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The Augusta News-Review April 7,1984
Atlantic City gets
first Black mayor
ATLANTIC CITY, NJ—James
Usry has been sworn in as the first
Black mayor of Atlantic City after
a day of last minute court
challenges by his predecessor,
Michael Matthews,
ousted in a recall election. \
Usry Was declared the winner of
the bitter recall vote and mayoral
election that left Matthews without
a job.
Judge Neil Deighan of the state
superior cqurt’s appallate division
first temporary injunction
sought by Matthews, barring Usry
from taking office until it could
be decided if petitions that forced
the recall vote bore the required
number of signatures.
Usry appealed the injunction
and state supreme court justice
Daniel O’Hern, following con
ferences with the parties and
judges involved, declined to act in
the case.
Deighan then withdrew his in-
Black woman refused to form
DAR unit, says it’s racist
WASHINGTON—A Black
woman denied membership in the
Washington chapter of the
Daughters of the American
Revolution is skeptical about the
groups offer to start a new chapter
for “persons of all races.”
Lena Ferguson, the descendant
of a man who played a role in the
Revolutionary War, charged she
was denied membership in the
DAR’s Mary Washington chapter
because of her race.
But the organization’s national
president, Sarah King, saying she
could not force the chapter to ac
cept Ferguson, recommended she
“be appointed an organizing
regent for the purpose of
establishing a new DAR chapter in
the District of Columbia. This
chapter will include persons of all
races who meet the criteria for
membership and who aspire to the
objectives of the DAR.
“I have no more right to be a
member of the DAR than she,”
King said in a statement.
“It is my duty to help her find
her rightful home in a local DAR
chapter.”
Ferguson, who becam an at-
Youth Council
to meet
The NAACP Youth
Council will meet April 7
at 3 p.m. at the NAACP
office, 1301 Laney
Walker Blvd.
All young people bet
ween the ages of 6 and 18
are asked to attend the
are asked to attend. The
council will be
establishing goals, elec
ting officers, and ex
ploring ways to make a
positive impact on the
community.
Memberships are $3
and $5 with the Crisis
Magazine.
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junction, which placed the case
back into the superior court cham
ber of judge Philip Gruccio.
Gruccio, who had denied Mat
thews’ attempt to stop the
swearing in, gave the go-ahead and
Usry was sworn in.
City voters recalled Matthews
and elected Usry to the post after
20 months of political turmoil,
allegations of corruption and
racial strife in the casino resort.
Matthews, who is white, had
defeated Usry by 359 votes in a
June 1982 election, leaving the
40,000-member community split
along racial a
along racial lines.
At the time, Usry, a Black com
munity leader and assistant school
superintendent, charged vote fraud
and later launched the recall drive.
Unofficial vote tallies from the
county board of elections showed
the recall question was approved
by a margin of 7,021 to 4,086.
large member of the national DAR
after she was rejected by the city’s
Mary Washington chapter in 1983,
was surprised—and somewhat
skeptical—by King’s offer.
“The way I see it, she’s offering
me that so they could direct any
Black to this chapter. In turn,
that’s back to separate but equal
again,” said Ferguson, a school
secretary.
She said she decided to pursue
the issue because there is a
resolution pending in Congress
recognizing the 5,000 Blacks in the
recognizing the 5,000 Blacks who
participated in the Revolutionary
War.
Ferguson said, “I thought it was
a good chance to let the DAR
make known where they stand” on
the issue of Black membership.
Potential DAR members must
prove a “blood line to someone
who served in the Revolutionary
War or was a patriot,” a DAR of
ficial said. One of Ferguson’s an
cestors, Jonah Gay, aided the war
effort in Maine.
Isabel Allen, an officer of the
Mary Washington chapter.
NAACPmeeting in Wrens
The NAACP 10th
District branch presiden
ts, College Chapter and
Youth Councils will meet
April 14 at 11 a.m. at
Wrens High School in
Wrens.
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Page 2
The purpose is to
develop an action plan
for memberships, and to
establish goals for the
NAACP in 1984.
The speaker will be Ms.
Alta S. Pratt, Regional
Youth Director.
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On the mayoral ballot, 7,393
votes were cast for Usry, 4,224 for
Matthews and 306 for candidate
John Polillo, a municipal worker.
Matthews’ opponents charged
his ineffective leadership had crip
pled resort redevelopment efforts.
But the former democratic state
assemblyman claimed the vote was
merely a “power grab” by his
political opponents.
Matthews, 50, the target of a
continuing Federal grand jury
probe into allegations he accepted
payoffs from an FBI undercover
agent posing as a land developer.
He charged that the recall
petitions were “87 signatures
short” of the legal requirement.
Usry, 62, was unavailable for
comment and Matthews, who
reported to his office the day after
the swearing in, refused to speak to
reporters.
dismissed Ferguson’s charge of
discrimination, saying, “there’s
nothing to that at all. We have an
option of inviting anybody we
want to be a member.”
