Buffalo Criterion, 1985-09-12

              wny's necessary minority newspaper - featuring paid legitimate circulation the buffalo criterion out-of-town 25c rochester vol 60 - no 37 thursday september 12-18 1985 niagara region _»- historic freedom convention set independence from poverty give us a plan...a 10 black commendments simple strong that we can carry in our memories no matter where we ate and reach out and touch and feel the reassurance that there is behind everything we do a simple oral intelligent plan that must be fulfilled in the course of time even if all of our leaders one by one fall in battle somebody will rise up and say brother our leader died while we were on page three of the plan now that the funeral is over let us proceed to page four " those were the words of ossie davis in 1971 at the congressional black caucus dinner he will utter similar words at the cleveland convention on sunday sept 29th when he calls for the freedom plan —- and gets it „ there to lend their support to the buy freedom drive end to make guest appearances will be john amos kunta kinte of roots legendary musician lionel hampton sheryl lee ralph star of dream girls hitman mayo i helltown and grady on sanford and son and maria gibbs 227 and the the jeffersons delegates and friends of freedom from across the country will also attend this gathering which is free of charge percy sutton chairman of the board of inner city broadcasting and owner of the apollo theatre will serve as master of ceremonies wesley tole vice chairman of first national association bank in cleveland is the planning chairman for the convention tony brown chairman of the council for the economic development americans will respond to davis freedom call with a multi-year plan to move black america in the direction of community independence the sequence of expec tations for business growth employment in creases income retention capital formation and an index to measure the economic standing of black america this annual index will be called the black economic index bed when the government announces that un employment is officially 7 percent for example it does not reflect a 16 percent unemployment among african-ameri cans brown explains he believes that an index designed especially for black america is needed for intelligent planning by the black community brown as serts ' the only index that will determine whether or not blacks are progressing or losing ground is one that will measure how much income blacks have retained in their own corn communities african-americans ex port 1,7000,000 jobs a year by spending 95 percent of their 200 billion income with non-blacks there fore the amount spent in their communities is the index for the casual relationship between economic activity and black america's standard of living therefore on a scale of 100 the black economic index bed for 1985 is 6.6 percent our freedom plan projects a progressive 15-year growth to a ei of 50 by year 2000 repre senting a retention of 445 billion in black america compared to a paltry 12.3 billion in 1985 this is how our economic emphasis will aid our civil rights and political thrusts and why the freedom convention will declare our indepen dence as a people from poverty join this historic move ment for information on attending the freedom convention write 1501 broadway suite 2014 new york new york 10036 or call 212 575-0876 pastor leaving buffalo sunday sept 15th the rev lir nnuiew eugene whined mil preach his farewell sermon at the st luke african methodist episcopal zion church 314 e ferry st at the 1 a.m worship service dr whitted has pastor ed the st luke ame zion church for fourteen years several clubs have been organized and flourish under his leadership he has been very active in the city of buffalo being visible in every area where aid guidance and spiritual as well as physical support has been required in the city of buffalo be is a past president of the 8.u.1.l.d organization and b.a.m.m he received an award for outstanding pastor rwwii the buffalo district dr whined has been and is a world traveler having attended world methodist council meet ings in norway africa and jamaica ame zion con ferencos in england ja maica and denver colorado a farewell reception will be hosted by the st luke ame zion church en satirday sept 14th where members and friends of th community and buffalo are cordially invited to attend and extend to dr and mrs whitli d their best wishes he their future in another pastorate the reception will be held at 7:30 p.m rev andrew e whitted mrs viola perry succumbs funeral services were held for mrs viola m perry saturday august 31 at 10 a.m from lincoln memorial united methodist church 641 masten aye th rev walter c barton jr is pastor mrs perry was born to the union of sylvester and elizabeth brown on oct 17 1909 in mt ulla north carolina she joined mt tabor baptist church at an early age and served there until moving to buffalo she later joined lincoln memorial church under the leadership of the rev barton she was married to the late fred perry mrs perry was a member of naomi chapter 10 0.e.5 esther court 9 heroines of jericho hadji court 62 daugh ters of isis honorary past imperial commandress of the imperial court daughters of isis where she served as directress of arts and crafts for many years elite temple 143 1.8.p.0.e of vv radio council of w.n.y and toronto canada mrs perry was a fromer member of the sherman l walker marching unit in the 30 surviving mrs perry are a daughter dorothy shelton her sisters eunice depree and clara wilson of buffalo and merle mccrae of burling ton north carolina a host of nieces and nephews a dear friend willie jones and other relatives and friends interment was in forest lawn cemetery pall bearers were from hadji temple 61 mrs viola perry hale to receive father baker award mrs clara hale the new york city founder of hale house which cares for infants born to addict mothers is the national recipient of the fifth annual father baker service award this year mrs hale was singled out recently by president reagan as a true american hero during his state of the union address kenneth and miriam barth co-directors of the diocese of buffalo's re spect life activities dept hawe been named as this years local recipients of the award members of the dic cesan natural family planning board the barths have shared the directorship of the pro-life office since 1983 they are the 1984 recipients of the bishop james a mcnulty memorial award for ser vice to youth the father baker ser vice to youth awards were inaugurated in 1981 award co-sponsors baker hall and our lady of victory infant home be gan the event that year in order to celebrate their 25th and 75th anniversary year respectively in making the an nouncement msgr c wurtz general mana ger of father bakers said we feel these individuals exemplify in their every day life the same commit clara hale actor-activist ossie da vis who delivered the