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Republicans show plan to weaken Black leadership Page 1 VOLUME 14 NUMBER 3 7 Gilbert Manor won’t be sold if majority of residents object Residents of the Gilbert Manor Housing Project could halt the sale of the property to the Medical College of Georgia if they oppose the sale, J. Madden Reid, director of the Augusta Housing Adthority said Tuesday. “If we had 75 percent of the residents to oppose, that would kill (the proposed sale). If the majority of them opposed it we would honor their wishes, but they sup port it. “Our surveys show that they’re pleased with this. I have yet to receive the first complaint from a resident.” He said he has asked the names of residents opposed to the sale, but has received none. Reid made his comments in response to a news conference held about an hour earlier by the Georgia Legal Services and respresentatives of the NAACP, who say the tenants have been misled. Republicans reveal plan to weaken Black leadership By Juan Williams Washington Post Staff Writer The Reagan White House is moving on a new plan to blur its differences with Blacks that in volves assailing established Black leaders as salesmen of failed policies and appealing to the Black middle class on grounds that it can greatly benefit from the Reagan agenda. Early signs of the offensive were visible when President Reagan met with Black business people and academics two weeks ago to discuss possible government spurs to investment in Black com munities. Then he surprised even his aides by saying in an interview Jan. 18 that he sees no value in talking to current Black leaders. Their main interest, he said, is to stir up their troops and hold onto their “rather good positions” in stead of hearing his proposals for solving social problems. “There are two ways to ap proach Blacks after a victory of the magnitude we had,” says a White House adviser. “One is to say the heck with them, and the other is to say it’s an opportunity for a cease fire. “The Blacks took their best shot at us, nine of 10 voted against us, and we won easily....We can say come join the winners now. Forget leaders from another time who don’t have any new ideas, who lost this year and who are going to lose Congress pushes for civil rights bill WASHINGTON—LiberaI mem bers of the House and Senate said they would push for passage of the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1985 that would overturn last year’s Supreme Court decision restricting anti-discrimination law to specific programs receiving federal money. “The clear message of the bill we are introducing today is that federal aid must not be used in any way, shape or form to subsidize discrimination,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., one of the key sponsors. The Supreme Court ruling at issue involved Grove City College in Pennsylvania and limited the clout of the 1972 civil riehts law Stye Augusta Neuis-Heuteui Ozell Hudson Jr., managing at torney for the Augusta Office of the Georgia Legal services, said the purpose of his news conference was to bring attention to the fact that the sale has not been approved although some of the Gilbert Manor Residents believe that it has and they have moved out. Hudson said that HUD officials told him that the Augusta Housing Authority “hasn’t even applied for approval ” Tn for to be completed. HUD must deter mine that the sale is in the best in terest of the tenants. He said that the Housing Authority has talked about the sale being in the best in terest of the Medical College of Georgia. Hudson siad tenants are told the 42-year-old project cannot be renovated yet Congress has allot ted more than $1.5 billion for modernization which the Housing Authority could use for in 1988.” The administration plan, accor ding to White House officials, is to portray Black leaders as a group without muscle in either party at a time when many Democrats are saying that their party needs to play down connections with Blacks and appeal to whites. Meanwhile, the officials say, the ad ministration plans to emphasize the “common ground” where Republicanism can benefit Blacks. A secondary reason, some of ficials say, is to play down Blacks as the central symbol in the “fair ness” argument—concern over the impact of budget cuts on the poor. According to a memo prepared for Reagan by James W. Cicconi, a special assistant to the president, the administratoin could send its message to Blacks through proposals such as lower minimum wages for youths to help decrease Black unemplyment; renewed sup port for enterprise zones to rebuild Black neighborhoods; housing vouchers to allow the poor to shop for housing, and increased assistance to crime victims, who most often are Blacks in crime ridden areas. The administration plans to start its work with Blacks by appealing to receptive pockets of Black Americans, mainly business banning sex discrimination by educational institutions. In its 1984 decision, the high court said the govarument could cut off federal fund* only to specific education programs