Newspaper Page Text
News-Review - November 11, 1971
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Walking JI
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h Dignity | I
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II n
(“LIKEN THE “HIPPOCRATIC OATH” TO THE
EXHORTATION OF JESUS TO HIS DISCIPLES.)
(“YE ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH”)
I was honored on last Tuesday evening to talk with the
students of the “Black Student Union” of the Medical College of
Georgia. It gave me much satisfaction, and pride. The end of my
talk was proceeded with a brief rap session. They refused to
accept point-blank what 1 had to say, and that was good. They
cornered me when 1 made a statement that tended to separate
them from the nondescript of their race.
I told them, paraphrasing the statement Jesus made to his
disciples: “You are the salt of the earth.” I interpreted Jesus’
statement as a psychological boost to instill confidence in his
followers. It filled me with great compassion to look into the
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Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.
BOOST FOR BLACK COLLEGES
The recent Ford Foundation announcement that it would
spend SIOO million over the next six years to aid the
predominantly black colleges and minority students is a welcome
shot in the arm for the most neglected area of American higher
education.
It’s also a striking act of faith in the viability and importance
of the private black colleges. As a group they constitute a vital
national asset that has a profound influence on national life.
Despite the recent influx of minority students into
predominantly white institutions the black colleges remain a main
training ground for black professional leadership. Three out of
every four black Ph. D’s got their undergraduate degrees from
black colleges. Two out of every three black legislators and top
federal officials went to these schools. Three out of every four
black army officers graduated from black colleges.
Most important is the role these schools play in putting college
degrees in the hands of poor people. They have been the avenue
of escape from poverty. This role is unprecedented in American
higher education. Seventy percent of the students at these schools
come from families whose income is less than $5,000 per year.
More than a third come from families who make less than $3,000
a year. In contrast, more than half the white students entering
colleges come from families making more than $ 12,000 a year.
Black students aren’t in these schools to mark time or to “find
themselves.” Their very presence on campus represents a
tremendous sacrifice by their families.
What a fantastic, burning desire for knowledge and
self-improvement is evident here! Such colleges are living proof of
the falsehood of the stereotype that blacks aren’t interested in
education. We learned to read and write in slavery, when it was a
crime. We flocked to schools in Reconstruction days, and we
persisted in fighting the odds and getting an education in the
dismal days of segregation.
And now, even crushing poverty is no barrier for these
determined young men and women. A third of the students at
black colleges come from families where their mothers are
domestic servants; and one-third of the fathers are laborers.
The black colleges, then, represent a majority vehicle for
change, a key training ground for black professionals, and an
important national resource. Their success, in the face of an
adversity almost unknown to more affluent white colleges, makes
their future improvement a top national priority.
The challenges ahead are formidable. The demands of
increasing the numbers of trained professionals, the need to
improve curriculum and course resources to prepare students for
an increasingly automated and technological world, and the
prospect of doubling enrollment in the decade ahead, all indicate
the need for greater financial support.
These colleges have been starved for funds. They can’t emulate
the white colleges by boosting tuition into the atmosphere; too
many students already are in need of scholarship assistance. And
public and private financial sources have long neglected these
institutions. Only three percent of federal aid to higher education
goes to predominantly black schools and even lower support
levels typify business and foundation giving.
That’s why the Ford announcement was so important - it
establishes aid to black colleges as a major priority of the largest
Foundation in the world. In the coming years, four out of every
five dollars it gives for education will go to advancing minority
students and schools. It is this kind of shift in priorities that is
needed nationally - to put more and better resources into the
communities and institutions so long and unfairly neglected in
the past.
THE NEWS-REVIEW
PUBLISHED EVE? Y THURSDAY
930 Gwinnett Street - Augusta, Georgia
Mallory K. Millender Editor and Publisher
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Page 2
bright faces of these future medical men and women, knowing
that in a few short years, they will be dedicating their prepared
minds to the noble Hippocratic science of alleviating human
suffering.
My life was enriched because of them; and I pray, that maybe,
in a small way, something I said may give them added impetus to
excel.
This gathering gave me a frightening awakening to learn that
there were hardly 100 Black Doctors practicing in Georgia.
(AUGUSTA COLLEGE’S BLACK STUDENTS DEMAND TO
KNOW TOTAL AMERICAN HISTORY)
White Historians robbed white Americans of a complete
knowledge of American history by leaving out the contributions
of black people. It is indeed pathetic that a great society would
rob one or more segments of its cultural heritage, and ethnic
identity.
