Buffalo Criterion, 1985-04-24

              rochester wny's necessary minority newspaper - circulation the buffalo criterion vol 60 - \„. 1 t t hit ■ ii uml . . ukiimshai april 24-30 19s a out f town 25 -"**-- -|| ■"" hi.__l._iir ■- imi fight waged to keep e.c heap grant cutback of heap funds would severely hurt area legislator barry l robinson id buffalo thursday helped the erie county legislature approve his resolu tion protesting the new york state dept of social services possible elimination of basic grants under the home energy assistance program which provides assistance to help low income house holds pay their heating bills robinson's resolution put the legislature on record in opposition to the state cutback which is scheduled to take effect at the end of april robinson says the heap cutback would pull the rug out from under the people who rely on heap grants to offset their heating bills it is inconceivable to me that the state dept of social services would even consider cutting off erie county's basic heap grant funding our area consistently has unem ployment that's among the highest in the state we have a higher percentage of families living below the poverty level than almost any county in new york state and our weather is always colder than most parts of the state where could people be more deserving of thia tr m.mmamrr than buffalo and erie county he said the state's department of social services has said that it will shut down the basic benefit segment of heap so that it can reclaim unexpended heap monies from new york state counties and redistribute them to counties that have exhausted their basic benefit allowance but robinson said such a plan would hurt counties such as erie which use unexpended basic grant funds to supplement emergency grants for people threatened shut-off situations we have several million dollars left in our basic grant fund but if it is taken away from us by the state dept of social services we will run out of monies for emergency grants by early june ' taking heap aid away from erie county is ludicrous and we'll fight this plan all the way robinson said his resolution urges that the state social services dept to allow erie county to retain leftover basic grant funds so that they can be reallocated to the emergency portion of heap and aid eligible people throughout the year . . nat'l history day contest winners announced four eighth grade stu dents at the martin luther king jr multi-cultural institute recently came in first place in the annual national history day com petition sponsored by the buffalo and erie county historical society the theme this year was triumphs and tragedies in history the students from mlx school competed in the junior division for grades 6 7 and 8 the first place winners were carl peach the leader of the group daniel germain david cromwell and isfarel ken ner all bth graders at mlx school mrs karima amin an english teacher at the school served as research guide for the students mrs amin who is also a local author and commu nity worker assisted the students when they en countered a problem in research the students completed a display project entiled hidden contributors black scientists an__nven tors in america they focused on the triumphs and tragedies of black ' men and women who were i scientists and inventors ; but who are usually left by eva m.doyle out of the history books these students worked extremely hard on this project they also did a great deal of letter writing for example they wrote to the u s postal office and found out that the post office has hon ored three black scien tists they are benjamin banneker dr charles drew and george wash ington carver they also wrote to the chicago defender and received an article on daniel hale williams as a result of their successful entry in this contest they will go to the state contest on may 3 which will be held in saratoga springs new york the national history day competition is held in two divisions the junior division and the senior division for grades 9 10 11 and 12 the projects that the students choose can be related to local history world history or american history the students have to decide on a focus and how they want to do their presentation they can choose to do historical papers as an individual a display project a group project or they can choose to do a performance which they have to write the general rules of the contest state that they have to do the research and use as primary sources newspapers diaries journals photos letters government docu ments etc they should also use secondary sources such as general histories biographies encyclopedi as dictionaries and text books in doing the project they must be sure to include an annotated bibliography telling how and why they used a particular source appreciation service set for mother lula mae wiggs an appreciation service will be held for mother lula mac wiggs sat may 4th at 7:30 p.m at the state tabernacle church of god in christ 234 glenwood aye she will be honored for 32 years of dedication and service to the church rev a bell is pastor community loses prominent minister by mrs mamie garrett funeral services for the late rev guy j graves were held tuesday april 23 at 11 a.m from unity baptist church 183 syca more st where he was pastor he was born march 1 1936 to tom and the late elizabeth graves in malakoff texas he succumbed thursday april 18 1985 he was a graduate of the st paul high school in malakoff in 1957 he married alberta toliver and from this union live children were born he moved to buffalo in june of 1957 rev graves joined the friendship baptist church 402 clinton st under the leadership of the late rev e d mcneeley he studied with the buffalo bible institute and participated in various baptist association work shops on the local state and national level in 1961 rev graves was called to pastor the antioch baptist church where he served faithfully in sickness and in health for 16 years he organized the center union baptist church in 1982 in 1976 and in 1982 the new light baptist church in june 1984 he was called to the unity baptist church where he pastor ed until his death his christian chores included quartet singing he sang with the soul stirrers the bible tones and the jcs chorus of the friendship baptist church he was affiliated with the council of churches and worked with various community organizations rev graves is survived by a wife ruth a father rev tom graves daugh ters sharon rev larry watson gwendolyn rev goodloe brown of buf falo kimberly and marie graves of wichita falls texas sons guy jr of buffalo and rev john young of pontiac michi gan stepchildren sawyer johnny hatten jr anthony and michael hatten five grandchil dren and one godson rev graves — rev guy j graves curtis s jenkins right acting irs buffalo district director presents william ethe assistant regional com missioner irs with a check for 1230 contributed by buffalo irs employees for the american red cross african femine relief fund irs employees donate to relief fund rorer 12130 w-rl^'i!uuttib-ied't»t-tlre american red cross african relief fund by employees of the buffalo office of the internal revenue service in a special program up air 1 uhf d-_rviirg itnotses jr africa irs employees thorughout the country are making contributions to the red cross according to curtis s jenkins the acting * director for the buffalo irs district the funds contributed locally were the result of a bake goods sale in the !