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Ed Mclntyre Willie Mays Snubbed, Bia...
spends weekend challenges women form
in Augusta candidates lobbying group to re-group
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VOLUME 14 NUMBER 20
Two sleeping giants
by Bishop John Hurst Adams
We may be living in an era when
these two giants are awakening to
their potential and being charged
by each other. The Black church’s
direct or indirect access to a
majority of Black people, its well
trained leadership, its rich history
of being on the frontier of social
change, and its resoruce of church
person/politicians fit it to make a
large contribution as Blacks are in
creasingly reaching for answers to
the question of justice and equality
through the political process. The
interest of Blacks in politics has
been fermenting and growing over
the years since the Civil Rights
movement and the passage of the
Voting Rights Act. As the two
giants awaken and converge
around the goals of liberty and
justice for all, at center stage are
many church persons who are
politicians, and politicians who are
church persons—including one
» who recently saught the
Democratic nomination for
president of the United States.
Sleeping giant is an appropriate
description of both the Black chur
ch and the possibilities in politics
for Blacks. The positive and
dramatic changes these giants can
effect in political, economics, and
social life can happen with only
modest increases in Black voter
registration and participation and
an even more modest collective use
of the economic and human
resources of the Black church.
There is, however, a potential
for conflict between these giants as
they awaken to their opportunity
in the eighties. But conflict bet
ween church leaders and a new
class of politicians over the first
allegiance of the same constituency
and over whose turf is whose must
be avoided by conversation,
cooperation, and attention to the
larger agenda of justice for all.
1 want to enhance these remarks
with a definition of the Black
church and a definition of politics.
ZTie Black church is the people of
African descent who gather in the
name of Jesus Christ in local,
regional, and national fellowships
to worship, organize, and work to
move life on earth toward the
spiritual and ethical ideal of the
Kingdom of God, whre love is the
motive and justice tempered by
mercy is the means.
These fellowships seek to: 1) con
tinue the life and work of Jesus; 2)
serve as agents of the liberating ac
tivity of God in the world; 3)
develop collective institutional
power on behalf of personhood
through service and change; 4)
carry the ethic of love and justice.
The Black church includes the
historic and culturally created
Black denominations, sects, and
movements as well as those Black
fellowships that are part of
predominantly white
denominations. The mission of
the church is expressed
through every type of human en
deavor: from music and poetry to
property management, from
educational enterprises here in
> America to overseas work, from
honoring traditions to organizing
volunteers.
Politics is collective action to
participate in and influence the
governance over one’s life. This
collective action includes: 1)
shaping public policy; 2) influen
cing the outcome of elections; 3)
helping to define issues and the
rules of governance.
The actions are performed
through structures and functions
that in many ways parallel those of
Augusta Newa-IRwteuj
The Black church and Black politics
the church: organizing a con
stituency is not unlike calling a
congregation; education is a prime
concern in both spheres; service is
a basic function of each. Most im
portant, both the Black church and
Black political activism seek to
enlarge the possible.
The Black church represents the
first sustained protest of, and
alternative to, racism in America.
It was the first institutional affir
mative of the full worth and
dignity of Americans of African
descent. The savior became the
liberator. “Heaven” and “the
next world” became “out of
slavery” and “in freedom’s land.”
The spirituals are freedom songs
as well as religious witness.
The founding fathers and
mothers of the Black church were
creative and exceptional
theologians without benefit of
theological education.
The Black church initially ad
dressed the issues of Black sanity
and survival. Excluded fromt he
On Black issues
Mays challenges
mayoral hopefuls
Second Ward City Councilman
Willie Mays Tuesday challenged
the announced mayoral candidates
Mayor Pro Tem Charles DeVaney
and City Councilwoman Inez
Wylds to address the “legitimate
concerns” of the Black com
munity, while still holding out the
possibility that ne may still enter
the race.
Mays said that his decision to
run is largely dependent upon their
responses, “but not entirely.”
“If their responses are negative,
I hope this will send a signal to
Blacks who may be supporting one
or the other that our true interests
are not of their concern,” he said.
Asked if he would run if their
responses were positive, he told the
News-Review after his noon news
conference, “After consulting with
my supporters I may consider it.
But for the sake of the old addage
‘the lesser of two evils,’ I would
never lead my people down any
path in which the end would be
blocked by a snake.”
Mays callled on the candidates
to make public their views on a
number of issues including:
•Ward Voting: “This city is
over 50 percent Black and both of
them live in a ward that is 60 per
cent Black in registered voters and
even more than that in population.
