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News—Review - June 24, 1971, THE NEWS-REVIEW PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY 930 Gwinnett Street - Augusta, Georgia Mallory K. Millender Editor and Publisher Mailing Address: Box 953 Augusta, Ga. Phone 722-4555 Application to mail at Second Class postage rates is pending at Augusta. Ga. 30901 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Payable in Advance One Year in Richmond County $2.50 tax incl. One Year elsewhere $3.00 tax incl. ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT Classified Advertising Deadline 12 noon On '1 uesday Display Advertising Deadline 12 noon On '1 uesday Office Hours - 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mon, thru. Fri. URBAN LEAGUE REPORT As a community service the News-Review will print the entire text of the report and recommendations of the National Urban League concerning the causes of the events of May 11, 1970. It should be made perfectly clear that the text of this report has not been edited or otherwise altered in anyway. Since the report is too lengthy to be printed in one issue, we will print it in a weekly series. We urge you to read it and carefully consider the information found therein so that we may begin to work seriously toward meaningful progress in race relations and human dignity. RACE RELATIONS AS REFLECTED IN SAMPLINGS FROM INTERVIEWS An assessment of human relations between blacks and whites in any community depends largely on two factors: (1) The honesty and validity of sources from which information is obtained. (2) The quality of the experience-base of those who collect and interpret the data. Should the sources utilized weigh too heavily in one direction or point of view of the community, the assessment is invariably skewed. Similarly, the results of an undertaking like a community audit is susceptible to being influenced by distortive forces, also. We have tried to control these distortive forces in this audit so that we might present a report that is as close to portraying the Augusta crisis in all of its dimensions as is humanly possible. Therefore, in our determination to conduct a meaningful community audit that is compatible with reality, the Audit Team canvassed a broad cross section of the Augusta community. Our research efforts brought us in contact with a large number of individuals and institution representatives. Moreover, what an interviewee would advance as a summary viewpoint on this aspect of the community’s structure was evaluated against a host of factors relating to the individual’s position in the community that could have influence in the shaping of his viewpoint. Thus, the data-collection plan, while not fully determining the “Who’s” contacted for information, did seek to understand as thoroughly as possible the “What’s” and “Why’s” relating to expressed views. As the overall content of this report is, in essence, an audit of the socio-economic life of the Augusta community, this particular section is included to reveal the divergence of opinions expressed to the Audit Team and also to suggest the extent to which polarization has created a community crisis in which most blacks and whites hold severely divergent views about the magnitude of the crisis which overtly manifested itself on May 11th. It must be borne in mind that the following comments are not representative of the interviews conducted or the institutions and organizations contacted in the audit. In our effort to learn just how blacks and whites feel about race relations in Augusta and Richmond County, more than one hundred fifty persons (equally divided racewise) were selected through a snowball referral approach. From a base group of ten citizens (five blacks and five whites) of varying political persuasions and all active in community affairs, each was asked to list the names of five additional persons in the community that they thought that the Urban League’s Audit Team interview. The names appearing most frequently were interviewed and they, were asked to list community notables - thereby creating a snowball effect! Once cited, all names remained in contention. Realizing that this technique had serious limitations, we conducted a random sample of names mentioned but not appearing with sufficient frequency in our earlier efforts to get to the “nitty-gritty” of community opinion. This second technique enabled us to get a generally ignored spectrum of community notables whose names do not appear in the newspapers or on radio and television but whose power and organizational skills are immense. To supplement this approach even more, we went into bars, pool rooms, dance halls, restaurants, barber shops, beauty shops, church suppers, community meetings, fraternal, business, social, and civic meetings to listen to the voices of the people. The following comments represent our attempt to record some of what emerged from the process described above. Minister: A prominent white minister observed “. . .that, generally speaking, the relations between whites and blacks in Augusta have been good. Many black leaders have high respectability, and