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News-Review December 2, 1971 j itWalking |l ll With |7 m I Dignity I ■by Al Irb (“INASMUCH AS YOU DID IT TO THELEASTOF THESE MY BRETHREN, YOU DID IT UNTO ME”) MATTHEW 25:40) The Broadway smash hit “Jesus Christ Superstar” has already had the Broadway treatment. Critics are divided in their accolades, pro and con. Some say it is a vivid 20th Century revelation that has aroused the new generation to new directives. This creation happens along just when there is a merger of the still potent appeal of hard rock and the socalled “Jesus People” among the young. Just maybe these youngsters will put spiritual manifestation into the abused “Blessed Evangel.” Because the adults for 20 centuries have made a fraudulent travesty of Jesus’s mission. The basic ideology of the Nazarene transcends the petty ethnic lines of secular demarcations. The songwriter was so right when he said in Christ there is no North, no South, no East or West. When St. Paul heard the voice bidding him to come to Thessalonia, no doubt he had misgivings, because with his keen intellect he knew that Occidental minds were not susceptible to Christ’s mission of Love. This Broadway interpretation is a popular phenomenon of pop records and under-ground concert performances. It is sure to offend the hypocritical sensibilities ot the so-called Bible Belt. But it is nonetheless a soul-searching story of the lonely Nazareth Carpenter’s Passion and all abiding Love. There is Judas in a frenzied dance with his private demons, and finally rising skyward, alone, at the end of a hanging rope while a chorus sings softly, “so long Judas." Then there is a mean old impious Herod, rising from his licentious couch to abuse Jesus. There was Jesus representing the world’s poor and under-priviledged, overwhelmed by tortured souls, wrapped in ropes and rags, asking to be healed. Symbols are the play, each vividly tells an age old story of man’s injustice to man, hate and greed, and the thirst for worldly power. Jesus first appears rising out of huge silver chalice, the Holy grail, no doubt. The high priests came down in a bower of prehistoric bones, surely suggesting the hypocritical priests were reactionary. An image on the backdrop that is obvious throughout in various transformations seems to be the omniscient eyes of God. Dispite the variety of images, the show avoids frenetic. Its changes of scenes are divided into clear-cut parts, with a deliberate change of pace and intensity. Tire words of the production can be easily understood; and the simplicity of poetic quality endears it to the young generation. The opera is the work of two young Englishmen, 23 year old Andrew Lloyd Webber, who composed it, and 26 year-old Tim Rice, who wrote the lyrics. The music rivals the best of the rock tunes, displaying a virtuosity equaling the famed Beatles. Mr. Rice and Mr. Webber, two young millionaires in the making have succeeded in getting their title song of the opera recorded. It was a smash hit from the beginning, two years ago in England. It was followed up with an album of the work. It was also a terrific hit in albums in the U.S., where some 2 and a half million copies have been sold. The concerts have been equally successful and the advance ticket sale for the Broadway production is already a phenominal one million dollars plus. The concept of the role of Jesus tend to be personal as well as religious so it will always be difficult for any actor to satisfy everyone. There is always a certain risk in staging a theological subject. There are honest objections from religious groups that the opera is distortive or that it raises, like some passion plays of the past, perilous issues of anti-Semitism. This Christ story adapted a powerful religious and cultural emotion of a vigorous musical idiom. It is new in a historical sense and adds an unknown dimension to the theater, arts and dance. I will leave the opera for now on this note. GO LANEY’S WILDCATS, GO ALL THE WAY. The entire black community is pulling for coach Dupree’s fighting stalwarts. They will be playing their hearts out way down in South Georgia; but they will not be alone, thousands of soulful prayers will be offered to sustain them. 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 Second Class Postage Paid Augusta, Ga. 30901 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Payable in Advance One Year in Richmond County $2.50 tax incl. One Year elsewheres3.oo tax incl. ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT Classified Advertising Deadline 12 noon On Tuesday Display Advertising Deadline 12 noon On Tuesday COULD YOU USE AS MUCH AS SSO FOR XMAS THE NEWS-REVIEW 930 Gwinett St. - P.O. Box 953 Augusta, Georgia Please send me, without obligation, the FREE money-Making K' s and full details of your Community Representative Plan for making extra income for Christmas. Name Phone Street City State Zip Page 2 r LETTERS TO EDITOR | Letters Editor Sunday Chronicle-Herald Sir: (The following is a letter sent to the Sunday Chronicle -Herald with a copy to the News-Review) Reference is made to a letter from Guy R. Hurlbutt, published by you last Sunday, 21 November, titled “Counters discrimination charge directedj at Richmond’s schools,” May I request that you print ml reply in full as it is importanl that the general public heal both sides of the allegation! raised by my friend Mil Hurlbutt? I No one knows better than I that the character an! integrity of Mr. Hurlbutt are cl the very highest, nor than th;l he has more vigor and joy <■ life than most men one thi® his age. But almost eve® assertion was eith® incomplete, irrelevant ■ mistaken. One might t heroic® conclude the following: alnfst all of us eventually identify the institution to which we devote our life with ourselves. We feel any ci racism of that institution as an attack on our own person - which