Urban Pro Weekly

UPW

FEB. 26 - MAR. 4, 2015 VOL. 4 NO. 24

URBAN PRO WEEKLY

Hardie’s RULES Of Order Eddie Bussey 706-772-9800

JAMES BROWN BLVD

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LANEY-WALKER BLVD

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7TH ST

LANEY-WALKER / BETHLEHEM HERITAGE TRACES

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TWIGGS ST

WRIGHTSBORO RD

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Paths of Progress

The Paths of Progress trace highlights redevelopment areas in progress.

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Cranston Engineering Group, P.C. AVA N

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ENGINEERS - PLANNERS - SURVEYORS 452 Ellis Street, Augusta, Georgia 30901 www.cranstonengineering.com OL DS

UrbanProWeekly - FEB. 26 - MAR. 5, 2015

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706-722-1588 Proudly partnering with eminent historian Bobby Donaldson, PhD, the City of Augusta, and neighborhood interests, Cranston Engineering Group developed a Master Plan for a series of routes through the Laney-Walker/ Bethlehem communities to designate and connect important historic sites.

RESPECTING THE PAST ... DESIGNING THE FUTURE

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COMMENTARY

Hardie’s Rules of Order

By Frederick Benjamin Sr UrbanProWeekly Political Analyst

findings and, oh yeah, I want the cash to hire all the people that are going to do these things on my behalf.

“I want to conduct studies and investigations “I want to tell at least 7 commissioners to take a walk because with the power to veto all commission rulings, my wish plus any three commissioners is all I need to impose my will on the this entire silly government.

“I want to do all of the above and still do the stuff I was elected to do.”

That said and done, his grin widens and he declares, “It is good.”

The Art of War

Imperial Arithmetic

By Hardie Davis

By Hardie Davis

One has to admire the precision with which Mayor Hardie Davis and his operatives carried out the preemptive strike against the Augusta Commission, the city administrator and just about anyone else who has any decision-making responsibilities in the city of Augusta.

It has inspired our editors to come up with a guidebook of tactics, deception and obfuscation that have that Hardie Davis touch for nuance, sleight-of-hand rhetoric and verbal misdirection.

Davis is not yet a “Smooth Criminal,” but if he gets all that wants, he has definitely earned the title of “Smooth Operator.”

So now, here is The Art of War (abridged) by Hardie Davis (with apologies to Sun Tzu).

1. “All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.”

2. “Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment — that which they cannot anticipate.”

3. “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.”

4. “If those who are sent to draw water begin by drinking themselves, the army is suffering from thirst. [One may know the condition of a whole army from the behavior of a single man.]”

5. “One may know how to conquer without being able to do it. ” 6. “Ponder and deliberate before you make a move.”

7. “The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy, so that he cannot fathom our real intent.”

8. “Attack is the secret of defense; defense is the planning of an attack.”

9. “Those skilled at making the enemy move do so by creating a situation to which he must conform; they entice him with something he is certain to take, and with lures of ostensible profit they await him in strength.”

10. “Mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy.”

Under Davis’ proposed governmental shake-up, he would have the power to veto commission decisions. In order for the commission to override his veto, they would have to get 8 votes.

If that is Davis’ idea of checks and balances — it’s a fanciful one and one that benefits only the mayor.

Think about this scenario. Let’s say that under the new rules the commission decides, by a 7-3 vote, to award a $5 million contract to an engineering firm for infrastructure improvements. Now if, for whatever reason, the mayor doesn’t favor that particular engineering firm for that particular job, he can veto the decision. The commission would be powerless to override the mayor’s veto as long as the 3 who voted against the proposal stuck to their guns.

In other words, the mayor + any 3 commissioners spells a majority.

That means that the mayor, all by himself, has the effective voting power of three commissioners.

Forget about the gang of six, the mayor and any three commissioners could effectively run the show.

The “gang of four” would rule the day and everyday after that.

Why? Because if it takes 8 votes to override the mayoral veto, the commissioners on the wrong side of the veto could never get the needed votes.

