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The Augusta News Review February 11,1983
Mallory K. MillenderEditor-Publisher
Paul Walker Assistant to the Publisher
Wanda Johnson General Manager/Advertising bir.
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 Irby.Columnist
Philip Waring Columnist
Marva Stewart Columnist
George Bailey....,Sports Writer
Carl McCoyEditorial Cartoonist
Olando Hamlett Photographer
Roscoe Williams Photographer
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Walking With Dignity
‘7i/g of war’ cools
by Al Irby
Many kind thanks to those who
wrote and phoned me during the
past weeks,
when illness!
prevented the'
writing of my
column. Going
Places, never
theless, is now
on board again
as it now enters
its 37th year of
Nh I
publication-the oldest and longest
continuously published Black
journalistic project of its kind
here.
We also appreciate support and
comments given by readers both in
the Augusta area and around the
nation where it may have been
featured.
One of its series, Black Who
Helped Build Augusta, won a
significant award for the News-
Review while opening up new in
terest in Black History during the
Bicentennial era.
Salutes to both the News-Review
and the County Courier on their
recent public affairs program
which featured candidates running
for sheriff of Richmond County.
In the five states around the nation
where I’ve had Urban League
assignments, I’ve noticed that of
ten the daily media did not give
adequate coverage to public
forums featuring issues affecting
Blacks. The recent N-R and C-C
forum was professionally presen
ted and proved itself a service to
the Black Community. Let’s hope
that the two news organs will be
able to do it again before the final
February 21 sheriff’s run-off elec
tions.
My salute to Dr. Ike
Washington and the others who
will be honored at the forthcoming
Paine College Athletic Hall of
Fame program. Dr. Ike, who has
served Augusta well, was a four
letter athlete and was also known
as “Five yard Ike.”
He also was recently honored by
Letter from the editor
Displeased with newscast
Editor’s note: this letter was
written to WJBF TV Channel 6
with a copy to the News-Review.
Dear Sir:
On the 6:00 and 11:00 edition of
“NEWS WATCH 6,” on 26
January 1984, there was a report
of a manhunt for two Black men
who allegedly robbed a man with a
knife within the CSRA.
Please provide me with the
reason for stating that the suspects
were Black. I understand the need
to state the persons color if the
report was providing a full descrip
tion of the suspects for public
safety, but just to say that they
were black is to degrade and
humiliate the black members of the
community and is misrepresen
tation of blacks.
If a news report must provide
the public with the color of the
Black criminal, the white criminal
should be provided with equal
respect! It’s very hard to believe
that WJBF-TV is still holding on
to the malevolent ideas of yester
day. But by insuring that the
public Jcnows when a black com
mits a crime forces the community
to believe so.
Is it the goal of WJBF-TV to
portray to the public that only
Page 4
the city of Augusta for nine years
of faithful service on its city coun
cil. In December, it was erronously
stated that the Augusta Black
History Commitee (ABHC)
spearheaded the placing of the por
trait of Dr. Lucy Craft Laney at
the state capitol whereas credit
should go to Dr. Washington.
He was able to accomplish this
based on his contacts and still valid
influence as a past president of the
state Black teachers association,
working with Governor Jimmy
Carter. This was several years
prior to the birth of the ABHC.
May this correction now set the
record straight.
Real history was made last mon
th when the Rev. Jesse Jackson
qualified to secure matching
federal funds in his quest for the
Democratic presidential
nomination. It was required that
he raise at least $5,000 in small
amounts of less than $250 in at
least 20 states to qualify.
At this writing, however, he has
raised over $600,000 mostly from
church groups. Jesse said recently:
‘‘Win, lose or draw, my being in
the race will mean a major
elevation of Blacks in the
American political scene". When
Jesse appears on television, he of
ten high-lights seldom mentioned
issues and problems facing Blacks,
other minorities and women.
Jesse has often stated that he
wants to see “thousands of Blacks
offering for public office on the
local, state and national levels.”
This, therefore, moves us on to the
Augusta-Richmond County sector
where we must address several
issues including getting a Black on
a five-man, lilly-white county
commission, and other matters.
This is nationl Black History
Month and I shall examine the
many rich contributions of the
NAACP locally and nationally as
part of this observance. The
NAACP also observes its 75 an
niversary this year. Have you paid
your membership dues?
Blacks commit violent crimes
within our community or is it their
objective to promote more hatred
and animosity among the members
of our community? Isn’t there
enough hostility in our community
without the pubic receiving
training from the news media or do
you feel that we need to hate each
other more?