Both of them have opposed ward
voting whereas the overwhelming
majority of the Blacks in the city
and county support ward voting.
“They have constantly used city
money to defend the city’s position
maintaining at-large voting.
•Annexation: “Both have
dragged their feet and opposed an
nexing predominantly Black areas
into the city while not opposing
annexing predominantly white
areas such as The Hill and West
Augusta.
•Lack of soundly supported af
firmative action program: “There
is no one running for mayor with a
strong backbone commitment to
stand behind affirmative action.”
•Inner City Schools: “We’re
doing $217 million plus in planned
downtown and riverfront
white society, the Black church
developed its own society.
Programmed for self-hatred and
disunity, it developed its own
community of love, cooperation,
and self-respect. Prohibited from
participation in social, economic,
and political life, it built and all
inclusive institution that provided
for social life, economic
necessities, and political par
ticipation. The Black church
became, for enslaved, oppressed,
and segregated Blacks, an alter
native society that said yes to them
when the white society said not.
The Black church became
political party, social club, strategy
and planning meeting, a place to
be somebody, a community inside
the community, the rebuilder of
hope, home base for freedom
movement, leadership develop
ment program, -promoter of
education and economic develop
ment, and the advocate of a
philosophy of self-help.
Hiram Rhoades Revels, Jeremiah
development, supposedly to be the
first step in reviving a decaying
city. But we see no spark on behalf
of the candidates to prompt the
city council to encourage our
superintendent and board of
education to see the need to
parallel our rebuilding with a fer
vent interest in keeping open inner
city schools and possibly going
beyond and even building new
ones. Anticipating the argument
that the school system has nothing
to do with city government, Mays
said that “all city bodies are made
up of elected people who can get
almost any good thing done if they
commit themselves to doing so.”
Mays also asked the candidates
to go on record agreeing to appoint
a Black to replace them in their
First Ward council seat. No Black
has ever been elected in the first
Ward although that ward is more
than 60 percent Black.
The topics listed by Mays and
responses by the two candidates
are:
♦ls the successful candidate will
appoint a Black to fill the unex
pired term in the Ist Ward, which
he said is about 60 percent Black.
DeVaney: “Certainly it’s going
to be open to anyone, but I’m not
automatically going to exclude 40
percent of a community’s
population any more than I’m
automatically going to exclude 60
percent.”
Mrs. Wylds: “I would certainly
appoint someone that was
qualified and representative of the
area.”
•Annexation of predominately
Black areas into the city.
“You look at each case
carefully,” DeVaney said, adding
that council’s “initial reaction has
always been the financial impact”
of an annexation proposal.
Any annexation, regardless of
Black or white areas, must meet
U.S.Justice Department approval,
Mrs. Wylds said.
♦The ward voting suit pending
against the city.
DeVaney and Mrs Wylds said
See DeVaney, page 2
September 15,1984
Haralson, Richard Harvey Cain,
Adam Clayton Powell, Walter
Fauntroy, William Gray, Andrew
Young, Jesse Jackson. The names
out of the past and present per
sonalize the long tradition of Black
church activists in politics.
Beyond these are the thousands of
Black clergy and lay people who
are deeply involved and greatly in
fluential in local politics.
There are a number of reasons
why me Biacx churcn taxes sucn a
large role in politics. First, the
Black church has never really ac
cepted the frequently pronounced
dichotomies between the spiritual
and material, between the temple
?jid the spiritthat occupies ti, bet
ween the political and the
theological, between the life of
faith and life of the world, between
church and state.
Second, the government alone
has the resources and the authority
to enable us to fulfill our mandate:
o feed the hungry, house the
homeless, heal the sick, and free
Run, Willie, run!
Three years ago, many
Blacks were saying that Ed
Mclntyre couldn’t be elec
ted mayor. Frankly, while
we hoped that he’d win,
we didn’t expect him to
win either.
Now many Blacks are
saying the same thing
about Willie Mays. There
is only one thing that is
certain. He can’t win
unless Black people upport
him and vote for him.
Mays’ name is a
household word. Forty
seven percent of the
registered voters are
Black. People know him
and his family. All that
they need to know is that
he’s running. Those
people who want to vote
for him will. He doesn’t
need to spend a lot of
money.
Mclntyre in Augusta
Former Augusta Mayor Edward
M. Mclntyre spent the past
weekend in Augusta.
He was released Friday from
Eglin Air Force Base Prison where
he is serving a five-year sentence
following his April conviction on
conspiracy and extortion charges.
