Newspaper Page Text
The Augusta News-Review September 8,1984
Mallory K. MillertderEditor-Publisher
Paul Walker Assistant to the Publisher
Theresa- Minor.Administrative .assistant /Reporter
Rev. R.E. Donaldson Religion Editor
Mrs. Geneva Y. Gibson. Church Coordinator
Charles Beal*.Jenkins County Correspondent
Mrs. Fannie Johnson Aiken County Correspondent
Mrs. Clara WestMcDuffie County Correspondent
Mrs. lleen “Buchanan Fashion & Beauty Editor
Wilbert Allen, Columnist
Roosevelt Green Columnist
A1 j r byColumnist
Philip Waring-Columnist
Marva Stewart Columnist
George Bailey...., Sports Writer
Carl McCov Editorial Cartoonist
Olando Hamlett.'. Photographer
Roscoe Williams Photographer
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AMALGAMATED National Advertising Representative "
PUBLISHERS, INC
Julian Bond
from page 1
portion of our population will
remain unemployed,” Bond said.
‘‘They (the Regan ad
ministration) have gone out of
their way to be aggressive enemies
of the civil rights of female
Americans, handicapped
Ameicans, elderly Americans and
racial minority Americans,” he
Civil Rights Journal
Support your
Black Press
Charles E. Cobb
In 1827 Freedom’s Jour
nal, this country’s first Black
newspaper was begun by
John B. Russwurm with the
words, “we wish to plead
our own cause.” The Black
press—and by this we mean
Black-owned publications —
has continued to play a
crucial role since that time,
giving shape and value to
events within the Black
community.
It is with its coverage of
the Rev. Jesse Jackson cam
paign, however, that the
Black press has shone the
brightest. As a recent
editorial in the Carolinian,
the widely-read North
Carolina weekly, noted, “If
there is one lesson that Rev.
Jesse Jackson’s presidential
campaign should have taught
Black America, it would be
that there is a definite need
for Black media...lf there
has been one group across
America which has stood at
Rev. Jackson’s elbow,
recording his every word and
passing the same on to ap
proximately 30 million Black
readers, it has been the Black
press.”
But, as always, the Black
press has done more than
simply “pass the word
along.” It has analyzed the
campaign, too, in away
which emphasized the cam
paign’s potential and its vic
tories while still examining
its problems.
For example, when Mr.
Jackson scored sweeping
victories in the Washington,
D.C. and South Carolina
primaries, the white press
ignored this. It was the
Black media which
publicized the returns in
front page headlines, much
as the white press had
publicized the earlier wins of
Walter Mondale and Gary
Hart.
By the same token, while
the white media repeatedly
tried to make us believe that
Jesse Jackson couldn’t win,
Black media across the coun
try were explaining the
rationale behind this can
didacy and explaining that
Jesse had, in fact, aleady
won.
Page 4
said.
Bond also blasted the ad
ministration for its defense of tax
exemptions to sergregated schools,
its actions with the Civil Rights
Commission and tis fight against
the renewal of the Voting Rights
Act. He accused the Republican
Party of writing off the Black vote.
In addition, incisive
national Black columnists
such as Manning Marable,
Ethel Payne and John Lewis
not only provided infor
mation about the progress of
the campaign, they also
provided much needed
guidance and criticism.
Mr. Marable’s thoughtful
discussion of the direction
the Rainbow Coalition
should take after the Con
vention, Ms. Payne’s well
presented case against
Milton Coleman (whom she
labelled the “the Judas Fac
tor” for revealing Jesse
Jackson’s off-the-record
remarks), and Mr. Lewis’s
chastisement of Black In
diana voters for allowing
“the tragic primary defeat”
of their representative due to
low Black voter turnout —all
served to educate and
heighten Black political
awareness.
Os course, not all Black
press columnists were sup
portive of the Jackson can
didacy. Some way Jesse
Jackson’s campaign glass as
half empty instead of half
full. Tony Brown and Carl
Rowan, for example, have
continually denigrated the
campaign as only “sym
bolic,” claiming that it en
dangered the chances of a
Democratic win in Novem
ber.
On the whole, however,
the Black press and its
columnists have been true to
Russwurm’s words. In fact,
they have often been more
progressive and reflective of
the sentiments of the Black
community than its own
politicians. One recent
editorial -by the (Black)
National Newspaper
Publisher Association noted,
“As Jesse Jackson so
eloquently stated, ’We need
to turn TO each other and
not on each other,’...lf we
don’t who will?”
In this same sense, we need
to turn TO our Black
newspapers, to give them the
financial support they so
badly need in order to sur
vive. As Jesse Jackson said,
“If we don’t who will?”
OUCH!
THESE BLACK VOTERS
ARE CREATING A
RoCKX ROAD FOR ME!
