Newspaper Page Text
Rapists advised
not to accept
castration
Page 1
Volume 13 Number 33
Paine College featured
in New York Times story
Voting:
the new
Black Power
by Paul Delaney
Paine College, Augusta, Ga., is
one of those small, perennially
troubled Black schools that seem
somehow to survive, if not thrive.
Its weather-beaten, redbrick
buildings contrast sharply with the
modern structures across the street
at predominantly white Georgia
Medical College—striking sym
bolism given the history of
inequities between Blacks and
whites in the South.
Recently, five young volunteers
set up headquarters in Paine’s
student center, manning a long
table positioned near the entrance.
Their mission was voter
registration—of at least 100
freshmen and returning students in
four hours. They conducted
sweeps of the campus, literally
dragging students in. In one sweep,
they pulled in members of the
school’s starting basketball team.
Once seated at the table, most of
the registrants commented on how
they had intended to sign up
sooner.
Lisa Jones, the smallest but
most aggressive of the five
workers, spotted a prospective
candidate.
“Are you registered?” she asked
Charles E. Beamon, a shy 19-year
old freshman from Marietta.
“No, but I’d like to be,” he an
swered.
Miss Jones led him to the table
and began filling out the blue
Attorney advises clients not to accept castration
ANDERSON, S.C.—An attor
ney for one of three confessed
rapists said Friday he advised his
client against castration as an
alternative to a 30-year prison term
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RECOGNIZED A retirement program was held last week for Mrs. Ella P.
Williams (center), who is retiring from the Pilgrim Health and Life Insurance Co., after 38
years. President W.S. Hornsby HI Qeti), Solomon Walker 11, chief executive officer, and
Mrs. Elizabeth Bates presented her with gifts. Robert Mills, not pictured, presented a service
certificate.
Stye Augusta Neum-Steuteui
registration form.
“You haven’t been convicted of
a felony, have you?” she asked
dutifully, but with a laugh that
made the question less offensive.
“No,” he drawled, returning the
laugh.
Asked afterward why he was
registering to vote now, a year af
ter he had become eligible,
Beamon said: “I don’t like the
way the country’s being run, and
my vote could make a difference.
It won’t make or break a man, but
it will count. And I want to get rid
of Reagan.”
The scene at Paine College,
where the campaign volunteers ex
ceeded their goal of registering 100
people, is evidence that even
before the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson
officially entered the Presidential
race this month, the political at
mosphere in America’s Black
community was highly charged.
The episode is representative of
what is happening in many parts of
the country. If sustained, the
current voter-registration drives,
and, more important, the actual
turnout for the primaries and
general election next year, could
make the Black vote as important
and as crucial as many politicians,
leaders and analysts predict it will
be.
Reversing trends that saw a
decline in voting among both the
Black and white electorates, the
turnout by Blacks has surged since
1978. And in 1980, voting by
Blacks increased by nearly 2 per
cent from the 1976 figure, ending
20 years of steady decline in
national elections. Between 1980
and 1982, the names of an ad
ditional 573,000 Blacks have gone
on the rolls, and since the summer
because it is barbaric and “a badge
of slavery.”
Circuit Judge C. Victor Pyle
said the trio could choose
castration and five years of
Heat off,
Fisk braces
for winter
Page 1
of 1982 an additional 600,000 have
been added, propelling Black
registration to 10,422,000, accor
ding to a report prepared by the
Joint Center for Political Studies,
a Washington research
organization funded by various
foundations and government
grants. In total, there are 17.2
million Blacks of voting age, most
concentrated in northern and
southern cities.
More and more Blacks have
begun to participate in the elec
toral process as candidates, voters
and volunteers. Some sections of
many urban areas look and feel
almost as they did during the civil
rights movement two decades ago.
Indeed, some people even refer to
the new political activity as a
crusade; others use the term “the
movement.”
The principal reason for this
renewed interest in politics is not
the subject of much debate: the
worsening conditions of many
Black Americans under the Reagan
Administration and its conser
vative policies. The Census Bureau
and other surveys have found that
much of the momentum behind the
progress made by Blacks during
the last two decades was effectively
halted by last year. The Black
unemployment rate is still double
that for whites; the median income
of Black families is about half that
for whites, and the percentage of
Blacks living below the poverty
line, which had been declining, has
risen 15 percent since 1965, to the
highest figure in 17 years. The
Census Bureau suggested that
among the contributing factors to
the increase were the recession
and, possibly, new Federal restric-
probation or a 30-year prison term
of repeatedly raping, beating and
using a cigarette lighter to bum a
23-year-old woman.
