Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

Ist Black The Muhammad Ali Black Americans city councilman Moynihan Report sued for and the dies 20 years later Paliir i ? e -head’ Pagel Page 2 Page augusta, ga 1 _______J 3 0910 ——— Augusta News-Heutm VOLUME 14 NUMBER 32 Black America: Facing the road ahead by Frank Harris 111. Traditionally, the dawn of a new year has been a time of reflection, projection and introspection on the part of Black Americans. Reflections as to where we have come from. Projections as to where we would like to be. In trospections as to where we ac tually are at the moment the clock strikes twelve. Perhaps it stems from the fact that the first of the year was the day we were declared legally free in the United States of America: January 1, 1863 —the Eman cipation Proclamation. It’s a day that goes virtually unrecognized and unholidayized by Black Americans. Yet, 122 years ago we stood in jubilation and trepidation, looking out at the road ahead, wondering what the new year would bring. Today we stand after two decades of civil rights, facing an old familiar road. A road that seems both rocky and uncertain., A road with twists and turns through an increasingly hostile land. A road fastly coming to resemble the many Southern dirt roads we trod in the years of yester. The signs are springing up every where along the way. A reversed decision here. A ruling there. A postponement over there. These signs point to the direc tion for a new kind of slavery, a new kind of terorism racing along the should in the shadows seeking to cut us off at the pass. Seeking to subvert the road we trod. There it once received attention make it smooth and accessible for us to enter the mainstream, it is now being abandoned. Work has been stopped, leaving the road in disrepair. Its very foundation undermined. The screws to the bridges we might pass have been loosened. Obstacle after obstacle has been thrown in our path. Some signs have already sprung up. Like last October when the Senate voted to set aside a civil rights bill so they could proceed with more important matters. The sign says our rights are not impor- Palimony suit filed against Muhammad Ali NORRISTOWN, PA-A woman who says she is the third wife of former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali and has mothered his child is suing Ali for his alleged failure to provide financial support. Aaisha Ali, 28, of Bala Cynwyd, is seeking $2 million for herself and her daughter, Khaliah, 10, ac cording to a suit filed in Mon tgomery County Court. Ali, a native of Louisville, Ky., contends she married the boxing Knoxville College recieves donation from Jesse Jackson brother KNOXVILLE, TN.—The Rev. Jesse Jackson’s half brother has pledged SIOO,OOO to financially troubled Knoxville College, which lost its accreditation because of money woes. Noah Robinson, a Chicago millionaire and Knoxville College alumnus, said he hope his donation will prompt other people to support the 110-year-old tanttothem. The signs say “Stony is the road we trod”—and we pass at our own risk. The issue of race and those who make decisions and actions based upon it is on the rise. There is no longer any shame today on the part of white Americans about being viewed as a racist or prejudiced in dividual, or any of the other words that once caused a reddening of the face and a heightening of the guilt level. Many of these have fallen by the wayside and merged with the crowd of those they once ad monished for expressing racist at titudes and actions. They’ve fallen by the wayside, and now there is silence from the side of the road as the majority of “all right” whites have ceased trying to modify their brothers’ and sisters’ attitudes. There is silence now. A tacit agreement. A nod of the head to the view that we’ve already gotten too much.” Let the bandits make the laws, is what they say. Time passes. Things change. Life goes in cycles. No more guts do they have. Their battle’s over. But our’s never ends. In the past four years during the Reagan Administration, we as a people have lost more ground economically, socially, and politically than any other group in America. In general, unem ployment has worsened. Last Sep tember it was 15.1 percent for Black adults. For teenagers it was 19.3 percent. And in both cases, it was, as it always seems to be—double that of white Americans. That our condition should wor sen while whites’' remained the same, or in fact, got better, it is of little surprise. It is due, in large degree, to the Reagan Ad ministration’s relaxation of gover nmental control and lack of im volvement in seeing that racial discrimination has no place in the workforce. That it exercises a laissez faire attitude toward racism in America has led to the unmistakable reaffirmation of the fact that whites will not hire Blacks champ in a Muslim ceremony in Miami in 1975 and that he fathered her daughter. The suit contends Ali pledged during the ceremony to support her and the child for the rest of their lives. The couple have been separated since August 1980, the suit said. “It is part of the ceremony. There are vows taken,” siad San dra Newman, Aaisha Ali’s lawyer. “He also told her mother when he first met her he would take care predominantly Black college. “There are lots of Noah Robin sons. a lot of nameless, faceless people who would not get a chance without Knoxville College,” he said. The college’s long-running financial troubles caused the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to revoke its ac creditation. Robinson, 42, and Jackson, an on their own good will or sense of fairness; but only by threat of financial punishment such as the withholding of federal funds or the loss of a contract —a fact surely known by those who seek an end to affirmative action and “gover nmental meddling.” For the poorest of us, there has been a redistribution of income away from low income families, toward those with higher incomes. In other words, the rich got richer, while the poor got poorer. And overall, the number of poor rose from 29 million in 1980, to 35.3 million today according to the U.S. Census Bureau. For Black people in particular, the poverty rate rose from 32.5 percent to 35.7 percent. And the stony road we trod does not yield special courtesies to our young. There is not quarter given. Half of our poor are children. And this will continue to be the case as white children grow up to carry out the legacy of their paren ts by making the road more dif ficult for our children when they grow up—lest we prepare them for the road ahead. Prepare them mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally so that they are a strong generation. During the late fifties and through the sixties, we made major gains in America. Gains in all areas of American life. How were we able to do it? Why? Was it because ye were strong during that generation, and whites