America is guilty of this great omission, and the blacks and the
American Indians have been the victims. Os course the Indians
have been received grudgingly, but the blacks were stripped to the
bone historically. This was one to satisfy the slave aristocracy.
Millions of white kids have never heard of the documented
fact that the first surgeon to operate on the human heart
successfully was Dr. Williams, a black man. Dr. Williams
graduated from the Northwestern University’s School of Medicine
in 1883. He was a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
Then there is Dr. Chas R. Drew, a graduate of Amherst in 1926.
Dr. Drew directed the medical division of the British Blood
Transfusion Association during World War 11. He was the leading
authority on the preservation of blood plasma in the world. Also
Dr. Percy Julian, who was graduated from DePauw University in
1920 and received his doctorate in chemistry at the University of
Vienna. He made pioneer discoveries concerning uses of soybean
relative to vitamins and sex hormones.
(BLACK INVENTORS)
Early in 1870, Jan Matzeliger, a handsome young black
shoemaker’s apprentice, worked in Philadelphia and New York
City. He went to Lynn, Massachusetts, to work in a shoe factory.
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Now! The Georgia introduces
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What made Ebenezer jolly?
It had to be the 472% Instant in- TX
a now p v Georgia Railroad Bank & Irust
Member: FDIC and Federal Reserve System
' LETTERS TO EDITOR (
As a citizen one certainly
must grant that mandatory
school busing is inconvenient
for everyone. However, what
other legitimate means is
available to achieve quality
education for all children in
Richmond County, for both
rich and poor, for both black
and white?
As a number of professional
He was disturbed by the amount of time it took to last shoes by
hand; he began to work at night on a machine to speed up this
exacting labor. After five years he had perfected a model for
pleating leather at the toe of shoes. Young Jan kept on working
on his model, and perfected a method of attaching the uppers of
a shoe to the sole by machine.
The United Shoe Manufacturing Co., which bought the
invention, in a few years controlled 98% of the shoe
manufacturing machinery in the world. Matzeliger at this time
was one of the wealthiest black men in Ajnerica.
In 1846, a free-born black Norbert Rillieux of Louisiana,
patented a vacuum pan that revolutionized the sugar-refining
process. Henry Blair, another free-born black of Maryland, in
1834 invented a corn harvester, that was highly acclaimed all over
the mid-west. In 1852, Elijah McCoy, a black with an engineering
aptitude of Detroit Michigan, perfected a cup, now generally used
on railroads and ocean steamers, which makes it unneccessary to
stop machinery in order to oil them.
This is only scratching the surface of the many contributions
blacks have made to make this a great nation. I am sure the
administration at Augusta College will act favorable to the
petition of the Black Student Union, to offer courses in
meaningful Black history and competent Black Teachers.
men both black and white have
demonstrated conclusively in
the recent past, there has been
continuous discrimination
practiced even this semester in
Richmond County schools.
The better and more
experienced teachers both
black and white and the better
equipment go to schools in the
more affluent and
predominately white
neighborhoods.
What other means, therefore,
exists to give all our county’s
children the same opportunity
for equal education than to bus
some affluent children to
schools in poor neighborhoods
and some poor children to
wealthy neighborhoods, thus
requiring the school board to
equalize teachers and material?
Poor whites and poor blacks
have always had to leave their
own neighborhood in Augusta
to obtain quality education as
there never has been fair
distribution of quality teachers
and supplies. Busing has been a
way of life to segregate both
the poor and the black up to
now, and no affluent persons
complained about that. Why
not continue busing now to
achieve integration, the law of
the land, which is the only way
we are ever going to get a
quality education for everyone
here?
Also, daily one may observe
children being bused or
brought in cars to private
Georgia schools from SOuth
Carolina. Apparantly, not all
parents oppose the carrying of
children long distances and out
of their own neighborhood.
At least several times a week
announcements appear
concerning anti-busing speakers
addressing various clubs,
PTA’s, etc., but nothing about
pro-busing speakers. The first
definition for prejudice in
Webster’s New World
Dictionary is as follows: “a
judgment or opinion formed
before the facts are known....”
Are not these clubs, PTA’s,
etc., showing prejudice by not
giving equal time and privileges
for competent speakers on the
other side before they make
decisions and resolutions
against busing? Let’s have “fair
play.”
Faithfully,
David C. Streett
III Register HI
H And H
H Vote H