Newspaper Page Text
The Augusta News-Review March 24,1984
Mallory K. MillenderEditor-Publisher
Paul Walker Assistant to the Publisher
Theresa Minor Administrative assistant/Reporter
Randolph Murray Sales representative/Circulation Manager
Rev. R.E. Donaldson Religion Editoi
Mrs. Geneva Y. Gibson Church Coordinator
Charles Beale Jenkins County Correspondent
Mrs. Fannie Johnson Aiken County Correspondent
Mrs. Clara WestMcDuffie County Correspondent
Mrs. Been Buchanan Fashion & Beauty Editor
Wilbert Allen Columnist
Roosevelt Green Columnist
A] Columnist
Philip Waring-Columnist
Marva Stewart Columnist
George Bailey. Sports Writer
Carl McCoyEditorial Cartoonist
Olando Hamlett Photographer
Roscoe Williams. Photographer
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The Mayor Comments
Riverfront a resource
by Edward Mclntyre
One of Augusta’s most valuable
resources is her riverfront around
which she
developed al
most 250 years
ago. We are
now turning
our attention
back to our
riverfront in an (
effort to
revitalize our
■ ji
city today.
When City Council adopted
American City Corporation’s
Downtown Development Program
in 1982, it included plans for river
front improvements and sub
sequently a local engineering firm
was hired to provide engineering
services in connection with those
improvements.
The conceptual drawing has
been completed and I’m very ex
cited about what I have seen.
First, the plans call for an
esplanade (walkway) to be con
structed along the levee on which
Augustans and their visitors can
stroll. This will provide our down-
alking With Dignity
Unique women
by Al Irby
Three gifted Black women in the
class of 1984 at Oberlin College
***** I
will graduate, i
In 1862
Oberlin be-!
came the first |
institution to
grant a B.A.
degree to a
Black Ameri
can woman.
This June Ohio’s Oberlin
College will graduate more than
700 students. Among these will be
Lisa Washington, Jill Foster, and
Lisa Ridley. Born in the midst of
the civil rights movement of the
early 19605, these three seniors
have not experienced segregated
public schooling, “Jim Crow” in
public accommodations, or a time
when women could not vote. Nor
is it unusual today to be a Black
woman college graduate.
More than 600,000 have B.A.
degrees. And yet, even in 1984
these young women view them
selves as pioneers against racism
and, to a lesser extent, sexism.
As Miss Ridley explains, “There
are still a lot of firsts-there’s no
shortage.” When Miss Ridley, an
economic major from Mequon,
Wis., was invited into the homoprs
program she was unaware she
might be the first Oberlin student
to complete economic honors.
“You stumble on these firsts
without even trying, the petite miss
observed wryly. After graduation
in June, she will be a trainee in
management information systems
with the prestigious investment —
banking firm of Morgan Stanley
on Wall Street.
She admits, “There are more
options today than 100 years ago.
Page 4
town workers with a relaxing place
to walk at lunch or after work and
visitors to our city with another
place for their enjoyment.
Along the esplanade there will
be benches and picnic tables.
An overlook is also included in
the plans as well as informational
displays which will tell of
Augusta’s history.
At one point, the levee will be
breached to provide easy access to
the riverfront. Public restrooms
and other facilities will be in
cluded.
Future plans call for an am
phitheater which would provide us
with a location for all types of
cultural events.
Along with the new construc
tion, renovation work will be done
to Oglethorpe Park enhancing it
and making it a beautiful
recreational area for our city.
I am looking forward to the
realization of this development
and believe that it will bring
tremendous economic and
aesthetic values to our community.
But there are still ob
stacles... Maybe the frustrations
are greater because there are so
many options.”
Jim Foster, a premedical
chemistry major from Silver
Springs, MD, and one of two
Black students among 30
graduating in that field, jokes
about how few Blacks classmates
are willing “to do such an insane
thing as be a chemistry major.”
But she was “determined to be a
chemistry major even if it took ex
tra semesters to graduate.”
Sometimes she envies other
students whose parents have strong
science backgrounds, but her
parents did not. However, they in
stilled in her their philosophy:
“There is nothing you can’t do.”
Lisa Washington, a harp major
from Richmond, VA, and one of a
handful of Black students among
more than 500 in the college’s
Conservatory of Music, finds that
most of her Black and white
classmates major in voice or piano.
Her interest in the harp began in
a fourth-grade enrichment
program of the Richmond public
schools. In 10th grade, she made
her choice between medicine and
music, and her parents invested
more than $5,000 in a harp for her.
They also turned in their old car
for a station wagon to ferry her
and the instrument to and from
concerts.
Miss Washington says that her
parents are “behind her 100 per
cent.” They taught her to be the
best she could and that “if you
believe in God and yourself,
there’s nothing you can’t do.”
