Newspaper Page Text
NAACP plans AKA’s march Son refuses 4 Blacks challenge
‘Black Dollar on U.S. Capitol, to ts Fowler for
Day’ demostration register 242,000 agains. -«ressional seat
Page 1 Page 1 Page 1
VOLUME 14 NUMBER 15
Vanessa Williams gets
lucrative job offers
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J.—Va
nessa Williams, who was forced
to relinquish her Miss America
crown because she posed nude for
a series of sexually explicit pic
tures, may soon be singing at an
Atlantic City casino.
Officials of Resorts Inter
national Casino-Hotel are
seriously considering the
possibility of booking Williams, a
talented singer who is now pur
suing a show business career,
sometime later this year.
No dates for the appearance
have been selected and the gam
bling hall has not contacted
Williams, but the sources said of
ficials are “mulling it over.”
An entertainer appearing as an
opening act in a casino showroom,
j might earn a total of about $ 15,000
‘ for a five-show weekend
engagement, one source said.
Two other Atlantic City casinos
are also said to be interested in
* 4
tffl
Benjamin Hooks
NA A CP plans
Black Dollar Day
demonstration
NEW YORK—The NAACP will
conduct its second annual Black
Dollar Day demonstration during
Labor Day week to educate Black
consumers and to demonstrate to
the business community the im
mense purchasing power of Black
consumers, NAACP Executive
Director Benjamin L. Hooks an
nouned recently.
The nationwide demonstration
will be held from Sept. 1 through
Sept. 8. However,- particular em
phasis will be placed on the
following cities where Blacks are
concentrated in large numbers:
New York City, Washington,
Baltimore, Richmond, Va.,
Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit,
Indianapolis, Miami, Jacksonville,
Fla., Memphis, San Francisco, Los
Angeles, San Diego,
Houston/Beaumont, New
Orleans, Atlanta and Cleveland.
During that week NAACP bran
ches will urge Blacks and their
supporters to spend $2 bills and
Susan B. Anthony dollor coins
when making purchases.
Fred Rasheed, NAACP
national Fair Share director, will
begin meeting in August with local
See Dollar, Page 3
ffihe Aiuuwta Newa-IRnrieui
hiring the 21-year old New Yorker,
who reluctantly bowed to the
demands of the Miss America
Pageant and gave up the 1984 title
after Penthouse magazine
published pages of sexually
graphic photographs of her with
another woman.
“After all the controversy and
publicity about this, you have to
give it some real thought,” said
one casino official, who asked not
to be identified. “And she’s not a
bad singer either. She would be an
attraction for any one of us.”
The wife of Resorts President
I.G. “Jack” Davis, however,
believes Resorts may have the in
side track. Carolyn Davis told a
Philadelphia Daily News columnist
that she expected Williams to even
tually appear at the casino.
“Vanessa lived in Resorts Inter
national immediately after she was
crowned last year, and when she is
in Atlantic City,” said Mrs. Davis,
WASHINGTON—A wave of
Black women marched from the:
D.C. Convention Center to the
Capitol where they were addressed
Rep. Ronald Dellums (D-CA.) at a
voters’ registration rally organized
by Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.
Jackson was the keynote speaker
at the Capitol rally. He delivered
an anticipated message to the
massive gathering of AKA sorors,
meeting in the District this week
during their 51st annual conven
tion and celebrating 76 years as an
organization.
Sorority leaders said at the rally
that they had awaited Jackson’s
“signal” while also registering
242,791 new voters throughout the
nation. With 90,000 sorority
members working on the drive, the
success of their campaign has been
noted throughout the week’s ac
tivities, and Jackson praised them
for their effort while admonishing
Son won’t testify against mother
PHILADELPHIA—Richard
Harris, an alleged “enforcer” who
has admitted committing the most
slayings in modern Philadelphia
history, balked when he was
brought into court to testify again
st his mother.
