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Blacks annoyed by treatment of labor pool Page 1 VOLUME 14 NUMBER 34 King birthday speakers emphasize planning Hamilton urges Black officials to get together Speakers at Martin Luther King birthday celebrations here Tuesday urged Blacks to develop a plan for liberation and stick to it. Dr. C.S. Hamilton, speaker for the local NAACP Freedom Banquet, said that “Augusta needs a plan, and we must work the plan.” Hamilton, whose car was bombed when he was president of the local chapter during the tur bulent 19605, “The enemy is well organized. We need to be decisive, know what we want and work for it.” A former city councilman, Hamilton said that Black elected officials need'to be together on a plan. “Whites have always been able to defeat us because they can keep us divided,” he said, adding that there have been times when “we’ve had to fight the people we *<./ii help. ’’ Blacks have also been critics of progress, he said. “Here we were moving like a snail, and some Blacks were telling us, ‘Y’all moving too fast.’ ” Picking up on the banquet theme, “Now Is the Time,” Hamilton said, “We can miss God’s best blessings by saying ‘not now but later,’ ” “Now is the time to spend our money where it is appreciated, to DeVaney picks Thomason for Ist ward seat The Augusta City Council on Friday approved Mayor Charles A. DeVaney’s recommendation that former Councilman John Thomason be appointed until the October Council election to fill the Ist Ward seat vacated by DeVaney. The mayor said he would recommend to City Council the approval of Thomason to fill the seat that he held for more than three years. DeVaney defeated Thomason in 1981 to win the first elected seat of his political career. He had been Thomason’s campaign finance chairman but decided to run for the office himsfelf. In May 1984, he was selected by City Council to serve as mayor pro tern following the resignation of former Mayor Edward M. Mcln tyre. Since the acting mayor must be a member of City Council, DeVaney has been serving a dual role of mayor pro tern and one of two City Council representatives from the Ist Ward. According to the City Code, DeVaney has the option of appoin ting Thomason to serve until the next election or serve the remain der of the term of the vacated seat. If Thomason wins the seat in October’s election, he still will have to run again in October 1986 (the end of the three-year term for the seat held by De Vaney) if he wants to remain on council. “John is one of the few people living in the Ist Ward who ex- Augusta Neuis-ileutew * .vjk <.. w "■ < JjF “‘I .• V’T? ’•; || - ... L*., % < OTIS SMITH (right) outgoing president of the NAACP, installs new officers. Harry James is president for 1985. Also installed were: the Rev. Charlie More, first vice get involved, and to get right with God.” “We’ve got to feed the hungry and clothes the naked, Now Is the Time.” pressed a strong desire to serve on City Council. He is supportive of my plans for the city. I cm not asking for someone who will be a rubber stamp, but I am asking for a team player who will try to work with the rest of the council mem bers for a better city,” DeVaney said. “There have been some high emotions about my recommen dation, but I think John will do a good job. If you’ve been into politics for awhile, you make a lot of friends and enemies. If you haven’t, then you haven’t done much.” Thomason will serve on the Cemetery, Trees and Parks, the Public Transit and Parking and the Stockade and Recorder’s Court committees. Thomason, who resides at 401 Broad St., has lived in Augusta since 1952. He owns the Augusta Courier Serivce. Under former Mayor Lewis A. Newman, Thomason was a mem ber of the Finance and Budget Committee. He is a past member of the Augusta Elks Club and is a past president of the Augusta Civitan Club and past International vice president of Civitan Club Inter nationa. He also served as gover nor of the South Georgia District of Civitan Clubs. Thomason also is a member of the Pinnacle Club, Landmark Bap tist Church and the Old Towne Neighborhood Association. Coretta Scott King still pushing Martin’s dream Page 1 ATLANTA—Seventeen years after her husband’s death, Coretta Scott King still lives in his shadow; her office overlooks the park where his crypt lies near a reflec ting pool. She has devoted herself to establishing the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, a sls million monument to the man historian Theodore White calls “the first Black in American history who you cannot erase from the story of our nation.” Mrs. King lobbied' for years to NAACP angered by moving of labor pools The Presidents of two Augusta civil rights groups called a press conference last Thursday to voice their “disgust” at a city decision to bar unofficial labor pools from gathering on a downtown street and stated that they were con sidering legal action. “The Augusta Chapter of the NAACP alpng with the Committee for Concerned Citizens are distur bed and we are disgusted,” said NAACP President Harry B. James 111 at the press conference held to protest the city’s actions. On Last Wednesday, the Augusta police told a group of men standing near the Georgia Department of Labor building at 6th and Greene streets that they had to leave the site, and warned them not to return. No arrests were made, but police took down the names and ad dresses of at least 10 of those who were standing near the building, according to James. The officers were acting on an order from Mayor Charles DeVaney, who had received a request from Department