In those cases where all 10 commissioners are not present, the mayor only needs two commissioners to impose his will on the body.

When only 8 commissioners are present, the mayor only needs a single commissioner to stand with him after he vetoes a commission vote.

Davis’ “imperial arithmetic” gives the mayor imperial powers.

2015

AUGUSTA Anyone running for the office of mayor of Augusta has to get the latest copy of Robert’s Rules of Order because it’s the reference bible of choice for those whose job it is to conduct meetings properly and efficiently.

One can picture the newly elected mayor Hardie Davis brushing up on his motions, and submotions and calls for order and then suddenly

ripping the whole thing to shreds and It sounds good, real good. declaring, “This sucks! I don’t want He goes on. to run the meetings; I want to run “These folks need to report to me the show!” and if they fall short, I want to be able And thus is unveiled “Hardie’s to fire them.

“They must serve at my pleasure.

Rules of Order” — a blueprint for “I want to be responsible for the running the show. budget — all of it “I want to decide all executive and Now, picture the mayor peering wistfully into a mirror and chanting administrative matters “I want to be the sole representative meditatively, “I want to appoint the city administrator — and the city of Augusta when it has to deal with attorney ­— and the fire chief. Heck, other governments “I want to provide for an annual I want to appoint all the department audit and be the one to disclose its heads.”

UrbanProWeekly • FEB. 26 - MAR. 5,

POLITICS

UrbanProWeekly - FEB. 26 - MAR. 5, 2015

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Help a vet who needs a heart transplant Marlon Williams of Augusta is seeking assistance from the community. Mr. Williams has been told that he must get a heart transplant. Williams, aka “Coach Will,” is active in the development of our city’s youth. The Recreation Department volunteer coach is also a veteran of the First Gulf War and is a member of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church.

The surgery is slated to be done at the Transplant Center at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. The procedure will place a tremendous strain on the Williams family who will need assistance meeting day-to-day expenses without the help of dona- Marlon Williams: tions from the “Thanks Augusta, public. The dona- with help from tions will enable the community I Williams to keep know I can make he and his family it through this from undergoing ordeal.” undue hardship. Marlon is married and has two children. Mr. Williams has an online fundraiser started, the site is www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/wcc7/ marlons-transplant. Anyone wishing to donate directly to the transplant fund may contact Marlon at 706-829-6664.

Donations can also be mailed to Marlon Williams, 1915 Thomas Lane. Augusta Ga. 30904.

Literary & Jazz Café 2015 Literary & Jazz Café 2015 will feature Author Tacardra Rountree, Writings From Down Through The Years, with The Paine College Playhouse Theatre Arts Organization. The event will be on Sat., March 14 – 2 pm at The Tabernacle Family Life Center, 1223 Laney-Walker Blvd, and feature performances by Karen Gordon of Garden City Jazz and The Joel Cruz Method.

Come for an afternoon with local authors, Get Success Publishing, Inc. and enjoy good food, great music and books, art, and more.This community event is sponsored by the Augusta Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

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 

By Frederick Benjamin Sr. UrbanProWeekly Staff Writer

Augusta Legislative Delegation responds to mayor’s request for charter change

ATLANTA The chair and vice chair of the Augusta delegation in the General Assembly, Representative Henry “Wayne” Howard and Representative Barbara Sims along with other members of the Augusta Legislative Delegation (ALD), today released a statement regarding Mayor Hardie Davis, Jr.’s press conference.

Davis called for the ALD to amend Augusta’s Charter to give more administrative power to the mayor’s office.

According to the Augusta Chronicle, Mayor Davis said the ALD was “on board” with making changes.

A few members of the delegation meet with the mayor last Monday. At no time did any member that attended agree to move forward with making any changes to the charter.

Representative Howard’s full statement: “The Augusta Legislative Delegation is open to ideas to improve AugustaRichmond County and its governance.

Relative to the idea of giving the mayor more power, it is imperative that we engage with the total community, the mayor and commission on an issue of this magnitude and do so prior to any decisions. We look forward to the many conversations we will have to

improve and enhance the operations of Augusta’s Government.