Mrs. Barbara Harris, 49, who
police say headed a numbers
writing operation in West and
Southwest Philadelphia is on trial
for murder in connection with one
of her son’s murders.
Harris, of Washington Ave.,
near 60th St., is accused of in
stigating the slayings of Michael
Rhodes, 29, allegedly a rival
numbers writer, by her son and
another man. The other man, Vic
tor Scott, 18, is on trial with
Harris’ mother.
AKA’s march on
U.S. Capitol
, X' ■" , • f, ■, , JAf,
Vanessa Williams
who was one of the judges at the
1983 Miss America Pageant.
“...When Vanessa gets an act
together, she will definitely be
booked into Resorts.”
Williams was not available for
comment and a spokesman for
Dennis Dowdell, her attorney,
would neither confirm nor deny a
possible casino engagement.
*
Jesse Jackson
them to continue on.
“I want to talk about today, the
unfinished business of politics,
*B4’, Jackson said in beginning his
speech to the enthusiastic
gathering. “Your time has come. I
want to congratulate you for
Harris, 28, who police contend
was an enforcer for his mother’s
gambling operation, has admitted
being one of two men who gunned
down Rhodes Jan. 23, 1981, at
58th St. and Osage Ave.
The murder is one of six Harris
confessed to while on death row
for a seventh slaying, as part of a
plea bargain to spare himself from
the electric chair. He is now ser
ving seven life terms.
Harris didn’t bargain for
testifying against his mother, his
attorney, Joel Slomsky, told
Common Pleas Judge Robert
Latrone.
The conversation took place
while the jury was out of the cour
troom for lunch.
“The one thing my client did not
August 11,1984
10,000 attend funeral
for Rev. C.L. Franklin
DETROIT Funeral services
were held Saturady the Rev. C. L.
Franklin after a five-year coma
caused by a gunshot wound suf
fered when his house was
burglarized.
He never regained consciousness
and died July 27 at the age of 69.
An estimated 10,000 people at
tended the funeral. The crowd
around New Bethel Church was so
large that Linwood Street where
the church is located was closed
and buses were re-routed. Some
3,000 people were able to squeeze
into the 2,200 seat church for the
four-hour funeral.
Among the persons eulogizing
Franklin were the Rev. Jesse
Jackson, Detroit Mayor Coleman
Young and Congressman John
Conyers.
In a 15-minute speech, Jackson
said, “Death is God’s way of
saying ‘l’m in charge.’
Jackson refered to Franklin as
“the high priest of soul preaching
the most imitated soul preacher in
history.”
Young said of Franklin, “His
having the social conciousness, for
having the awareness, to conduct
the kind of voters’ registration that
you’ve conducted across this
nation.
A wave of pink and green, the
colors of the AKA sorority,
moved joyously across the lawn of
the Capitol as Jackson spoke.
Soror Faye B. Bryant, supreme
basileus, joined organization
leaders in welcoming Jackson as
“our inspiration and signal
bearer.”
Interrupted sporadically by ap
plause and shouts from the
massive gathering of women,
Jackson delivered a 40-minute
speech in which he detailed future
directions for Black people, and
defined the mission of the newly
registered voters.
“Our mission is to defeat
Reagan in November,” Jackson
said, “Our mission is a noble
mission...to defend the p00r...t0
See Jackson, Page 2
wish was to testily against his
mother,” said Slomsky.
Latrone told Harris he does not
have the legal right to refuse to
testify, but could plead the Fifth
Amendment to avoid self
incrimination.
Assistant District Attorney
Roger King now must decide
whether to call Harris to the wit
ness stand before his mother’s
jury.
Barbara Harris’ lawyer, Vincent
Ziccardi, claimed authorities were
trying to pick on his client “for
being the mother of Harris.”
“She’s a nice lady with the un
fortunate problem of having a son
who was involved in a number of
killings,” Ziccardi said. Barbara
Harris is charged only in the
Michael Rhodes murder.
Less than 75 percent Advertising
voice will live on, and his teachings
among his disciples and his family.
