Newspaper Page Text
The Augusta News-Review September 15,1984
Mallory K. MillenderEditor-Publisher
Paul Walker Assistant to the Publisher
Theresa-MinorAdministrative .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. Ileen Buchanan Fashion & Beauty Editor
Wilbert Allen Columnist
Roosevelt Green Columnist
Al IrbyColumnist
Philip Waring Columnist
Marva Stewart Columnist
George Bailey...., >Sports Writer
Carl McCoy.Editorial Cartoonist
Olando Hamlett Photographer
Roscoe Williams Photographer
"THE AUGUSTA NEWS-REVIEW (USPSBB7 820) is published
weekly for sll per year in the county and sl2 per year out of the
county. Second-class postage paid at Augusta, Ga. POSTMASTER:
Send address changes to THE AUGUSTA NEWS-REVIEW,
f.Q. Box 2123, Augusta, Ga. 30903-2123.” ,(404) 722-4555.
AMALGAMATED National Advertising Representative •
publishers; inc.
For members only
by Marva Stewart
I know that some folk can
notunderstand whv Blacks become
antagonized and enraged
when they see
the words
“For Members
Only.” What
many people
fail to realize is
that is just the
principle of the
matter. The
•
point is not that they (the “Mem
bers”) want to admit certain in
dividuals but, rather, the fact they
want to keep certain people from
joining them.
Unfortunately, if you are of the
darker race, poor, or even down
trodden the Member will not let you
“in.” Why? Well, the reason has
nothing to do with prejudice,
racism, or even social strata
(believe that if you will). Yes, I
know the reason. Being the un
conscientious, self-designated and
universtigative reporter that I am,
I checked into this matter. With
disquise in hand (White-Tra Skin
Brightning creme, a Blonde wig
and baby blue contact lenses), I
headed for Club Out House, Inc.
When I arrived I was greeted by
the sign: Club Out House, Inc.:
For Members Only (also, I was
greeted by a double-barreled
shotgun) and a guard who was a
cross between Arnold Schwar
zenegger and Cro-Magnon man.
This guard’s shotgun clearly
pointed out that non-members
would not be admitted. Further
more, the guard pointed out that
my tan was showing through the
White-Tra.
Naturally, I wanted to know
how I could affiliate with such a
constipating group as the Out
House group. The guard then
Going places
Winds of change
by Philip Waring
Well the winds of political
change are mounting in Black
America. Last week 76-year-old
Grace Hamilton,“Female Dean of
of the Georgia
House,” was
defeated by a
26-year old
civil rights ac
tivist. Rep
Hamilton had
held a seat
there for the
* -
past 20-odd years.
I knew Grace when we were both
local Urban League executives
back in the fifties. She was in
Atlanta and I in Jacksonville. She
accomplished much for com
munity and racial advancement
both with the League and in the
House.
Over in Jackson, Miss, local and
state-wide Black Democrats got
tired getting no response from the
Democratic Party, and little
recognition, coupled with always
being taken for granted. They
called for a summit meeting with
top party heads and pointed to
their huge voting priorities given to
the party down through the years.
When the party refused to move
after this meeting, then Black
Democrats nominated and placed
a Black as candidate for the U.S.
Senate.
Page 4
called one of the big shots to ex
plain to me why I could not
become a member.
The big shot, Mr. X-Slax, gave
me three reasons why the poor,
the downtrodden, and members of
the darker races could not become
members.
1) Fear of Afro-leprosy. The
fine Members of Club Out House
would love to have Blacks and
other minorities to join, but they
are afraid that they may acciden
tally “rub-up” against a Black
person (or any other non-white
person) and catch or contract
Afro-leprosy or Mexican-leprosy,
such as the case may be. This
leprosy causes white folk to turn
whatever color they rub-up against
For instance, if they touch a
Black person, they will turn Black
and acquire a taste for collard
greens and pig’s feet. Mr. X-Slax
explained that his members have a
terrible fear of Afro-leprosy. They
say if they turn Black the other
members of their race will make
them slaves. (I was shocked since I
know that white folk don’t believe
in slavery and they would never
practice such a system of ser
vitude). You know, I didn’t know
that Blackness was a com
municable disease!
2) Fear of Becoming Paupers.
The fine Members of Club Out
House also fear that if they allow
the poor and the downtrodden to
affilitate with them that their hear
ts may become sympathetic and
they may become a non-profit
charitable club. According to Mr.
X-Slax, giving away money (unless
it’s tax deductible) and helping the
underpriviledge is a cardinal sin
because it goes against their
capitalistic value system.
3) Fear of not having servants.
See Members Only, Page 3
Pandamonium broke out
because the Democrats realized
that former Governor Winters
would surely lose to incumbent
U.S. Senator Than Coleman, a
Republican. Younger persons feel
that with an even split, Blacks just
might win the senate seat which
would be the first since Recon
struction.