Allen, who would not discuss
why Ferguson was rejected by the
Allen, who would not discuss
why Ferguson was rejected, said
the organization had no Black
members in the nation’s capitol.
Officials said there were only five
Blacks among the organization’s
estimated 212,000 members
nationwide.
Ferguson said her sponsors told
her she was rejected by the DAR
chapter because of her race.
“They didn’t come and say that '
to me, but they siad that to one of
my sponsors,” she said. “But in
the course of correspondence 1
knew that it was because of my
color.”
One of her sponsors, Elizabeth
Thompson, said, “I’ve gotten into
this so deep, I probably won’t be
going to anymore meetings. I’m
not so active in the DAR...but 1
thought this was a principal worth
standing for.”
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ail ■■■■■■■ 11
TODAY
f ■ News Service of Tri-Ad Consultants, Ltd.
f " by Vincent Tubbs
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Sidney Poitier’s ‘Shoot Out’ z
Seven new stars will
soar across the horizon
when Sidney Poitier
completes the multi
racial, dance-oriented
Columbia Pictures drama
“Shoot Out” which stars
filiming in New York in
May. It is not about
“break dancing.” Its
young stars learn as much
about life as they do
about having happy feet.
Among others, Can
non Films will release
“Breakdance” the first
of May featuring Shrimp
and Shabba Doo,
who are billed as “the
world’s hottest
breakers.” About that
time, co-producer Harry
Belafonte will have com
pleted filming his “Beat
Street” for Orion Pic
tures release later this
summer.
Meanwhile, the most
talked about dance film
on the boards is Colum
bia Pictures’ pairing of
tap dancer Gregory Hines
with world-reknowned
ballet star Mikhail
Baryshnikov in an un
titled drama to begin
filming in Europe in July.
In this one, the Russian
leaves home in search of
artistic freedom and the
Brother leaves home in
search of social freedom.
International model
Isabella Rosselini,
daughter of the late
Ingrid Bergman, will
make her U.S. film debut
as (you ready) Gregory’s
love interest.
Hold it! Hold it
now!—There are 186
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if you hold a piece of it in your hand and wait, it will
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(exactly) letters here, and
the phone has rung 73
(exactly) times with pro
and con comments on the
question of whether
Richard Pryor should be
hereafter addressed as
“Mister” because he’s in
control of S4O million
dollars...to make movies
employing the best per
sonnel available, and
opening as many doors
for minorities as he can
(that’s what he said In
digo Productions will
do—and there’s no
reason to doubt him).
“He doesn’t want to be
called that,” one of Mr.
Pryor’s friends in Macon,
Ga., called up to say.
“Greatest thing about
him is that he hasn’t
changed, and never
will.’’...And, then, there
was the letter from a
sports editor who has
written about the
“greats” from Jackie
Robinson /to Muhammed
Ali, observing,
philosophically: “These
special people are due it;
not that they wish to be
put up or that we would
wish to put them down.
It’s simply a matter of
respect!” Up to now, as
said, there have been 257
other calls and letters.
Whew!!
POPPING
As a kernel of popcorn
is heated, the moisture in
side it turns to steam. The
pressure that builds up
within the kernel causes it
to pop, according to the
Cooperative Extension Ser
vice.
Box ■
Score '
by George Bailey -
John Thompson
By now, I’m sure all of
you sports fans are aware
of the best team in college
basketball. Last Monday
night the Georgetown
Houas proved they were
indeed the best team in
the country by defeating
a tough Houston team
84-75.
This year’s tournament
brought up several con
troversies, most of them
surrounding Georgetown
and the Georgetown
coach, John Thompson.
Coach Thompson has
been criticized all year
because he felt it wasn’t
necessary to let the news
media know where his
team was staying or allow
team members to take on
the-spot interviews.
For years we have wat
ched young Black men go
before the TV camera
and destroy the King
James English. Here were
young men in some of the
nation’s best schools,
with some of the best
academic programs,
stumble through a sen
tence. Extemporaneous
speaking for anyone is
tough enough; add tc
that 1 million viewers,
and you’re asking the im
possible of most young
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18-year-olds. Why then,
have coaches permitted
this kind of thing to go
on?
My hat goes off to
Coach John Thompson. I
think he gave us a gist of
why it’s important to
protect young men from
the news media. As I
heard the young players
from Georgetown express
themselves at the end of
the game, I almost forgot
about the excellent per
formance they had just
put on a few minutes
earlier. Perhaps words
were not loud enough,
and Coach Thompson let
action speak.
As Blacks we should be
grateful to Coach Thom
pson because most of the
kids facing that media
blitz are our kids. It’s
time someone cared more
about a Black kid’s per
sonal growth and less
about how well he can
dribble or shoot a
basketball.
If I had a son who was
able to attend a number
of major colleges, and
Georgetown was one of
them, Coach John
Thompson would cer
tainly have the inside
track.