WJBF-TV is to serve all the
members of the CSRA community
and everyone should be provided
with unbiased reporting of the
news. Each individual should
receive equal respect inspite of
their color, economical status, or
their religious beliefs. Without the
support of the community mem
bers there won’t be any WJBF-TV.
Hopefully this problem will be
brought to the attention of
management and a meaningful
solution for the good of the com
munity will be made by your
organization.
I eagerly await your reply and the
philosphy of WJBF-TV on this
issue.
Sincerely,
DENNIS WILLIAMS
SPS, US ARMY
P.O. Box 647
Eisenhower Medical Center
Fort Gordon, GA 30905
€1
H EH, HEH!
90 YOU CAN'T
SUCC ESS!
jo
BLACK RESOURCES INC.
To Be Equal
Reversing civil rights
by John Jacob
The Justice Department has a
new partner in its campaign to
to reverse civil
rights gains, I
and that par
tner is none
other than the I
agency created ‘I
by Congress to i |
be the nation’s BSP
watchdog over
civil rights
progress—the U.S. Commission
on Civil Rights.
The compromise that extended
the life of the Commission also
loaded its membership with sup
porters of the Administration’s an
ti-busing, anti-affirmative action
line.
The newly reconstituted Com
mission began its new lease on life
by issuing a denunciation of
“quotas,” as if that was today’s
biggest civil rights worry. By doing
so, the Commission further mud
died the waters, perpetuating
public confusion over quotas and
numerical goals and timetables.
Quotas are one small tool in the
affirmative action arsenal. They
are not mandated by any law and
are only ordered by courts as a
remedy for gross violations of
equal opportunities, and oc-
Going Places
Praises political forum
by Phil Waring
Chicago’s ongoing battle bet
ween its mayor bent on reform and
a City Council
majority bent I
on keeping I
patronage and Flp *
the status quo J
intact is at last Ij
easing, on oc-
casion, into a
working truce. M
The reason:
strict necessity. Both sides find
they have a stake in forward
motion. The most important
example to date in the eight
month-old administration of
Mayor Harold Washington is the
City Council’s passage a few weeks
ago of a compromise $1.9 billion
budget for 1984. Though Chicago
taxpayers will have to shoulder the
burden of S9B billion in new taxes
to help pay for it, both mayor and
council had to give up cherished
spending priorities.
Mayor Washington, calling it a
“tortuous” give and take ex-
cassionally, by private voluntary
agreements, again, to correct gross
discrepencies in opportunities.
The Commission also killed
some planned studies about the ef
fect of budget cuts on the minority
poor, demonstrating its lack of
concern for the disproportionate
impact such cuts have had on
minorities. This is a very legitimate
civil rights issue the Commission
should be concerned about. Such
concerns are at the core of the
Commission’s responsibility to in
vestigate government policies and
to assess their impact on equal op
portunities.
By abdicating its legal respon
sibility to serve as a protector of
civil rights and as an advocate of
equal opportunity, the Com
mission in effect joins in an unholy
alliance with the Justice Depar
tment, which has similarly shirked
its responsibilities. In fact, the
Department has become one of the
most visible foes of actions
designed to enhance civil rights.
While the Commission was
sounding off against “quotas,”
the Supreme Court was handing
the Justice Department a slap in
the face by throwing out its pleas
for a review of an affirmative ac
tion plan adopted by the City of
Detroit.
perience that no one should have
to live through, pronounced it a
“magnificent first.” Major op
position architect Edward Burke,
chairman of the council’s finance
committee, called it an example of
“true democracy.” Things were
far easier, he admitted, in the “old
days” (of boss-mayor Richard J.
Daley), when aidermen took their
instructions” from the mayor.
Indeed, the political fireworks
coming from City Hall these days
are such a departure from the rub
ber-stamp activity of years past the
Democratic infighting sounds so
partisan that a few Chicagoans
have begun to speak longingly of
the need for a more bipartisan ap
proch to city government. They
forget that there are no
Republicans in sight.
Certainly most aidermen are
working harder than in the past.
Information is more widely
available, and discussions are
livelier, “i think it’s good to see a
legislative body acting like one,”
says Elinor Elam, a Chicago
While the Commission was
sounding off against “quotas.”
the Supreme Court was handing
the Justice Department a slap in
the face by throwing out its pleas
for a review of an affirmative ac
tion plan adopted by the City of
Detroit.