Mclntyre returned to Augusta to
attend the funeral of his 96-year
old grandfather, Anderson
Frazier, at Good Shepherd Baptist
Church Saturday afternoon.
Mclntyre, who arrived in
Augusta Friday evening spent the
weekend at home with his family.
According to Thomas Burts,
director of Augustans for Progress
Less than 75 percent Advertising
the captives. Its powers must be
used if we are to keep faith with
the nature and purpose of the
church. Without the continuing
pressure of spiritual, moral force,
government functions such as
levying and spending taxes, enac
ting and enforcing laws, and even
educating our children become in
strumetns of bondage.
Third, we have tried many
strategies and solutions other than
political involvement with only
limited results. Racism has not
gone, and justice has not arrived.
It is time to try political solutions
to political problems and
exonomic solutions to economic
problems.
At the heart of the Black church
is the task of redemption. The
theology of redemption applies to
both individuals and institutions.
Just as we respond to the neds and
hopes of individuals, we must
redeem the structures and systems
that oppress and limit the oppor
tunity for individuals to be fully
and truly human. When political
Editorial
Assuredly, some Blacks
don’t want Mays to
run—and definitely don’t
want him to win. That in
cludes some elected of
ficials who aspire to that
office themselves.
We would raise the
question, If not Willie,
then who? If not now,
when?
It is shameful to see of
fices come open and not a
single Black make a bid
for theoffice. And then
when a Black does offer,
other Blacks feel that they
mustoppose him or her.
It is time that we remove
the shackles from our
minds.
Slavery is an
abomination. But an even
greater abomination is
that slavery which we im
pose upon ourselves.
Run, Willie, run!
—an off-shoot of Augustans for
Mclntyre(campaign workers), said
Mclntyre talked about how much
he missed the area, how much he
had learned from his experience,
and how the experience had taught
him who his real friends were.
He said the former mayor was
“looking real good,” having lost
25 pounds and wants to get down
to about 160 pounds.
He said Mclntyre was accom
panied by a law enforcement ex
cort, whose expenses the former
mayor had to pay.
There are no bars on the win
dows at the prison and no armed
guards, Burts added.
systems set priorities that upgrade
destruction and death and
downgrade development and life,
the theology of redemption must
speak and act. When the political
system employs its powers to
reverse and sabotage equal rights,
civil rights, and human justice, the
theology of redemption must
speak and act. The system must be
redeemed and made more humane
and just and equitable.
Despite growing adversity and
erosion in recent years, the Black
church remains the strongest and
biggest institution Black people
have. It has the people; it has the
organization; it has the talent; it
has the resources; it has the
history, and increasingly, it has the
leadership. This means that the
Black church has an enormous
obligation to Black people to exer
cise a redemptive influence on the
political process which greately
determines their lives.
—Persons and institutions that
oppress and deny personhood have
to be changed or replaced;
—Policies that are unfair, un
just, and preferential must be
redrafted to be fair, just and
equitable;
—Governments ought not to be
selected by less than one-third of
the eligible voters: that is no man
date.
—The vision of America that
should be must be clearly stated,
people must be organized to sup
port it; and people who share it
must be elected. We must proceed
to make this the land of the free
and the home of the brave.
The current president was elec
ted by only 28 percent of
the eligible voters in this nation,
and he won because of the folk
who stayed home. The Black
church seeks to change this
because more Black people stayed
home than any other group. A
change of 20 percent in the turnout
of Black voters would have yielded
different results, and the Black
church proposed that we together
get that 20 to 25 percent additional
Black voters registered. Why not 2
million more in 84?
The Black church is about using
what is to perform its mission in
the world —including the world of
politics. We plan to use increased
political participation to leverage a
more just and equitable society.
We will work to elect the best and
create accountability to Black folk
Trickle-down will become rise-up.
We demand governance that is
truly of all the people, by all the
people, and for all the people.
The Black church should be an
institution and instrument of em
powerment, liberation, and com
munity for those ignored and ex
cluded by historic institutions and
instruments of power, freedom,
and justice. In that way, we will
succeed in enlarging the possible.
Dr. Lawrence Jones, Dean of
Howard University’s Divinity
School, and eminent scholar on the
Black Church, refers to the Black
Church as “a sleeping giant, a battery
waiting to be hooked up to an engine
powerful enough to call all of its
energy. ”
Dr. Diane Pinderhuges, assistant
professor of bovemment at Dar
tmouth College, and adjunct fellow
of the Joint Center for Political
Studies, entitles and article written
for the Urban League’s State oj
Black America, 1984 “The Black
Vote The Sleeping Giant.”
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