Newspaper Page Text
The Augusta News-Review Seutember 22. 1984
Mallory K. MillertderEditor-Publisher
Paul Walker Assistant to the Publisher
■ -Ma Johnson .. General Manager/Advertising Dir.
Rev. R.E. Donaldson Religion Editor
Mrs. Geneva Y. Gibson. Church Coordinator
Charles Beal*. Jenkins County Correspondent
Mrs. fannie Johnson Aiken County Correspondent
Mr?. Clara WestMcDuffie County Correspondent
Mrs. Ileen Buchanan Fashion & Beauty Editor
Gilbert Allen-Columnist
Roosevelt Green Columnist
Al Irby,Columnist
Philip Waring Columnist
Marva Stewart • • Columnist
George 8ai1ey...., , Sp °f ts Wnt . er
r _rl MrCnv Editorial Cartoonist
oKndo Hamlett. Photographer
Roscoe Williams •«Photographer
"THE AUGUSTA NEWS-REVIEW iTQ) is published
weekly for sll per year in the county and sl2 per year out of th<
county. Second-class postage paid at Augusta, Ga. POSTMASTER:
Send address changes to-THE AUGUSTA NEWS-REVIEW,
y.Q, Box 2123, Augusta, Ga. 30903-2123." <(404) 722-4555. J
AMALGAMATED National Advertising Representative "
publishers; inc.
Civil Rights Journal
Juries for whites only ’
Many of us were so caugh up
with events leading up to the
(H,
*
A • .
Democratic
Convention
that we over
looked* a par
ticularly oner-1
ous judicial
decision which
came out of;
'North Carolina in early July.
That decision, handed down by
federal Judge Robert Merhige,
states that the racial composition
of juries need not numerically
reflect an area’s Black population.
Therefore, according to the judge,
even though a juror list is based on
voting registration rolls which un
derrepresent the Black population,
this juror list is still valid.
The case on which this decision
was based involves the murder of
five demonstrators during an anti-
Klan rally in Greensboro, N.C. in
1979. The Klansmen and Nazis
who were tried for those murders
were aquitted by both federal and
state Juries. There were no Black
people on either jury. Yet the
district served by the Middle
District Court contains 24 coun
ties, almost 20 percent of whose
residents are Black and over 15
percent of whose registered voters
are Black.
Now, Judge Mehrige may be
concerned about this discrepancy,
but we certainly are.
His ruling, like so many other re
cent federal rulings, is another two
steps back for human rights in this
country. Black and other minority
peoples come before the courts in
Washington Brass Tacks
China developing a new kind of man
by Chester Higgins, Sr.
1 have just returned from a
three-week trip to China. No, I
did not go there with President
Regan and his
crowd, nor mHHHL
with D. C . KU
Mayor Marion
Barry and his
troup, who
followed about
a week later. Wjpp
I went with ■
the Washing- A
ton Press Club and travelled in the!
great wake of these two celebrities,
staying at the Great Wall Hotel, irt
Beijin (Barry and the Mayor of
Beijing have proclaimed Sister City
status for the two cities) where they
stayed and hearing the Chinese talk
about Regan’s visit to the site of
the famous Terra-cotta Warriors
outside Xian (pronounced “Shee-
Awn). I must say it all was quite
an experience.
Our group, numbering about 24,
flew from Dulles Airport to
Chicago, changed planes then flew
to Narita Airport, Tokyo,
following the great swooping arc
along the northern tier of the U.S.
and thence to Tokyo, where we
changed planes for the four-hour
plus trip to Hong Kong.
Two days later we took a train to
Canton, visited the home of the
father of modern day China,
Sun Yat-Sen, thence to Biejing (the
old Peking) by plane where we
visited the Temple of Heaven, and
the huge enclosed (which is
surrounded by a moat) Forbidden
City.
From there to Xian to visit the
Mina Tombs, the Terra-cotta
Warriors more than 6,000 of
inordinate numbers, both as ac
cused and accuser.
Yet the absence of Black jurors
remains a critical and persistent
problem. For example, noted
cases of racially motivated violence
in Miami and, most recently, New
York City, have been tried by
juries on which no Black person
served.
Going back to the North
Carolina case: The Greensboro
Civil Rights Fund, joined by the
NAACP and other civil rights
groups such as the United Church
of Christ Commission for Racial
Justice, are appealing Judge
Mehrige’s decision on jury com
position.
According to the fund, the
apellate court decision will be
critical because the civil rights
groups will soon be back in the
Judge’s court on a federral civil
suit related to the Klan murders.