Detroit’s police force used to be
a paradise of discrimination —few
Blacks were allowed entry to the
force and fewer still could hope for
promotion to officer ranks. To
remedy this, the city adopted an
affirmative action plan in which
promotions to the rank of
lietuenant would be made on the
basis of one Black appointee for
every white until such time as the
police force better reflected the
racial composition of the people it
was supposed to serve.
No one was promoted who was
not qualified—but the Ad
ministration decided to use this as
a test case of so-called quotas. In
fact, as lower courts pointed out,
the Detroit system was con
stitutional, it did seek to remedy
past discrimination, it did not
stigmatize whites, and it did serve
an important, overriding pur
pose—all standards by which the
Supreme Court has deemed such
affirmative action agreements con
stitutional.
League of Women Voters vice
president who sits in on City
Council committee meetings. I’ve
heard people speaking out on this
budget whose voices I’ve never
heard before. We talk about this
horrible opposition, but we’re just
not used to the council questioning
anything. I think it’s healthy.” but
a most difficult area may lie ahead:
council approval of mayoral ap
poinments to leadership posts of
patronage-heavy agencies such as
the Chicago Park District. The
mayor will try to rally public
opinion behind him, but” com
promise will be very difficult,”
says Mr. Leon Despres, City
Council parliamentarian.
Mayor Washington continues to
insist that Edward R. Vrdolyak,
leader of the 29-member City
Council majority, must step down
as leader of the Cook County
Democratic Central Committee.
The mayor will make a bold effort
in the March 20 primary to oust
the adamant Mr. Vrdolyak.
The Mayor Comments
Black leaders
recognized
Continuing our focus on
distinguished Black Americans, I’d
like to tell you .
about a person; r
who really saw; |
people more
clearly than!
most of us in |
,965 -
Edith Spur-,
lock Sampson A
distinguished
herself as an attorney and as the
second Black Woman elected to
the bench in the United states as a
circuit court judge.
Mrs. Sampson attended the New
York School of Social Work and
the School of Social Service Ad
ministration at the University of
Chicago. She received an LLB
from John Marshall Law School
and an LLM degree from Loyola
University.
In 1950, President Truman ap
pointed Mrs. Sampson to the
United States delegation to the
United Nations. She later became a
member of the United States
Citizens Committee for NATO.
Judge Sampson delivered s
speech in 1965 to the graduating
class of North Central College
(Ill.) in which she offered the
graduates a multiple choice test.
The question she proposed to them
was as follows: “What do you do
with your college education now
that you have it—and now that it is
beginning to become obsolete even
as we sit here?”
She gave them a choice of five
possible answers. It would be well
worth your time to seek out a copy
of her speech and read the five
choices she offered them, for she
showed some real insight in those
choices.
Actually, the choices she gave
them are not limited to college:
graduates but apply to us all as we:
decide how we are going to live out
our lives. Each of us has to answer
to ourself about our choice.
Some of us chose number five.
As Judge Sampson said, it has not:
been a comfortable choice. It has
demanded thought and action. It
has prodded us with the
recognition that there is still so
much more to learn and even more
than that to understand. It has
made us restless in knowing that
no matter how much we do, there’s
still so much more left to be done.
From The Wilderness
Remembering
a legacy
by Marva Stewart
black History Month should be
a time for remembering. It should
be a time for
recalling a time
when Black
people were aril
not always
shackled men
tally, and sub
jected to the
evil will of <-wHF
others. Let us remember Africa,
the source of our strength and
character. Let us remember our
homeland where our ancestors
were kings and queens, and ruled
their own destiny.
Black History Month should be
a time for mourning the endless
days when Black people were born
slaves, lived the lives of slaves, and
died slaves. Let us mourn the
bloody waters, the bloody tears,
and the bloody bodies.
Let us remember that Blacks
were snatched from the
Motherland, packed indignantly in
death ships, and then chained and
auctioned off into a lifeless eter
nity of slavery. Black History
Month should be a time to honor
and memorialize those brave
soldiers who dared to shout to the
world that Black people were not
only human beings, but intelligent
and dignified beings as well.
Let us not forget the work of
Frederick, Martin, Marcus,
Malcolm, Sojourner, Harriet,
Roy, and the many others who
worked so that the masses could
have a better life. Let us not forget
the many organizations such as the
NAACP, SCLC, and P.U.S.H
that demonstrated that when Black
people unite, mountains move.
Black History Month should be
a time for celebrating and com
memorating the contributions of
the Black genii and talented ones
who caused non-believers to realize
that those of the darker race could
be scientists, writers, lawyers, ar
tists, businessmen, designers,
astronauts, etc. Let us not forget
see History page 8