Newspaper Page Text
Coors says ‘racist’ Diahann Carroll Hooks hit willing
remarks taken to get role Justice Depart.cks
out of context on ‘Dynasty’ on set asides I for rule
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Augusta foirffuim
VOLUME 19 NUMBER 48
Blacks angered by efforts
to keep at-large voting
Blacks attending Mon*
day’s city council meeting
were angered by a 11-4 vote
along racial lines to hire
Atlanta attorney Jim Wim
berly to determine whether
the city should fight an at
large voting lawsuit brought
by Augusta Blacks.
He will be paid $95 an
hour, and it is estimated that
it could cost $25,000-30,000
just for him to review the
case. And as much as a half
million dollars to defend
against the suit, and the odds
are that he would lose.
Seventh Ward Councilman S.
Herbert Elliot was absent. Fifth
Ward Councilman Jimmy Murray
told his colleagues, “I’m opposed
to what you’re doing (fighting
Hooks hits Justice Department
for intervention in set asides
NEW YORK—NAACP
Executive Director Benjamin L.
Hooks sharply criticized the U.S.
Department of Justice for joining
white males in challenging set aside
provisions in Dade County, Fla.,
that were created to help minority
construction firms following the
riots in Liberty City in 1980. In his
statement, Hooks said:
“Once again the U.S. Justice
Department is placing the federal
government squarely on the side of
those opposed to affirmative ac
tion by siding with white contrac
tors through its intervention before
the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Ap
peals.
“This intervention is being done
in the suit filed by Associated
General Contractors challenging
the set aside provision of the Dade
County ordinance. The ordinance
sets aside an unspecified number
of construction contracts for
minority firms.
“It was adopted in 1982 after
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Benjamin Hooks
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Willie Mays
district voting), because in my
heart I uou't believe in it. But if
this will take us into court, I’ll vote
for it.”
Second Ward Councilman
Willie Mays said that he found it
“strange as hell” that council
members who have been “ultra
the racial unrest in May, 1980, in
Liberty City, Florida, a suburb of
Miami, to correct one of the causes
of minority unrest due to the Black
community’s exclusion from
economic benefits in Dade Coun
ty.
“The U.S. government, by the
action of William Bradford
Reynolds, assistant attorney
general, seeks to become a willing
partner with those majority con
tractors who fail, refuse or neglect
to include Black contractors in
governmental-sponsored building
and construction projects.
“We feel that Black and
minority contractors have suffered
too long at the hands of prejudiced
business interests.
“The NAACP believes that the
Department of Justice is tragically
a department of insensitivity and
injustice. The NAACP calls upon
Americans of good will to join in
expressing their unhappiness over
the continuing assaults by the
Executive Branch on affirmative
action remedies.
“If the Justice Department’s
position prevails, ‘Race con
scious’ set aside laws throughout
the nation will be invalidated and
minority contractors placed at the
mercy of those who in the past
were guilty of discrimination based
on race.
“The courts in a number of
decisions have upheld set asides to
correct past discrimination. In the
Fullilove v. Kreps case before the
U.S. Court of Appeals, Second
Circuit, decided September, 1978,
the court noted Congress’ purpose
in fashioning set aside remedies
**•
I
W ' t J
Jimmy Murray
conservative and sometimes ultra
right-wing” would add the cost of
“a blanket check attorney out of
Atlanta...very, very strange.”
The Rev. Charlie Moore, pastor
of Crawford Baptist Church and
chairman of the NAACP Political
was to remedy past discrimination.
It also noted that the government’s
interest “in overcoming the disad
vantages resulting from past
(Los Angeles Sentinel)
LOS ANGELES—WiIIiam K.
Coors, chief executive of the
Adolph Coors Co., has apologized
that he said Blacks are inferior.
Charges against Coors stemmed
from a meeting of Minority
business owners in Denver on
February 24, where Coors was
quoted as having said that Blacks
should be grateful that their an
cestors were dragged in chains
from Africa.
Coors was also quoted as saying
that under Black management, the
African nation of Zimbabwe is a
disaster and that Blacks who are
currently in power lack the intellec
tual capacity to succeed.
Ron Kirkpatrick, media
relations manager for the Coors
company here in Los Angeles, said
that Coors’ remarks were made in
an economic context designed to
illustrate the idea that American
Blacks should be glad they are
living in a country with a free en
terprise system, and that Coors’
statement was taken out of con
text.
On the heels of a press conferen
ce held in Los Angeles last Friday
by the Los Angeles NAACP, and
Bishop H. Hartford Brookins,
seeking some economical reprisal
against the Coors company,
William Coors issued a formal
March 24,1984
Action Committee, said that
“hiring the attorney with tax
payers money...to deny a portion
of its citizens equal protection is
wrong,” adding that such a suit
could cost as much as a half
million dollars.
Community activist Wilbert
Allen told council, “What you
have done was to divide the com
munity on an economic and class
basis. You have polarized the
community.
“You are afraid to subject your
self to ward voting. It shows that
you represent other interests.”
