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Edition hails
Blacks in
the Olympics
Page 1
Augusta Nma-Heukui
VOLUME 14 NUMBER 43
Mclntyre says he’s not worried,
has put fate in hands of the Lord
Mayor Edward M. Mclntyre
said at a rally last Thursday night
that he has put his fate in “the
hands of the Lord and in your
prayers.”
“So I’m not worried about
what’s going to happen. I’m just
going to keep on being your mayor
and let God take care of the rest.
“I don’t think the Lord is going
to sit idly by and let evil triumph
over good.
“The Lord said to me one day,
‘Ed, you are one of my children. I
want you know it’s your calling to
serve...’ I don’t think he’s going to
stop now. I pray everyday for
those who may have done some
evil to me.
“I pray everyday for the FBI
and L.D. Waters,” said Mclntyre,
who was arrested by the FBI Dec.
21 after businessman L.D. Waters
filed a complaint against him.
Opportunities to be involved in
historic moments destined to
change the course of man’s life on
earth rarely are announced.
Usually the events happens and
then its historic impact is felt down
the corridors of time.
But on February 24th through
26th, in Chicago, Illinois, Minister
Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of
Islam have planned such a once-in
a-lifetime opportunity, and all the
world is invited to Saviours’ Day
1984, an Interfaith gala celebration
of unity in the Black community
Black Olympians in history
Once again, the sports spotlight,
indeed the international focus,
turns to the Olymics, with the 1984
renewal of the celebrated quadren
nial sports spectacular scheduled
for Los Angeles, in July and
August, marking the second time
in history that the Big Games have
been held on American soil.
An Olympic Year is a time for
celebration, but it also is time for
reflection and reassessment; a time
to look back and review progress,
troubles, and trumphs of the past,
and a time to contemplate the un
chartered future as we seek new
triumphs and new achievements in
world class competition.
Few persons are around wno
remember the colorful and im
pressive opening ceremony in Los
Angeles in 1932 as the great white
robbed chorus sang the stirring
strains of “The Star Spangled
Banner” and a dazzling stream of
Olympic athletes from around the
world debouched from a tunnel
and spread over the green turf of
the big bowl while spectators
cheered themselves hoarse. Vice
President Charles Curtis read the
Olympic oath and cited the spirit
of the Olympics and the Big Games
were underway.
The Olympics in 1932, were
staged in the immediate wake of
the stock market crash as the
nation struggled to recover from
the worse economic depression in
Mclntyre was subsequently indic
ted and charged with extortion and
bribery, along with City Coun
cilman Joseph Jones and real
estate broker Mary Holmes.
Mclntyre, who received a stan
ding ovation before and after his
brief speech in front of 500 people,
gathered at Tabernacle Baptist
Church, said that when he cam
paigned he said that he would not
be a Black mayor but a “mayor of
all the people, and the best mayor
this city ever had.”
“If you check the record of the
past two years, I don’t think
anyone can compare.”
Jones, who did not sit on the
platform, said the period since his
arrest has been “the best of times
and the worst of times.”
It has been the best of times, he
said, because of the support that
the community was shown.
Unity: a weapon more powerful than nuclear bombs
and a planning session for
progress.
The Nation of Islam under the
leadership of Minister Louis
Farrakhan wilt return to the site of
the final Saviours’ Day address
given by the Hon. Elijah Muham
mad in 1974, the Richard L. Jones
Armory to commemorate the 1984
Savioiurs’ Day. This convention
will be an unforgettable union of
men and women from throughout
the United States of America and
the Third World.
Mayor Harold Washington of
Chicago, who has proclaimed Feb.
its history. It, too, was a time
when disaster, labor problems,
joblessness and irrational behavior
patterns among the rich and the
poor dominated the news. It also
was a time in United States history
when segregation reigned in grand
style unashamedly and, in some
states, legally. It was in that at
mosphere that the first Black to
win an Olympic championship on
American soil broke into history.
He was Eddie Tolan, who captured
gold medals in both Olympic sprin
ts, the 100 and 200 meters.
Trials and triumphs have
marked the remarkable and
historic participation of Black meh
and women athletes down through
Olympic history since George C.
Poage won bronze medals at the
1904 Olympics in the 200 and 400
meter hurdles.
Winning a gold medal in the
Olympic Games is the highest
award an amateur athlete can ob
tain. Winning that gold medal is
not easy. It climaxes years of
preparation and preliminary con
tests prior to the one big event
which comes every four years.
Hundreds of gold medals have
been won in many different events.
To some winners, winning the
Olympics marks the start of a new
career as a professional where the
rewards are riches and more fame.
This has happened to some Black
athletes who were gold medal win-
Security guard
charged with
intent to murder
Page 3
Annual Black History edition
24, 25 and 26th to be Saviours’
Day in Chicago in recognition of
the 44 years of work of the
Honorable Elijah Muhammad
toward “the improvement of the
spiritual, social and economic
conditions of Black people.” will
open the convention on Feb. 24.
Mayor Washington will be
joined by Atty. Thomas (“TNT”)
Todd, interim president of
Operation PUSH, and former
Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm
who will give the keynote address.
Another addition to this year’s
ners, mainly in one athletic
event—boxing. Others have retur
ned to their earlier pursuits,
seeking degrees in the schools they
previously attended or following a
previously-sought profession, and
“People you don’t know walk
up and say we’re praying for you.
It’s gratifying that my public work
has drawn this kind of response.
Your support has given me the
strength to endure,” he said.
The Rev. Arthur D. Sims, the
featured speaker, had earlier
talked about the strength to en
dure. A locomotive roaring down
a track represents one kind of
strength, he said. The tracts that
support the tracks represent
another kind of strength. “One is*
the strength to overcome. The
other is the strength to endure.
