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News—Review, July 8, 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 Auguste, 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 Tuesday Display Advertising Deadline 12 noon On Tuesday 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. RECOMMENDATIONS 2. We strongly recommend the formation of a “legally defined” Blue Ribbon Commission supported and endorsed by both City and County to relate solely to matters of minority employment as it affects the whole of Augusta and Richmond County in both public and private sectors. We would further suggest that this body be composed of a cross section of the community with membership limited to individuals with specific skills, interests, and understanding of Augusta minority employment problems. This commission should be empowered with the rights of subpoena and funded to provide staff and technical assistance resources. Public Sector Virtually no department in both the City and County including the administrative offices of both the Mayor and the County Commission, employs minorities in any official, supervisory or management capacity. As stated earlier, it is C* extremely difficult for local government to effectively prod the < Y'- > Chamber of Commerce and related local business and industry <4- toward the enhancement of minority employee upward job mobility, if, in fact, local governments are not attempting to do .likewise. It is apparent that this is the situation in Augusta and County. In essence, minority visibility in any paid I \ official, professional or supervisory capacity with a few lone Q.' exceptions is non-existent in the Augusta community. -0 With this in mind, the following actions should be taken: 2. The Mayor, endorsed by the City Council and the County Commission, should issue a blanket policy statement on the commitment of local government to achieve equal employment opportunities. 3. It is imperative that the local government improve its image in the black communities. Therefore, we recommend an immediate recruitment program which reflects the commitment of the City and County governments to eliminate racial discrimination in employment. 4. Community resources, such as churches, schools, civic and social groups, should be notified by letter of this intent and encouraged to assist the government in publicizing this policy. 5. All government publications should express the equal opportunity employer caption. Public information efforts through the television, newspapers and particularly minority owned and oriented radio stations should be utilized and enhanced with spot news releases on job openings, interviews with department heads, etc., again promoting the aims of equal opportunity employment. 6. The City of Augusta and Richmond County should completely re-evaluate and update its testing program to insure its tests, if necessary are actually job related. If, as in many jobs within the City and the County, verbal and written skills are not essential, other job-related activities such as performance test should be administered. 7. We recommend that the City and County governments establish the aforementioned program immediately and that the Personnel Departments be required to publicly make quarterly reports on the number of minority persons hired and upgraded by individual departments. Private Sector and Fort Gordon Many of the recommendations offered for the public sector can well, and should be incorporated in the private sector and the Fort Gordon complex as part and parcel of their respective concerns and commitments to minority employment needs in the community. Over and above these recommendations, we feel that the private sector and Fort Gordon can and should begin to immediately implement the following activities: 3. Initiate, immediately, activities through the already recommended reports (Augusta Minority or EEOC Commission) to design with the Chamber of Commerce a National Alliance of Businessmen concept or branch for the City of Augusta. Technical ass : .. -.ice can be provided for this program by regional and local sources, primarily Region IV, Manpower Division, U.S. Department of Labor and the local Augusta Employment Security Agency along with the Southern Regional Office, National Urban League of Atlanta, Georgia. 9. A series of business and education sponsored seminars to acquaint high school vocational guidance counselors and administrators with business and industrial needs desiene' 1 to Page 2 improve preparation and motivation of minority persons for jobs currently available in the Augusta labor force. 10. A series of sensitivity training programs designed primarily for middle management and supervisory levels should be initiated. Their purpose should be to create a meaningful understanding of the wants and needs of the current minority work force and the aspirations of the entry-level minority. We recommend this as an “in-house approach” which can be designed to abort negative attitudes and polarization of communication which prevails in many business and industrial firms. 11. Sponsor manpower development seminars which should seek a better appreciation and understanding of a wide range of training programs each of which may make possible the employment of minority unemployment and under-employment and even those defined by many as unemployable. 12. Time after time, during our stay in Augusta (particularly at Fort Gordon) we heard, “I’d like to hire them (minorities) if I could find them.” We have spent some time in our earlier recommendations to the city and county insisting on the usage of “believable” public relations directed toward minorities. However, the use of publicity is not always sufficient to do the job particularly among reaching minorities who see no current “image” projection in advertisements of job openings. We are recommending personal visits on the part of hiring institutions to the various institutions of the applicants’ environment (schools, churches, etc.) including even the home. This may seem extremely innovative, but this type of follow-through is important if Augusta is to reach individuals whose work experiences actually have built a wall of hopelessness. The aim of such an effort is to communicate the impression that someone cares enough to personally reach out to them with a message that things have changed and that jobs and training opportunities are actually available to them. 13. The Augusta Minority Employment Commission concept, if adopted, should initiate, annually, Career or job Fairs on a decentralized or neighborhood basis geared to the needs of the minority community. They should be broadly sponsored and publicized by the individual companies participating and utilize local minority group members who can exemplify a “success” image to aspiring minority job seekers. 