Newspapers / The Carolina Times (Durham, … / Dec. 9, 1978, edition 1 / Page 1
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VOLUME 56 - NUMBER 49 Says 15 or An official of -flie Durham Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement 1 of Colored People (NAACP) alleges that K-Mart employees beat 31 year old Bobby Sims, a black man last Week.- -Mrs. Josephine Turner, a member of the NAACP's executive' committeej, described as ' "shocking and brutal" the beating fifteen to twenty K-Mart employees gave Sims. The NAACP has decided IVUnC-FFlanUCOV 1 t 1 . .. Llcoasos Aro The' University of North Carolina's public radio and television stations have been charged with "racist hiring ppractices and racist pro gramming" in a citizens petition to deny re-licensing of WUNC-FM aiid eight stations in the UNC tele vision network. . Relying on ' the historic decision of the NAACP vs. Federal Power Commission, the Durham Coalition for Responsive Media contends in the petition to the Feder al - Communications v Com-' mission. that ''unequal $nv.;.A 'We are rart'oilarlv conUNC-TV ot. WUNC-FMare Ywytuvuf ,. .upwmiiuun make it less , likely that broadcast Ucensee's : pro gramming . is responsive to and fairly reflects the tastes and 1 viewpoints of minority groups." Since 1955, .the UNC network has operated with out having its application challenged.' Stations are re quired to have their licen-' ses renewed every three years and show plans to serve the public Interest. The data supporting the Coalition for Responsive V,w.v.v.v.w.y.v long ,' Ana - off Bbo Oppressor Btened for (Editor' Note: The fol lowing article was original ly published in the Novem ber ' 23, , 1978 1 Issue of the - San Francisco Sun Reporter. A Black newspaper i whose pub lisher is Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett, the immediate past president of the National Newspaper Pub lishers . Association-The Black Press of America. Dr. Goodlett was also Rev. Jim Jones' personal physician.) - The , deaths of more than 400 people in Jonestown, Guyana, many of them Black former residents of the' ,Bay Area, show how deeply committed those people were to building the society, espoused by the Rev. Jim Jones, according to Sun Reporter publisher Dr, Carlton Goodlett. " , Goodlett ; was a long time friend of Jim Jones and ri h firm t believer In the work of Peoples Temple, which , Jones founded. He was also Jones' ' personal physician and had" paid a visit to the Temple's mission in Guyana in that capacity last August. ; Goodlett blamed the "long arm of the oppress or" for reaching down Into Guyana and perpetrating the ;. " tragedy that began with the i assasihation of Represenative Leo Ryan and four others and mat ended with' the apparent mass suicide" of 910 Temple members and the Duke University Library fcurham, y. C. 277GG' . ' ' Sil;!loQll3rQ 20 VJtiitos to take up the case. Sims' trial is set for December 19. . , Mrs. Turner, . an unsuccessful -h candidate for City Council in 1976, said she had entered K Mart , on Avondale when she saw fifteen or twenty whites surround the black man, pick him from the ; floor :i and stam Wm ' on the - con crete floor. Then the man was kicked and beaten, Mrs. Turner said. Shortly after police Media challenge shows that WUNC-FM' employed, ten-full-time , employees, seven white men and three white women. From a listing of nine .. part-time employees, seven - were white and two were black. . likewise the University of North Carolina Television Network employs ninety employees of which four are black men and three are black women. Data for both the radio station and net- work were taken from the rnw mnnWcMan of each, i ,. cemCQ W1UI IRQ POWer Ulf broadcast media has . in shaping the community's ideas, not only about other things but about them selves", said Ben Currence, attorney and spokesman for the Coalition. "I think that the term propaganda can be used," Currence con tinued. "Propaganda can be a good thing and a bad thing, and when you start having no input by certain groups that are being writ ten on; and reported on, then lmntediatelv that scattering ofhundreds of prised ; the pioneering agricultural mission in other Americans, who corn northern Guyana. "This marl offered hope and promise" Dr. Good lett said. "He spoke to the people who were so op pressed, by the system that they, would make the ul timate sacrifice of hearth and home to try to build a new life in a distant land. "But, when the long arm of the oppressor ; reaches six thousand . miles and shattered their dream, they must have . ' decided that life wasn't - worth living anymore. ;When Jim said, 'The time 1 has come for us to 'die,' . Ithey believed him. Their "belief was that strong." Dr., Goodlett said that as a Pyschologist he can "understand" that non violent people could be: pressured; uhtfl they. . reached a critical point where their .nonviolence failed." The government of . Guyana has charged , that it was People Temple members who ambushed Ryan's party sat the. Port ' Kaituma i airport, killing, . Ryan, three newsmen, and a Jones town resident who was reportedly planning to ; leave the settlement '. Goodlett said Ryan's highly publicized visit to Jonestown was the cU- ' max of a long history of harassment and medd ling experienced by the ChqUonnod 11 .. : , ' . 