some of the black ministers are not only good preachers but also scholars. When we had the recent racial conflict, I really didn’t think such a thing could happen here.” Businessman: A white businessman commented, “We’ve always had good working relations in our store between blacks and whites. It’s simply a few agitators that have come here recently and stirred things up.” Civic Leader ' We just don’t know what the Negro thinks or wants. I guess it’s a matter of communications. Witnout a doubt, blacks have grievances, but events like those of May 11th alienate many of those who have tried to be helpful.” Additionally, back copies of THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE, THE AUGUSTA JOURNAL, THE FREE PRESS, THE MIRROR, and THE VOICE were subjected to a content analysis in order to obtain baseline background information and to detect major conimum'.j themes and to identify individuals and/or organizations associated with community issues. The original group of community respondents was determined through this process. Page 2 Businessman: Another leader in the white business sector has his assessment thusly: “Since we integrated the stores, restaurants, theatres, etc., we’ve had no trouble here; but the May 11th racial flare-up has set race relations back in this city.” Social Scientist: A white social scientist is quoted in THE AUGUSTA JOURNAL as having said in an address before the Augusta Rotary Club: “What race relations in Augusta will be like in the future depends upon how blacks and whites solve racial problems that are evident in the metropolitan area today.” Basing his predictions on current trends at that time, the sociologist said, “The refusal or failure otherwise of both races to improve their relationship could lead to: (1) a greater polarization or drifting apart of blacks and whites; (2) widespread disturbance and confrontations emanating from extreme militants; but,” he continued, “It doesn’t have to be this way. We’ve still got time to work out these problems and live together in a happy community.” He further warned against “whites fooling themselves into thinking that Negroes are satisfied with the progress already made. We whites may be able to fool ourselves with such thoughts, but we can’t fool the Negro community.” Blacks are dissatisfied because some of their basic requests have been largely ignored, including pleas for better housing, water sewage service, rodent control and playground facilities for children in the slum areas.” Commenting further, the sociologist observed that “there has been a failure in the white community to realize that blacks want progress commensurate with the needs of the times and aren’t to be satisfied with token improvements.” He cited significant advances in race relations in Augusta over the past several years, but said, “despite the advances, there still exists a communication problem. We still haven’t learned to talk and understand each other.” Local Industrialist: One official of a major local industry, in referring to the six blacks who were killed by police during the May 11th disturbance exclaimed that “it’s too bad it wasn’t sixty instead of just six.” On the other hand, many of the whites interviewed expressed concern and regret over these killings. Newspaper Editor: A highly respected white newspaper official pointed out, “The years of slavery and general powerlessness and frustration account for much of the ‘new mood’ that many blacks express today. Broader and more meaningful communication between blacks and whites would help to repair some of the damage.” Business Officials: Six white business officials interviewed attributed the May 11th disturbance to “outside agitators,” while alarmingly few seemed to sense any connection between local discriminatory patterns and the May 11 th crisis. Newspaper Publisher: Notably, in this latter respect, a high official of one of the local newspapers who is identified by both local whites and blacks as the single most influential person in the city, and by most blacks as a “racist,” wrote in his May 25th edition of the newspaper with reference to the May 11th racial disturbance’ “... but then, one or two things stick out like a sore thumb; one is that not a single Negro leader has publicly apologized or said he was sorry; and secondly, on the contrary, the Negro leaders have tried to justify the riots, and have been trying to negotiate whith white authorities for a settlement.” Continuing, this official wrote, “The Negro leaders can’t hold themselves blameless.” Community Meetings: Black citizens interviewed or listened to in their community meetings appeared determined to see that their objectives were achieved. These objectives were articulated under the general heading of: better education, more desegregation, better jobs, improved housing, and better police protection with the elimination of police brutality. As the method generally expressed as best adapted to the fulfillment of these objectives, non-violence was most frequently identified. However, one black youth leader freely expressed the viewpoint that “most of the meaningful progress