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News-Review - September 30, 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. 3090 1 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. JOBS AND INCOME FOR POLITICAL POWER By Dr. George Wiley The Paramount issues for black people in the 1972 election should be economic. The failure of this country to give us “40-acres and a mule” upon emancipation, coupled with persistent discrimination against us at every level of society, has left the mass of our people economically dependent and seriously deprived. About 2/3’s of all black families have less income than the $6500 level that Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys show to be the minimum necessary for health and well-being. One third are in desperate poverty, many suffering from acute hunger and malnutrition. The effects of inflation and spiraling unemployment are hitting the black population especially hard. Unemployment among blacks is near 11 per cent, for black teenagers nearly 30 per cent. Fully one quarter of our population suffer the indignities of a dehumanizing welfare system -a system which promises to be more brutal, degrading and inadequate if the Nixon-Mills “welfare reform” is enacted into law. The only program which can quicklywhange these conditions is job creation on a massive scale and a guaranteed adequate income. A minimum of 3-5 million new jobs are needed to provide opportunities for the unemployed and underemployed. An adequate income floor is needed to support those too old, too young or too disabled to work; those for whom there are no jobs; and those whose jobs do not pay enough to sustain their families in health and decency. Unfortunately 7 out of 10 blacks fit one of these descriptions. So in ’72 the issues of jobs and income must be foremost. Candidates must be tested on the basis of economic aid programs to black communities and put direct cash in the pockets of our people. Job creation and an adequate income floor could put S3O-40 billion of new money into circulation in Black communities. With this kind of income base, we can build viable Black enterprise, Black organizations, Black institutions, a Black nation. Without it talk of economic development, community control and Black power is meaningless rhetoric. Let us therefore, marshall the political forces that we have to sharpen and develop and press our economic agenda for ’72. Let us make common cause with Chicanos, Indians, Puerto Ricans, poor whites and women who are gathering their political forces for ’72. Let us make political coalitions with them to pursue our common economic and social concerns. Let us demand that federal money be spent now to create real jobs building and developing our communities and our institutions - housing,' child care, health centers and recreation areas under Black community control. Let us judge candidates by their opposition to welfare repression of the Nixon, Mills and Rockefeller stripe. Let us examine their recores on proposals moving the country toward a $6,500 guaranteed adequate income for every family. Let us qrganize to register all of our potential voters and inform them of candidate’s positions on key issues. Finally let us study the political processes and make them work to our advantage rather than permitting their continued manipulation to the disadvantage and exploitation of Black people. Dr. George Wiley is Executive Director of the National Welfare Rights Organizations. ATTICA Cont'd from page 1 “And the funny thing - it’s funny to me now,-but it wasn’t funny to me then - is that immediately after the attempt to kill me (I had a reputation in the street and in the institution -1 don’t drink and I don’t use no drugs; it could be visibly seen that I was sober; but the man who attacked me - you couldn’t even see his eye balls hardly; you could smell the booze and every thing all over him.) they wanted me, with blood streaming down me, they wanted me to take the sobriety test. The man hollered, “Jump up and down on one foot.” - blood gushing out of me. “I said, you people got to be crazy I won’t jump no where.” “I said, Y’all know me and you know this man.” I requested before the lieutenant, and the officials and the whole cell block that the other man be tested for alcohol and for narcotics. Nothing was done. They aint tested him for nothing. But they came telling me to jump up and down on my foot. “Now I defend my life. We go to segregation (solitary confinement), locked up. When I come in for court - their little kangaroo prison court - they djdn’t even talk about what happened. They talked about all the letters they got written about me by inmates that are friends of his.” Giles explains his near Page 2 involvement as an Attica negotiator this way. “When I came out of the penitentiary the last time, there was some confusion as to some back time that I owed to a state. I was released from the penitentiary; another state picked me up. So I got out on bail and surrendered myself to this other state. And when I did a parole officer was very, very instrumental in having that state drop the time I owed. This is what I mean when I say that I know all these employees are not vicious. This man had never seen me in his life and he didn’d