Earthie Powell D’Antignac, who
was a candidate for city council
last year, argued that the city
already employs a firm trained in
Constitutional law. “You’re going
o tax us double,” she said.
Then she warned council mem
bers who must be in office for six
months before becoming subject to
a recall effort, “May is coming.
Your six months are up and we’ll
be ready.”
discrimination...is sufficiently
compelling to justify a remedy
which required the use of racial
preferences.”
Coors apologizes, says ‘racist’
remarks taken out of context
press statement in which he said
“some of my statements to the
Minority Business Development
Center in Denver last week con
veyed a meaning I did not intend.
“For my unfortunate choice of
words, I sincerely apologize.” the
statement read. He continued, “In
hindsight, these statements
demonstrated a lack of sensitivity.
The reason I was invited to speak
to the Minority Business Develop
ment Center was because of my
commitment to the minority com
munity, Coors said.
Concluding he said, “I pray that
my actions will speak louder than
those ill-chosen words. I anxiously
await the chance to establish a
more positive environment of
mutual benefit with the Black
community.”
In a special meeting with The
Sentinel last week, Kirkpatrick
said Coors did not have any racial
intent in his statements in Denver
and denied that Coors feels that
Blacks are “intellectually in
capable of success. ”
But the denial by Coors has not
changed the resolve of local leaders
who are demanding that Blacks
stop buying Coors beer.
John T. McDonald, president of
the Los Angeles NAACP and
Brookins have stopped just short
of calling for a national boycott
of Coors’ product by members of
Less than 75 percent Advertising
Price of minority rule
Augusta’s white city
council members are being
tested on their worthiness
to represent the majority
of the people in this city
and they are failing
miserably. They will quib
ble endlessly about what
something trivial will cost
the taxpayers, yet they will
hire an attorney at $95 an
hour, with no limit as to
how much of the taxpayers
money they are willing to
throw away trying to pay
him.
It is essential that one
always bear in mind that
the MAJORITY of the
people living in Augusta
are Black and WANT
district voting, as is
evidenced by the
unanimous voting record
of Black council members
on this issue as well as the
law suit against district
voting brought by Augusta
Blacks, as well as Blacks
all around the country. In
other words, our tax
dollars are being used to
determine if city council
will finance a legal battle
to further deny us access
to the democratic process.
More than that, these
council members are
willing to pay the cost for
the Black community.
Brookins stated that such an ef
fort would give Coors some in
dication of the strength of the
economy of the Black community,
and would give him reason to
seriously reconsider the impact of
his remarks.
In Denver, however, despite the
denial of intent on the part of
Coors, one of the major TV
stations has in its possession a copy
of a tape, which was made during
Coors speech.
Black Denverites are incensed by
the Coor’s remarks and have
begun holding meeting to discuss
strategy against Coors.
A spokesman for the Denver TV
station said the tape does in fact
contain the statements as reported,
but also said that the intent of
Coors statement is a “matter of in
terpretation.”
Kirkpatrick added, “This whole
matter has been blown out of
proportion. Anyone who knows
Bill Coors knows that he is not a
racist.
But not all Blacks are convinced
and national efforts are springing
up across the country with the in
tent of making the anger of Black
America visible to the Coors
organization.
Charges have been leveled
Editorial
such legal fees when they
know what the outcome
will be. Last month the
U.S. Supreme Court
struck down at-large
voting in Edgefield Coun
ty. Last year, it was struck
down in Burke County,
and in other counties all
over the country. Even in
the Mobile case, in which
bigots thought they had
found an out because the
Court said that intent to
discriminate must be
proved, the Court has
recognized its error and
dropped that requirement.
In the case of Augusta,
even that wouldn’t matter
because Augusta did in
tend to discriminate.
That’s why it switched
from the ward or district
voting to the at-large
voting system when Blacks
began to seek public office
in the early 19505.
Our elected officials
continually lecture to us
about “democracy” and
the rule of the majority.
What we are now seeing
from our white officials is
the price that they are
willing to pay to maintain
control by Augusta’s
minority community—
which is white.
against the Coors Company that
no concerted effort has been made
to place Coors advertising on
Black radio stations or in Black
newspapers.
Presently PUSH is conducting
an in-depth investigation of the
advertising and hiring practices of
the company, and while no official
boycott has been announced, it is
believed that the NAACP as well
as PUSH and other civil rights
organizations are considering what
they describe as an “economic
sanction’’ against the company.
Brookins, who heads the 17-
state Fifth Episcopal District of the
AME church, said “If we come to
a point of boycott, I not only will
urge the 200,000 members of the
AME church in this district to
boycott Coors, but I will also write
a resolution which I hope the entire
3.5 million members of the AME
church will also adopt.”
McDonald said, “Coors must be
held accountable for these types of
overt racist actions and he must be
dealt with from the perspective
that the community which made
him a millionaire can also take it
away. The NAACP will support
and encourage the national office
to support a well-planned
economic withdrawal campaign
against this company and its
executives.”
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