of Labor Widow still seeks King’s goals Jess to come nome Monday night Page 2 January 19,1985 president; Verma Curtis, second vice president; Dr. LeJeune Brown, third vice president; Charles Williams, secretary; and Rosa Spring, treasurer. make sure the nation never forgets: A federal holiday honoring the assissinated civil rights leader star ts next year. Already, the anniver sary of King’s birthday —he would have been 56 January 15th— will be celebrated in 25 states, and in cities from San Diego to Chicago; many schools, offices and businesses will close. Coretta Scott King is still in the business of making her husband’s dreams come true. For 15 years, Mrs. King —the daughter of a Southern family that officials that groups of people no longer be allowed to congregate by their building, DeVaney said. For several years, the site has served as a place where unem ployed citizens can meet people who want to hire short term help, James said. Many of the people who meet there may have been unable to find work through the Labor Department, and are willing to work for less than the minimum wage, he said. James noted that the men were on public property and were not breaking any laws. “Their only crime is that they are poor and unemployed,” he said. By asking them to leave the area, the police department was violating the men’s constitutional rights to freedom of assembly and freedom of association, James said. DeVaney said he took the action after receiving complaints from Labor officials that the large groups were causing traffic hazar ds —when trucks stopped in the street to pick up workers— and that some of the men had verbally Less than 75 percent Advertising scraped by working a small plot of land outside Marion, Ala., during the worst years of segregation —took a back seat as her husband became a national leader. She traveled with him occasionally but made their four children her primary responsibility. When her husband was shot in 1968, “my whole life changed,” says Mrs. King, 57. Today, she is sensitive about being recognized for her own accomplishments, in cluding the founding and presiden cy of King Center —not simply as King’s widow. harrased employees and patrons of the Labor Department. DeVaney conceded that the men were breaking no laws, but added that he stands by his decision to prevent people from gathering by the Labor building. “All I suggested is that they move to another location off a major thoroughfare,” he said. “I think we have the duty to prevent the citizens of the city from being harassed.” James said, “It was overkill.” He said the actions of a few should not require that the entire group be forced to leave. James said the NAACP was ready to seek an injunction against the city if officials continue to bar groups from gathering at the site. “We will support any workers who are out there trying to get em ployment to support their families,” he said. Committee of Concerned Citizens President Leonardo Eubanks-Stern said his group backed the NAACP’s statements. Another issue the groups are concerned with is the city’s ney chooses i nomason for Ist Ward seat Page 1 Paine students urged to lead purposeful lives Paine College students were told Tuesday that they have been called co live purposeful lives. Dr. Thelma J. Dudley, presiden ts of the Women’s Missionary Council of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, said that get ting an education is “big business.” “You have been called. The world needs you. The nation needs you. The race needs you. I need you.” She challenged the students to plan their lives so well that they have a vision of what it will be like. “Circumstances may alter the pat tern we have designed, but we don’t throw away the plan.” Noting that Martin Luther King tried to make his dreams a reality, Dr. Dudley said that “a man who has no aim not only leaves no name, but—ten to one—he leaves a record of shame. “It is better to die in strife than to glide with the stream and lead a purposeless life. “It is better to climb and fall than never to strive at all,” she continued. “Dr. Benjamin Mays said, ‘You are what you aspire to be. You are what you do with your mind and what you do with your youth.’” Former President Jimmy Carter, who has known Mrs. King for many years, says: “Coretta tends to submerge her own ambitions and characteristics, perhaps somewhat excessively, to play the very important role of continuing to represent her husband. 1 see this as unselfish and generous, but it makes it difficult to see the in timate side of her.” The result is a woman who seems passionate about public policy and blase about her own lite. removal of public benches in the Greene •Street median near the Labor Department building. Ine benches were installed with federal grant funds to beautify the city and therefore belong to the taxpayers, James said. Their removal, he said, shows the “Meanness and the callousness of the city administration.” He added that only those benches ad jacent to the Labor Department had been removed. DeVaney said the benches were removed because they had lately become a haven for vagrants who used them as beds, and that he would rather remove the benches than have to make arrests. It is possible the benches will be replaced at a later date, he said. DeVaney said he would nave no objection to job-seekers gathering at a spot where they would not in terrupt traffic or disturb passers by. Richmond County Human Relations Commission Chairman Frank Thomas said about 10 people have contacted his office to find out where they can meet to find temporary jobs. 30C