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wJ £ inn ~ ill £tn £ Vol. 1 Councilman Tappan Views Loitering, Jail, Garbage, J.B. Blvd. Aaron Tappan was elected to City Council last February, following the death of former councilman T.A. Bowman. As of January first Tappan will be the only Black councilman representing the fourth ward. Reverend C.S. Hamilton will leave office unable to succeed himself twice. For most of his first year in office Tappan has been relatively quiet. Too quiet for some. Recently, however, Tappan has been thrust in the midst of a number of controversies such as the “Loitering” ordinance that enraged many Blacks, because anyone found standing around in the downtown area who looked unemployed was subject to being arrested. Many citizens demanded that the ordinance be revoked. Question: What is the current status of the loitering ordinance? Answer: That law has been declared unconstitutional by the City Council, the City Attorney and John H. Ruffin. Question: Does that mean that there is no longer an ordinance against loitering? Answer: There is a law regarding loitering, but it has to be looked into by City Council or other city officials before it can be enforced. If a person is arrested, before they can make a case it has to be looked into to see if the persons rights are being violated. Question: Two weeks ago two young Blacks were killed by police while allegedly burglarizing a grocery store. They were reportedly killed with double ought buck shot as they fled police. Obviously one does not use double-ought buck shot to wound people. What justification is there for these kinds of killings and what can be done about them? Answer: The first thing is that it has to come before the Civil Service Commission. All actions of the Police Department come before the Civil Service Commission. Now what action will be taken, I don’t know. Now as for the men that were killed I think it was an uncalled for situation. It was unjustified. You kill a person when you defend yourself. But nobody was defending himself. The boys were just running. Therefore, I don’t think they should have been killed. Question: What action can the public take to see that these killings stop? That is, if the Civil Service Commission does not take action, can the public do anything about it? Answer: Yes, the public can. They can have a petition drawn up and present it to the Civil Service Commission and ask for a public hearing. I feel that the fellows who got killed . . . their rights were violated. A policeman is only supposed to kill when he has to defend himself. AnjJJ don’t think they found a gun or anything on neither one of the fellows. If they did, it was not reported. But my concern about killing is that we have too much killing for no apparent £ ? *■ .— * > * H > reason. There’s not a weekend that passes that one, two or three don’t die and everytime they die, they’re Black people. But what is the public doing about it? And when they go to court, the fellow does the killing, when they go for a preliminary hearing, it (the charge) is reduced to involuntary manslaughter and the man is free. Question: What's the reason for that? Answer: I don’t know. You have to go on the report that the police make and that determines whether it’s manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter or whatever the case maybe. But in ninety percent of the killings the people are free to kill again. Question: But why? Answer: Somebody is paying somebody to get me out and let me go. I’ve gone to solicitor Kerr and to Judge Kennedy to find out why. And they say that the report that the police made said that the man killed the other man in self-defense. So they give him involuntary manslaughter and the person is given six months or set free and nothing is done. Question: That’s the case when Blacks kill Blacks. But it’s quite different when Blacks kill whites. Answer: You don’t run into much of that and when you run into it, it’s such a big issue you can figure it out anyway. You very seldom find a case where a Black man kills a white man - around here. Question: Is that because of the severe punishment? Answer: No. Blacks don’t kill whites; Blacks kill Blacks. He ain’t gon’ kill whitey. Question: Why? Answer: I wish I knew; he’s a bad scratcher until whitey shows up. Then he’s as quiet as he can be. Really and truly, when a man kills another man they need to put him away. And stop giving paroles, and stop Candle Light Service A Candle Light Memorial Service wll be given by Chou- No. 2 at Bethel A.M.E. Church, Sunday Dec. 26th at 7:00 p.m. Rev. Rosie Williams, Associate Pastor of Good Shepherd Baptist Church will deliver the sermon. Please contact a member of the choir, if you wish for one of your loved ones to be remembered. Rev. Sanford, Pastor. Mr. Joseph Johnson, President 930 Gwinnett St. accepting money because money will get them out. But nobody checks on the judge. And they do what they want to do. And they free the folks. Everybody ought to have somebody checking on them. But this is what’s wrong in Augusta. The Civil Service Commission can tell (Police) Chief Beck “turn 'em loose.” And they all are loose. And nobody checks why he said turn 'em loose.” Question: Do you feel that there are enough checks and balances on public officials? It seems that everybody should be responsible to somebody. Answer: It’s not true. There are a lot of people working for the City and nobody checks on them. I’ll give you an example. About a month ago, the Public Works Committee met at the Sanitation Department. We met because the City was in such bad shape as far as Sheriff Announces Promotions w t </. THOMAS J. PERRY Yesterday Sheriff W.A. Anderson announced two new Investigators, Thomas J. Perry and Charles Wm. Wardy, Jr. Anderson said, “I take great pride in naming the first two black Investigators in the history of the Department. 