FIRST BLACK SHERIFF
Jesse Jackson has estimated that
despite current polls, the Regan-
Bush ticket could be defeated if the
Democrats took Texas and several
Southern states along with key
Eastern and Midwestern areas.
Remember that it was the Black
vote which helped keep the
Democrats on target in Richmond
County in 1976 and 1980. Thence,
Georgia remained within ranks on
both occasions. This can be ac
complished again. Let’s get
together and march to the polls.
The Dekalb County sheriff,
Leon Synehecombe, age 79 and in
office over three decades, lost to
an attractive and highly
professionally trained Black law
enforcement officer, Richard
Lankford. This was brought
about when loads of white voters,
disgusted with the sheriff’s blatant
racial appeals, opted for the Black
candidate. We now have the first
Black sheriff in Georgia since
Reconstruction. And in our state’s
largest county.
WVW ] r —-x
is®
BRAeJDOrt-tfS.
BLACK resources inc.
Civil Rights Journal
Sharpeville revisited
Charles E. Cobb
Black Americans have generally
been so concerned with eliminating
the weight of
racism from
their own
backs that they
often have
seemed unable
to respond
adequately or
consistently to
the oppression
brothers and sisters in other parts
of the globe, particularly in South
Africa.
Black Americans have broken
this pattern in the recent past by
strong protests on two occasions:
first against the South African
government’s murder of almost 70
Africans in Sharpeville in 1960,
and second against that gover
nment’s mass murder of over 500
Africans, mostly school-children,
in Soweto in 1976 and 77.
It is time now for similar
protests, for last week the minority
white South African government
murdered 29 Africans in
rebellions in Sharpeville and four
other Black townships near
Johannesburg.
The cause of this recent unrest is
the new and crippling rent in
creases imposed by the gover
nment, and protests against sub
standard education of African
youth. The unrest was also
precipitated by the recent election
of Parliament members under the
new constitution.
The whites of South Africa
thought this new constitution was
To Be Equal
Affirmative action’s importance
by John Jacobs
Affermative action is central to
the Black quest for equity. But the
war for affirmative action is in
danger of being lost.
The Supre
me Court just
said that
seniority takes
precedence ov
er minority
jobs.
Reasonable
goals and
Pl 4
timetables arc stigmatized as rever
se discrimination and quotas.
Perpetuating Black disadvantages
excused by pious statements about
a “color-blind, racially neutral
society.”
Well, Black people also want a
color-blind, racially-neutral
society. But we’re not there yet.
And the only way to get there is
through affirmative action
programs that overcome
discriminatory barriers to oppor
tunities.
There’s nothing color-blind
when the black poverty rate is
triple the white rate. There’s
nothing racially-neutral when
Black unemployment is more than
double the white rate.
The heritage of racism will not
be broken until effective remedies
a truly progressive move. After
all, they allowed the 2.6 million
“coloreds” of mixed blood and
the 800,000 Indians to elect
representatives to their very own
segregate chambers of Parliament
and for the first time, too.
There were only two hitches: 1)
the segregated chambers had no
power and 2) everybody got to vote
except the African majority which
is still denied the vote. That
majority, by the way, includes
close to 21 million Africans (or 72
percent or tne population) as com
pared to only 4.5 million whites.
Then, too, the Indian and colored
populations sat on their hands on
election day and refused to be used
as another public relations prop
for the South African regime. f
The South African government
has been working overtime this
year to improve its image. It is at
tempting to give the sympathetic
Regan Administration something
to go on in its support of the South
African government.
Remember that earlier this year
South African bombed and
destablized the African nations of
Mozambique and Angola until
those nations were forced to agree
to the expulsion of South African
freedom fighters from their bor
ders. The Regan Administration
called it a “victory for
negotiation”.
But the new image threatens to
crumble with the recent unrest.
The “colored” and Indian
populations refused to participate
in an impotent Parliament and
those who demonstrated at the
polls against the new arrangement
overcome the disadvantage im
posed on Blacks because of their
blackness.
That means race-conscious
remedies based on positive in
clusion of Black people into main
stream America. Such remedies
would replace the historic negative
exclusion of Black people.
In 1789 the U.S. Constitution
defined Blacks as three-fifths of a
person for counting purposes. In
1984 we are still three-fifths of
white people as measured by
family income, by employment, by
education attainment, by all of the
other meaningful measures of life.
Affermative action is not a new
concept. Back in the 1930 s when
racist administrators kept Blacks
out of work relief programs, the
Public Works Administration
wrote specific hiring quotas for
Blacks into its contracts.
We’ve lived with veterans
preferences for years, and no one
complained about reverse
discrimination. Throughout our
history we had an unwritten affir
mative action code that reserved
the best jobs and schools for white
males.
Black people have been con
tinue to be subjected to per
vasive negative action that will
were beaten.
Then, as usual, the white South
African government responded
with typical armed might against
an African majority which is for
bidden to own firearms.