We may never in our lifetime see
his likes again.”
In an interview, the Rev. James
Cleveland said, “He had the
unique ability to put all of his
theory and college training into his
sermons. He would then go into
the mournful spiritual-type sermon
that folds were used to.”
Born Clarence LeVaughn
in Sunflower County,
Mississippi, Jan. 22, 1915, he was
one of three children of Rachel and
Henry Franklin. As a child, he
reportedly walked 10 miles daily to
school and helped his family pick
cotton. “I realized early that was
not the life for me,” he once said.
“My greatest personal
achievement was that I had the
guts and initiative to extricate
myself from a life that was a one
way road leading nowhere.”
Franklin was educated at the
Howe School of Religion,
Lemoyne College in Memphis, and
attended the University of Buffalo
and the University of Michigan.
We endorse
Editorial
In the contested races in
the August 14 Democratic
Primary, we make the
following endorsements:
House of Representatives,
George Brown.
Brown has just completed
his first term in the State
Houe where he did an ex
cellent job. We believe that
his single most outstanding
attribute is that he can be
trusted, and you don’t have
to worry about him playing
games and wheeling and
dealing at the community’s
expense.
We think he should be
returned to the State House
so that he can continue to
4 Blacks oppose
Fowler for Congress
Worshipers at Hillside Chapel
and Truth Center were on their
feet, swaying and clapping and
singing a spiritual that filled the
sanctuary and floated out the open
windows.
The Rev. Barbara King Blake
called to one of the few white faces
in the pew, “Come on down here,
Wyche.”
Fifth Congressional District
Rep. Wyche Fowler, who had been
praised during the Sunday service
as “the greatest congressman in
the world,” walked to the front of
the sanctuary to receive Rev.
Blake’s blessings, hugs and kisses.
A few hours later, state Rep.
Hosea Williams was pacing the
stage of a posh, southwest Atlanta
disco, a microphone in his hand
and a bank of multicolored lights
and spinning, mirrored ball behind
him.
He started preaching while a
teenager in rural Mississippi. In
1946, he came to Detroit and star
ted New Bethel.
He is survived by five children —
Erma and Carolyn are song writers
and arrangers. They sang
background for the best known of
the Franklin children, their sister
Aretha started traveling in her
father’s gospel show when she was
14. His son, the Rev. Cecil Vaughn
Franklin, was a career pilot in the
U.S. Air Force. His wife, Barbara,
died in 1952.
At the peak of his career, the
Rev. Franklin commanded $4,000
per appearance. He recorded 76
albums of his sermons. The ser
mon “The Eagle Stirs her Nest”
sold more than 1 million copies in
1954.
His sermons were broadcast on
Sunday nights over the radio
station WJLB in Detroit for more
than 30 years.
Editor’s note: Information for
this story was supplied to The
News-Review by Luther Jackson, a
reporter for the Detroit Free Press.
provide the kind of leader
ship that this community
desperately needs.
The 22nd District Senate
race pits incumbent Thomas
F. Allgood against
schoolboard President. A.K.
Hassan. This race is dif
ficult, given the fact that
Allgood is the Senate
Majority Leader and has
traditionally been friend of
the Black community.
However, in recent years,
Allgood has become the
leader of the effort to con
solidate Augusta and Rich
mond County, an effort
that we believe spells doom
See Endorse, Page 4
Williams asked the audience at
the fund-raiser if any of them had
benefited from the federal contrac
ts that Fowler helped bring into the
sth Congressional District. “I
don’t know where the profits go,”
said Williams, but, “I’m sure
that’s one of the reasons why
downtown is fighting me so hard.”
He continued, “There’s no need
for y’all to elect me if the same
folks who bought Wyche are going
to buy me.”
Those two scenes reflected the
intensity of the campaign that
Fowler, Williams and three other
candidates are waging in the sth
District—by far the most heated of
the congressional races on the
Aug. 14 primary ballot.
See Fowler, Page 3
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