Unless the jury representation suit
is settled in their favor, these
groups face an all-white jury once
again.
In an attempt to remedy jury
inequities, several states now have
laws which pull jurors not just
from voting lists, but from tax lists
and motor vehicle lists as well.
This is a start.
But the real issue here is guaran
teeing that every jury, by whatever
means, should represent that
area’s racial composition.
Without that guarantee, our
judicial system will continue to
give the signal that: “Only whites
need apply.”
them buried, presumptively with
the Emperor of that dynasty, each
warrior having his own distinctive
facial expression and none, thus,
looking alike then on to the
biggest prize of all the Great Wall
of China that stretches 3,000 miles
from Shanghai to the great upper
northern sections of that land
up which I scampered goat
fashion, panting all the way to take
photos from the steepest side. It is
truly one of the eight wonders of
the world and the only manmade
object that astronauts could see
from space. It is simply
breathtaking!
Our leaders were Warren
Weaver, Jr. of the New York
Times and his wife, Marianne
Means, a Hearst syndicated
columnist,who also pinch hits ably
on the award winning weekly
national news panel, Agronsky &
Company, on CBS.
There are more than a billion
Chinese in China but only about
five million college grads and I
know because I saw e 'ery last one
of them. I can now understand
Malthus with some degree of ap
preciation and what I called his
reactionary racist theories years
ago.
Every city we visited Canton
(now Guangzhou) Xiam,
Hangchou, Shanghai, Beijing,
Hong Kong, a city of 404.4 square
miles, a population of 5.5 million,
97 percent of which is Chinese who
enjoy Birth citizenship that is
restricted to their native island
Macao (now Macau) and there
were wall-to-wall people, as be,
literally, a circus were *n town.
They were riding bicycles
there are nine million people in
Beijing and four million bicycles,
Page 4
BUT n's OBVIOUS* THE BEST WAT
TO GET OUT THE VOTE ...
15 TO RUN A BLACK CANDIDATE/
X. XIA
UV.* |
( ) ( ) ' JR
POLITICAL BOSSES
by Abdul Wali Muhammad
The Democrats insulted Black
people at their San Francisco Con
vention, denying us even a token
victory, and forced our candidate,
Rev. Jackson, to make a public
apology, For what? For daring to
believe that the American political
system could respond to organized
Black pressure and demands.
Over 85 percent of Blacks who
voted, voted for Rev. Jackson; a
clear Black mandate. Yet,
Democrats ignored Black people
totally until well after the conven
tion in August when Massa Mon
dale invited many so-called Black
leaders up to Minnesoata for din- t
ner at the Big House. Then, Rev.
Jackson was telling Black people
that suddenly there were
“thousands of reasons to vote”
for Mondale. Yet, even Mondale
said that if he did raise taxes, the
additional revenue would not be
used for social programs or job
progrms.
Mayor Richard Hatcher of
Gary, Ind, vice chairman of the
Democratic National Committee,
said at a meeting in Chicago in
July, that “four more years of
Regan is better than one more day
of Democratic disrespect,” and
Attorney Thomas (TNT) Todd, a
dynamic speaker and co-founder of
Operation PUSH, said that he
would “go fishing” on Election
Day if the Democrats did not
respond to Black demands.
Even Andy Young, who along
with Coretta Scott King was booed
by Black delegates at the conven
tion for not backing the Rev.
Jackson peoples’ choice,
referred to Mondale’s campaign
aides as “smart ass white boys,”
although he later apologized.
How can Black people in
telligently support a party that
for example but not in the
headgear, gungho fashion so
popular in the U.S. They are laid
back, unhurried, pumping
leisurely, ignoring the impatient
honking horns of the motor driven
traffidmost of these vehicles are
owned by the government) and
moving over slowly if at all, to
make way for the petrol burners.
The Chinese are a remarkable
people. They simply won’t be
pushed too hard, for too long.
Unlike Russia where I visited
several years ago, the military in
China keeps a very low profile,
from my views.
China is presently in the process
of making a new man. Example:
we visited several schools and were
greeted warmly by the children,
hugging Black and white, male and
female with equal feeling, showing
no evidence of bias that I could
detect. I challenge a similar group
to go to any white or black school
•in America and be as openly and
indiscriminately treated by the
•children!
Another, example: Honesty is
almost universal (except in the
capitalistic jungle of Hong-
Knowloon and of course the for
mer Portuguese colony, Macau).
A person can leave his valuables
cameras, jewelry, money laying
about unattended with confidence
they will be intact in your hotel
room when you return.