All three young women are
politically active on campus in
Black organizations.
please let me finish
WHAT I'VE ALREADY STARTED,
OFFICER/
BRfcNDoN JR
BLACK RESOURCES INC. ALL RIGHTS RE-SERVED
Speaking Out
Jesse Jackson is a
bona fide candidate
by Roosevelt Green
The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson is a
bona fide presidential candidate.
HI
f
BJK
He is gaining
increasing sup
port from
Blacks, some
whites, His
panics, and
others.
His rapid
rise to the
forefront of
Black political activity is accom
panied by much unnecessary
criticism, jealousy, envy, and
plantation politics. Some critics
say this is not the time for a Black
person to run for the presidency. It
seems it is always the wrong time in
America for Blacks to seek
progress and achievements, except
in athletics and entertainment.
Some persons say this Black
preacher is not qualified. If that is
so, he joins our current president
and a long list of others who have
presided over this country. They
say he has never run for an elective
office before, but neither had
Dwight Eisenhower before he ran
for president.
Other critics of the Rev. Mr.
Jackson say he is an opportunist
To Be Equal
Interpreting civil rights
by John Jacobs
The Supreme Court’s recent
ruling in the Grove College case is
as Q I
a serious step
toward the!
kind of!
narrow, re-j
strictive inter-I
pretation of
the civil rights
laws that is un
fortunately be-
coming more widespread.
The case involved sex
discrimination. Grove City College
does not practice discrimination,
but it refused to sign a certificate
guaranteeing compliance with the
law against sex discrimination.
The college claimed that the law
applies only to institutions that ac
cept federal funds and the only
federal monies received went direc
tly to students getting fedreally
financed aid.
That kind of logic defeats the
purpose of anti-discrimination
laws. It says a college can accept
aid for its students and then
discriminate against them in
classrooms and other college ac
tivities.
Yet the Justice Department filed
a brief urging the Court to limit the
federal anti-discrimination role
only to those programs that receive
federal aid. And the Supreme
Court bought the argument.
It said that just because one or
more of an institution’s programs
get federal aid, the entire in
stitution does not come under
the province of anti-discrimination
laws. So Grove City’s financial aid
office will have to comply with the
law, but other parts of the college
and has a big ego. Is not that true
for every politician and high
achiever you have ever known? His
opportunism and ego cannot begin
to match that of our gun boat
diplomacy, war-seeking, macho
president.
Few can seriously argue that
only one of the several white
presidential candidates has made
any substantial effort to court
Black voters by addressing issues
of concern to them. Besides, the
Democratic Party played possum
and went along with disastrious
unemployment producing
Reagonomics.
Yet one can hear other Jackson
critics saying he cannot win and
will just waste Black votes. This
noise level is raised by Black and
white supporters of the opponents
of the Black candidate. They fail
to see the need for local and state
Black Elected officials who would
benefit from the Jackson can
didacy.
Since the Rev. Mr. Jackson is
the leading presidential choice of
most Blacks as seen in presidential
pools, perhaps this is the in
dication by the people indicating
many Black politicians are really
out of step with their people. It is
don’t.
A powerful weapon against
discrimination has been removed
by a Supreme Court that is sup
posed to be the guarantor of our
rights. Because the portion of the
1972 education law that bars
discrimination in federally assisted
programs and activities is similar
to provisions of the Civil Rights
Act, the Court’s ruling could
become a wedge to further restrict
civil rights enforcement.
That danger may be slim, since,
some lawyers say, Black civil
rights are protected by the Con
stitution whereas sex equality is
not.
But slim or not, any perceivable
danger to civil rights in this climate
of retrenchment and hostility to
federal rights protection cannot be
taken lightly.
And that’s especially true since
the Supreme Court is proving a
shaky reed. In the Grove City case,
the majority of the justices clearly
overrode the will of Congress in
their hast to interpret the law as
narrowly as possible.
By claiming that Congress never
meant to include all institutional
activities under the law, just those
that were federally funded, the
Court went against the evidence.
The legislative history shows that
Congress meant its language to
be interpreted broadly. And just to
make sure of that, it passed a
resolution to that effect last fall,
while the case was before the
Court.
The case should also be the first
of a number in which institutions
that get federal aid could try to
restrict federal oversight of their
also a strong indication that Blacks
understand that it is past time for a
Black president of this country.
Presidential candidate Jesse L.
Jackson will raise and gain atten
tion for issues that would be
largely overlooked in this era of
the white backlash against Black
progress parading under the ban
ner of political conservatism. He is
causing more white Democrats and
some Republicans to wake up from
the Reagonomics nightmare.
The Rev. Mr. Jackson follows in
a strong Black church tradition of
preachers providing critical
political leadership. The late
Congressman Rev. Adam Clayton
Powell, Congressman Walter
Fauntroy of Washington, D.C.
and Congressman William Gray of
Philadelphia are among notable
examples of this truth.