that we have made in Augusta has come through direct action accompanied with threats of violence.” Disenchanted Youth: Similar to urban communities across the nation, the most disenchanted segment of the Augusta community was found to be that of black youth. Innumerable grievances were expressed by these young people; however, in the main, they seemed aroused by experiences that have led to intense distrust of older black leaders, police brutality and a system of brainwashing educational institutions.” According to one of their spokesmen, “We have distrust for the ‘establishment’ and we question the value of studies (such as the Urban League Audit). What we need is action now! People are hungry; many are without homes; and alarming numbers are hungry -- yet, we are continually exploited.” Professionals: Many black professionals expressed concern over the plight of blacks who are caught up in the cycle of poverty and who daily experience hardships of poor housing and discrimination in employment. On the other hand, a significant number of black professionals suggest that race relations in the City of Augusta are as good, or better, than in most cities in Georgia, but that the recent killings have obviously ushered in a period of adverse effect and difficulty. A black lawyer summed up the situation as one greatly strained by the influence of three forces acting upon the community and affecting both whites and blacks. (1) Augusta, Georgia, is an extremely conservative community because of the influence of a major newspaper whose publisher has long wielded power in the shaping of white attitudes toward Negroes. (2) As a result of the role of this newspaper, public officials have established ceilings on opportunities for Negroes economically and educationally. (3) These ceilings have left blacks powerless in affecting change for their people, while that at the same time, have been led to believe otherwise. The comments derived from the aforementioned black citizens suggest in rather blatant terms the feeling of an immense void, despair, hopelessness, on the part of blacks, in their desire true racial equality and harmony in the Augusta area. GENERAL SUMMARIES AND RECOMMENDATIONS Recognizing the fact that many of the findings in this audit indicate inequitable conditions in Employment, Housing, Health, Welfare, Education, and in other areas as well, it is imperative that the city government move immediately to correct the long standing inequities between blacks and whites in the Augusta community. Therefore we recommend: 1. THAT the mayor, in cooperation with the City Council and County Commission and with the advice and counsel of the Survey Advisory Committee, appoint an Augusta-Richmond County Community Task Force and that appropriate legislation be enacted by the City Council and County Commission to give this Task Force subpoena powers to act on all problems involving discrimination. 2. THAT the Task Force be composed of not less than 21 nor more than 35 members and that emphasis should be placed on obtaining diverse representative group in terms of race, religion, national origin, and sex. TERMS OF OFFICE FOR MEMBERS 3. THAT the Mayor, in cooperation with the City Council "GOING PLACES” Cfc I ■MB - Philip Waring / GEORGIAN TO HEAD URBAN LEAGUE The nation is now well aware that the National Urban League Movement (NUL) has wisely chosen Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. as its national Executive Director. Here is a brilliant and able young Georgia lawyer with “an old, wise head on young shoulders” who has in eleven exciting years demonstrated outstanding effectiveness and success as a planner, an organizer in getting people and groups together for action programs, a civil rights leader and fund raiser on the state, regional and national level with the NAACP, OEO, Southern Regional Council, Southern Voter Education Project and United Negro College Fund. His selection augurs much good for the NUL Movement and should get excellent support and cooperation from the 98 local affiliates around the nation. I am personally proud of his selection because Mr. Jordan, like this columnist, is a native Georgian. And so is Louis Martin (Savannah), editor of the Sengstacke publications, veteran NUL Trustee and senior vice president, who headed the nine-member Search Committee. More on Louis Martin in another column. I first met Vernon Jordon some ten years ago while on vacation visiting relatives and friends in Augusta. It was no vacation time for him because he was mounting a civil rights demonstration which helped to lay the basis for breaking down decade-long barriers. This person to person civil rights experience under great pressure coupled with his NAACP break through with Charlyne Hunter at the University of Georgia have given him solid professional experience. OUTSTANDING SOCIAL WORKERS IN LEAGUE Over its 61-year history the NUL Movement has been fortunate in attracting an outstanding and devoted group of men and women on its staff. At a significant 50 Anniversary Program at the Atlanta University School of Social Work in 1970 Whitney Young praised our black