know me from anybody else. But he (according to my record, I served eight years; in penitenitary and I owe this other state five or six years so the eight years I was serving on the other sentence would have run out.) actually came to my aid and stuck his neck out and recommended that this balance of back time be dropped. And it was dropped. I was very appreciative of that. “Now when I heard of this situation at Attica, I tried to contact this parole officer, knowing that I knew numerous of the fellows there, but I couldn’t reach him. And 1 was given the commissioners number in ALbany (New York); I made contact there and that was when I was put in touch with the deputy commissioner and the end result was they didn’t approve it. LETTERS TO EDITOR i Dear Editor We, for years have found ways and means to fight each other, regardless of the circumstances. These same energies could be used to correct some of the unfavorable conditions in our community. I sometimes think back to the mid and late 50’s, when street gangs or turf defenders were in existence in the black communities of all large cities in America, that shows you how mixed up we were. Can you imagine gangs of blacks fighting each other while the poorest and uneducated white man sold goods and insurance door to door in our community, robbing us of any economical base. Sure, we let them do it, for we felt that it was more important to fight each other. Why are we so hostile _ toward each other, we have all the reasons in the world to display a geninue quality of brotherhood toward each other. Once we stop fighting and robbing each other then maybe we can begin to build and design our communities. We have seen with standing proof that no white institution will or ever had any intentions of returning profits to your community. Once you understand and establish this as a fact you will be able to take the course of actions to see to it that your community has the tools for development for you and by you. We have had internal groups within the black community for years (Elks, Masons, Kappa, NAACP, SCLC, Omega ETC.) These organizations can not be “But I sincerely feel that I could have rapped with the guys. At least I could have tried. That’s the main thing. There was nothing that the state could have lost except maybe my life, and 1 was willing to risk that, knowing that a former inmate going in and telling the prisoners to stop doing what they’re doing is not looked upon good. Asked what he would have told the prisoners, Giles said he would have told them to let the hostages go. This was the main thing, because all they were doing was jeopardizing their own plight. That it was a losing thing and nothing would happen as long as they held those hostages. And the end result would be that one of the hostages would get killed and then the whole thing would be jammed. “Being that I’ve been there, I can understand the changes they were going through. Each day it was getting worse and worse. “I can also see it from the officials’ point of view. They wanted to settle it themselves. And they settled it their way, the way they wanted to settle it. But what about the men who right now are being separated. They are looking for the weak link right now in that penitentiary. They are right now looking for inmates who participated in that thing to testify against those that they’re going to charge. And they are going to find them. It’s a bad situation. “But the truth about those things that go on in the O ELECT la/4 J. W. SPENCE 7TH WARD CITY COUNCIL "A MAN WITH A PROGRAM FOR ■ * your vote and support w,ll FIVE POINT PROGRAM ★ J. W. SPENCE WILL WORK TO ACCOMPLISH THE FOLLOWING: 1. PRESENT A PLAN TO HELP ELIMINATE AGE OLD RAILROAD PROBLEM. 2. HELP PREVENT INCREASE IN YOUR CITY TAXES. 3. WORK TO LOWER OUR WATER RATES. • 4. HELP PROMOTE MORE EQUAL OPPORTUNITY PRACTICES IN OUR CITY GOVERNMENT. 5. HELP PROMOTE MORE NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS’ • PLUS: WILL ALWAYS VOTE ON ANY ISSUE FOR THE BEST INTEREST OF ALL OUR CITIZENS effective, for neither of them is able to bring in the entire community. We need the entire community organized. Stop and study the plight of the Jews and you’ll see what I mean. They united, bringing all of their talents, energies, and monies together and took care of business. Today, they are the most successful group of businessmen in the world. They were able to compromise their petty differences and pool their resources together to enable them to establish a sound financial and economical base. Let’s explore our community and establish priorities to better the present financial and economical base. The number one priority as I see it, is to establish a lending institution (a bank) founded, , established, managed, and supported by the entire black community. The best way I find to describe or justify this need is to think of it in terms of the bank being the center of a 360 degree circle and all inner lines must connect to complete a degree. Check it out for yourself. Better Housing - requires a sound financial base. Better Jobs - requires a sound financial base. Better Education - requires a sound financial base. Better Recreation Facilities -a sound financial base. All things done for the betterment of our community