As legislators we are committed to working with the commission and mayor on this and all matters to advance the quality of life for all Augustans.

2015

AUGUSTA Mayor Hardie Davis, in office for less than 60 days, managed to alienate most of his colleagues on the Richmond County Commission by unleashing a proposal that was unprecedented in its scope and reach. The proposal calls for the modification of the city’s charter to give himself sweeping administrative, fiscal and executive powers.

Davis’ Feb. 20, news conference put the mayor back into “campaign mode” as he surrounded himself with supporters who stood behind him at downtown’s Springfield Park.

Davis’ message, however, was nearly drowned out by his method. In response to media questions, Davis said that he notified five commissioners about the news conference and about his intention to lobby state legislators to change Augusta’s government without the approval of the commissioners and

the local legislative delegation.

Adamant denials from commissioners suggest that Davis may have exaggerated the extent to which he had engaged the other state and local lawmakers for their support. When confronted with the contradictions Davis attempted to sidestep the issue heading for his car while an assistant attempted to block tv cameras.

The local legislative delegation said that they had made no commitment to support the mayor’s initiative.

Citing the need for accountability and transparency, Davis suggested that the city has been poorly governed for the past 20 years because the office of the mayor wielded very little power.

If Davis’ proposals gain support the entire structure of government would be turned on its head. It would go from a “weak mayor” to a “strong mayor” form of government.

In his remarks Davis said, “the role of Mayor of this same city of 200,000 residents has been reduced to man-

Davis spars with reporters following his Springfield Park news conference on Friday, Feb. 20. aging meetings where ten individuals make all the decisions to hire and fire, to spend tax payer resources without any long range planning. In our current structure of government there is no sys-

Executive Publisher BEN HASAN 706-394-9411 bzhasan54@yahoo.com

tem of checks and balances. There is no ability to hold anyone accountable for the decisions that are made on a day to day basis because our government was not designed that way.”

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Mayor sets “power grab” into motion

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BLACK HISTORY

ARCHIVES

The Orangeburg Massacre “I think the Orangeburg Massacre goes down besides the martyrs of the 16th Street Baptist Church, Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner and many others,” referring to the three civil rights workers murdered in Mississippi in 1964. The legacy is that there were other martyrs just like the ones we know about that got slid off to the side of history and weren’t well recognized because South Carolina refused for a long time to address those kinds of issues.”

— Cleveland Sellers, former SNCC worker who was wounded and subsequently jailed in the wake of the police attack that killed 3 unarmed black students at South Carolina State in 1968.

Students at South Carolina State in Orangeburg, deomonstrate following the shooting deaths of three of their unarmed classmates who were gunned down by police in February, 1968. (Inset) The three young men who were murdered: Henry Smith and Samuel Hammond, both South Carolina State College students, and Delano Middleton, a local student at Wilkinson High School, in Orangeburg, S.C.

Edited by Frederick Benjamin Sr. UrbanProWeekly Staff Writer

7 UrbanProWeekly • FEB. 26 - MAR. 5, 2015

It was 47 years ago this month that two South Carolina State College students and a local high school student were gunned down in the wake of demonstrations to desegregate the town’s only bowling alley.

While the town’s white residents referred to the killings as the “Orangeburg Incident,” it has been dubbed the Orangeburg Massacre by civil rights activists.

In 1968, three years after the events of Selma and Montgomery and the passage of landmark civil rights legislation, small southern towns like Orangeburg struggled to come to terms with the increasing militancy of black campus demonstrators’ demand for total freedom.

The sleepy hamlet of Orangeburg, South Carolina, some 40 miles southeast of Columbia, the state capital, was home to about 14,000 residents. It was a typical Southern town clinging to its Jim Crow traditions.

Although the town had a black majority and was the location of two historically black institutions — Claflin College and South Carolina State College — whites controlled the local politics and economy.

The student demonstrators and local townsfolk had waged the same civil rights battles in the early 1960s that were being waged throughout the south, but there had never been any loss of life. Most of the town had been desegregated with the exception of the local hospital (which had separate sections for whites and “coloreds”) and the All Star Bowling Alley which had reluctantly removed its “Whites Only” sign and replaced it with “Private Club.”