1,. - ' V - ' . . V-' x . - 5 - ' - ' ' - " : ' "'" - .,' s- t " 'V i, r- v:' -' : v-- ' t Kictt and Boat Han were summoned, and Sims was arrested allegedly for shoplifting and assault ing store manager John Robert Cox. Sims told THE CAROLINA TIMES that he had gone to K-Mart the evening of November 29 to ' - return. some items he had purchased the flay before. After exchanging the sunglasses, film and flash cubes, Sims said he began to shop for other items with the replaced merchandise which was stapled in a C3ouorh raises jmy eyebrows and makes me think that there is something missing." ' Gary Shivers, Director of WUNC-FM said he, too, was concerned about the station's programming and lack of "minority perspec tive". Defending the pro gramming attempts of the station, he said that cover age had been done on the Crest Street dispute, the Wilmington 10 and the com petency test. " . Declaring i that . affirma ' ttve sction efforts of either tive action efforts of either within the ' lone . of reasonableness", 6 according to the petition, the FCC hasi determined unreason able the full-time, employ ment of minorities in less than half their percentage in the population. ; 1 r The petition asserts mat the network and radio sta tion do not advertise locally for minority applicants. Shivers told THE CARO LINA TIMES that recruit ment had been done at Shaw University and a few Continued On Page 101 residents of theagricultural mission. In past months marksmen 'had fired into the compound, a visitor flit!? LIFE-SAVING SLEEP - U.$. Vice Consul Richard Martin of Georgetown, Guyana, pushes Mr. Hyacinth Thrush In a wheelchair tfirough the airport gardent to her plan as sheand six other survivors of the Jonestown mass suicide-killing left for the United States. Mrs. Thunh, who Is 78 and ailing, told newsmen she slept through the orgy of death. UP - ; DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - (Mils "I bag by a K-Mart employee. - Then Sims said he had picked up another item, a small bracelet worth about $5 when store detective N.M. Butler approached hirri saying "you're in for it now buddy. I just saw you heist ' that bracelet" After, explaining to the detective that he was not , shoplifting, the detective -invited Sims to go to the back of the ' store ,to further discuss the matter. "On the way back, the detective stopped . and whispered to several other ' employees who followed, us ,to the back," Sims recalls. Surrounded in the back of the store by the white men declaring that he was a shoplifter, Sims a man who. weighs about 215 pounds says he started to leave when all the men jumped on him and beat him badly. .Continued On Page 9 N.C. Doafti Penalty Loses Political Utility; DctfiHRbu Popplatod Again Rctlsi; dd . RALEIGH-The death penalty, as a political issue . is loosing its-utility to polk ticians around the. country; says Alan McGregor, direc tor of the N.C. Prison and Jail Project. McGregor cites as proof, losses suffered by death penalty proponents around the country in re cent elections. J "The first phase of the death penalty's political cycle is coming to an end " said McGregor. "The death penalty as a political clandestinely ; poisoned large numbers of livestock, and disgruntled former Temple members 4 Iwe SATURDAY. DECEMBER 9. 1978 TELEPHONE (919) VJfcllo Denies Sponsion; Ssvcd Dy Kerr BY PAT BRYANT Johnny White's career as a housing manager for the Durham Housing Authority toolc a downward turn last week when . Director of Operations Willie Griffin suspended WhiteAccording to sources, Griffin asked 'White to resign. Disputing informed sources, White . said Griffin did not ask him . to resign but only told him (White) he was , going to suspend him. : Sources say White was off the job Monday, but was reinstated by DHA Director James Kerr. : ' White has long .been a "target of tenant com plaints, ; charging improper -discharge of his duties and 3 poor project a dmin istration of the Oxford Continued On Page 7 Ut;lr:j Prccrcsafca Charged PAT BRYANT 'issue is loosing its utility to politicians around ' the country. This is indicated by the fact that Governor Hugh Carey won the gover norship of NewiYork again st opponents who were using the death penalty against him where he had vetoed the New York death penalty law and he was still elected." McGregor also pointed out that the death penalty's most vocal pro ponentFlorida Attorney General Robert Shevin, lost !AV?:tVVVVVVVV tried repeatedly to get into ; Jonestown and to . make trouble there. y.