process that amounts to preventing redress. It would also compensate victims of discrimination while punishing violators of the law. Such a strong enforcement mechanism is long overdue. Housing is the one area where Blacks can be sure that discrimination is still strong. Each year there are well over two million specific instances of discrimination against Black homeseekers. That illegal discrimination has to be stopped. The marketplace has had fifteen years to come to Going PtejHl Local panel to view march on Washington by Philip Waring The March On Washington, both 1963 and 1983, will be reviewed on a special Chan- nel 6 television I program on October 2 at 1| noon. Frank Tho mas, program ■ moderator, is H flB urging residents who are out of their church service to tune in this half hour program. Thomas said that so as to get a varied mix of opinion, he was inviting four panelists with varied points of view. As Dr. King’s Dream has not been realized, the recent march has engendered considerable discussion. First panelist is Dr. C.S. Hamilton, Tabernacle pastor. It was he and B.L. Dent who got together a railroad car with Augusta passengers for the 1963 event. As an Augusta NAACP leader and president during this era, Dr. Hamilton frequently served as spokesman for the civil rights organization. The next person is Philip Kent. He is the editorial page editor for both the Augusta Chronicle and Herald, and as such is their chief editorial and policy spokesman. He was formerly press secretary for U.S. Senator Strom Thur mond. Mr. Kent has been a visitor to the Union of South Africa and has often written in support of its racial policies. The third panelist is Ms. Blon dell Conley. She’s president of this year’s, the Augusta-area, SCLC and was responsible for securing a bus for the Washington trip. A neigh borhood activist, she often speaks out on civil rights, advancement of human, affairs and the like. Ms. Conley offered strong sup port for last month’s gathering in Washington. Philip Waring, with 50 odd years of affiliation with the NAACP, Urban League and the Black Press of America, was the official respresentative of the City of St. Louis and also the Augusta Weekly Review of which he was national news director. His 36-year-old weekly column, “Going Places” appears in the Augusta News-Review and often reflects the stance of the threefi a fore-mentioned organizations. L It is good to note that a number of influential newspapers*« such as the St. Louis Post-* Dispatch, Washington Post, Chicago Sun-Times, Atlanta Con stitution, Boston Globe, USA Today and others gave excellent news coverage. And many of them had slaudable editorials on the need or March II because King’s Dream has not been realized. All three networks and PBS gave in-depth and sensative coverage, with the Turner News group of fering almost 24 hours of news. Scores of key civil rights leaders were interviewed. This made possible for the full and vivid story on the nation’s many problems to be aired. The Black Press of America gave virtually unaminous backing. Radio did its share. Now to turn the coin over. A select number of conservative national news columnist did not do what Time and Newsweek and Jet did. They were quite critical and some downright critical of March 11. There were more than 700 national, regional and local groups who endorsed it. Jesse Jackson said that March I brought us some measure of freedom via the various civil rights laws but not equality. terms with the law and the gover-B nment has had fifteen years to! learn that the present law isn’t! working the way it should. This most pervasive form of! discrimination has to be tackled at! its roots, and now is the best time! to mount a real effort to pass an! enforcement law. ’ ? With a presidential election® coming up, few contenders wilfl want to appear to be against stop® ping housing discrimination. Bu® the real test is whether they’ll bacl® a strong law that does what it i® supposed to do—end housing discrimination. |j|