14. In various sections of our research, we have developed extreme concern over the merits of, or need for, some testing measures that, in many instances, test minorities out of a job rather than in one. We would recommend that testing measures for minorities, if used at all, should be job-related and designed to discover hidden aptitudes and capabilities not readily apparent or measurable in the traditional testing patterns of the past. Tests should be administered only when they are helpful adjuncts in the hiring decision-making process. In some cases although tests may have potential value a minority person because of previous discouraging experiences have developed a negative attitude towards testing. Therefore employers can assist in developing test readiness by practice testing, orientation and group discusssion. HOUSING Summary The lack of adequate housing for all of Augusta’s citizenry is critical. Many of the physical results of past discriminatory practices in planning and building decisions serve as proof that a carefully controlled system is not necessarily sensitive to human or aesthetic considerations. Vast areas of the city--from Aragon, Hyde Park, Nellieville and Twiggs Street to Hicks Street, Weed Street and out into Richmond County - are characterized by dwelling units housing thousands of families which are crowded, dilapidated, unsanitary and inhumane by American standards. Public and private programs are not noticeably improving the relative ratio of good to bad housing. As old, deteriorated neighborhoods are demolished, many families and individuals are shunted into newer and cleaner, but more crowded and less understanding, atmospheres in public housing; or if they drift from the city into what some Richmond County residents have described as not much more than huts or hovels. The failure of private and governmental leadership to aggressively support programs aimed at providing new, decent, safe and sanitary housing throughout the SMSA has allowed more affluent citizens to assume that the token efforts to date are satisfactory. Transition neighborhoods, growing racially inpacted areas, and insensitive school, water and sewer, transportation, and employment planning impinge negatively upon the black community. Recommendations 1. Regional planning and Augusta-Richmond County Planning Commission staffs should be combined as a CSRA Planning Commission and should serve as the official planning body for the region. 2. All existing advisory committees and commissions relating to Housing should be dissolved. An Augusta-Richmond County Housing Task Force should be established. The task force should be directed to study plan and assist in implementation of Housing programs to solve housing-related problems in the community. The Planning Commission staff should serve as staff to task force. 3. A full scale, door to door survey of existing housing and land use characteristics in the Augusta-Richmond County area should be conducted immediately. All rezoning and planning programs should be frozen until adequate, accurate data is available for proper priority consideration. , 4. A Community Relations Commission should be named immediately. Primary directives to this community Relations Commission should include (1) drafting a fair housing law for Augusta and Richmond County: (b) evaluating social aspects of all governmental housing ;id ling/land use concerns; and (c) design ani implementation a n.ighborhood stabilizations program. 5. The Task Force and Planning Commission should move immediately to evaluate housing plans and programs and their relationship to code enforcement, urban renewal, public housing and FHA insuring programs as operative in the area. Support for increased use of FHA subsidy programs must be generated. 6. A concentrated Code Enforcement Program must be immediately initiated in all areas with unhealthy, dilapidated housing. 7. The placement system and waiting list of the Augusta Housing Authority should be changed at once. Housing projects should not be maintained as segregated facilities. 8. All Commission, Council and Task Force meetings (including committee and subcommittee meetings) should be planned, announced and opened to the public. EDUCATION SUMMARY COLLEGES Three institutions of higher learning are located in Augusta - Paine College (a church-related institution), Augusta College (A Vo ATLANTA (PRN) - As I have mentioned before, it is very encouraging for me to see the enthusiastic support and cooperation that the heads of major departments are giving to the Re-organization study. An excellent example is Labor Commissioner’s Sam Caldwell. Although he had some strong reservations about the idea several months ago, I recently received a letter from Sam strongly endorsing Re-organization and pledging his support to it. He was especially complimentary of the young men who make up the study team and I share that high opinion. Many of you may remember that during the past legislative session I reduced the budget estimate by ten million dollars. Since our Constitution prevents the Legislature from appropriating more money than we expect to have on hand, this meant that there was less money to be spent. At the time there were some anguished howls from a few. In addition we substantially reduced the allocation to the various departments - below what had been appropriated to them in 1970. This reduction amounted to about fifteen to twenty million dollars. Needless to say, there were a few unhappy protests. Well, we ended the fiscal year last week and found that even the estimate reduced by ten million dollars was about fourteen million dollars too high. Had it not been for these reductions we would have found ourselves almost twenty-five million dollars over-spent. unit of the University System of Georgia), and Medical College of Georgia (a state-supported professional school). These colleges are fully accredited and had a combined enrollment in excess of 4,000 students for the 1969-70 school year. Minority group f students constituted approximately 6 percent of the enrollment at Augusta College, .9 of 1 percent at Medical College of Georgia, and .5 of 1 percent at Paine College. Paine College was the only institution of higher learning with a significant degree of integration. 