- According to Goodlett, 'A CONGRATULATIONS - Sheriff John Baker is congratulated as he leaves courtroom following hi swearing in. He was on his way to administer the oath of office to hb deputies. INSIDE THIS WEEK'S ISSUE The ileal Tragedy 01 Jonestown Souths Prisons Are Exposed his bid for governor clutch ing to the death penalty as his main issue. A mid-November count by the American Civil Liber ties Union (ACLU) indicat ed that 459 inmates sat on death rows around the country awaiting execution. As of this week, seven per sons await death by cyanide poisoning in North Carolina Central Prison's gas chamber -James Calvin Jones of Robeson County, Johnny Continued On Page 2J lEae JomesfloOT Iireag Ryan's visit might have caused Jones and some of his supporters to panic and touch off the ghastly 4 1 i .1 VJcrds of VJhdon The great law of culture ia: Let each be come all that he. was created capable of being. 688-6587 S s-rn : Sheriff Miqt Sivoro ln, Tbonfis His Friends BY KELVIN A. BELL "I can't thank the citizens enough for elect ing me as their chief law enforcement officer," said John H. Baker, Jr., the first black to be elected as a North Caro lina sheriff since Recon struction. His comments carrie in an interview fol lowing his swearing in as ti Wake County Sheriff Monday, before several hundred persons. Baker was elected Nov. 7, and replaces retiring Wake sheriff Robert J. ; Plea sants, I1 who headed - the r'since;194e- the 43-year old Baker is a former pro foot ball star and Senate aide. He v defeated Democrat Lester W. Kelly and Republican Clyde R. Cook to win the four-year term. In his address to his men following their being sworn in, Baker said "I want you to be firm in enforcing the law, but I also want you to be fair. series ot events that ended K with the virtual of Jonestown. "You have to under stand the desperation of people who find they are unable to escape from their oppressors," Good lett said "You can see . how they might feel that (Ryan's party) had killed their dream and say, 'And now we're going to kill them.' " Goodlett said he had not known of any "suicide pact" among temple members. . Goodlett recalled a time, no so long ago; when the picture at the Peoples Temple settle ment in Guyana was not so bleak. ' The time was three months ago, when Good lett spent a "very pleasant" day at Jones town, touring the settle ment and treating Jim Jones. Jones; according to Goodlett, had some serious medical problems and had promised to submit to tests and hos pitalization once the impending visit by Ryan's farty was over." The eoples Temple -leader was running a daily temperature of between 102 and 103 degrees Fahrenheit . and f be lieved that the colony he headed wouldn't be able to function properly if he were not there "to 1 offer leadership and the sharing of hardships." Goodlett said he taw PRICE: 20 CENTS (Photo by Kelvin A. Bell) Everyone is to be treated equally-black or white-rich or poor. The well respected man added that if there waa anyone there who felt that he or she could not deal with these they are free to turn his he in their resignation. Baker assured personnel that would try to get the best possible equipment for them because "I realize that you need it to do your job." He continued by saying that . "there is no reason at all why we rAouldn't have :r the -best . law enforcement agency in the state We should be a model for the rest of the country." "We have one purpose and that's to serve the community." Baker also informed his personnel that they would all be on a six month probationary period. In a telephone interview Wed nesday, he said it would be an "overall evaluation Continued On Page 13 no evidence that Rev. Jones illness affected his in tellectual capacity. Moreover, Goodlett said, Jones problems weren't affecting the well being of the settlement in Guyana. He described the Jonestown medical facil-. ities as probably the. best rural clinic he hat ever seen and praised the work of a young physician, formerly a drug addict in California, who had gone to medical school in Guadalajara, and at UC.-lrvin ' as waa treating patients throughout the Jones town area. v Goodlett talked to many Jonestown settlers who had been -his former patients when they lived in San Francisco. . "Some of them I waa surprised to find were still alive," he said. One such person was the mother of Larrry Layton, who was re ported to ' have been killed at the Port. Kai tuma airport when the shooting started. . The woman was dying of cancer, Dr. Goodlett reported. "But she was happy he said, "She wanted to die .in Jones town." Goodlett said he con fronted Jones with the stories people . were spreading in the Bay Area . that Jonestown residents weren't allowed to leave the settlement Jones assured him that this Continued On Page 10 1
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