Tonight we must not only have the
strength to endure, but we must
have the strength to overcome.”
Sims, who is pfestor of Mt. Zion
Baptist Church in Orlando, Fla.,
formerly pastored First Mt.
Moriah Baptist Church here.
He returned here last week to
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February 18,1984
rally support and money for the
legal defense of Mclntyre and
Jones.
“We’re here,” he said, “to
show love, concern and respon
sibility. We want justice.”
He said the events that spawned
the current predicament in which
Mclntyre and Jones find them
selves may be a “divine interrup
tion.”
“Perhaps Black folk had gotten
too far apart. Perhaps Black folk
had arrived.
“God’s not just spanking Ed
and Joe. He’s also spanking me.
And I thank him for the interrup
tion.
“Hard knocks teach us how to
trust in him.”
Wineos, Sims said, are better
than most other people. “At least
they share their bottle. They have
a common walk. Christians don’t
agenda is a workshop on Scientific
Socialism coordinated by Prof.
Fritz Pointer of the Fanon In
stitute, Los Angeles who will be
joined by Kwame Toure (formerly
Stokely Carmichael) of the All
African Peoples Revolutionary
Party (AAPRP), and Imamu
Amira Baraka noted author and
activist.
An International Forum on
Saturday will bring together
foreign affairs specialists and
political scientists from around the
worl including Michael Manley,
Opposition Party leader from
still others, applauded by their
peers for their accomplishments,
found rich rewards in business.
Many Blacks have competed in
events that have no future
professionally, and once the
Less than 75 percent Advertising
even want to walk like Jesus.
Sims said he was not disappoin
ted by the relatively small crowd
that may have been reduced by
the Luther Vandross concert at the
civic center the same night.
“God has never called a crowd,
to do anything,” he said. “God
didn’t tell a crowd to go down into
Egypt. God takes a man, shakes
him up, and sends him after the
crowd. There is only one Moses,
one Joshua, one Jesus.
“We have seen that white
America will sacrifice a few whites
for a larger purpose. They’ll take a
few Abscams, but the target is
elsewhere,” he said.
Sims said that there are two kin
ds of power—teeth power and gum
power. Blacks, he said, have gum
power. “We are just pilgrims
passing through. Whites have
power with teeth. They control
Jamaica; Dr. Acklyn Lynch, Latin
American and Caribbean historian
and political scientist; Kwame
Toure (AAPRP); and Seiho Taijiri
of the Japanese African-American
Society.
The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson will
join Minister Louis Farrakhan and
the Nation of Islam on Saturday
evening for a mass political rally
entitled “A Unified Political
Strategy,” at the R.L. Jones Ar
mory. Over 17,000 people are ex
pected to attend this rally in sup
port of Rev. Jesse Jackson’s run
Olympics end, numerous Black
winners wind up with gold medals
and gold memories. They simply
fade from the picture when the
headlines fade.
In this article, we have tried to
locate some of the Olympic cham
pions, especially the gold medab
winners; to find out how the
Olympic movement helped or hurt
their endeavors, and whether or
not the Olympics helped them
down a path of achievement and
success. To some, it has been a
lodestar; to others it has been a
series of problems, but generally
there have been gains for most in
the post-Olympic period.
The incomparable Jesse Owens,
who shocked Adolph Hitler with
his astounding victories, never
made the fortune less famous
Olympian winners made, but
posthumously he gained respect in
the Alabama town in which he was
born when citizens erected a
monument honoring Jesse as its
most prominent citizen. And even
in that instance, Owens had
troubles as a political battle
developed over where the
monument honoring him should
be located. Some of the citizens
opposed the location of the Owens
monument on city hall property in
Oakville, Ala.
This was ironic because the
name of Jesse Owens is hammered
deep in bronze, embedded in tne
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Rev. Arthur D. Sims
AT&T and they can bite.
“Blacks fight to swim, but when
we dive there is no water.”
He said that the problem is
larger than Mclntyre and Jones.
“It’s not Ed Mclntyre and Joe
Jones going down, Augusta goes
down. When the white man goes
down, it’s isolated. But when a
Black gets in trouble the whole
race goes down,” he said to a
standing ovation.
for the Presidency.
The convention’s theme of unity
will be the focus of the keynote
address to be given Feb. 26 by
Minister Farrakhan entitled
“Unity: A Weapon More Power
ful than Nuclear Bombs.”
Joining the National Represen
tative of the Honorable Elijah
Muhammad will be Christian
ministers from the leading
denominations among Black
people, as well as Catholic,
Hebrew Israelite and Native
American ministers.
stone Marathon Gate of the Berlin
Stadium, and it appears there more
often, even than that of Hitler.
The feats of Owens were almost
without parallel in Olympic
history.
Certainly no individual ever so
completely dominated the scene as
did the great sprinter from Ohio
State University. He won three in
dividual events —100 and 200
meters and the broad jump—and
ran a decisive lap on the vic
torious American relay team, thus
taking home four first-place
medals and four of the tiny potted
German oak trees that the
Organizing Committee had
provided the winners as living
memorials of their triumphs. He
broke the Olympic and world
record in the 100 meters, though it
was disallowed because of a
following wind; he set a new
Olympic and world record for 200
meters around a turn; and he
broad jumped over 26-feet for the
first time in Olympic
history—another record. And to
top all that, the 400-meter relay
team of which he was the anchor
runner set a new Olympic and
world record for the event.
Owens came home to America
amid the tumult and the shouting
of admirers, but he never did latch
on to a topflight job. He ran in
exhibition races, spoke at clinics;
served as salesman for sporting
see Real gold, page 3
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