The news-review. (Augusta, Ga.) 1971-1972, November 18, 1971, Image 1

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THE PEOPLE’S PAPER ’ _ - Vol. 1 Why Blacks Do Not Unite EDITOR’S NOTE: This survey was conducted by Paine College professor Roy C. Delamotte. Dr. Delamotte’s suggestions are in parentheses. CLASS SURVEY: WHY BLACKS DO NOT UNITE WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT. Oct. 24, 71 (results of three classes; 20,20, and 5): INFLUENCE OF WHITE power and money by bribes, threats, loss of jobs. Esp. the buying of votes was mentioned. Solution: find blacks who can’t be scared off or bought off. JEALOUSY OF SUCCESS, unwillingness to see someone else win the things one desires too-money, prestige, success. Dislike of the snobbery and ‘high hat’ airs of those who do win. (No solution offered specifically; this is a universal human problem; a true friend is someone who is happy when you succeed, but true friends are rare. Possibly black politicians need especially to keep the common touch, to avoid airs and mannerisms and self-display when they win; to persuade the common man that they are still concerned- cf. how Mayor Lindsey went back to the streets to thank average folk immediately after his election.) DISTRUST OF BLACK candidate’s qualifications and actions; blacks are fearful of being taken in, being ‘conned’; it is hard for them to trust a politician or his promises or to unite in trust of any one man. Solution: Blacks need to be better informed about candidates, to read more, hear more speeches, be in better touch with the men who run. The candidates need to go to the people more effectively, to meet more people. (The Jimmy Carter type of campaign would seem indicated - handshaking, ringing doorbells, meeting as many people personally as possible. Distrust of ALL politicians by ALL ethnic groups in America seems very common; Sanders defeat by Carter shows that mere TV images, billboards, newspaper ads, etc. are no substitute for the face to face meeting and the handshake). SELF INTEREST, willingness to SELL OUT FOR A DOLLAR OR A DRINK, failure to put the group first, to subordinate one’s private gain or self-interest to the future good of the whole. (This is the nature of man; ALL men are to some extnt moved by immediate self-interest. The solution here is for the biack politician, like his white counterpart, to combine appeals to self-interest with appeals to the general welfare, to future possibilities, to ideals that go beyond immediate gain. Black’s cannot win support unless they can show the voter exactly HOW it is in his own self interest to vote black. The black voter who sells his vote for a dollar bill or a drink obviously has no idea how valuable that vote could be to himself. He sells it cheap because nobody has shown him its true value in terms of his own self interest. And when the black politician is able to ADD many more arguments beyond mere personal gain he shouldhave a real advantage over his white competition. (One serious difficulty here is that the black politician may be such a minority voice that he cannot deliver the promised gains once he is in office, but at least he represents the first step toward such gains; he is moving in the direction of the self-interest of his voters even if he himself does not reach the goal this year or next. Thus he may be forced to fall back on appeals to the self-interest of the black voter’s children, and with most parents this is a powerful argument and one not to be despised.) (Some black politicians apparently take their voters for granted or assume that mere blackness will guarantee a big vote. But voters- regardless of color-vote their own self interest or their own anger and grievances FIRST. Thus every politician must be able to answer the classic question. “What have you done for me lately?’ or “What can you do for me this afternoon? -or the day after election at the latest.” Demagogues never go beyond this; true public servants begin with this and use it for promoting the general welfare and the higher ideal.) BLACKS LET THEIR VOTE BE SPLIT among competing black candidates, and the white candidate wins. Solution: they need to pick ONE man and unite behind him. (This is just a re-statement of the problem: HOW do you get the black vote united around ONE candidate? Again, it seems possible that as in the case of the black voter, the black candidate also must be shown where his own self-interest lies. He does not serve himself when he takes money to run against another black and thus guarantees a white victory. His own political future will always be hopeless until the black vote is united, blacks are winning offices, and the whole world within which he operates is stronger. Before I can be a star I must first be on a winning team; even so talented an athlete as OJ. Simpson can do little until his whole team improves. Thus the black politician, like the star of the Buffalo Bills, needs to think first how he can make his whole team good enough to win, and only then will the stars have their chance to shine.) THE FAILURE OF BLACKS TO VOTE AT ALL: Solution: public meetings and forums where black citizens meet the candidates, hear the issues, etc. (Voter apathy is another universal political problem that cuts across all racial and class lines. Some possible helps might be: (a): A magnetic personality who excites people and lifts them out of their indifference; blacks have produced many such and we must hope for more, (b): The use of already known or established forums that draw crowds. You can’t talk to them if they’re somewhere else, and hence politicians have always found it necessary to draw the crowd before they could exhort it. Hence the fish-fry, barbecue, name band, or what not. Black politicians need to get together at least long enough to get the crowd together or none of them will be heard. A James Brown Day near election time, with all candidates on hand and a careful mixture of music, food, and speeches