1 said we would do this, not merely as a campaign promise, but because we have men who are qualified. The two men will prove to be effective and will be a real asset to the Department. We have just received the new cars we needed to make these assignments”, the Sheriff concluded. A number of personnel changes brought about by a retirement, additional equipment and added Abrams, Young Released Former City Councilman Grady Abrams was released from the Richmond County jail Tuesday after being held for a week on charges of armed robbery and aggravated assault. Superior Court Judge William Fleming set bond on the armed robbery charge at $5,000 and bond for aggravated assault was fixed at SI,OOO. John Young, who was arrested along with Abrams on December 7, was also released under the same bond rates. THE PEOPLE’S PAPER garbage and trash and leaves, are concerned. The city has two inspectors. One from 15th Street back to East Boundary, the other from 15th Street up. Their job is to inspect and to find garbage that the garbage men are not picking up. We went and checked on them and we found that the inspectors don’t even make a list, don’t even keep a record of the number of places they inspect. They just leave in the morning and come back in the evening and say, “We’ve been.” So when we asked for a record of inspections made, there is no record. So we went to the Superintendent wanting to know why. He said it has never been done before. And the City is paying people, furnishing them with a truck to make these inspections. So we brought the Superintendent along with the inspectors out in the city and went to some places and showed them where 7 CHARLES W. HARDY manpower were announced by Sheriff Anderson. Jesse C. Redd has been named Chief Deputy, succeeding Roger W. Tomlin, who will retire on December 31, 1971. Redd, Chief Civil Deputy, has the longest service in the Department. He joined the Sheriffs Department in 1945, and has performed nearly every duty during his career. Tomlin, who was on the Augusta Police Department at one time, started on the Sheriffs Department in 1951, and was named Chief Deputy by Sheriff George C. Mutimer in 1962. L.O. (Hunter) Beazley, is named Chief Civil Deputy to take Redd’s place. He will handle civil work and. will continue to represent the Sheriff in Court. “I want, first of all to express appreciation to Chief Deputy Tomlin for the service he has performed during the time when enforcing the law has become difficult. He has made a contribution to all of us”, said Sheriff Anderson. “In Jesse Redd,” he continued, “we are fortunate to have an officer who is well experienced in law enforcement work and who knows every phase of the Sheriffs Department.” Augusta Ga Phone 722-4555 some trash had been there for THREE MONTHS! About four weeks ago, this was a special detail made up of City employees to work on Saturday, in the Urban Renewal area. That’s on the Southeast side of Savannah Road. They hauled twenty-four loads of TRASH, that was piled on the streets and on the sidewalk, to the trash pile in one day. And the inspectors didn’t know a thing in the world about it. Yet and still, he’s being paid. They hauled those many loads on Saturday. So we asked for a weekly progress report on the inspectors. Last week I carried the inspector and showed him where trash had been in another place for about three weeks and asked him, “Is this SEE TAPPAN Page 5 Blackmon Jailed Samuel Blackmon, who was allegedly beaten and robbed by Grady Abrams, John Young and two other men, was arrested Monday. He was charged with forgery and first degree violation of the Uniform Narcotic Drug Act. According to deputies W.A. Martin and M.A. Hammet, Blackmon was arrested at 112 Augusta Homes where they said he had in his possesion sixty decks of heroin. The police said they also found assorted needles and syringes. Blackmon is being held in jail under bonds totaling $7,500. League To Clarify Reorganization The League of Women Voters of the Augusta Area is distributing 1500 copies of a single-page leaflet on the proposed reorganization plan for state government, according to Mrs. H.R. Worthey, local League president. “We know that there has been great confusion about what the reorganization plan proposes," said Mrs. Worthey Wednesday morning, “and we hope that the green leaflet and the second brochure which will be coming out soon will help SEE VOTERS LEAGUE Page 6 