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Hosea Williams Civil rights leader Parren Mitchell 11 Chemical company won’t seek Clarence Mitchell won’t su] re-election dies at 73 Jesse Jac group Page 3 Page 3 Pa ß e 1 11 Page 1 Augusta Nnus-fßeuieui VOLUME 19 NUMBER 48 Dr. Ben E. Mays dies Funeral services for the Dr. Ben jamin Elijah Mays, president emeritus of Morehouse College, will be held Saturday at 1 p.m. in the chapel of Morehouse College. Dr. Samuel Dußois Cooke, president of Dillard University, who was a classmate of Dr. Martin Luther King at Morehouse, will deliver the eulogy Dr. Mays died Wednesday in an Atlanta Hospital. He was 89. Morehouse graduates in Augusta generally found it dif ficult to measure the ultimate im pact of his life. Attorney John H. Ruffin Jr. said, “It is impossible to assess the impact of a man of his statue. He exerted great influence not only on his students and colleagues, but on humanity. His contributions are legend and in capable of assessment. “Os the almost 50 honorary degrees he received, I doubt that you will find 10 men with as many. That’s important because it shows how people in his field feel about him. It had reached the point where the people awarding the degrees were honored to give him the degree, rather than him being honored to receive it.” Ruffin said that outside of his family, Dr. Mays was “the person who made the greatest impact on my life.” Dr. Roger Williams, dean for Academic Affairs at Paine Concerned Citizens reject chemical company proposal by Theresa Minor The Concerned Citizens Com mittee has flatly rejected a proposed screening program set up to monitor workers of the Augusta Chemical Company, intended to identify those workers who may have contracted cancer as a result of their employment with the plant. A class-action suit was filed against Synalloy Corp., parent company of the Augsta Chemical Company, in 1981 by seven former employees of the plant. The suit charged that the Spartanburg, South Carolina based company was negligent, in not telling em ployees that they were handling a chemical —betanapthlamine (BNA) —known to cause cancer in laboratory animals. The proposed screening program is one of the results of the suit, geared toward workers of the company from 1949 to 1972 when the use of BNA was banned by the federal agency OSHA (Oc cupational Safety Hazard Agen cy). Though the Concerned Citizens Committee has been pushing for the screening program for nearly four years, it nevertheless turned down the Synalloy proposal largely because it would be controled by the corporation. The proposal would also entitle a chemical worker up to SIO,OOO in medical expenses should cancer be diagnosed. James Sturgis, a former chemical worker, was sharply critical of the plan, stating, “Before they (Synalloy) give you the money you’re going to be on , welfare. I’ll never sign it (screening proposal) You’ll be dead before I they give you the money.” f J I ■t Dr. Benjamin Mays College, lived in Dr. Mays’ home during his freshman and sophomore years at Morehouse (1962-64). Williams said, “When a man has made that much impact it is both easy and difficult. He went on presidential missions. He was outstanding in religion, civil rights and particularly in education. His presence meant an awful lot. “I remember fondly the Tuesday chapel programs,” Williams recalled. “At that time Morehouse had chapel every day, but Tuesday was his day. He would tell us ‘never allow yourself to be put in a compromising position. Live so you won’t have to compromise for any reason.” Sturgis has had to have an operation stemming from bladder cancer diagnosed after he quit the Augusta Chemical Company. He also handled BNA (used in making *dye) while employed with the E.I. Dupon de Nemours and Co. He states that he as reached an agreement with Dupont which will “pay me yearly, and take care of me for life.” The former chemical worker also revealed personal tragedies which he links directly to the chemical controversy. “My son became sick while em ployed with Augusta Chemical Company. He was sick April 11, 1971 and died April 14,1971. “Two of my friends died this year from cancer. I’ll never go back to the gate,” he said. Wilbert Allen, Concerned Citizens Committee member, said 90-percent of the plant’s em ployees are Black, adding, “The political structure’s reaction would have been different if'9o-percent were white.” Allen went on to say that a more acceptable plan would be for the screening program to be handled by a panel consisting of “an in dependent urologist, a pathologist, a Medical College of Georgia representative (MCG has been con tracted to handle the program), a Concerned Citizens Committee member, a representative of Synalloy, and a chemical worker.” Allen said the governing panel would ensure that data compiled from the screening program will not be “white-washed.” The group also objects to the plan for Spartanburg chemical workers to be monitored long distance by sending urine samples Those familiar with Black colleges fully understood Dr. Mays saying: “These are the schools who always and forever have to do so much with so little.” Then Williams said of Dr. Mays’ death, “It’s like the passing of an era.” Mayor Edward Mclntyre, who was a Morehouse classmate of former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson and Fulton County Commissioner Reginald Eaves, said, Dr. Mays “was like a father to a nation. He instilled in us that our obligation was to make America realize its obligation to the fulfillment of its people.” The mayor said Dr. Mays would always remind his students that as Blacks, they had to run twice as fast in order to catch up. Mclntyre remembers Dr. Mays chastising Morehouse