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Page 1 Page 1 Page 1 11 *
Augusta &irfeutuu
VOLUME 14 NUMBER 17
Burke County:
Trying to heal wounds
after death, violence
Larry Gardner will be buried
Satuciay. But two autopsy reports
have not been able to put to rest
suspicions of fowl play surroun
ding his death.
Gardner died in police custody
last Friday after the police sought
to arrest him on a warrant citing
him with shoplifting and selling
marijuana. He fled and finally ran
under a house where he was cap
tured.
Eyewitness Ricky “Freight
Train” Davis told the News-
Review that jail administrator
Chris Murray had his leg on the
back of his neck and Larry
couldn’t breathe. He started
struggling and the Black guy grab
bed him by his arms. After they
handcuffed him, they drug him
and threw him in the back seat ”,
Larry Gardner will be buried
Saturday. But two autopsy reports
have not been able to put to rest
suspicions of fowl play surroun
ding his death.
Gardner died in police custody
last Friday after the police sought
to arrest him on a warrant citing
him with shoplifting and selling
marijuana. He fled and finally ran
under a house where he was cap
tured.
Eyewitness Ricky “Freight
Train” Davis told the News-
Review that jail administrator
“Chris Murray had his leg on the
See Burke County, Page 3
Judge
brought to standard or closed
A federal judge last week ruled
that the Burke County Jail violates
Georgia Law and the First Amen
dment right tc free speech, the right
to counsel, prohibition against
slavery.
The ruling came in a class action
suit by prisoners at the jail. The
prisoners were represented by at
torneys Ozell Hudson Jr. and
Robert W. Cullen of Georgia
Legal Services. The plaintiffs are
Eugene Walker, Larry Dukes,
Jake Willie Smith and Robert
Earl Wilson.
Judge Dudley H. Bowen said
that due to age, neglect and over
population, the Burke County Jail
has become a “wholly unser
viceable facility which violates
Georgia law and the first, sixth,
eighth, thirteenth and fourtheenth
amendments”of the U.S. Con
stitution.
He said that if the jail is not
brought up to minimum standards
of Georgia law and the
requirements of the Constitution,
the court will order it closed.
They pointed to severe over
crowding, lack of ventilation,
inadequate lighting, absence of
climate control, substandard
menus, unsanitary food
preparation, inadequate fire
safety, inadequate jail security and
protection of prisoners,
inadequate jail staff, inadequately
trained jail staff, absence of
library facilities, inadequate
medical care and facilities,
inadequate visitation, total absen
ce of recreation or exercise, ar
bitrary disciplinary procedures
with no provision for hearing, lack
Britt wronged
It is grossly unfair for
anyone to blame TV-12’s
Charlie Britt for the outbreak of
violence in Waynesboro this
past weekend.
It is unquestionably true that
there were reports that a man
had died after having been
beaten by police. Britt broad
cast those reports. It’s his job
to do that.
All reports don’t turn out to
be true. When President Ken
nedy was shot, Walter
Cronkite’s earliest reports
quoted witnesses as saying that
a Black man shot Kennedy.
History has shown that that
report was apparently untrue.
But nobody blamed Walter
Cronkite for reporting it. He
reported the information that
CBS had received. That’s exac
tly what Charlie Britt did.
A newsman’s job is to find
out what the truth is before
reporting it. But that isn’t
always possible. The coroner
emphasized to the press that the
preliminary report indicated
that the death was caused by
heat exhaustion, no conclusion
can be reached until the other
orders Burke Jail
* jb
Ozell Hudson
of access to the courts, mail cen
sorship and no classification of
prisoners.
In his ruling Bowen said the jail
must allow each inmate to have
visitors four times a week for up to
one hour, and that within a month
the jail must be fully air con
ditioned.
Effective, Jan. 1, 1985, all new
inmates will receive a full health
screening in compliance with tht
recommended procedures of the
American Medical Association.
A section of the jail must be set
aside to house a library and each
inmate will have access to the
library for at least three hours
twice a week.
The order further requires that
inmates be given outside exercise
for at least once a day, and taat
they be allowed to take a daily
shower. Those in disciplinary
Editorial
biological tests are completed.
That may take weeks. No one
would suggest that Britt should
have waited that long.
Even with the results of the
preliminary autopsy, the family
was so convinced that there was
wrongdoing in Larry Gardner’s
death that they requested a
second autopsy at the family’s
expense. The truth is that it still
is not known for a fact that the
implications of Britt’s first
report were inaccurate, and it
was certainly not known at that
time.
Journalists should seek out
the truth and report it as ac
curately and as objectively as
possible. People are often
moved to act, based on news
reports. Newsmen must make
judgments all the time. All of
our judgments are not the best.
However, it is unfair to blanre
anyone for accurately reporting
what he has learned from a
number of sources. It is unfair
even if that information results
in unfortunate violence and
racial tension as it did in
Waynesboro.
isolation will be offered indoor
exercise and a shower three times a
week.