perhaps explains why he felt it necessary in his reply to include a very personal attack on me and my children. But it is as true today as in Bible times that so few of us are able to correct our institutions from the inside the most trenchant observations still come from “outside the establishment.” It is still most difficult for most parsons (including myself) to see what is wrong with the denominational institutions, for most educators to critically observe the scholastic structure, etc., etc. Item one: He says,” ...for at least seven years from S.C., and this year as an Augusta citizen (he) has sent and sends his bwn to a private school on the Hill. He is sufficiently affluent... etc. The reality: My elder daughter is now at Augusta College. Last spring she was graduated from Richmond. Before that she was a student at North Augusta Senior High, and before that at Paul Knox Junior High. Through the generosity of unnamed persons outside my family (Mr. Hurlbutt knows that I do not fund it) my youngest daughter is attending a private school beyond Martinez in Columbia County -- hardly “on the Hill” toward helping her enter one of the “seven sisters” colleges. Mr. Hurlbutt himself has opined to me that this school is superior to anything in Richmond County. Item two: He says there is a 60-40 white to black teacher ratio maintained in every school. What does this have to do with the assertion that the better and more experienced teachers go to school in the more affluent and predominantly white neighborhoods? As Mr. Al Irby has said, black people have just about given up on integration, they want quality education so as to have equal opportunity. Here are the words of Mr. James M. Hinton, Jr.: “Court ordered transfer of teachers to achieve racial balance for 1970-1971, though never achieved, resulted in white teachers with the least number of years of teaching experience being assigned to predominantly black schools while black teachers with considerable years of teaching experience were assigned to predominantly white schools. A random sample of four predominantly black schools reveal that 82 black teachers with a total of 980 years of teaching experience were assigned to predominantly white schools, while 108 white teachers with a total of 269 years of teaching experience were assigned to these four predominantly black schools.” Mr. Hinton also said, “In late September 1970 students attended 39 predominantly white schools with teacher vacancies totalling 7, while teacher vacancies in 17 predominantly black schools totalled 39.” Etc., etc. Item three: Mr. Hurlbutt says he visited “three predominantly black schools, whose principals all feel that by and large fairness has been the rule.” Does not he Bob Valder, Regional Director of the Legal Defense Fund of the NAACP. “.... Then on Friday morning, May 28 (1971), I spoke by telephone to Mr. Williams. He advised me that he did not have the authority to provide copies of said documents to me. He further advised me that I needed to talk with Mr. Roy Rollins, Superintendent of that system, in order to secure same. Accordingly, I went to Mr. Rollins’ office on that morning. I told Mr. Rollins who I was, that I was a staff member of the Legal Defense Fund, that I was attempting to obtain copies of certain Title 1 documents and that I had indicated same in a handwritten letter to Mr. Williams on the previous day. Mr. Rollins asked if I worked for the I responded in the negative and he told me that I would not get anything from his office concerning any Title 1 matters. I reminded him that this information was available to any member of the public and he stated, ‘I don’t care, you’re not getting anything.’ I asked him if I could use his telephone in order to call Title 1 officials in Washington that said officials could persuade Mr. Rollins to obey the law. He gave me his telephone, put on his coat, and as he rapidly left the office he turned out his office light. In view' of this arrogant, rude and abusive treatment, and in view of Mr. Rollins’ absence I then cancelled the phone call.” Item five: Mrs. Hurlbutt says that a federal investigation of Title 1 funds was initiated and done, that no unfairness turned up, that allotment of federal funds was also roughly on a 60-40 basis, the larger amount going to black schools. He does not appear to have been informed that Title 1 funds are supposed to be based, not on race, but on income level. Here is the reality in the words of Mr. Valder: The compliance review conducted by the Office of Education was joint review (his underline) with the Georgia State Department of Education. Since the complaint I filed was directed specifically at both the State Department of Education and at the Richmond County Board of Education, and since my complaint specifically requested that the State Department be involved in neither an investigation of their own operation nor in an investigation of the District, I’m wondering why this joint review occurred. I had anticipated that the Office of Education would conduct a unilateral review of both the State Department and this District.” Another request for a federal-only review is now in the works. My friend might be interested to know that I have <1 TO BE 1 EQUAL KJKI 4 * ► Verno n E. Jordan, Jr. THE LEAD POISON EPIDEMIC Lead poisoning is a childhood disease that reaches epidemic But that’s just the beginning. In its more advanced stages, lead poisoning results in learning defects, behavior disorders, convulsions, brain damage including retardation and cerebral palsy, blindness, and even death. How many victims does a disease have to claim before it’s recognized as an epidemic? It’s been estimated that 400,000 children are poisoned each year, 6 to 8,000 suffer permanent damage, and 200 of them die. Is the national indifference to this epidemic due to the fact that its victims are the poor, the black, and other