students for. attending the then-segregated Fox Theatre. He told them, “I cannot believe that a Morehouse man will sit up in a chicken roof paying for segregation.” One of the favorite sayings of the 27-year Morehouse president was, “For a man or woman to come into the world and not to make it better than they found it, is like they never lived at all.” Mclntyre concluded, “He’ll never die. He’ll always live in the hearts and souls and minds of all who knew him.” to MCG during the screening program. “As far as we know, Synalloy has not screened any of the workers at Spartanburg,” said Allen. A mass meeting is slated for April 30 to gather as many workers as possible in order to make a decision as to whether or not the group should battle it out in court with the Synalloy Corp. bJ’ - pg PAINE COLLEGE President William Harris with Secretary of State Max Cleland at March 31,1984 ft Charles Grant Grants runs for commission seat Former Augusta-Richmond County Planning Commission Chairman, Charles Grant says he has been thinking about running for the county commission for four years. On Monday the thought became reality, with Grant’s announcement that he is a candidate for the 88th district seat on the county panel. Grant’s rival for the post is his neighbor, educator Henry Brigham. The 47-year old computer analyst said during a press con ference that he intends to work for efficiency in spending. He also stated that he favored an appoin ted police chief for the county over an elected sheriff. Grant is vying for the elected post on a completely revamped county commission, enlarged recently from five to six members by the Georgia General Assembly. Under the new structure, local lawmakers say it is feasible that the county commission could have two Black members elected to the panel. Brigham had previously stated tht the new make-up of the panel, which will now be elected from districts rather than at-large, has forced the county government into a new era —“out of the horse-and buggy days.” Grant countered in saying, “I’d say the buggy whip was thrown away some time ago.” Grant is running in the Augusta Democratic primary but said he would seek bipartisan support. Less than 75 percent Advertising Jesse Jackson has demon strated clearly in this political season that Black voters are just as en thusiastic—perhaps even more so—about going to the polls as whites, if they feel they have a genuine stake in the election process. (With official returns finally in from Super Tuesday, Blacks may have comprised as much as 50 percent of the total March 13 Democratic primary vote in Georgia, the secretary of state’s office estimates. Only about 25 percent of the white vote turned out.) In the Southern primaries and in Illinois, where there is a sizable Black vote, Jackson inspired a record turnout, and many of those were brand-new voters. Unhappily, Jackson has finally been lured into saying that whites will not support a Black candidate, with the implication that Blacks might as well stay home in November. UNCF leaders pledge to stop brain drain “If you want to enhance your preparation for life, enhance your preparation,” Secretary of State Max Cleland told Augustans at the kick-off luncheon of Paine College’s United Negro College fund. Noting persons such as Thomas Edison, George Washington Car ver and Walt Disney, who were told they would never succeed, Cleland repeated the UNCF Slogan, “A mind is a terrible thing Kick-off luncheon for the United Negro College Fund. Jesse makes point (Guest Editorial) Jackson later told some close associates that he regretted making the racially polarizing statements and does not intend to venture in to that quagmire again. But the main lesson of the Jackson candidacy ought not to be lost on strategists in the Democratic Party. And that is, the Black vote can be motivated first to register and then to cast ballots in the election. But they are no different from the rest of the electorate; they need a compelling reason to take the time and trouble to participate in an election. It is clearly up to the Democrats to come up with that reason. For the Democrats probably cannot win the election without a heavy Black vote. Assuming that Jackson will not be on the Democratic ticket in November, the next question is, how does an orthodox see Jesse, page 4 to waste.” He pointed out that 70 percent of all Blacks who are college graduates graduated from Black colleges. “Some 90 percent of the students in schools like Paine College receive financial aid and would not get a chance for a college education were it not for the United Negro College Fund,” he said. Seventy percent of the Black teachers in Richmond County and 28 percent of the principals are Paine College graduates. “Paine continues to hold out a goal and an ideal, and urge studen ts to reach for the stars,” he said. Don Howard, president of Belk’s said that he has a personal committment, the United Negro College Fund. He heads the cor porate segment charged with raising 50 percent of the drive’s SIOO,OOO goal. “We’ve got to go out and tell the Paine College story with the same enthusiasm and zeal of a young missionary,” he said, adding that the corporate community must ac cept its social obligation. “We don’t have the wealthy alumni that many of the other schools have. We have a limited endowment, but on top of that, the leaders of the college have sought to keep tuition low and student fees minimal, so that every student who wants to go to college will be able to attend this one. “I believe that the community is prepared to accept this corporate citizenship,” he continued. “The cause is right, but that will not make it happen. Each of us must make it happen. And I promise to do my share.” 30C