The meaning was the same; blacks were not permitted entry.

It wasn’t as if representatives from Orangeburg’s highly educated black middle-class hadn’t tried to get the city to relax the prohibition against African Americans patronizing the bowling alley — they did. They petitioned the local business community and political establishment; they petitioned the federal government. They wrote letters, they marched — all to no avail.

The owners of the bowling alley said that they were within their rights to refuse service to anyone and since they were not a school or a public entity, they were not covered under the recent civil rights legislation.

Even the governor of the state, 44-year-old Robert McNair was aware of the situation, but the legal environment was fuzzy. No one was sure

whether or not the owners of the bowling alley had a legal “leg to stand on.”

Given the growing black resentment and white fear in Orangeburg along with the rising tide of black consciousness and militancy that was sweeping the nation, a confrontation was highly likely.

It all came to a head in February, 1968 after a black Vietnam War veteran was denied access to the bowling alley.

Fed up, the students decided to press the issue. There were several hundred black college students in the town. One of them was Cleveland Sellers, a former Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) leader. Sellers was to become the target and scapegoat by the white law enforcement leadership.

He was subsequently shot and jailed in the wake of the disturbance.

Two days before the shooting, on Feb. 6, 1968, the students made their move.

An account of the event published years later by a USA Today reporter described the scene.

“John Stroman, then a student organizer and a junior at South Carolina State, and other students went to the bowling alley and sat down at the counter but were ignored. One touched a salt shaker and the wife of owner Harry Floyd, now dead,threw it away, Stroman says. Everything they touched got tossed, he says.

“I hugged the jukebox and I said, ‘Now throw this in the trash can,’ “ Stroman recalls. “Harry got peeved and said, ‘I’m going to call the police.’“ On the next night, Feb. 7, three hundred protesters from South Carolina State College and Claflin University converged on the alley in a non-violent demonstration. State and local police met the students and in the ensuing melee with the police students were arrested and beaten. The enraged demonstrators reacted by throwing bricks and rocks at stores while they retreated to the campus.

The students reported that female demonstrators were attacked by nightstick wielding officers. The bloodied students were treated at the college infirmary.

When he learned of the disturbance, Governor McNair called out the state police and the national guard.

By the late evening of February 8th, army tanks and over 100 heavily armed law enforcement officers had cordoned off the campus; 450 more had been stationed downtown.

The weather had cooled to freezing and the students lit a bonfire just off campus and about 200 students milled around.

When a firetruck was called in and

Students who were gunned down on Feb. 8, 1968 lay dying as South Carolina law enforcement officers hover in the wake of the police shootings that killed three and wounded scores of student demonstrators who were protesting the “Whites Only” bowling alley in downtown Orangeburg. state police followed, about 100 students retreated to campus, according to some of those who later wrote about the event.

Accounts vary, but many say a banister thrown from a building hit a state trooper in the head. News spread swiftly among the law enforcement ranks that a police officer had been shot and that the students were firing at the cops.

None of that was true. Yet, a few minutes later, about 70 law enforcement officers opened fire with carbines, pistols and riot guns loaded with buckshot. The shooting lasted about 10 seconds.

When it was over, twenty-eight students lay on State’s campus with multiple buckshot wounds; three others had been killed. Almost all were shot in the back or side or bottom of the feet as they scrambled to escape the assault.

“When I heard the first shot go off, I looked to see if they were really shooting,” Sellers said. “The area in front of the police was all lit up. There was smoke still billowing out from the bonfire.”

He hit the ground.

“I could feel when I got hit,” Sellers said. “It was a burning sensation.”

This was the segregation era. No

ambulances came. With a gunshot wound under his left arm, Sellers dragged injured students to the infirmary. “They were hurt real bad and that’s the only way they could have gotten back over there,” he says.

ROTC student Henry Smith had five gunshots. He died at the hospital. Freshman football player Sam Hammond died on the floor of the college infirmary.