■ -
'""‘I
- I
REELECTION Q <7 .
v nr - g** 64 * *
/’ Ar II
To Be Equal
Rooting out racism
by John E. Jacob
One ugly incident dating from
the dim days of World War II con
tinues to haunt America—the for-
*
1
cible removal!
of Japanese- 3
Americans
from the West
Coast and their
internment in
relocation
camps for the
duration of the
war.
A presidential commission that
examined the incident concluded
that the removal of the Japanese-
Americans “was not justified by
military necessity,” but was caused
by “race prejudice, war hysteria,
and a failure of political leader
ship.”
What takes all this out of the
realm of history is the com
mission’s recommendations, which
include a national apology for the
treatment given Japanese-
Americans, and financial compen
sation to survivors for their
material losses and for the abuse of
their constitutional rights.
Bills are pending in Congress to
implement the commission’s
recommendations, which appear
to the quite reasonable.
After all, a national apology is
the least to be expected for such an
Walking With Dignity
Unrest in South Africa
by Al Irby
Those opposed to the so-called
“new Parliament” have urged
voters to boycott the elections,
hoping that a
dismal turnout
would discredit
the t h re -
chamber body I 1
before it gets J
off the ground. I
Take n
together, the
results and the
backdrop to the recent colored
elections suggest South Africa’s
program of bias reform may be
winning the racist government
more enemies than friends.
The government could muster
only halfhearted support from
coloreds at the polls. And the
ruling whites reverted to heavy
handed security tactics to deal with
a swell of discontent —over the
elections and other issues—from
all quarters of the nonwhite
population.
The discount is seen by neutral
analysts as a massive “vote”
against Apartheid-styled “reform”
in general. Still, racist Pretoria is
not expected to change its stripes.
But it may well be under greater
pressure to try to enhance the
legitimacy of its new political
fraudual dispensation as a result of
its recent attempt to divide
colored people from their Black
neighbors in misery. Coloreds
went to the polls to elect represen
tatives to a new tricameral
Parliament.
The significance of the new
Parliament, in the eyes of South
Africa’s whites is that it will in
clude “nonwhites” for the first
injustice. And financial compen
sation for losses is only fair since
virtually all who were relocated
suffered the loss of homes,
businesses, farms and personal
goods.
But the most important aspect
of the proposed redress lies in its
affirmation of American values.
Few other nations could face the
facts and say “we made a terrible
mistake over forty years ago and
even though much time has passed,
we will remedy the wrong we
committed.”
Only a people that is secure
enough and wedded to lasting
values of fairness can do that. So
the case of the Japanese-
Americans is a test of our com
mitment to those causes.
It is also a test of our resolve to
root otir racism. What happened
to the Japanese-Americans was
possible only because of virulent
racism.
This can be seen in the statement
of the general in charge of the
removal that: “The Japanese race
is an enemy race.” Others said
worse. So the Japanese-Americans
were removed from their homes
while Americans of German an
cestry were not, even though we
were also at war with Germany.
The difference in treatment was
due to the difference in race.
time. Both coloreds (persons of
mixed race descent) and Indians
were supposed to be represented.
But there is deep opposition
from nonwhites to the biased
Parliament because it will exclude
the country’s Black majority.
Power will also remain firmly in
the hands of race-hating whites in
the new setup.
Many urged a boycott of the
elections to discredit the new
Parliament. In the end about 25
percent of the registered colored
voters went to the polls, the gover
nment estimated.
Analysts regard the outcome as
poor but inconclusive. It doesn’t
amount to total rejection. Neither
does it show colored acceptance of
the “new racist deal.”
The Colored Labor Party led by
the Rev. Allan Hendrickse, won all
but four of the 80 seats at stake.
The relatively low turnout means
the new tricameral Parliament suf
fered a lack of “moral legitmacy,”
says political Analyst Lawrence
Schlemmer, president of the South
African Institute of Race
Relations.
But he says “moral legitimacy”
is not the immediate issue. “The
white government has never had
moral legitimacy but it has con
tinued to function.” The low polls
are not expected to force the
government to deal with South
Africa’s fundamental problem of
how to accommodate Black
demands for meaningful political
rights.
But it is expected to make par
ticipating coloreds anxious for
some early benefits —in the form
of better schools, housing, health
facilities, and other social services.
It seems incredible today that
such a thing could happen to
people supposedly protected by the
Constitution. Some cases
challenging the exclusion and
relocation went to the Supreme
Court, but the Justices abdicated
their responsibilities and did not
interfere with the military’s
racially biased judgments.
In our multi-racial nation, we
can’t afford to judge people on
racial grounds or to identify them
with the countries of their an
cestry. ,
For example, Japan’s trade
practices have stirred up many
people, just as its militarism in the
1930 s got people justifiably angry.
