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Burk County Mason Boler Paine president 11 Pendergrass must improve jail appointed to to trav< c x K<lck » or close it Downtown panel to Chir *x si " jng 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 k Wl' 7-1 -MM k >M -weV-4kt . y:- r Y>g«ww «- ■; ■ .sf' •':. ; 7 ■ ' . -V /' ■■ '- s'-' ' '■ ■ ' ~' ■ ■ ' ■ 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