1 ) . Q, PAROCHIAL AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS There were seven parochial and private schools in operation, five elementary and two secondary schools, with a combined enrollment of 2,344 for the 1969-70 school year. In only two of these institutions were there any student desegration and there were no minority group faculty members at either of the seven schools. PUBLIC SCHOOLS Tire Richmond County Board of Education operated forty elementary schools, six junior high schools, and seven senior high schools. The Board also operated in cooperation with the Georgia State Board for Vocational Education the Augusta Area Technical School. Os the forty elementary schools, twenty-seven* had desegregated student bodies, three were all-white, and ten were all-black. The faculties of twenty-nine of the elementary schools were desegregated**, one has an all-white faculty and ten had all-black faculties. Five of the six junior high schools had integrated student bodies; however, one of these had two minority group members enrolled and another had only three. One of the junior high schools had an all-black enrollment. Faculty desegregation would have to be classified as token in the five of the six junior high schools had only two minority group members and one had four. Os the seven senior high schools, one had an all-black enrollment and six had racially-mixed enrollments. Three of these had minority group enrollments of one, two, and nine, respectively. Faculty desegregation in the senior high schools was token in nature. One school had only four minority teachers, three had three each, one had two, and two had only one. In the predominatly white branches of the technical school, there was only one black faculty member out of a total of sixty-two. On the administrative staff of the Richmond County Board of Education, there was no black representation. RECOMMENDATIONS (1) The Richmond County Board of Education is composed of 16 members, only two of whom are black. The fact that the enrollment for the 1969-70 school year was approximately 63 per cent white and 37 percent black warrants a higher percentage of black representation. Prior to 1952, board members were elected by vote of the residents of their respective wards and districts. After the election of the first black man to membership on the board, this method was changed by Act of the Georgia Legislature to a system of city-wide and county-wide voting on candidates for membership on the Board of Education. The prevailing system makes it extremely difficult if not absolutely impossible to increase black representation. It is recommended, therefore, that city and county officials take immediate steps, through the appropriate representatives in the State Legislature, to enact legislation which will restore the old method of voting by wards and districts. This appears to be the only means whereby equitable representation by blacks on the Board of Education can be realized. Once this is accomplished, it is further recommended that well-qualified black candidates be identified and, at the appropriate time, vigorous campaigns be waged by black and white organizations and groups interested in greater black representation on the Richmond County Board of Education. ♦7 schools had from 1 to 3 minority group students. *♦l3 schools had one minority group faculty member, 12 had two, and 3 had three. (2) The absence of black administrative personnel in the central office of the Richmond County Board of Education to the People of GEORGIA During the past campaign, I promised to bring to taxpayers an approach to government spending. These cuts are an example of that and I believe this is what you want to see in government. On August Ist we will release approximately 900 or more carefully screened prison inmates as a first step in a program designed to save money for the state and provide a new life for those who have previously violated the law. A similar group will be released in December, and plans are being made for early release of some inmates as often as every month. This is an important part of our attempt to reform our system of criminal justice. All these men will be chosen on the basis of their prison records and their chance to become useful and productive members of society. I think it is much better to have a man out supporting his family and paying taxes than sitting in prison. If you missed our first “Goals for Georgia” television program last Tuesday look for the next program on “National Environment,” Tuesday, July 13th at 9:00 p.m. I along with legislators and other interested citizens, will be there to discuss the problems and opportunities in this important area. If you have a question or comment, you can call 1-800-282-8653 toll free and make your views known on television. These programs will cover all of the eight areas of government each Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. through August 24th. (JAPAN’S INDUSTRIAL CORPORATED ARMIES HAVE THE ENTIRE WORLD RETREATING) Once upon a time not so very many years ago, the label “made in Japan” denoted shoddy and trashy, but not any more. Japan has joined the select companies of Sweden, Germany and the other European countries, that pride themselves in industrial excellence. The prime personality of Japan’s rise to manufacturing perfection is that suave oriental Akio Morita, astute young engineer, who on his first trip abroad detected the