could do much to lick voter indifference, (c) Grievances are notoriously likely to get out the vote when all else fails; people will walk through rain and storm 930 Gwinnett St. Augusta Ga Phone 722-4555 to vote if they are angry enough at some wrong or injustice. Blacks have many justified grievances, but it seems possible that black politicians and journalists have somehow failed to turn the corresponding emotions into constructive channels. They may perhaps have overworked such themes so that by elections their words are devoid of power or their hearers’ emotions exhausted. Paul Revere woke people up because he only rode once and he rode at the right time. Had he ridden every night his famous cry might well have become the signal to wind the clock, put the cat out, and go to sleep. Black journalists and politicians might roust out more rebels if they didn’t ride so hard between elections. BLACKS LET THEMSELVES BE BRAINWASHED. Solution: More black candidates out meeting people, more public discussion of issues, etc. (White control of the media creates a problem here, but the black community certainly has means of communication, three newspapers now, and many articulate leaders. What is needed is unity among those leaders and the imaginative dramatization of issues and goals in words, slogans, symbolic acts, and in personalities. Constructive slogans and symbols are badly needed; Dr. King turned the country upside down by having his marchers carry Bibles, wear little mottoes, “Father, forgive them” and so on. The black community is now in need of a less damaging symbol than the clenched fist and a more easily understood (or less easily misunderstood) slogan than Black Power! BLACKS HAVE NO FAITH THAT BLACK POLITICIANS CAN CHANGE THINGS, and they may even believe the white SEE CLASS SURVEY - Page 2 New Effort To Consolidate Augusta City Council appointed Carrie J. Mays and W.T. Ashmore to work with County Commissioner Madisoh T. Woo in preparing a new effort to consolidate city and county governments. Woo, who did not take a stand publicly on the unification charter in May although he reportedly voted Pilgrim's Green Honored Joseph Green, a Company sponsored student, attending Augusta College and majoring in Management was recently honored with listing in the prestigious “Who’s Who among students in American Colleges and Universities 44 Mr. Green worked and organized black students on the Augusta College Campus and has also served as Black Student President. Mr. Green will complete studies at Augusta College in a few months and will be returning to our Company - The Pilgrim Health & Life Insurance Company. ■ ' ' ■ ‘J News-Review editor-publisher, Mallory K. Millender, announced this week that the News-Review will raise its subscription rate to $5.00 per year effective \ January Ist. said that the current rate ($2.50 a year) “has served its purpose (building rapid circulation) and that operating costs have made it necessary to move to a more nor mat subscription rate. against it, said that he was motivated to push for a new consolidation* attempt mainly because of the need for efficiency and economy in government. Woo said he does not expect a second charter to be presented before 1973. Mrs. Mays stressed the need for public hearings and the involvement a cross-section of the community in the “from the beginning to the polls.” She said we should “get the people’s view and suggestions so we can get a charter we can live with.” Mrs. Mays said she continues to see the need for unification although she opposed the charter presented May 25. Ashmore described the previous charter as “one of the best”. Augustan Loses Nearly $2,000 to Burgulars AUGUSTA (N-R NNB) Elias Burton of 2047 Steiner Avenue reported to police that his home had been burglarized between 1 and 11:50 p.m. Friday night. He said that the kitchen door had been smashed SCLC HONORS BROWN By J. Philip Waring, (Special to the News-Review) NRNNB (News-Review National News Bureau) from New York Statler-Hilton Hotel. On last Saturday at noon approximately one thousand business, civil rights, religious and civic leaders assembled here, with press, radio and television beaming, saw the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Operation Breadbasket present its top achievement award to the internationally famous lames Loitering Ordinance Angers Blacks AUGUSTA (N-R NNB) A special meeting of the Public Safety Committee will be held tonight to analyze complaints regarding enforcement of loitering ordinances downtown. Throughout the last week blacks have been protesting the ordinance that anyone in the downtown area who appears not to have a job or who looks suspicious is subject to be arrested. In Monday's said Council ...’ceting, Ronald Suber, president off Man to Man told Council that many blacks feel that they are not wanted in the downtown area and he said that the law is enforced mainly against blacks. The special meeting was called by Black Councilman Aaron Tappan. Tappan pointed out that “you can’t lock someone up who is standing around window shopping.” Tappan also said that he knew of one case where two white youths were arrested for loitering while taking their lunch hour on Broad Street. The Ordinance is said to be intended to discourage shop lifting. and goods valued at $1,619 had been stolen. Among the goods listed as stolen were clothing, a t television, phonograph and other phonographic equipment. Reverend J. L. Stokes of 1341 Mauge Street told police officers T.J. Broadwater and L.E. Allen that his home had been burglarized. Stokes said he lost over three hundred dollars worth of stolen goods. N-R Goes To Athens AUGUSTA (N-R NNB) Roosevelt Green, former pastor of Beulah Grove Baptist Church is the News-Review’s newest columnist. Green will also co-ordinate the circulation ot the News-Review in the Athens Area. The former pastor is . presently employed as a social worker at the University of JGeorgia. He holds the jßachelor’s degree