Outgoing mail shall not be cen
sored or opened except in the
presence of the inmate. Incoming
mail will be examined in the
presence of the inmate only to the
extent that it is reasonably
necessary to check for illegal
materials.
Any inmate who appears to be
mentally ill or mentally retarded
or who demonstrates deviate
behavior shall be immediately
reported to the county physician
who will refer the inmate to a
psychiatrist if he feels such referral
is necessary.
The prisoners’ attorney will be
required to allow two of the plain
tiffs’ attorneys to inspect the jail at
any time the prisoners want after
they give the jailer a 24-hour
notice.
No inmates shall be denied,
because of expense, medical care
required by a physician nor shall
the inmate be billed for medical
care received at the jail or at any
hospital while being detained in the
Burke County Jail.
No cell at the jail shall at any
time house more than two inmates.
The plaintiffs charged in their
suit that the jail was “so
inhumane, degrading and so ex
tremely inadequate that they con
stitute cruel and unusual punish
ment, denying inmates, due
process, equal protection and their
right of free expression and
association.”
August 25 , 1984
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THE DAY AFTER-Warehouse in Waynesboro was still smoldering Sunday evening
suspected arsonists on Saturday night.
Paine president among
9 Black college presidents
invited to travel to China
by Theresa Minor
Dr. William Harris, president of
Paine College, will take on a new
title of “diplomat” during a trip to
the People’s Republic of China,
August 26.
Harris is one of nine delegates
chosen to participate in the trip as
part of a program intended to im
prove understanding between the
United States and China. Other
members of the delegation are also
associated with historcially Black
colleges and universities. When
asked whether or not the trip was
an effort to improve the image the
U.S. has in the world as being op
pressive toward minorities, Harris
responded, “If its an effort to do
that on the part of some people in
the government, they made a
terrible mistake. Certainly I’m not
involved in white-washing our
nation’s history and tradition.”
Harris sees his selection to join
the delegation as significant and a
“a very serious effort” by the U.S.
to discuss ideas about education
with Chinese officials. He main
tains that politics does not enter in-
Mason Boler
appointed
TT- I
Mason Boler
The appointment Monday of
Mason Boler to the Downtown
Development Authority makes the
second Black member to serve on
the panel created to map the
strategy for bringing new businss
into the Augusta’s downtown area.
The seven-member authority is
appointed by the mayor. Mayor
Pro Ten Charles DeVaney in ex
plaining Boler’s selection said.
See Boler, Page 3
Less than 75 percent Advertising
v.
Dr. William Harris
to the mission. “It will let the
Chinese people get a chance to see
the diversity of educators in
America...the diversity of people
in America,” said Harris. “I
don’t know whether my colleagues
are republicans or democrats.
They don’t know that about me. It
doesn’t really matter.”
Harris concluded that the trip
will provide an “extraordinary
personal experience” but he
stressed that the real significance is
Civil rights activism
takes on new form
Is the Civil Rights Movement
still alive? The question in an elec
tion year takes on added
significance with the risk of an ap
parent indifferent Administration
being re-elected to bury the so
called “movement”.
At least one young Augusta
native believes that The struggle”
goes on, however, in a different
form and lacking the intensity it
possessed in the 1960’.
In an interview in The Columbus
Dispatch, Eric Seabrook, a recent
graduate of Ohio State University
summized that many young Blacks
have opted to knock on the doors
of Corporate America rather
than knock the system.
“for the student of the ’6os,
social ills were far more im
mediate, said Seabrook. He added
that these same students “opened
some doors” for their successors,
leacing the new challenge of
breaking into the establishment.
Seabrook, 23, was active in
student government, serving as
t was burned
in the ability to initiate a “con
tinuous and ongoing cooperation
on a wide range of fronts” bet
ween colleges and universities in
the two countries. “...That in
cludes an exchange of students, an
exchange of faculty members, and
perhaps most importantly an ex
change of ideas.
Other representatives who have
been selected for the mission in
clude: Dr. William Harvey of the
Hampton Institute, Dr. Hugh
Gloster of Morehouse College, Dr.
Benjamin Payton of Tuskegee In
stitute, Dr. Henry Ponder of Fisk
University, Dr. Prezell Robinson
of St. Augustine College, Dr.
David Shannon of Virginia Union
University and Dr. Luna Mishoe
of Delaware State College. Dan
Smith, consultant to the Assistant
Secretary for Postsecondary
Education will represent the U.S.
Department of Education.
The trip is sponsored in part by
the National Committee on United
States-China Relations, Inc. The
delegation will return September
14.
Eric Seabrook
student body vice-president during
his college years. He is now em
ployed with WOSU-TV.
“I decided in my sophomore
year that you can try to destroy an
institution or try to make it work
as effectively and efficiently as
possible by becoming involved in
it.”
Seabrook remembers asking
See Civil Rights, Page 3
30C