&___' n-ii—irg jr j_.ff9~7 _«_' contributions by irs employees through out the buffalo district which includes the western and central new york area 4 to receive awards at u.l dinner former buffalo com mon council president delmar l mitchell will receive the evans-young award at 7 p.m thurs april 25th at the urban league's evan's young awards dinner in the hyatt regency buffalo mr mitchell retired as council president in 1983 he served for 26 years in city government he will receive the award for demonstrating a sustained and dedicated commitment to the cause of human dignity equal opportunity and commu nity understanding le roy coles president of the buffalo urban league said the family life award will be presented to woodie and dorothy dur ham a couple who have been foster parents to more than 250 children on a temporary basis since they were certified as foster parents for the division of youth in 1972 the durhams are presi dents of the western new york foster parents as sociation and work with other youth and foster parents groups the youth award will be presented to george f johnson jr who was awarded a six-week schol arship for the debate forensic seminar at georgetown university delmar l mitchell mr and mrs woodie durham finer womanhood luncheon held zeta phi beta sorority inc kappa upsilon zeta chapter had its finer womanhood luncheon sat april 20th at the buffalo hilton hotel the women of the year award was presented to mrs fern e beavers clinical nurse specialist in psychiatry at the buffalo veterans administration medical center and i clinical instructor de partment of medicine at the state university of new york at buffalo the honoree is a native buffalonian medical re searcher and writer she is active in many civic health and welfare organi zations and a trustee of st john baptist church the community service organizational awards ' was presented to wblk fm k94 bashketeers the zeta of the year award was received by the president of the sorority chapter mrs connie c bowman who is a teacher and mother of three small children but who finds i time to work tirelessly to develop this buffalo j chapter of the sorority i which was organized in 1981 special recognition was given to the 1985 college , graduates who are mem bers of the undergraduate chapter omicron mv chapter also the citations of a very special zeta was presented to mrs alberta nelson widow of the late dr e e nelson and the oldest zeta in the buffalo area mrs nelson is a retired elementary public school teacher and a member of bethel ame church the guest speaker was the dynamic dr octavia hudson phd of buffalo and general assignment reporter for wtvb-tv channel 4 mrs fern e beaver dr octavia hudson former buffalonian political community leader dies elder bennie j swans sr a former buffalonian was buried saturday april 13th from the sherwood presbyterian united church 56th and willow avenue in philadelphia pennsylvania community and political activist mr swans of the 5700 blook of baltimore avenue lost his 15-year bout with cancer and succumbed on tuesday april 9 19851 in mis ericordia hospital he was mr swans was born feb 6 1920 one of 19 children born to the late masco and vera swans of eusville georgia on july 8 1944 he was joined in holy matrimony to bernice eat man and to this union 6 children were bom ten years ago doctors told him that he had cancer and had about six months to live retiring from the docks where he worked as a steveaore lor 20 years swans plunged himself into church and community work before his forced retire ment due to failing health mr 3 vans and his wife owned and operated the nice man's grocery mar ket in the 5500 block of baltimore aye mr swans had been suffering with cancer of the prostate and was hospitalized innumerable times but he always affirmed his love for god and life and seemed to hang on with an admirable resilience after 15 years of fighting lit he was just tired said bennie j swans jr of his famous father and even to his death he was concerned about the community he recently participated in two community meet ings mr swans was a demo cratic committeeman of the 46th ward was a 32nd degree mason a world war ii veteran who was disabled and honorably discharged was a member of misericordia hospital's advisory committee chairman of this family's 7 stars club and was a member of the west side philadelphia chamber of commerce bennie swans sr was connected with the buffalo criterion's promo tional department and during world war 11 was active with charlie wil liams pencil kid smith and roger bear and helped to promote a '' miss war worker contest his survivors are 2 brothers and 10 sisters they are ozell alridge of indian town florida john swans clara davis bertha mac swans and mildred brooks all of buffalo mary blackshear elizabeth smith mary bell davis and christine wil kerson all of philadelphia emily ruff of ellaville georgia mavis settles of brown mills n j and martine swans of ft lauderdale florida other survivors are his wife be mice six children vera blair bennie jr lorraine daniels darryl darryl terrance and lor anda mccafferty six grandchildren darnell and kareem mccafferty mwana utu bennie 111 and breanne swans nicole and lashanda daniels and many other family members and friends mr swans was interred in fern wood cemetery just 4v blocks from the house where he lived raised his family and championed the cause of economic development along baltimore avenue as the founding leader of the baltimore avenue business and community association bennie swans sr rev walter barton to observe 7th year the rev walter c barton pastor of lincoln memorial united metho dist church 641 masten avenue at northland will be honored at his seventh anniversary dinner sun day june 2 at 5:30 p.m at the buffalo hilton hotel 120 church st the celebration of his seventh anniversary of his ministry in this church will last all day bishop forrest c stith new resident bishop will join in the celebration and visit the church on this day he will also be the guest speaker at the dinner knowledge comes but wisdom lingers alfred tennyson see page 3 serving 1 working leading in wny inner cities l since 1923 j price only 2f per cop