forefathers in the social work profession and cautioned young people not to compare his current achievements with such men as Lester Granger and Forrester Washington. Mr. Young pointed out that these men and others were great men who functioned magnificently because great racial odds were stacked against them and their programs. Liberal whites aided the League in many different ways. NEED FOR URBAN LEAGUE HISTORY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE This gives me opportunity to share one of my favorite subjects: The need for our national community service agencies to give historical review of their personnel and programs. The NAACP has moved forward on this with its own history which highlights the activities of such men and women as: James Weldon Johnson, Walter White, Attorney Charles Houston and W.E.B. Dußois. I find more and more of the volunteers and young staff workers whom I am bringing into the NUL Movement anxious to learn more about the background of the organization and its personnel. We in the Urban League have a rich heritage, with men and women who have given many years to topflight leadership and service to the American Community. As example: Eugene K. Jones served as Executive (1914-41) until his retirement when Lester B. Granger (now often referred to as “The Elderstatesman of American Social Work”) handed the mantel over to Whitney Young in 1961. Many of us refer to the period 196070 as “The Golden Era” in Urban League history. Thanks to Mr. Young’s great leadership the Movement witnessed tremendous growth in the number of affiliated, budget, personnel, volunteers, influence in the American Community and enrichment of program thrust. History will surely remember him as one of our greatest and most effective social work executives and civil rights leaders. SUCCESSFUL ACTION AGAINST RACIAL ODDS As we move forward today to meet the crucial challenges of the 1970’5, we must not forget our past League heritage which started in 1910. Who are some of these men and women who worked so hard against such racial odds? We’ve already mentioned the beloved Eugene K. Jones (1914-41). Let us look at Lester B. Granger, Dartmouth graduate, combat officer in Europe during World War I, tennis champ, social worker and educator, womanizer, he has been associated in professional social work for fifty years and started with the League back in the 1920’5. He was the first black to serve as acting president of the American Assn, of Social Work back in the 1940’s and later became our first president of the Natl. Cons. On Social Welfare and International Cons. On Social Work. He gave excellent and dedicated leadership to the NUL. Os importance to Southerners is the name of Jesse O. Thomas, who organized the Atlanta School of Social Work in 1920 and started NUL’s Southern Office in Atlanta during the World War I era; then there is Julius A. Thomas, NUL Director of Industrial Relations, who opened more job opportunities for blacks than any other man; Miss Ann Tennehill, who organized a national network of career guidance programs for minority youth which is useful even today and Nelson C. Jackson, who mounted family life and community organization projects. Also Guichard Parris, astute P.R. Director. Listed on the roster of those who helped to build the League and serve the American Community are: Charles Johnson, Ira Reid and E. Franklin Franklin, whose early research surveys formed the basis for organizing local Urban League affiliates in many states; Elmer Carter, editor of the NUL magazine, “OPPORTUNITY”. In those days the poems and writings of and County Commission appoint a Task Force chairman, vice chairman, secretary, and other officers deemed advisable by the Task Force. 4. THAT the Task Force have the following duties and functions: a. To work towards the implementation of the general and specific recommendations of this audit, and b. To encourage, promote, and develop fair and equal treatment and opportunity for all persons regardless of race, color, creed, sex, or national origin, and c. To coordinate and assist local governmental agencies and commissions in their efforts to promote better human relations, and to cooperate with community, professional and religious organizations, Federal agencies, and other community groups in the development of public information programs and other activities in the interest of equal opportunity and justice, and d. To periodically (at least quarterly) report activities of the Task Force to the Mayor, the City Council and County SEE URBAN LEAGUE Page 6 Ijßmm QS THE ANGUISHED VOICE OF THE BLACK PANTHERS THE GREAT AGONIZING WAILING OF ALL BLACK AMERICANS?) There is a heated controversy going on in the nation, that the contumacious action of the Panthers is mostly bravado and ghetto rhetoric. If the tough talk of this handful of mad youths is a replica of novelist Wright’s “Negative Son” walking hard and talking loud, did not attract much support among the masses of black, they certainly engendered sympathy from a great segment. The majority of blacks were too busy making a living to think about radical ideology. These courageous