European’s industrial superiority. Young Morita was quick to incorporate this newly acquired knowledge into all of Japan’s sagacious industries; Because of his drive and ingenuity Morita has risen to the top of Japanese industrialista. He is the head of the Sony Corp., the firm that has made Japanese merchandise on par with any in the world. Sony’s sales was up 415 million dollars last year. Half of this hugebusiness was exported to 150 countries around the world. This industrial giant manufactures radios, tape recorders, and TV sets; in<. addition to heading his own company, Mr. Morita has become the global top salesman for Japan’s shoes, ships, steel, cameras, cable cloth, cars, and transformers. Sony’s TV sets are selling like hot cakes in Britain for S4BO vs. S6OO for the lowest price English-makes. Japan is proving the theory, that war is not the answer to world dominance. If the two super-powers, United States and Russia were turning their huge resources to industry and trade, rather than gigantic armament complexes; the world would be quickly freed of hunger and suffering. Os course Japan’s rise to industrial mastery is not all a path of roses; in Mr. Morita’s recent trip to the United States he ran into a hornet’s nest of riled American business men who charged that Japan dumping TV sets upon the American market at prices below that which is charged in Japan. Now Japan must pay a 9% deposit on all TV’s imported here. Japan has risen from a pile of post-war bombed-out rubble. This island country is dispatching armies of neatly western-styled dressed Japanese business men, technicians, engineers, and salesmen all over the world. One group of shipbuilders, and textile experts are in Hanoi at present. In Zambia, geologists are surveying Copper fields. World-wide trade barriers against Japan goods don’t seem to stem the tide. The Japanese present a bothersome paradox in western Capitals; because she is a force of post-war stability, and progress in Asia. If this commercial expansion is stopped, then Japanese vigor and thrust may revert militarism. (Japanese mini-cars seen on every American street and highway) Nippon’s automobiles executes a brilliant end-run on American car industry. While U.S. Auto king-pins were making a frontal attack upon Germany’s “Volkswagens”, with Gremlin, Vega, and Pinto; Japan’s Toyotas and Datsuns out paced the gains in the total imports to the United States. The Toyota and Nissan Motor Companies sales in America are up 200%, since last September. While Volkswagen has been with its unchanged and unstylish “Bug”, the two Companies have been producing smartly styled models more powerful than their U.S. rivals.- The Japanese have signed up more than 350 American dealers in the past year. Therefore expanding its dealerships to more than 900 in the states. They are brazenly recruitmg General Motors, Ford and Chrysler dealers. In a few instances some Big Three dealers have defected to Japanese cars; and they say they are making more profits for themselves. Some American Auto men are counting on Toyota and Nissan to trip over their own rapid expansion. They base their assumption on financing and service problems. Cost advantage in the U.S. is very high; the marketing strategy of the Japanese is to undercut U.S. prices. With the price of Ford’s Pinto at $1,919 and Chevrolet’s Vega at $2,090, Toyota and Nissan have models that are priced almost $250 less than the Pinto. Road & Tract, a leading car magazine, recently rated Toyota, Datsun ahead of both Pinto and the Volkswagen, after road testing them all. makes necessary the recommendation that qualified blacks be given immediately, the same opportunities to advance in the system as are open to whites. (3) For a long time, textbooks adopted for use by children in the public schools of Georgia have either ignored black people completely or have dealt with them in an uncomplimentary manner. More • recently, state-adopted textbooks are taking cognizance of the contributions of blacks toward the development of this nation. While this step is to be applauded, the fact that young people of different racial and cultural backgrounds are now working, studying, and playing together means that all teachers should have some knowledge of the history and culture of all the young people with whom they come in contact in the discharge of their teaching responsibilities. In order that all teachers might more effectively incorporate black history and culture in their teaching, it is recommended that an in-service program of instruction in black studies be provided for all teachers -- black and white - in the Richmond County school system and that this will become a requirement for all who expect to remain in the system. Exceptions would be made for all teachers whose academic preparation included courses in black history and culture or for those whose travels have made it possible for them to acquire this information. (4) In many of the schools of the Richmond County System, students are reading below their respective grade level. This seems to suggest the need for corrective measures to overcome this basic difficulty. One means through which this might be accomplished is a program of kindergarten education in the public schools. It is recommended, therefore, that as soon as possible the Richmond County Board of Education inaugurate such a program as a means of upgrading the reading abilities of children, thereby increasing the possibility of success in their academic pursuits. (5) It is probable that the Richmond County Board of Education is financially unable to employ additional professional and non-professional personnel at this time. It is recommended that as soon as the necessary funds are available, the Board give consideration (a) to the employment of assistant principals for all elementary and junior high schools with enrollemnts of 500 or more, (b) to the employment of non-professional library assistants, thereby making the widest possible use of the materials, and (c) to the employment of teacher aides to relieve instructors of the minor responsibilities which consume time which might be devoted to professional activities. Walking WITH DIGNITY BY Al IRBY