that failed to meet federal standards and not an entire institution. The administration has said it would use the ruling as am munition in other civil rights cases. Civil rights groups maintained the ruling jeopardized the rights of many people. The legislation to broaded civil rights protection of millions of women, minorities, the handicap ped and elderly was introduced last Ihursday in the House, and is ex pected to be introduced next week Mayor reverses stance on Greene St. workers Page 1 rehabilitation. Reid said it is unlikely that Augusta could get modernization money since it has received such funds only twice since 1969. Hudson, who was joined at the news conference by NAACP Vice President Charlie Moore and at torney Ronald Garnett, head of the NAACP’s Legal Redress Committee, said he and Garnett asked the Housing Authority for a copy of the application and the relocation plan but have received no response. He said that the Housing Authority is required to assure HUD that it will maintain the same amount of low-income housing stock. Hudson declined to say how many Gilbert Manor residents he represents, adding “Let’s just say more than five.” He said he would not name them for fear of reprisals against them. He said the tenants have not people. It expects that inroads made with that group will spread to professional and middle-class Blacks wh may be beneficiaries of the economic recovery and thus in clined to support the president ex cept for their racial loyalties. Administration officials believe that enough Blacks are in middle income brackets to provide a target audience for their appeal, and that the audience is influential enough to provide a target audience for their appeal, and that the audience is influential enough to start reshaping Blacks’ opinions about Reagan and the Republican Party. In 1983, of about 7 million Black families, 1.8 million, or more than one-fourth, had incomes of more than $25,000a year, which was roughly the median income for American society as a whole. “We want to segment the Black community essentially the same way we segment the rest of America ,” says Steven J. Rhodes, assistant to the vice president for domestic policy. “You wouldn’t see the president going out to talk to (liberal white women), so why should he go to the Urban League and the NAACP where we know we can’t agree. We don’t get anything from those groups but grief, so why give them a platform? What we want to do is in the Senate. But a battle looms over the score of the legislation. Senate Republican leader Robert Dole of Kansas introduced a separate bill backed by the ad ministration, and said: “I would hope we could finally resolve this issue and do it as one of the priority items early this year.” While House spokesman Larry Speakes said later the ad ministraton “fully supports” the Dole bill “and will work to see the legislation enacted in the Congress.” He said in a statement the past Congress almost completed “the task of developing an acceptable response to the Grove City College Blacks outgain | whites o SAT Page 3 | February 9,1985 been given adequate information about the sale,and no assurance of adequate new housing. If they move out before the sale, they are told they will get no assistance. Hudson said the tenants move because they think the project has been sold and they will be left with no place to go. He said that 39 of the 278 units are vacant and he has been told that the Housing Authority plans to keep them vacant until all the tenants have moved out. “It is a travesty to keep 39 units vacant when they have so many people on the waiting list they can’t even place them. They haven’t even submitted an ap plication and the process may take one or two years to get approval, not to mention how much time it will take to complete the sale.” Hudson said that the tenants don’t have to move. They are en titled to their units unless the identify groups with the same preferences.” Rhodes says ad ministration officials might speak to groups of Black insurance agen ts, morticians and bankers, or at a Black business school The response to the unveiling of the White House strategy had been skeptical. Eddie Williams, head of the Joint Cneter for Political Studies, which focuses on Blacks and politics, says the White House is correct when it argues that there is a potential audience among con servative Blacks. But he says the White House is wrong in un derestimating Black concern about civil rights. He says an August Gallup poll showed that 72 percent of Blacks, along with 31 percent of whites, see Reagan as “prejudiced.” “This is what white racists have done from time immemorial; they try to pick Black people’s leaders for them...,” says Roger Wilkins, a former assistant attorney genreal. “They don’t see themselves and their strategies as racist because they’re willing to sit down with Black businessmen,” says Democratic Rep. Ronald V. Dellums of California. “But they’re not so quick to sit down with the poor and the hungry....” decision and there is no good reason why” the current Congress “cannot