High school student Delano Middleton, shot in the chest, was a regular on the campus because his mother was a cleaner there and because he liked the grilled cheese sandwiches at the cafeteria, says Scarred Justice filmmaker Judy Richardson.

Middleton’s mother appeared at his side at the hospital and he took her hand, Richardson recounts from interviews she did for the documentary.

He told his mother, “ ‘You’ve been a good mama but I’m going to leave you now.’ She starts saying, ‘The Lord is my shepherd... ‘ He repeats it and says, ‘Thank you mama, I feel so much better now.’ “ Then he died.

It was the most brutal response yet to student protests that would change Continued on next page

Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968

UrbanProWeekly - FEB. 26 - MAR. 5, 2015

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Film. Produced by Judy Richardson and Bestor Cram. 2009. 57 minutes.

A documentary film that brings to light the story of the attack by state police on a demonstration in Orangeburg, South Carolina — leaving three students killed and 28 injured.

SC National Guard Troops in Orangeburg, SC, 02-09-1968 the night of the “Orangeburg Massacre”

Massacre from p.7 the nation, yet for decades it got little attention. Now, scholars and people with first-hand accounts are changing that.

In 2012, academics, students and others meet in South Carolina for a three-day conference at the College of Charleston. They discussed the black power movement and the legacy of the “Orangeburg Massacre.”

The conference comes after a 2002 book, The Orangeburg Massacre, by journalists Jack Bass and Jack Nelson, and a 2010 documentary, Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968.

“South Carolina State was the first time ever in the history of America that a college student had been killed on their campus for doing absolutely nothing,” says Cleveland Sellers, now president of Voorhees College in Denmark, S.C. Sellers was one of the featured speakers in that College of Charleston Conference.

Journalists remember that the Governor and law enforcement officials on the scene claimed police had fired in self-defense. The Associated Press’ initial account, carried in news-

papers the morning after the shooting, misreported what happened as “an exchange of gunfire.” The source, an AP photographer on the scene, subsequently revealed that he heard no gunfire from the campus.

Despite news accounts of heavy gunfire, investigations later revealed that the students were not armed.

What bothers Sellers and other scholars is that the Orangeburg Massacre, as it is now known, happened two years before the May 4, 1970, Kent State shootings, when National Guardsmen shot into an anti-war protest on the Ohio campus, killing four. Yet Orangeburg never received anywhere near the attention.

In Orangeburg, police fingered 23-year-old Cleveland Sellers as the inevitable ‘outside agitator’ who, they claimed, had incited the students.

At first, Sellers was charged with five felonies, but they were whittled down to one: rioting.

Sellers’ activist pedigree was all that the state law enforcement needed to build their bogus case.

Sellers was a former SNCC program director who worked by organizing black consciousness groups on South Carolina campuses. When the incident

broke out, Sellers was a student at South Carolina State.

Sellers was on the radar of local law enforcement, as well as the FBI, because of his ties to SNCC head Stokely Carmichael, who had frightened many Americans with his call for ‘Black Power’ a couple of years earlier. Carmichael’s ideas articulated the Movement’s shift from a focus on integration to one of gaining political and economic power within the black community. South Carolina officials therefore saw Sellers as a direct challenge to their power. Sellers was tried and sentenced to one year of hard labor. He was finally pardoned 23 years after the incident. The U.S. Justice Department charged the nine police officers who admitted shooting that night with abuse of power. However, neither of two South Carolina juries would uphold the charges.

“They convicted me of riot, one-man riot,” he says bitterly.

He served seven months at hard labor of a one-year sentence.

In 1993, the state pardons board pardoned him, clearing his felony record.

“I have moved on and I have forgiven those folks who perpetuated this, but I can’t forget it,” he says.

Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968 is an excellent documentary which brings to light this untold story of the Civil Rights Movement including candid interviews with many of those involved in the event: students, journalists, officers on the scene, and the then-Governor.

The film also provides students with a good understanding of the concept of Black Power in the context of the Civil Rights Movement.