require a sound financial and enconomical base. I may sound selfish in my thoughts, but I do believe that a Bank should be our penitentiary is what those inmates are concerned with, that’s what they were asking when they did this. Will somebody please show enough concern to kind of let us know that we’re still human. Yeah we did something wrong; you’re punishing us but don’t like animals. Don’t let these people go crazy and just kill us all and Y’all don’t know nothing about it. That’s actually what happens; it’s ligitimate murder as far as the prisoners are concerned. Because all they (officials) are going to say is “killed while in the act of inciting to riot,” I don’t care if you were sitting on your bed smoking a cigarette. Killed while inciting to riot will stand up in any court anywhere in the world, and it’s always been applicable to these prisons in the United States. So an inmate has nobody to help him but these people in the streets. If they go ahead and get concerned, at least let them know that you understand what’s going on. “Quiet as its kept, Attica was just a beginning. Now you’re going to hear little rumblings. Like I just heard in Fulton County, in the county jail, they had a little static down there the other day. When it happens it runs in a cycle. When one penitentiary demonstrates like that it has repercussions all over the United States; these other penitentaries had better get ready. “Cause that’s exactly what’s going to happen until somebody does something to straighten those situations up.” Walking WITH DIGNITY BY Al IRBY (BLACK AMERICAN SERVICEMEN DIE OUT OF PROPORTION TO THE RACIAL RATIO. THEN THOSE THAT ARE LUCKY ENOUGH TO COME BACK HOME ARE FINDING SOME WHITE CIVILIANS RAISING HELL ABOUT BUSING BLACK KIDS.) In the overall picture of the Indochina war, one pertinent aspect of this ugly struggle has been kept under semi-secrecy. The U.S. Department of Defense has released veiled statistics of the mounting number of American servicemen who lost their lives. But the Government’s stark figures do not tell the public the whole story about the men who are killed in action. At the end of 1969, a total of 47,251 American servicemen had been killed in Indochina; of this number 40,028 were classified as “hostile casualties”, those that were actually killed in combat. It was servicemen in their first tour of duty, be they draftee or volunteers, who bore the burden of fighting and dying. In this war, the flowers of upper-middle class status have been off to college, and the relative safety of the National Guard. As for the distribution of casualties among the socio-economic groups, the facts are that increased educational standards reduce the likelihood of becoming a casualty, while higher unemployment conditions increase that likelihood. One of the mysterious ironies of the military’s acceptance policy is that young whites from the very lowest economic backgrounds are less likely to be drafted, than low-middle class whites and Blacks, because they very often have difficulty in meeting the mental and physical standards of the armed forces. community's number one priority. To successfully complete this endeavor it will require the respect, trust, understanding, and cooperation of each member of the black community. The only trouble I foresee is togetherness merely forgetting our petty differences and coming together as a team. This is all we need. Yes, I’ll say it again and again, if you don’t believe it check out the following. First, to start, we need money to purchase land and build. Our community is 50,000 plus, what would SIO.OO per person or per share do. The involvement of the total community (churches, civics clubs, social clubs, private citizens, private businesses) in pledging the opening of accounts or the purchasing of shares. This does not mean that you would have to cancel your present bank accounts but good common sense would tell you to put your money where you can share greater benefits. There’s numerous of ways that this can be accomplished, but remember it will take the entire community. I guess some people have been conditioned to say now (If we obtain the monies who will manage and operate the bank? Black people don’t have the experience or education to run a bank.) That’s what most if you are saying now. That’s the biggest lie that could ever be told. In fact that’s a damn lie. Don’t let anyone fool you, we have black people in the community qualified, educated, and experienced. The only difference is we will not trust the qualification of our brothers who have worked so hard to obtain their degree of knowledge, yet we will SUPPORT and ELECT ■■hi Punch 60 Page klk 4 Councilman Eighth Ward C. HOMAS ITOMI HUGGINS “ The most Qualified Candidate to represent all the people fairly and impartially.” t I HF t never question a Mills B. Lane or a Sherman Drawdy. I’m sure if Mr. Hinton, Mr. Ruffin, Mr. Abrams or Mr. Scott would have the same support, trust, and cooperation, they could achieve as much or more than a Mills B. Lane or a Sherman Drawdy. One important thing we must realize, that these people were not successful merely because they were white, but they were supported, trusted, and given community cooperation in their respective businesses. Again, we