finish this work by enac ting the legislation introduced today.” “I am confident that this will happen so long as no efforts are made to alter the legislation’s fun damental purpose or add to it needlessly crippling amendments that go beyond the careful reversal of Grove City” contained in the Dole bill. Dole’s bill would ban discrimination in education in stitutions receiving any federal money, but would not specifically address other kinds of institutions. “In recent weeks, we have heard the suggestion from some who pay I Augustan is / , z , Essence ' ‘ I" L Jj! V c or I Less than 75 percent Advertising Housing Authority has other reasons such as failure to pay rent. “We want people to know that they have rights that haven’t been protected.” He said that Reid has given the tenants until October 1985 to move, and some of the units have been boarded up and the Housing Authority has removed the ap pliances. “This is really nothing new in regard to how housing authorities do in trying to get rid of a project. Housing Authority officials ad mitted that no application has been filed and said attorneys are in the process of negotiating a sales con tract. Tom Mcgee, assistant director of the Housing Authority, said that 39 units remain vacant in an ticipation of the sale, and “because we anticipate that it will be approved, we’re not assigning anybody. We’re saying, ‘Would Black perspective needed Editorial The County Com mission’s decision Tues day to hire Robert N. Dixon, associate superin tendent of schools, as county administrator, creates an opportunity for the appointment of a Black to fill that position. The student population of Richmond County schools is now 52 percent Black, and it is essential that a Black be hired at that level ifnot at the level of superintendent. It is Mayor reverses stance on Greene Street workers The Augusta Police Chief has informed an attorney for casual workers removed from the spot on 6th and Greene streets where they congregated in hope, of finding temporary work that the police department will no longer enforce Mayor Charles A. DeVaney’s directive to move the men, accor ding to Georgia Legal Services manager Ozell Hudson. Hudson said that he sent a cer tified letter to Police Chief M.D. Philpot asking if the mayor had changed his stance, and was told lip service to civil rights that a narrov bill can achieve the same result,” Kennedy said. “Half-way measures and half hearted support for civil rights are not a satisfactory response by Congress, and we will not be party to such a charade,” he added. Although the high court ruling has not yet been used to challenge other kinds of cases, Sen Paul Simon, D-lIL, said it had the potential to do great damage. “We want to lock the barn door before the horse gets out,” Simon said. Congress tried last year to pass legislation to overturn the Supreme Court ruling, but the effort failed when a compromise proposal was you like to move?’ and we’re assisting with expenses. He said he was not aware of an October 1985 deadline for moving. Reid said that there was no need to file an application unless there is a firm buyer and that an announ cement of such a buyer will come in 10 to 12 days. “We have nothing to hide. Tenants have told the outside press ‘We trust you and we support what you’re doing. He (Hudson) has no clients. He’s hiding behind the NAACP. They’re not interested in helping the poor. They’re interested in prolonging their agency. “They frustrate me because they hide under the pretense of helping the poor. We’re helping the poor and our deeds speak a lot louder than their words.... I think this is a dying gasp for them. This is one area (Legal Services) I hope Mr. Reagan cuts out of the budget.” equally important that a Black be chosen who will indeed reflect and ar ticulate the Black per spective. Without that perspec tive, the race of the superintendent would matter little. However, we believe that it matters a great deal. And the Richmond county school system owes it to the people to have the broadest perspective possible. that “my understanding was correct.” He said that the Department of Labor asked the Augusta Police Department to move the men in January, which constituted a violation of his client’s freedom of speech, assembly and contract. Hudson, who said he represen ted at least 10 Black men, added that all of his clients have suffered financial loss as a result of their removal from 6th and Greene. Hudson also requested that the public benches be returned to the site. derailed in the Senate. Opponents of the legislation argured that overturning the Supreme Court ruling and man dating broader civil rights coverage would increase federal intrusion into the lives of Americans. They maintained, for instance, that a “Mom and Pop” grocery store accepting foood stamps would be forced to build wheelchair ramps to avoid discrimination against the han dicapped. But Sen. Lowell Weicker, R- Conn., said the Grove City decision “left it to Congress to stand up and be counted on the issue of- tax-supported discriminaton.” 300