The Orangeburg Massacre has been excluded from most histories of the Civil Rights Movement. But over 45 years later, some remember the tragedy as if it happened only yesterday. The film interviews the most important participants on both sides of the tragedy, some of whom speak for the first time about the Massacre. The survivors are still visibly traumatized by that night, while the Governor and one of the accused policemen remain convinced they had no other choice. Two prominent Southern white journalists, Jack Bass and Jack Nelson, authors of The Orangeburg Massacre and historical consultants to the film, discuss their revealing, independent investigation.

At an historic conference about South Carolina’s Civil Rights Movement, white officials try to evade discussion of the Massacre, arguing that an investigation isn’t warranted because ‘it is time to move forward.’ However, African Americans insist that true reconciliation cannot begin without an investigation and report that finally sheds light on the many unanswered questions. Cleveland Sellers, now president of Voorhees, a historically black college in South Carolina, and his son, Bakari, at 21 the youngest state legislator in South Carolina history, call on us to remember those slain in Orangeburg with the other Civil Rights martyrs.

9 UrbanProWeekly • FEB. 26 - MAR. 5,

A Black History Month Tribute

2015

s Normal s at Haine

s

Sewing cla

In honor of LUCY CRAFT LANEY . . . the founder and principal of the Haines Institute in Augusta for fifty years (1883-1933), Lucy Craft Laney is Georgia’s most famous female African American educator.

tria

Augusta l Institute,

and Indus

. circa 1899

Larry Pittman & Associates, Inc. Mechanical Contractors Timothy C. “Timmy” Pittman 1249 Gordon Park Road • Augusta, Georgia 30901

BUSINESS

SOUND VISIONS • Audio & Video

UrbanProWeekly - FEB. 26 - MAR. 5, 2015

10

pany (Aquarius Vision), has worked on recordings such as Nasty Song (Lil Ru), Popular (Trai‘D ), Oh Let’s Do it (Waka Flocka - produced by L Don), Ain’t I (Yung LA - Produced by What sort of clientele are you tar- Ben Frank), Hello Goodbye (Nelly geting to make use of your studio? produced by Ben Frank), Reloaded Sound Visions does not have a (Rich Homie Quan - produced by L specific target group. We welcome Don) and Sexy As She Is (Durrough solo artists, bands, choirs, poets, produced by Ben Frank). models, actors and small-to-medium What sorts of skills does your size businesses that need audio and video production. I’m also recruiting staff bring to the studio?

Our staff has extensive experience talent for writers and producers to build a team of people who can be with in-house audio mastering and managed to create music and get audio mixing, music production, song writing, photography, video prorecording deals. duction and live show engineering.

One of our junior engineers, Najee What made you decide to locate Williams, was trained by Malcom your business in west Augusta?

We chose west Augusta for our Parks, one of the most sought-after location because it is centrally locat- live recording engineers in the couned for clients in the Richmond and try. KC Finch is our head of mastering Columbia County area, and is easily and mixing – we’re the only studio accessible for those traveling from in town where you can get your song surrounding cities. We want to create mastered and mixed right on the the tradition of a storefront studio, premises. where potential clients can walk in How do you plan to distinguish off the street and get information about our studio. We’re going for a yourselves from other recording studios in the CSRA? non-traditional atmosphere.

Our approach to the recording What are some of the audio and video production industry is a recording projects that you have non-traditional style of studio, by having a store-front location. been involved in?

It has been a vision of ours to bring We have a range of projects with clients such as Lil Ru, TK N Cash, Trai D, more of the music, film and TV indusSean Garrett, Keith Robinson, pro- try to Augusta for several reasons. ducer Ben Frank and producer L Don. Continued on next page AQV, our music management comthem how to release a record through ITunes and paid music sites. We also reveal how to market music videos to VH1, BET and MTV.