The U.S. State Department said,
in response to South Africa’s most
recent atrocities: “There isn’t any
question that the South African
government is aware how concer
ned we are about these demon
strations, and about the violence
and the deaths.”
The State Department’s mild
“concern” was in keeping with
this year’s Republican Platform.
That platform caspsulized its
South Africa policy in one senten
ce: “In South Africa, as elsewhere
on the continent, we support well
conceived efforts to foster peace,
prosperity and stability.” Not
justice, mind you, or the
elimination of apartheid, or even,
God forbid, democracy. No, the
Regan Administration wants only
peace, prosperity and stability.
How comforting.
The Regan Administration’s
support for South Africa’s regime,
under the facade of “constructive
engagement,” can only mean
prolonged suffering for the
majority of South Africans. And
the threat of four more years of
Regan’s South Africa policy would
mean even further entrenchment
of the repressive South African
government. It is therefore up to
all of us who support human
rights, particularly Black
Americans, to make our voices
heard now. Tomorrow may be
too late.
perpetuate our disadvantage unless
our society implements positive af
firmative action as a remedy.
I am not prepared to abandon
the war for affirmative action as
lost. The hostility of the Justice
Department and the inconsisten
cies of the courts notwithstanding,
there is still hope that the innate
fairness of the American people
will give affirmative action a chan
ce.
I am encouraged by a recent
Harris Poll that asked this
question of potential voters: “Do
you favor or oppose federal laws
requiring affirmative aciton
programs for women and
minorities in employment and
education, provided there are no
rigid quotas?”
Two-thirds said, “Yes,” they
favor such laws. Less than one in
five opposed them.
Now, one poll doesn’t mean too
much in the general scheme of
things. But it is heartening that
such a strong majority backs af
firmative action in the face of the
extraordinary campaign against it.
If nothing else, that poll ought
to put some backbone into
politicians in both parties who seek
to exploit racial divisions by pan
dering to racist sentiments.
Walking with dignity
Classroom
lament
by Al Irby
Whether Washington is reacting
to the heat of this torrid summer or
th,, heat of the current election
* j|
to tne neai ui
campaign isn’t
too clear. But
this column
wonders whet
her Congress
and the White
House know
just what they
are getting into with tne latest
pieces of classroom legislation
approving “equal access” and
periods of silent prayer.
It can be better not to act at all
than to pass legislation that is not
needed or that derives from par
tisan competition for the
traditional values mantle.
I, unsurprisingly, think that
prayer is a very good thing. So is
religious fellowship. But making
official room for religion in
schools is not properly a gover
nment function.
In the cases at hand,
Washington may simply be
opening itself to another decade of
lawsuits'over non-religious free
speech issues that may impose
greater burdens on public school
officials and personnel,
The bill for silent school prayer
passed by the House was improved
under the leadership of moderate
Republicans, who substituted
language that directed public
school districts to offer time for
silent voluntary prayer, suc
cessfully defeating a coercive ver
sion that would have cut off
federal funds to schools that
prevented students from praying
aloud.
Proponents of the voluntary
silent prayer measure may argue
that it might head off a proposed
school-prayer constitutional
amendment, such as the Senate
defeated last March. But it does
put school administrators and
teachers into a position of having
to make a judgment call on the
place, timing, and duration of such
“moments.”
And it seems superfluous when
individual students can at any
moment now pray silently. The
“equal access” legislation, also
passed by the House last week and
ready for President Regan’s
signature, could prove far more
troublesome.
The measure would allow
student religious groups the same
kind of access to classroom use,
before and after school hours, as is
now afforded secular activities like
sports, music, and literary clubs.
But not only religious-oriented ac
tivities would be granted equal ac
cess. So would student groups that
would organize under political,
protest, life-style, and other
headings. Legislation intended to
compel public schools to extend
speech freedom to religious groups
in off-school hours would also
guarantee equal access to anti
religious, anti-establishment
gatherings.
The United States mood is now
quiet. But sharp divisions over an
unpopular war, minority rights,
and generational outlook are
recent enough to serve as war
nings. Schools should not be made
a battleground for civil, social, and
political issues, at the risk of
distraction from the schools’
primary role of education.
And in an era of greater regard/
for religious diversity, I firmly
believe in Republican principles,
but truly hope that Washington
should not unwisely heighten
public tension over religion.
Let us truly hope that the
politicians of both parties will con
sider what our schools have en
dured in the past generation alone;
the affluent life-style binge of the
60s, the brunt of desegregation or
ders, a Black-militance phase that
divided faculty and students in city
schools, the unionization of
faculties, enrollment declines, and
rising costs.
Schools are under continuing
scrutiny. Report after report gives
them failing grades.
Teacher training is the latest
target. But how realistic is some of
this criticism when some of the
most prestigious graduate
education schools no longer train
teachers?
What is needed in the classroom
more often is a liberal education,
not special subject training, to deal
with the demands of a classroom
with such diverse student attitudes
and family circumstances.