can do it too, with respect, support, trust, and cooperation, put them all together and it spells TOGETHERNESS. The financial conditions of our community is of such because we have failed to put our monies and investments in places where profits will be returned to your community instead of going to the white communities. Look at their communities, thats why it seems to be together, they not only take their returns of the dollars, but they are taking airs also. We must learn ways and means of getting the returns in our communities. Please use this as a guide to establish a set of priorities for the community to consider for its time out for all of this talking, we need some immediate action. As I’ve said before a financial base is the foundation for us to build from, without it we will not he able to accomplish very much. Its not important who wrote this, or where the ideas came from, but most important is the truth that it contains. We must refrain from doing things just for publicity or status but do it for the betterment of the community. Your conditions will never change until your community changes. Thank you. Mini-Spiritual Reflections In A Changing World BY AL IRBY (THOMAS A JENOUS TGE NEDUEVAK SAINT) Unlike Jesus, the old Monk, as religious as he was, would be irrelevant today. We are not seeking quiet, and only a few of us are seeking solitude. Our books must convey the clamorous voices of unrest. Our ideals of a saintly life have changed. We reverence a Kempis in the art windows and galleries, but our own heart’s Saints are men like Martin Luther King, men of action for justice and truth. We read the words of a Kempis somewhat as we look upon the window there, touched with grandeur and glory of the setting sun, with a certain sensitive enjoyment of its rich coloring, and artistic lines, feeling in away the delicate hues of his words and the glorious tracery of his thoughts. Unlike a Kempis, Jesus was no ascetic; he lived his life emphatically among men. He was with them at the wedding feasts, and dined with them at the banquet table. The plowman, the sower, and the harvester, the fisherman, and all the common daily toil and interest. The common people heard him gladly, because he was one of them. He was called “a wine-bibber”, and a “glutton”, by reason of his easy and natural association. Jesus was preeminently a “mixer” among men. (To be continued) All of these extenuating facts give evidence that Black servicemen bear a greatly disproportionate share of the dying in a war that gives them little or no thanks. Through the end of 1968, black servicemen made up 9.2 per cent of the total military manpower stationed in Vietnam; 13.5 per cent of Vietnam battle deaths, though, were blacks. In 1965 and early in 1966, the death rate for blacks soared to 25 per cent. The higher rates seem to stem primarily from two factors: blacks seemed to volunteer for elite combat units in disproportionate number, at least up to the later stages of the war, and because of their generally disadvantaged backgrounds. (A DETERMINED GROUP OF INTER RACIAL WOMEN ARE ORGANIZING TO CHANGE THE LIFE-HABIT OF THE SO-CALLED AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE.) About 200 nationally known women met in Washington a few weeks ago to organize their sisters all over the nation. It will be interesting to watch these “Fems”, because it is a deverse group of wealthy upper class, intellectual, millitant members of the Women’s Lib. movement- politicians, house wives, Blacks, welfare mothers and government clerical workers. The group included Mississippi’s famed Fannie Lou Hamer, Congresswoman Bella Abzug, and the loquacious Glorida Steinem and Betty Freidan of Woman Liberation Front. Bella, in her sporty wide-brim hat sounded the war cry. Her fellow Brooklynite Congresswoman Shirley Crisholm who is just as formidable in sepia tones was very much in the forefront. The meeting was held in the New York Statler Hilton. Bella thrilled the large crowd when she walked up to the microphone and bellicosely bugged Congressman Manny Celler, the 80 year old member of the House Judiciary Committee. The Congressman had repeated his favorite saying, concerning the Women’s Lib. “You change nature, women are different.” And besides: Women weren’t even at the Lord’s Last Supper.” Bella shouted that “maybe we weren’t at the Last Supper, but we most certainly are going to be at the next one.” Fannie Lou Hamer, who could easily make herself heard without a mike in the farthest corner of Yankee Stadium, brought the crowd to its feet screaming when she cried: “Let’s hook up these minorities and make one hell of a majority.” Aileen Hernandez, president of the National Organization of Women, presided at the plenary session where the various resolutions were acted upon. She appeared to be the logical person to be sent to France, and negotiate a sensible peace with Madam Nguyen Thi Binh, the Viet Cong representative at the bogged down peace sessions. The goals of the feminate Caucus are to elect more women to both houses of Congress. YOUR VOICES IN CITY GOVERNMENT HENRY HOWARD & B. L. DENT 2nd WARD B.L. Dent page X PUNCH 12 4th WARD Henry Howard Kg page 2 t A PUNCH 32 K VOTE FOR AND ELECT MEN WHO WILL KMt'RESENT YOU IN THE CITY COUNCIL