eulogy at ' malcolm x's funeral and called for a plan at the 1971 congres sional black caucus din ner will make history again at the first national freedom convention this unprecedented gathering in cleveland at the convention center on sunday sept 29th will wck off the nationwide buy freedom drive in october a support jttadt businesses and create jobs for black america the meeting is free and information is available at 212-575-0876 mason's luncheon planned lester lodge 4 a.f & a.m of buffalo under the obedience of m w omega grand lodge ancient free and accepted masons of the state of new york fraternally incorporated will have a get together luncheon with members and their families sun sept 22nd after church at 1:30 p.m at the beautiful kensington place all masons and their families are welcome henry kelly is wor shipful master arthur wins primary race george k arthur 51 president of the council won the demo cratic endorsement for mayor he is the fourth black candidate to com pete in the mayoral race in bauffalo and is the second black to receive the major party endorsement mr arthur seems to be very popular and his attitude towards voters is a winning one mayor griffin 56 who has won over two blacks before is on three lines plus he has his democratic friends which will make the november sth elec tion one to watch george k arthur pitts conducted blast hearing by abdullah luqman buffalo common council majority l-e-firftt jatnes pitts held a public hear ing last week in response to home owners - iii tile '__' vuioihniise,o.-{dlosion where 7 people lost their lives complain ed of the shoddy work altered work plans and contractors who seld finished any job before receiving payment and starting another phase of their work on their homes the meeting was the result of cooperation between the community action organization cao the ellicott district concerned taxpayers edct and councilman pitts for homeowners to tell their stories in their own words and to get their complaints in writing so that they may be addressed properly mozella richardson cao center manager member of the board of education and a property owner in the blast area said that the son of mrs viola allen 86 adams st stated that residents in the blast area on adams st were emotionally drained attempting to resolve problems relating to repairs and contractual agreements on their homes richardson informed irma brown edct that jean taylor and she accompanied melvin allen to the blast area and noted the conditions of some of the homes on adams st between howard and clinton st richardson also said that they called 51 homeowners and only two said that they were satisfied with the work done by their contractors at the public hearing these were some of the stories told by the homeowners or their children alice milsap of 146 adams st said that they tore up her garage and told her that the job was to be completed by june and they pointing to joseph tomasulo director of dnr are treating the blast survivors like dogs annie lamar of 144 adams st said that her work has not been completed the contractor starts one job and doesn't finish it before he starts another one terri ashley of 398 emslie st said that her husband borrowed 10,000 to fix their house and the contractor hasn't finished the job the owner's daughter of 21 madison st said that they have a contract that was supposed to be finished by october 1984 and the contractor refused to do the roof she indicated that tomasulo deleted the order to rebuild the rear house from the contract she added that her mother had no water except what she could get from a hose for one year and the contractor has gotten paid for work which was not satisfactory amanda rivers of 66 monroe st said that her contractor comes in and does a little work and does not complete it then after she called them they would come out and talk with her but never did any more work storeowner aldora davis said that she was in phase i the prime blast area bounded by clinton emslie jefferson swan and seymour sts and they haven't done anything for her yet they told her that she has to pay for the restoration of her store before they start fixing her house a iink iok«spamml said that the city does not help commercial businesses hut another official admitted that unk helped the bakery and the mack truck companies that were damaged in the blast elizabeth harris of 81 madison st said that she lost her home and that she has not seen her contractor since last year elder frederick jordan of 584 clinton st said that he had to wait 18 months before they started repairing his house he asked if there was any penalty when the contractor does not complete the job on time and that why when things happen in our neighbor hood someone else repairs the damage and why aren't we sitting on the committee overseeing the work ali betts of 35 howard st said that the snow and rain is coming into his house and the contractor came in and put in a sink instead of fixing up his roof virginia williams of l6 howard st said that she saw the inspector right after the blast and she hasn't seen anyone else since then they the dnr told her that she cannot get any help until she pays her back taxes she said that she was not behind in her taxes when the blast came and that he has made arrangements with city hall,and is paying monthly on her 1984-85 trxes further information indicate that mrs williams has been eligib for help for months hut no one notified her steffen barber former housing director for the edct said that edct did not become involved until after most of the people in the blast area had contracts she does not feel that the blast homeowners are not given respect she also wonders why the contractors are painting inside walls when the roofs are still leaking willie johnson of 89 adams st said that she has a wet basement and all of the windows are out she asked why the homeowners do not get copies of the changes in the orders involving their properties the administrators of the dnr said that they have no legal obligation to determine if the work is being done as agreed upon they said that the dnr is assisting them out of bureaucratic christian charity because the contract is between the homeowner and the contractor since the homeowner must sign before the contractor can be paid the dnr feels that its up to the homeowners to see that job specifica tions are met the city draws up the job specifications lets out the contracts by bids and pays the contractors councilman pitts said that he doubts if the dnr even cares if the city gets its moneys worth or whether the conditions under which the homeowners are suffering are corrected pitts vowed to keep on the case he also plans to send transcripts of the hearing to the district attorney federal housing inspectors hud and the consumer fraud bureau with an option to file complaints with those agencies hale see page 3 f serving working leading in wn inner cities i since 1923 i price only 20 per copy