Pyle, calling the case “the most
Man is shot
in curb r
on East Bo
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Page 3
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December 3,1983
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tions on eligibility for public
assistance.
The Reagan Administration also
has gone to court to oppose affir
mative action and school and job
integration orders that a few years
ago would have found the gover
nment and civil-rights lawyers on
the same side. More than any other
segment of American society,
horrible” among thousands he has
heard, said castration was ap
propriate.
Roscoe Brown, 27, of Pen
dleton, S.C., Mark Vaughn, 22, of
Clemson, S.C., and Michael Brax
ton, 18, of Sarasota, Fla., pleaded
guilty last month and were senten
ced Thursday.
They were transferred Friday
from the Anderson County jail to
the Perry Correctional Institution
in Greenville, where prison
spokesman Hal Leslie said they
could decide any time during their
sentence to undergo castration and
the rest of their term would be
Heatless Fisk, braces for winter
Fisk University, one of seven
historically Black colleges located
in Tennessee, is curently operating
without heat because they haven’t
been able to pay their gas bills.
Gas meters for the university
were first turned off in the spring
of 1983 as they are every year
during warm weather months.
However, this fall when the school
requested resumption of the ser
vices on Nov. 11, they were
flatly denied by the Nashville Gas
Company, which cited an overdue
bill of $170,000 as reason to keep
service off until satisfactory
payment was made.
Fisk officials offered to pay
$30,000 of the outstanding debt,
but was rejected by the company.
There are four gas meters that
service the 19 buildings on the
Less than 75 percent Advertising
Blacks feel, rightly or wrongly,
that they have been singled out by
an administration with little un
derstanding of or sympathy for
their plight. Many of them believe
they have borne the brunt of its
drive to reduce the budget and the
federal role in governing the coun
try. They also believe that
President Reagan and his Ad-
suspended.
But attorney Theo Mitchell, a
democratic state representative,
said he advised Braxton against
castration and would appeal the
case.
“Not only is it barbaric, but
(it’s) a badge of slavery,” Mitchell
said. “It was done to slaves during
the time when Black people were in
slavery. All of a sudden it comes
down to three people who happen
to be Black.”
Brown, who is married and the
father of two children, said he and
his fellow defendents have not
ruled out castration and will an-
school’s campus. Five of those
buildings are dormitories. On
Nov. 15, one of the meters that
services Shane Hall, a female dorm
which houses 140 students was
turned back on after school
officials paid the gas company
$13,200 while putting an addition
al $12,000 in security.
Presently Fisk still owes the
utility company $156,000, an
amount they say they must have to
restore full service.
A local television station and
newspaper after hearing of the
school’s difficulty in making
payment launched a community
wide fundrasing effort to help Fisk
meet its financial obligations.
Response to that appeal has been
overwhelming.
The Gannett Foundation, owner
I Bullock
receives
/ u z ■ .
ministration are hostile to their in
terests. And the hostility is mutual.
In contrast to the riots of the
19605, however, Blacks are not
reacting by marching or with
violence. They are rediscovering
the power of the ballot. And Jesse
Jackson’s entry into Presidential
politics has added an extra incen
tive as a symbol of discontent.
nounce their decisions later.
Pyle denied racial overtones in
his sentencing, noting the victim,
the defendants and the chief in
vestigator all were Black. Given
similar circumstances, he said he
would “most certainly” consider
castration for white defendants.
“I would say the acts performed
by the defendants were very bar
baric also,” Pyle said. “Con
sidering the evidence and
photographs of the motel room
and her as well as the hospital
records and the doctor’s report, it
was just a very brutal situation.”
of the Tennessean newspaper
donated $17,000 toward the un
paid bill. Employees at Nashville
Gas donated $2,500. Faculty staff
and students at neighboring
Meharry Medical College donated
$5,000. Fisk itself has $30,000
placed in the gas payment fund.
Other monies have come from
alumni nationwide, churches,
businesses, various groups, frater
nities, sororities and Fisk’s own
faculty, staff and students.
The school currently has
SIIO,OOO toward the needed money
with donations coming in
everyday. School officials are
fairly confident that gas and
heating services will be fully
restored at Fisk before the
aggravating cold of winter sets in
for good.
30C