Buffalo Criterion, 1988-01-06

              established in 1925 wny's oldest and largest afro american weekly for over 60 years featuring paid legitmate circulation thursday december 31 - january 6 1988 hester the buffalo criterion niagara region ol 64 - no 1 scenes taken from criterion's election 87 forum these photos show recent scenes taken during the november 87 election the winning officials will be taking office effective january 1 1988 the first scene shows outgoing republican county executive edward rutkowski and incoming democratic county executive dennis gorski executive gorski is the first democrat to hold this post in the history of the office this photo shows the first black woman city court judge barbara sims at left judge tim drury elected on the city court judge michael odonnell elected to family court and judge barbara howe elected to the city court bench this photo shows judge rose sconie's who will serve as an associate city court judge she is the second black woman to sit on the city court bench happy new year kirkland's corner no justice no peace 2 when 15 year-old tawana brawley of wappingers falls new york was found curled up inside a garbage bag behind an apartment building in newburg n v . after being missing for four days with human waste and xxx and nigger written all over her body she only said two words before subcoming to shock when asked who did this to you her response was white cop *• later through her family she sta led that on nov 24th while waiting at la bus stop in newburg a white man ; identified as a police officer kidnapped her and took her to an unidentified wooded area there he was sexually assaulted by at least six white men and kept four days since being found tawana has remained in a fetal position and has not walked even though tawana's first two words were few they were powerful explicit and provocative words that incited the hearts of many african american men and women throughout new york state and elsewhere her words conjured thoughts of addie mac collins carol robertson cynthia wesley and carol d mcnair the four little girls killed on september 15 1963 when the sixteenth street baptist church in birmingham alabama was bombed during the height of the civil rights movement for me it also brought back the memory of the buffalo police officers who abused a little baby girl in a crib in 1970 on sycamore near jefferson aye it became known as the line-up controversy where the guilty officers got away those were the days of a different season a different time the call went out to meet at baptist temple church in newburg the time high noon the date december 12th they came there was the young the elderly and the in-between females and males of many professions they came by cars buses trains vans and some walked the call was heard in buffalo six of us traveled by van to by theodore kirkland newburg - six officers of the african-americans for progress there was t c smith president of the gospel community hour charles harris program director of the gospel community hour george alexander angelo hill george camp and the author five of the six have daughters the rally was reminiscent of the 60s with one exception not one speaker spoke of non-violence not one spoke of turning the other cheek — not the baptist minister the catholic priest nor minister farrakhan mention non violence they were fired up as were the nearly 2,000 in attendance baptist ministers as well as father lawrence lucus from harlem spoke of self defense and was able to justify it from passages in the bible minister farrakhan called for an ' eye for an eye ' i called for a defense team explaining that african-ameri cans are defenseless in america and that nearly every ethnic group in america has a defense team to protect its people or ethnicity from its adversaries are not the jews still searching for its enemies and are their enemies not rewarded with death african-americans reward theirs with forgiveness and public office the tone of the march was set during the rally an organizer from black men against crack set the stage with the chanting of no justice no peace not only was it catching it was appropriate why should anyone in america have peace when all around them is injustice the organizer was good he warmed up the crowd no justice no peace when the crowd was fine-tuned they formed outside and marched through the streets of newburg yelling no justice no peace the police were everywhere all kinds of police and all colors no justice no peace no justice no peace was chanted up and down the streets of newburg n y increase announced because of the increas ing cost of production the criterion is forced to increase its price of the paper from 20c to 25c a copy locally and 30c out-of-town the criterion is a faithful servant to upstate new york and has parti cipated in many of the local state and federal gains for many years the work it has done in politics should earn the cooperation of the politi cians we are the only com plete printers in the black publishing field and that alone should earn us the black support of business fraternities clubs and church a one-year subscription to the criteri on will be 12.75 and 6 months 7.50 rites held for mrs myrtle littlejohn funeral services for myrtle mills littlejohn were held tuesday dec 15th at 1 p.m from the kensington memorial united methodist church leroy aye and grider st the rev harold wilks is pastor rev robert leach officiated mrs littlejohn passed away december 9 1987 she was born in spar tansburg south carolina on nov 20 1904 to the late mac and emma mills she was the sister of the late blanche hollins an nie bell benson rhodela foster sarah epps and hynes mills mrs littlejohn was married to rev marshall l littlejohn on sept 20 1924 and to this union one daughter was born in april of 1946 they moved to buffalo where he pastored mount olive c.m.e church which later became jubilee tem ple cme church and still later became the good shepherd e.u b church in 1978 mrs littlejohn became a member of kensington united metho dist church where she worked in the church until her health failed she was her husband's spiritual advisor her survivors are her husband rev littlejohn a daughter mrs hazel m mitchell two grandchil dren sargeant wilbert truman shirley of ma drid spain and mrs gwendolyn webster johnny of houston tex as six great-grand chil dren gregory and ros lyn of clinton maryland christopher webster of houston texas patricia terrell and kenny wil liams of madrid spain a goddaughter rhonda ferguson of buffalo and other relatives and friends _ the thomas t edwards funeral home inc was in charge of the arrange ments interment was in forest lawn cemetery pallbearers were nor zell aldridge sr george coston charles mcgar rah paul mcnare alfred jordon claud moses sr . greshem moss jr and jimmie rowland mrs myrtle littlejohn annual symposium dinner held the coalition for the redevelopment of united community involvement 1609 genesee street recently held their annual senior citizens seminar symposium and and a potluck dinner guest speakers were dr mary chappeile ms cheryl mcnair and ms funett williams m rashada is president of crucial mrs m williams is in charge of public relations the photo shows the staff speakers and senior who participated on the program other officers are e johnson secretary j cooperwood treasurer sgt.-at-arms f milas and executive director c clark - criterion photo black achievement awards special telecast scheduled the 9th annual ameri can black achievement awards a star-studded celebration will air satur day jan 9th at 2 p.m on wkbw-tv channel 7 hosted by jackee har ry of tv's 227 and actor mario van peebles celebrity presenters and performers join in paying tribute to the award recipients for 1987 the presenters include mar tin luther king iii basketball legend julius dr j erving tim and daphne reid of frank's place pam dawber of my sister sam cliften davis of amen gol den girls beatrice ar thur and rue mcclana han and maria gibbs and alaina reed of 227 naacp executive di rector dr benjamin hooks los angeles lak ers basketball star earvin magic johnson singers luther vandross and whitney houston actor james earl jones and daisy bates driving force behind the little rock nine are just some of the accomplished award re cipients dance legends the nicholas brothers recipi ents of the highest honor the ebony lifetime achievement award bring down the house with a performance represen tative of their more than 50 year career a distinguished audi ence of newsmakers in business politics sports religion journalism and entertainment witnessed the black-tie event taped in hollywood for national syndication on sun nov ist the program will be featured in the january issues of both ebony and jet the first king and queen to be televised were king george vi and queen elizabeth of england when they visited the new york world's fair in june 1939 c""l>e no justice no peace see page 3 serving working leading in wny inner cities since 1923 gigj.jrri'i ■'■■..,* li iu'ii price only 25 per copy