Federal Agencv Says AT&T Job Bias Keeps Rates From Declining Equal Employment Commission’s Report Filed with FCC, Which Will Hold Hearings on Charges Customers would pay lower phone rates if American Telephone & Telegraph Co. refrained from alleged discriminatory employment practices, a federal job-bias agency contends. This assertion is included in 2,500 pages of evidence and findings that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed with the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC has scheduled hearings Jan. 31 to determine whether the bias x rtf! # Mrs. Mamie Carter (L) and Lonnie McNeely (R) look on as Mr. Verdery Tutt presents check to Mrs. Ollie Brown, Director of Shiloh Orphanage. Tutt, who is president of the Augusta-Richmond County Barbers Association, said the Barbers Association “looks forward to making a contribution to the orphanage every year at Christmas. Mrs. Carter is the Orphanage House-mother. Mr. McNeely is Secretary of the Barbers Association. p hoto By Roscoe Williams Editorial I ATime For Reason | Irrespective of who agrees or disagrees, the Supreme Court has clearly stated that racial discrimination in public education is illegal. It has further ; : ; x : stated busing is an acceptable means of helping to achieve a unitary school :;X;: system. The point to be considered here is not whether or not we favor busing, S-S but rather, what we can do to make for a better education for our children, :•$: what we can do to see that our children receive a total education, growing spiritually, socially and academically. Now is the time when rumor should be replaced with fact and fear should g:;: be replaced with reason. It is time that the nobler qualities of our being g;:; summon the courage to speak up for that which is just and to standup for :g;: that which we know to be fair. It is time that we commit ourselves to xX; obeying the law and to seeing that we make our city and our nation what it «g:- has always claimed to be - land of the free with liberty and justice for all. g$ §:!■ It is ironical that many of the sternest advocates of law and order now join Board of Education president, John Fleming, in urging citizens to g;< disobey the law. If law and order is valid for Blacks, then law and order is :g;: valid for whites. And in this case, law and order is certainly not the rallying gg ?x cry of those who are still holding out for segregation in the name of :j:g $:•••: Neighborhood Schools. For most Blacks, the greatest concern over the proposed desegregation plans centers around the possibility of losing T.W. Josey and Lucy C. Laney gg as graduating high schools. This is a valid concern. Blacks have already xg •xil watched John M. Tutt high school become a predominantly white junior gv •:4j high school. This, Blacks accepted. It can hardly be expected that Blacks will xg sit idly by and watch Laney and Josey go by the same route. ;:;g If sentimental or historical values were to be considered in determining gx lg: which schools should retain graduating status, then certainly Laney and Richmond would be the logical choices - Laney being Augusta’s first public :g;i bigh school for Blacks, Richmond Academy being the oldest high school in g$ xg the South. And if anything can be agreed on, then it would seem that one :g:J point would be that these schools retain their graduating status. ;g;| It is time for those citizens of good will to use their energies and resources g;3 ■:g: to see that the American dream of equal opportunity' and justice becomes a xg reality in Richmond County and throughout the nation. ggl charges are true and, if so, whether there’s a “functional nexus” between such discrimination and the rate requirements of AT&T and its 22 operating companies. AT&T with more than one million employees, is the nation’s largest private employer. The company immediately responded to the equal opportunity agency’s report in a statement issued by Robert D. Lilley, executive vice president. “Our corporate policy is absolutely clear,” Mr. Lilley said. “We are now, as we have been from the outset, actively supporting the national policy December 16, 1971 No. 39 of equal employment opportunity. We have a good record. We have made good progress. And we are at the present time doing more than ever to assure equality of opportunity for minority people and women”. In a 300-page summary, the independent agency asserted that discriminatory practices against women proved costly to the company. “If AT&T had operated to minimize labor costs (i.e. employed workers at the lowest possible wage, regardless of sex), they would have employed large numbers of women in all job categories,” the agency alleged. 15< It said “the total effect of this savings would have been an annual reduction of 2% to 4% in overall telephone rates.” The Rights Commission filing is a further step in its case before the FCC to deny AT&T a substantial rate increase until the company ends its allegedly discriminatory practices. Late last year, the agency asked the FCC to turn down the company’s proposed $385 million-a-year rate boost until it ended what the commission SEE JOB BIAS Page 3