It is my considered judgement
that the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson
merits the strong support of Blacks
and others who believe in an
America free of most of the
current bigotry and insensitivity to
the poor and the unemployed. If
the first president, George
Washington, could be a
slaveholder, then it is way past
time for a descendant of slaves to
assume that high office.
civil rights responsibilities.
And the Court’s ruling can’t be
seen in isolation. It is part of an
overall context that includes lax
enforcement of civil rights laws, a
mood among some employers and
institutions that they can get away
with discrimination, and a tran
sformed Civil Rights Commission
that, instead of serving as the
nation’s conscience, is running
with the pack arguing for restric
tive interpretations of what con
stitutes civil rights.
Another part of the troubling
context is the block granting of
many federal programs to the
states, which have often diverted
funds intended for poor people to
other uses.
The decision also puts the
spotlight on the Court itself, which
has been moving to narrow the
scope of many of its rulings. Given
the rightward drift of the Court,
and the fact that many of its mem
bers are elderly, the question of
possible vacancies in the near
future becomes very important.
All of which suggests that no
one can be complacent about civil
rights. The fact the laws are on the
books doesn’t mean that they’ll be
fully enforced, or that the Courts
can’t strangle them with literal,
narrow interpretations.
Congress can help dispel some
of the anxieties stemming from the
Grove City decision by passing
amendments that clearly mandate
a broad interpretation of its
scope—that any federal aid
requires compliance in all of an in
stitution’s activities.
Going Places
Super-Tuesday
history, drama
by Philip Waring
The recent “Super-Tuesday”
was both history and drama. It
enabled
Mondale to
keep his flag MF .gJIQ
flying and for W
Gary Hart to F p J &
go further up|| *' z * > If j®
the ladder.
But, it was
our Jesse H| Mr
Jackson who
came through
smelling like a rose! This he did
despite all kinds of handicaps and
lack of basic resources.
Mondale has a 12 million dollar
budget and has been running for
three years. Hart has a war chest
now exceeding four million. And
all of the former candidates,
wealthy and powerful U.S.
senators, etc. had individual
primary campaign budgets ex
ceeding several million dollars.
Many of them also had been
running for at least two years.
They had inroads into some of the
most powerful contacts in our
land.
But what about our man, Jesse?
First, he was unable to get started
until right before Christmas. So he
had a late start. He had no inroads
to giant business, labor and
educational contacts. He did have,
however, a message of faith, hope,
opportunity, justice and peace.
Even with the matching federal
funds, Jesse has been able to gar
ner less than $900,000 to run a
national campaign. He had a very
small staff, almost no money for
advertising, etc.
Well how did Jesse do it? He did
what all of us Black Americans
have been doing for decades:
making bricks without straw.
Jesse’s message garnered
millions of Blacks who believe in
him. People like State Rep. Tyrone
Brooks, Southeastern coordinator,
my friend Savannah State College
professor Dr. Otis Johnson who is
also a city councilman.
Otis and his associates brought
out over 10,000 people to meet
with Jesse at the Savannah Civic
Center.
In Augusta, we had some 4,200
thanks to City Councilwoman
Margaret Armstrong, various
ministers and others. All over the
land people like them stood up and
acted for Jesse. And may we say
well done! His recent .accomplish
ments made history and projected
a message to the Democratic party.
A full feature in the Atlanta
Journal by Mike Christensen
stated in part: “Jackson’s strategy
and clout passed a crucial test in
the South...His political image
remains high and untarnished after
capturing over two thirds of the
Black vote in Georgia, Florida and
Alabama.” And Mayor Johnny
Ford said on national television the
aforementioned was accomplished
with literally no paid television,
radio or newspaper advertising.
Jesse has passed the test and
political analysts are taking a new
look at him.
While the New York Times has
never been a friend of Jesse, never
theless, its reporter, Ronald
Smothers, did a lengthty and in
formative feature in the Sunday
magazine of that paper on March
4. He stated: “The Rev. Jesse
Jackson’s candidacy resembles
more a crusade than a developed
political campaign. Charismatic,
and often controversial, he is likely
to have a lasting effect on the
Democratic Party.” Continuing
the Times article observed: “With
his ‘rainbow coalition’, Jackson is
trying to appeal to a wide variety
of voters including Hispanics, the
poor and women —while at the
same time making a bold bid for
the role of pre-eminent leader
among Blacks”.
All of us must now make a plan
ned and concerted effort to help
the Jackson financial base. Our
Baptist, Methodist, Church of
God In Christ and other religious
groups must now come through.
Why should not our major
athletes, both active and retired,
join with our many musicians and
entertainers and put on several
galas in the Superdome and other
big centers around the nation?
What about it gals and fellows?
Win or lose, Jesse is representing
all of us on a national front as
never before. We no longer have to
go to the door and hand a note in
opting for a change in our status.
Jesse is already inside with forces
of power.