minorities? The tragedy is deepened by the fact that it is so easily preventable. Parent education is one step -- people have to be made aware of the fact that this potential killer is present in their homes and to be on the lookout for telltale signs that their children are eating paint flakes. Doctors and health workers too, have to be educated to the danger. In this disease, as in others, they are too often unaware of the special effects of slum life on the health of their patients. Health workers should be at the forefront of mass screening and testing programs to head off the killer before it can strike. But the real answer to this epidemic lies in social reforms. Housing code enforcement is non-existent in most places, yet a program to eliminate excessive quantities of lead in today’s wall paints and to remove the older lead-based paints from the walls is urgent. Ultimately, new and better housing for low-income families will not only do away with the lead-based paint disease, but also end the hundreds of other indignities forced upon slumdwellers. The meaning of this epidemic to the medical profession is that it can no longer treat illness in a vacuum, The real cause of this, and other diseases, is poverty, and doctors and other health workers must realize that the health problems of poor people demand more than treatment after it is too late. Preventive medicine in the slums must shift into high gear, with neighborhood health teams working on a block-by-block basis to prevent as well as cure, sickness. This is also a civil rights issue. The old struggle to sit at the lunch counter has been replaced in the seventies by the fight to remove the disadvantages of race and poverty. The black and other minority youngsters maimed and killed by lead-based poisons are in effect, selected for their fate by discrimination and poverty. The black community can no longer take part in a dialogue about abstract rights while our children are dying from the concrete realities of racially-based disadvantage. done a great deal of research, viz. The following black schools eligible for Title 1 funds in 1969-70 were not eligible in 1970-71: Laney. Hornsby, Sand Bar Ferry, Telfair, Weed and Graham. They had a total of 3,297 students who were 86 percent black and 35 percent average, Title 1 income level. But the following white schools were declared eligible in 1970-71: Tutt, Reynolds, Tubman, Evans, Lamar, Gracewood and Hephzibah. They had a total of 3,834 students who were 84 percent white but only 27 average percent Title 1 income level on the application blank. The complaint now before the federal Office of Education alleges that Title 1 equipment expenditures were made to the tune of $132,616.79 in the period 1966-69, in non-eligible Title 1 schools. That in 1970 it is alleged that nearly all Title 1 purchased equipment went to Josey High School to equip that school’s entire shop at a cost of $28,052.94, but that Josey a black school, is the only one of two high schools in the system that did not have its shop equipped by non-Title 1 monies, and the other school has no shop. Also, it is alleged that the school district hopes to equip the shop of another black school, Sand Bar Ferry, in the present school year with Title 1 funds, applying in August. But that all other junior high schools now have shops equipped by non-Title 1 monies. There are many, many pages of allegations. They require serious consideration, not to present under-the-rug or white-wash attitude. The thesis still stands: 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? Are not those clubs which hear ant'i-biising speakers, but not pro-busing speakers, showing prejudice in not giving equal time to competent pro speakers before passing anti resolutions? Let’s have fair play and and honest investigation of Title 1 fund expenditures. David C. Streett WANTED NEWS BOYS WANTED! 100 News Boys Good Pay CALL News—Review Office 930 Gwinnett St. 722-4555 II "GOING f I PLACES” I ■ With Philip Waring i "*C ' (My column today contains exerpts from last Sunday’s N.Y. Times) 'B ■ ‘l "a , i ?-\ •- "»• / <*i li i-. p c io read ; ■ ® B I fl ■ fl college, entering professions® harply. Most Black ' ■ economy and educational sy® fl society. These facts also prov® fl -fl /*'- r / “jb I fl ®,• ■ ' fl : ‘’' ' ’ ” fl ' ' ' I sl childhood malnutrition. I are no i ; . -J ” Vfl ' ' ; headed by women, which percent while remaining unchanged at 9 percent families. This correlates with a continued decline in the number of Negro children living with both parents. Indisputably, children in female-headed families in an urban setting are more vulnerable to adverse events and influences than those growing up in families where a father is also present. Urban League Study On Family Life An Urban League study, “The Strength of Black Families, places these factors in a large contex by stressing the many sound aspects of Negro family life, including the strength of the kinship system, the positive attitudes toward work, the desire for education and the stabilizing influence of religious values. These positive influences suggest that work-incentive programs aimed at welfare mothers are less important than jobs for Negro fathers and young men. If the ecomonic opportunities exist, there will be many such men eager to take advantage of them and, in so doing, gradually to stabilize their own family relationships. H.R. 1, the welfare reform bill, which brings assistance to the working poor and which provides incentives for unemployed fathers to stay with their families, is an essential component of any program for economic recovery and social stability. & SUBSCRIBE E TODAY THE NEWS-REVIEW P.O. BOX 953 ■U AUGUSTA, GEORGIA 30903 ■JI Name ®f| | Address Mj, City ;? I J Ont »car (in count) )s2.so |||'-' One vcar (out ol‘count) ). . . .$3.00 •> ? ••ars (in Count) )$ 12.50 fIK 5 M-ar>(<»ul of count)). . $15.00