and supercilious young souls with their dashing uniforms, proclaimed the same rage that Nat Turner and Fredrick Douglas experienced. Black people as a whole at some time in their lives, are forced to revert to the same kind of rage that the Panthers live by, here in America; for instance, when four little girls in the 16th Street Baptist Church, on that infamous Sunday morning in Birmingham were brutally murdered; or the young girl graduate on her way home in Blair Mississippi was shot down senselessly. Many persons both white and black ask who are the Panthers, and what is their history? In 1966, Huey Newton, and his buddy Bobby Seale, decided to test Oakland’s liberality by trying out a real terror confrontation upon the city’s establishment. They bought copies of Mao Tse-Tung’s celebrated little red books of quotations for 30 cents and sold them for one dollar apiece to radical students at the University of California. They used the profits to buy guns. These two rebels were real smart in public relations, and masters of violent verbosity. The news media was very much responsible for building up their image. Newton and Seale published newsletters every week, and followed the Oakland Police around with lawbooks as well as guns to make sure they were not brutal to suspects. The self-styled sub-police invaded the California Legislature with guns flashing to protest a proposed gun control bill. They carried guns and said it was in self-defense. The party never numbered more than a few thousand nationwide, but the very sight of blacks carrying guns irritated both whites and blacks. Two young knowledgeable persons have written books on the Panthers activities, both are journalistically connected. Gilbert Moore, a black newsman was sent by Life Magazine as a member of that prestigeous publication’s staff to cover Huey Newton’s trial in California in 1967. The other is Gail Sheehy, a white girl, covering the New Haven murder trial of Alex Rackley, which caused the arrest of several Panthers including the party’s national chairman, Bobby Seale. The charges against Mr. Seale were dropped recently, after a New Haven jury could not reach a verdict. Miss Sheehy was assigned in the spring of 1970 to cover the trial for a New York Magazine. She writes, “I was just as taken up with the Panthers’ cause as anyone else; but what confounded me was the way the legions of white students supported the Panthers, oblivious to the facts: “A real murder had been committed, and two men had already confessed to it.” Miss Sheehy further pointed out, “That while the media seemed so transfixed with the Panthers, teen-age black gangs in Chicago were engaging in virtually ignored gunplay of much more impressive scale. In the first months of 1970, for example, 64 young blacks died in Chicago gang warfare, and no less than 12 police officers were shot to death in gang incidents.” Mr. Moore writes, “The uniformed Black Panthers proclaim the same rage the rest of us feel but, for one cop-out or another do not show. Eldridge Cleaver is skilled in expressing that rage; most of us are skilled in suppressing it.” These two unbiased writers seems to complement each other on the central premise that racism is rampart in America, and no one has the answer that might correct its unfairness, or repair the damage it has wrought. Is all of this rage a political phenomenon, the possible forerunner of a gigantic scheme, using mad groups, both white and black preparing to destroy the American way of life? blacks just were not accepted in American magazines and publications. Thus we had “OPPORTUNITY”. LOCAL LEAGUES PLAYED IMPORTANT ROLE The local League affiliates form the other half of the NUL Movement. Many of its local Executives acquired 25 to 40 year service records. Who are some of these men and women? Mrs. Grace Hamilton served Atlanta well and long before retiring and moving on into the Georgia House of Representatives; The fabled Edwin “Bill” Berry took the Chicago League from a slow moving agency with a $75,000 budget to that of one and a half million dollars when he retired in 1970. They are now serving one million blacks in Chicago; M. Leo Bohanon, St. Louis NUL, who helped to expand that affiliates Block Vote program into the nation’s largest self-help neighborhood organization; and “Uncle” John Dancy, Detroit, who opened the giant automobile industry to blacks. A few other Executives include: Wiley Hall, Richmond; R. Maurice Moss, Pittsburgh and NUL; James Hulbert, Edward S. Lewis and Robert Elsey, New York and Brooklyn; Nimrod B. Allen, Columbus; William Asby and Harold Lett of New Jersey, Miller Barbour, Denver and NUL West Coast office and Robert Small of Warren, Ohio. Many of us feel that in addition to the forthcoming history of the Urban League there should be an on-going Commission On Urban League History to help young blacks and and liberal whites to become better informed of contributions of blacks to American social work. ALL CARS CARRY 24 MONTH WARRANTY. CAN BE BOUGHT FOR NOTHING DOWN. LEE BAGWELL MOTORS, INC. 1424 GORDON HIGHWAY NEXT TO HYDE PARK PHONE 793-2283 Walking WITH DIGNITY BY Al IRBY