One of our group left his pants
at a hotel we had checked out of
and they were returned to him
miles away at the train depot where
we were assembled to depart.
Another example: tipping is
forbidden. Chinese authorities do
not want the working class corrup-
The Black dilemma
gives lio service to Black people
only when they need our vote, and
pubicaly insult and scorn us when
we show enough political maturity
to demand something in return?
Should we put them in the White
House?
On the other side (of the same
coin), we have the Republicans
under Ronald Regan, who at least
are honest when they tell Black
people, as Vice President George
Bush did at their convention, that
“Your time has passed.” They
make no pretense about their plans
for Black people. Ronald Regan
helped paint a clear picture of how
he envisions the role of Black
people in American when, during
his acceptance speech at the con
vention, he recalled the image of a
16-year old Black youth pushing a
67-year old white woman in a
wheel chair carrying the Olympic
torch. Regan said, “This is our
vision of America.” Is that your
vision brother and sister?
So now Black people must ask
the question, “Where do we go
from here?” The final avenue of
redress of grievance has been
closed off to us? We fought for
decades for the treasure of political
•enpowerment only now to find
that it is “fools’ gold.”
There is another message for the
Blackman in America today. It is
not a new message, but it has never
been as clearly articulated, nor has
it been as widely received as today.
That message is coming from
Minister Louis Farrakhan, the
Nationalßepresentative of the
Honorable Elijah Muhammad,
and it is a message of Freedom,
Justice, and Equality for Black
people in a soverign nation of our
own.
“Accept Your Own Be Your
self” is the clarion call of Minister
ted by this patronizing and
demeaning practice, a foreigner
feels safe in walking the city streets
•at night alone. Crime is dealt
with very harshly.
About the population growth.
The Chinese are pushing hard a
program designed to limit one
child to a couple. Abortion is ap
proved. Bonus to families who
adhere to the one child limit is
awarded.
Penalities for violators are
meted out. In the cities this works
well. But it breaks down in the
rural area where the need for boy
children is great and the law is far
ther removed.
Free market entrepreneurship is
being encouraged under the new
Chinese thrust of “responsibility.”
Thus, in some areas markets
flourishing with fruit, vegetables,
textiles, abound. I made,
however, the egregious mistake of
buying a handsome straw basket on
the streets of Shanghai from a‘
young man festooned with his at
tractive product. The transaction
was piddling. About two dollars for
the basket. But a crowd gathered
around us as I bargained and when
the sale was consumated, a
policeman came up a began to cuff
him and put him under arrest as
I stood helplessly by. Free market
activity is allowed within constric
ted areas under certain conditions.
But capitalist entrepreneurship is
permitted, no, encouraged, in
designated areas. There are not
nearly enough jobs for China’s
millions.
The food, Ah, the food! An
angel prepares the menu under the
guidance of a god. Mainland
Chinese food is to the kind we en
joy, for the most part, in America
Farrakhan to Black people today;
the same message that the
Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the
Messenger of Allah, declared in
the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and now
resounds throughout the Black
community once again in the 80s.
Minister Farrakhan backed Rev.
Jackson’s run for the presidential
nomination of the Democratic
Party, but he warned America in
an article in Essence Magazine that
Rev. Jackson represented
America’s “last chance” to bring
Black people into the political
mainstream, and if America
ignored Rev. Jackson and Black
people, then our only alternative
was separation on some fertile land
of our own either in America or
elsewhere.
This option comes directly from
“What the Muslims Want” which
was printed in the Muhammad
Speaks newspaper for years.
Now it appears on the back page of
the Final Call newspaper,
published by Minister Louis
Farrakhan and the Nation of
Islam.
There is one other option for
Black people. If we reject the war
ning signals coming from both the
Democrats and Republicans, in
deed from the American society in
general, and we reject Minister
Farrakhan’s plea to “Do For Self”
and prepare ourselves for the even
tuality of our own sovereign nation
on some land of our own, the other
alternative or Final Solution, as
the Nazis termed it, is Black reen
slavement and Black annihilation.
Does this sound extreme?
Remember Barry Goldwater’s
ominous refrain, “Extremism in
defense of liberty (white
supremacy) is no vice. ’’
We do have a choice. What will
it be? Freedom or Death?
what the hamburger is to a fine
porterhouse or sirloin steak
The Chinese like Americans.
They want to speak English, a
language that is replacing Russian
and other foreign tongues in their
language institutes.
Make the mistake of stopping to
converse with a Chinese on any of
the streets of the great cities and
you literally take you life in your
own hands.