from Paine College and the Bachelor of ID ivinity from the Il nterdenominational Center of ’Morehouse College. Brown, America’s “Soul Brother Number One”. Dr. Ralph David Abernathy, president of SCLC, noted that this award was being presented to Mr. Brown for his outstanding national achievement and leadership in entertainment, human services and business development. Occasion for the presentation was the SCLC Operation Breadbasket’s first Eastern International Black Cultural and Business Exposition. This November 4-6 program was designed to Editorial LET’S GIVE THANKS We all have many reasons for which to be thankful. We live in a country that possesses half of the world’s wealth - 80% of the world’s automobiles, television sets, telephones and medical facilities. And inspite of the fact that America has never been able to develop spiritually in corresponding projtortions to her economic growth, we all have been bountifully blessed. But how do we give thanks? Do we gather around a table on Thanksgiving day and proceed to stuff ourselves after a quick prayer? Or do we give serious thought to the many blessings we receive? We should keep in mind that regardless of how grateful and sincere we may be, our thanks are of little value unless we demonstrate our thanks through our acts throughout our lives. We believe that the best way to demonstrate our gratitude is by using our gifts, our talents and our resources to help make life more enjoyable and :•# meaningful for those less fortunate than ourselves. Let’s really give thanks this year! >.. v ,wvw.w.vw« SCLC Opposes Supreme Court Nominees The local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference has announced that it plans to protest President Nixon’s nominees to the Supreme Court. Nixon has nominated Assistant Attorney General William H. Rehnquist and Senator Louis Powell, Jr. A spokesman for the local chapter said that a telegram and petitions will be sent to President Nixon, Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield, Georgia Senior Senator Herman Talmadge and Congressman Robert G. Stephens. Council Passes The Buck AUGUSTA (N-R NNB) City Councilman John T. Chesser, Chairman of the Public Works Committee asked that Mayor Millard Beckum assume responsibility for the proposed changing of Gwinnett Street to James Brown Boulevard. Beckum had asked the Public Works Committee to study the issue and present its recommendation to Council. The mayor said that he will appoint a committee onsisting of “competent persons” from the black and white communities and from Council. He said the committee would analyze information and public opinion and study petition names and other relevant details. The Council received an additional 729 names of persons favoring the change. More than 200 names had been presented at the previous meeting. The mayor said the committee to study the name change will be appointed within a week. November 18, 1971 No. 35 provide a major showcase for black businessmen in the U.S.; introduce the white corporate Rev. Dr. Ralph David Abernathy President, S.C.L.C. The source said the local group opposed Powell’s nomination because of Powell’s “anti-black and anti Civil Rights” stance. Objection was further based on Powell’s reportedly referring to SCLC’s founder, Dr. Martin Luther King, as a communist. Rehnquist was objected to, among other things, for his Stinson Indicted AUGUSTA (N-R NNB) A special grand jury indicted eighteen year old Wyatt Earl Stinson for the murder of his four year old step-daughter, Teresa Giullebeau. The child’s death was first reported on September 7, 1971 when she was found face down in a tub of hot water. According to police reports, Wyatt admitted to inflicting wounds to the child’s body that he administered over a period of time up to four days prior to the young girl’s death. Coroner Nathan F. Widener, Sr., said that an autopsy showed no water in the lungs and it was their opinion that the cliild had been dead before going under water and death was due to suffocation. These findings were later verified by the state crime lab. COULD YOU USE AS MUCH AS SSO FOR XMAS In your spare time, you can earn as much as SSO. News-Review needs more official Community Representatives to accept and send in subscriptions from every locality. No experience is required. You simply pass out, to folks in your community notices we sipply you free of charge. Orders come back to you by phone, mail or personal contact. This is just one way to get orders - well tell you others that are just as easy. Interred? Then see cupon on next page. JUST 100 PAID SUBSCRIBERS EARNS YOU SSO. world to the products and services of black businessmen; provide a major showcase for black cultural groups, artists and entertainers and to serve as a media for bringing people together to solve problems and to also honor black leaders who have distinguished themselves in the fight for black advancement and liberation. SCLC officials pointed out that the white communications media often refused or limited SEE BROWN Page 3 prosecution of May Day demonstrators. The local group submitted a list of persons it would approve for a seat on the Supreme Court. Among those suggested were Fred Harris (D. Okla) Senator Birch Bay (D. Indiana), Black Congresswoman Shirley Chisolm, (D. New York), John Conyers (D. Mich.), and local attorney John H. Ruffin. Huggins Posts Bond AUGUSTA (N-R NNB) Augusta Attorney and City Councilman-elect Tom Huggins surrendered himself to North Augusta Police Monday and was free after posting SI,OOO after being charged with receiving stolen property. According to the warrant sworn for Huggins’ arrest, he is charged with purchasing goods “having full knowledge that the said property was stolen.” Huggins told newsmen “1 am completely innocent of any charge. I have done no wrong. I am not afraid of the truth and have nothing to hide.” Huggins was elected to city council on October 13 and is ,1 scheduled too take office in - January.