And just as racists associated
Japanese-Americans were
associated with Japan’s militarism
years ago, today many people use
foreign imports to justify racist at
titudes against other fellow
Americans.
Last year a young Asian man
was beaten to death by two men in
a fight sparked by an argument
about Japanese auto exports.
So ugly racism still lives, and is
directed against many groups as
well as against the historical targets
of racism—Black people.
By recognizing past wrongs and
present injustices, and by
remedying them, we become a
stronger, fairer country.
In effect, analysts expect the
new Parliament to suffer a second
test of legitimacy quickly after it
convenes. Although the gover
nment has much at stake in making
the new system work, the country’s
deep economic recession will make
it difficult to “hand out the
goodies,” as one political analyst
put it.
The election results were almost
overshadowed by the social tur
bulence surrounding them.
Prior to the election, the gover
nment arrested a large number of
people leading the campaign for a
boycott. The United Democratic
Front (UDF), the primary pro
boycott organization, claimed
more than 400 of its members were
locked up.
About 500 people were detained
on election day for allegedly
staging protests near polling
booths. Government officials said
more than 800,000 colored pupils
boycotted classes countrywide to
protest the elections.
And in South Africa’s Black
schools unrest has been growing
for the past few weeks. At election
time an estimated 40,000 Black
students were boycotting classes,
but the Black unrest appeared
focused largely on dissatisfaction
with the Black education system.
The government’s crackdown on
the day before the election amoun
ted to reversion to heavyhanded
tactics.
Most analysts say this was not so
much to influence the election —it
probably backfired in that sen
se—but rather to deal with ac
celerating unrest among non
whites.
Going Places
Augusta to be
on exhibit at
World’s Fair
by Philip Waring
It appears that the Augusta
Black History Committee (ABHC)
will be able to mount a mini
exhibit at the ... II -
Ne w Oilcans
World’s Fair Ip • t AL,
during Georgia W
Week, Sep-- ?
tember 10-15. | j te
This will of V / * dygfc
course mark W..„
the very first
time that the
Life and Times of Black Augusta”
will have been exhibited at a
modern world’s fair. This thrust
relates to the Georgia Business,
Trade and Agriculture exhibit at
the fair.
Only ours will have to do with
the Black Experience, and
hopefully will be able to include
such non-profit groups as
Springfield Baptist Church, oldest
of its kind in the nation; Trinity
CME, also the oldest of its kind,
data on Lucy Laney, Dr. C. T.
Walker, Dr. Channing H. Tobias,
etc.
The fair also has an Afro-
American pavillion which
highlights “I’ve Known Rivers.”
This had to do with how Blacks
were brought down African rivers,
across the Atlantic in slavery and
thence up American rivers to work
hard on plantations and cities,
helping to build America.
Our local thrust is that the same
happened on the Savannah river
with Black slaves coming up from
Savannah to Augusta and also
worked hard to build up this com
munity. We’d advise Augustans to
consider going to the fair.
The pavillion was only built
because of the hard work,
imagination and thrust of Mrs.
Sybil Morial (the mayor’s wife) the
various educational institutions,
civic, business and religious leaders
there.
My thrust is to try to take over a
small mini-exhibit and link up for
one day (September 15) with the
pavillion. Augusta has a unique
past in that thousands of Blacks
were also brought up river from
Savannah, landed here and have
been working hard ever since.
I’d also want to show them of
our achievements such as
Springfield Baptist church, oldest
in our nation of its kind, Paine
College, unique among
educational institutions, Pilgrim
Insurance Company coupled with
a number of other institutions and
organizations.
Can any one around tell of a
similar attempt by little Augusta to
market its Black achievements at a
world’s fair? I’ve been in touch
with officials at the Afro-
American pavillion and at this
writing don’t know if our last
minute request can be granted or
not. May I also urge Augustans to
attend the fair.
Good vibes are still coming in on
our August 19 fifth public assem
bly and awards program. I am
glad that the Latimer family
phoned me. We were then able tc
meet and have former Lieutenant
Benjamin Latimore recognized for
his overseas service with the 367
Infantry of the 92 Division in
France in 1918.
At this program we were also
able to pay tribute to the late W. T.
“Turk” Johnson, who also with
L. B. Wallace and H. V. LaMar,
were co-founders of A.B.H.C. We
were also able to say thanks to
Mrs. Lillian Johnson for her many
years of faithful service to the
A.B.H.C.
It is a source of delight to note
that she will continue and serve ac
tively as a consultant in helping the
group write the forthcoming
historical handbook. And we will
be calling on many others to assist
also. Please keep your fingers
crossed and prayers with us on the
projected New Orleans World’s
Fair project.
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