You are all but smothered by the
scores of Chinese that surround
you, pressing close, eager to con
verse, to listen... Watch the
Chinese. The force of numbers,
coupled with the eagerness to shed
isolation and become competitive
economically in the world market,
make them a formidable presence
to be reckoned with in the not too
distant future.
Let the sleeping giant China
sleep, is the conventional wisdom.
But the giant is awakening. Never
to sleep again. Is this good?. Is it
bad for mankind? Can China
maintain its pristine spiritual and
economic “purity” as it struggles
to throw off the yoke of its isolated
and somewhat backward past and
enter the modern world of material
greed and interpersonal duplicity?
Time will tell. All I know is what I
observed: the Chinese are deter
mined to be competitors for the
world’s goods and services.
In Chinese college circles they
are still chuckling over this joke:
Vice President Mondale, in 1977
went to a “Free Market” and
bought “two concubines,” Mon
dale, the son of a preacher from
Minnesota? Well, after much
laughter, it is pointed out that the
story teller had translated the term
“cucumbers” into concubines...
Walking with dignity
Liberation
theology ’s
inquiry
The local daily paper carried as
its lead editorial, a few weeks ago,
captioned “God And Marx.” The
editor equated the new
.Mm
“Liberation
Theology”
with Com
munism, he
also equated
young Friar
Leonardo Boss,
a brilliant
theologian and
religious author as a instigator of
violence. This column, simply
presents the flip-side of this impor
tant controversy. In early Septem
ber, Friar Boss was leaving Brazil
for the Vatican to answer
questions about his latest book,
“Church: Charism and Power.”
For two weeks beginning Sept.
7, Friar Boss will defend this book,
which accuses the Roman Catholic
Church of elitism and of failing to
take a firmer stand on human
rights. Friar Boss is a proponent
of liberation theology, which is a
point of controversy between con
servatives and progressives within
the church. The future of
liberation theology is at stake.
Liberation Theology unites
Marxist-sociological views and
progressive Catholic doctrine in
Latin America in an attempt to
combat the region’s widespread
poverty and oppression.
“Church: Charism and Power”
appeared a couple of years ago and
has been studied by Joseph Car
dinal Ratzinger, who is to direct
the inquiry by the Vatican’s Sacred
Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith, in former centuries
called the “Inquisiton.”
The cardinal held a press con
ference in Rome to release a
document called “Instructions on
Certain Aspects of the Theology of
Liberation.” The report, which
reflects Pope John Paul H’s
uneasiness with liberation
theology, called on priests to reject
Marxism in their efforts to aid the
poor and oppressed.
Gustavo Gutierrez of Peru, Ed
ward Schillenbeck of the
Netherlands, and Hans Kung of
West Germany have also had
problems with the Vatican in the
past few years on various
theological issues.
“And therefore we support each
other very much,” Boss says.
“Very recently I was in Europe
and met almost everybody I had to
meet on this topic. So far I have
received more than 20,000
signatures in support of my
theories.”
A Black West Indian reporter
met Leonado Buff in Petropolis, a
town where the former Brazilian
emperor used to reside and where
what is left of the actual Brazilian
nobility meets socially. Boss
waited in the convent of the Fran
ciscans. “My mind about going to
Rpme is tranquil, he said. I have
the impression that thev inter
preted my work badly.”
But the controversial churchman
qualified this remark by saying,
“If the Holy See prohibits me
from writing and making official
statements I will accept that
judgment, but I will continue my
pastoral work as a priest.” The
best thing members of the Vatican
could do,” Boss says is to come
over to Brazil and other Latin
American countries and see our
daily life.”
“It is the difference between the
theory and the practice of life.
Just like how we don’t understand
the hearts and the minds of those
who are in the Vatican guiding the
church, they don’t know about our
sufferings here. That is the hear of
the misunderstanding. But we will
talk openly in Rome and resolve
the problem.”
Boss says the church could make
a serious mistake if it decides to
listen only to the bishops and not
to priests and laymen. “That
would mean that they would not be
able to hear the voice of those who
bring life to the church. And
Rome would have to reconsider
questions of why the churches
(remain empty and why there is
such a tremendous opportunity in
the religious market.” He pointed
to the vast number of fundamen
talist sects in Brazil.
According to the figures of the
Brazilian Bishop Conference,
more than 10 million Brazilians no
longer hold the traditional
Catholic beliefs about baptism,
marriage, and death. The con
ference also notes theat Afro-
Brazilian cults are making inroads.