correspondingly weak? And if so, what made us strong? What made them weak? What made it possible for us to suddenly rise up to challenge our treatment in America after nearly three-and a-half centuries of, for the most part, quiet submission? A leader? Martin, Malcolm and others? We have had leaders before. There was Douglas, Dubois, Gar vey—and nothing comparable to the accomplishments and gains of the civil rights movement took place. Leaders can only lead when the people want to be led. For leaders themselves are, for the most part, reflections of the thoughts and of her (Khaliah) forever. He has continued to tell her that he would take care of her,” Newman said. The lawyer said the fighter spoke to his former wife on the telephone this week but that they did not discuss the legal action. The suit also seeks to acquire the title to the Bala Cynwyd home owned by Ali in which the woman lives and to require Ali to pay the costs of the woman’s college educaiton. Newman said the “palimony” suit contends Ali provided some unsuccessful Democratic candidate for president, have the same father. They grew up in different households in Greenville, S.C., but attended the same schools and “hung around toghther.” Robinson is now president of Precision Contractors Inc., one of the nation’s biggest minority general construction firms. He is also chairman of a milk company January 5,1985 feelings of the people they represent. At least they start out that way. And in the years past, when Blacks sought the nerve to do something contrary to white America’s desires, a spurt of violence sent most of us scurry ing back to our prior humbleness. What made us, two decades ago, keep on pushing when whites resorted to repressive measures to beat us back? Were the whites of that generation less committed? Did we see an opening and white America, seeing the strength and courage in our eyes step back in amazement and respect and a pin ch of fear? The example that Black adults set them—both young and old, middle-class and poor-in challenging the unjust social, political and economic laws had a tremendous effect upon Black youth who came of age looking up to them. The year ahead will require new strength and courage, the likes of which has not been called upon in us in a good many years, if we are to turn back the foes who would turn us around in the direction from whence we came. It will reguire more than just meetings and talks and contributions. It will require more than essays such as this. It will require standing up and doing battle for our rights, for in deed, it has been said that if one does not stand up and is content to lay back and accept whatever is dealt one’s way, they will keep placing obstacles in the road for us to crash into. The road ahead will require new unity and cooperation among us. It will require new responsibility and self-determination. New pride and dignity. Forthere is no respect for submissiveness, silence and inactivity. There is respect for challenge. Respect for the guts to fight for what we know is right. The words are in our an them—“ Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, let us march on till victory is won.” Stony is the road we must trod. But trod it we must. There can be no turning back. No retreat. For in the end, we win. . support for the mother and child until May, but then stopped any payments, thus breaching the couple’s wedding vows. “there is precedent in Pen nsylvania for this kind of agreement but it has not traditionally been called palimony,” Newman said. According to the suit, the couple first met in July 1973 at Ali’s training camp in Deer Lake Camp. Schuylkill County, and were married two years later. pesident of a soft drink firm in Chicago and president of four fast food franchise comaonies. He said he hope his contribution will “show that even though Knoxville College is small and predominantly Black, the quality of education is such that a Noah Robinson can come through as a rough stone and be polished into a quality diamond. Less than 75 percent Advertising ' fc s w W Jessye Norman concert tickets to go on sale Tickets are now on sale for the Jessye Norman benefit concert which will launch Paine College’s Campaign for Excellence. The in ternationally acclaimed soprano and native of Augusta is serving as Honorary Chairperson of the $6 million fund drive to build a library and performing arts theater complex on the Paine campus. Ms. Norman will perform in Washington, D.C. at the Presiden tial inauguration on Jan. 21, then fly to Atlanta for the concert, which will be held at the Martin Luther King, Jr. International Chapel on the Morhouse College Campus. A special highlight of the con cert will be interpretive dance selections performed by Arthur Mitchell’s Dance Theatre of Harlem to “The Songs of Mahler”, which will be sung by Ms. Norman. She will also perform operatic pieces and will be joined by the Ist Black city councilman dies Mr. B. L. Dent, 72, died Friday, Dec. 22, 1984 at University Hospital. B.L. Dent received his elemen tary and high school education at Walker Baptist Institute of Augusta. After graduation from high school, he entered Paine College where he remained for three years after which he matriculated at Morehouse College in Atlanta. B.L. Dent was the first Black elected to city countil and the first Black to serve as vice chairman of the Finance Committee. During his tenue in office Mr. Dent raised issue of the treatment of Black cab companies not being allowed to pick up passangers at Bush Field and the exclusion of these com panies from participation in other contracts to which they might have been entitled. Mr. Dent also favored an- Jessye Norman Paine College Choir with members of the Morehouse College Glee Club for a series of spirituals. John Williams, Visiting Lecturer of Choral-Vocal Music at Paine, will conduct the choral portion of the program. A reception in Ms. Norman’s honor, to be hosted by Georgia’s Lt. Governor Zell Miller, will im mediately follow the concert at the State Capitol. Ticket prices for the concert, which is set for 7:30 p.m., are as follows: sls: full time students, S3O: concert admission, SSO: con cert and reception admission, $75: concert, reception, and round trip transportation from Augusta. Tickets may be purchased by mail by sending a stamped, self adressed envelope with a check or money order to the Development Office at Paine College, 1235 15th St., Augusta, Ga., 30910. Phone orders are also acceptable for Visa or Mastercard holders (722-4471, Ext. 223). L'•? ■ B. L. Dent nexation or consolidation for the city of Augusta. He encouraged the expansion of the transit system, and downtown revitalization. He was successful in getting council to re-evaluate its old system of classifying city em ployees. The old practice did not provide for the promotion of a Black employee no matter how long he worked in the City. 30C