Sound Visions Audio and Video is a one-stop shop for clients in need of audio and video recording services in the CSRA. Photo by Vincent Hobbs The decades-old question of “How do I break into the music industry?” just became a little easier to answer for Augustans with the new arrival of Sound Visions Studios in west Augusta. This innovative concept studio tucked away in a shopping plaza is the brainchild of co-owners Jonavon and Peaches Stephens, a young couple poised to take the recording studio concept into the next phase. By offering a one-stop shop for clients in need of audio and video recording services, Sound Visions could possibly be the “next big thing” in music production by offering a franchise concept to enable smaller markets to compete with larger cities for music production services. UPW sat down with co-owner Jonavon Stephens to get the full story on the Sound Visions concept.

Let’s make a record deal Interview by Vincent Hobbs How did the idea originate to open Sound Visions Studios?

It’s been a dream since 2009. I saw how the industry worked and I thought Augusta needed a place to have a gateway into the music business, a place with a one-stop shop atmosphere where all the talented people in the CSRA could come and start or enhance their career in the music and film industry. I wanted it to be affordable.

I have two passions in life – sports and music. I was filling my sports passion from coaching basketball and track, along with my wife Peaches.

With the music part, I had been doing music management. I would look at independent artists online. This was how I discovered Lil Ru (a rapper from South Carolina). We signed a major recording deal with Def Jam Records. I noticed that, while on tour, artists needed to find studios where they could record. I would have to get into the phone book to try and find a studio to allow us to record.

With a franchise studio, artists on

tour could come to a familiar place to record.

Sound Visions ultimate goal is to become a recording studio that is also a franchise. I want to be the first. It’s a void we can fill.

What are some of the services that you offer?

Sound Visions offers the best audio recording rates and video production. We offer personal music lessons for ages 6-18. There is also rehearsal space for local bands, accommodations for listening parties, photo shoots and DJ services. We also offer video submission to MTV, BET and VH1. Soon, we will be offering graphic artwork.

We have an internship program for studio engineering that allows high school and college-age students to get training in recording sessions.

We also have a music registry internship that exposes students to BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) and ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Artists and Publishers), which also provides info on how to do a split sheet for royalties. We also teach

Sound Vision Head Engineer K.C. Finch and House Guitarist Jeff Haffa work on a project. Photo by Vincent Hobbs

11

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Sound Vision Audio and Video Staffers: (L-R) Jeff Haffa (House Guitarist) ,Bobbi Jones (Office Manager), Zachery Coleman ( House Drummer) and K. C. Finch (Head Engineer). Photo by Vincent Hobbs First, to give the talent in Augusta a local resource, so they can save time and money by refraining from driving to Atlanta. Second, by partnering with Ottley Inc., we look to improve economic development by creating film projects and bringing large studio production to the Augusta area.

Our plan for Sound Visions is to make this store-front studio idea become the first audio and video studio franchise, targeting the smaller and medium-size city markets, giving them the resources to make it in the music and film industry.

Sound Visions is located at 3639 Walton Way Extension.

(706) 364-4834 1378 Laney Walker Blvd. Ste 104 Augusta, GA 30901 Conveniently located just across from Lucy Laney Stadium Parking Area

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SPORTS Game Day

Laney high school fans react during a girls basketball playoff game against Dawson County at the Laney gym. The Lady Wildcats defeated the Lady Tigers in front of the capacity crowd, with the final score of 70-64. Laney advances to the Final Four in the playoffs with their victory. Photo

by Vincent Hobbs (At left) Laney H.S. senior Aliya Collier about to score during a playoff game against Dawson County at the Laney gym.

Collier, the team captain, has averaged 16.2 points per game during the season.

(At right) Laney High School cheerleaders perform a cheer during a girls basketball playoff game against Dawson County at the Laney gym.

Photos by Vincent Hobbs

PAINE PRIDE @ The H.E.A.L.

13

(Left) The Paine College Mahogany Essence Dance Team enters the HEAL Complex during a basketball against Benedict College on Saturday. The men’s team defeated the Tigers 71-69 and the Lady Lions lost to the Lady Tigers 59-60.

Photo by Vincent Hobbs

UrbanProWeekly • FEB. 26 - MAR. 5,

(Left below) Head mens’s basketball coach Jimmy Link talks to the Paine team during a timeout in a conference game against Benedict College on Saturday. The men’s team defeated the Tigers 71-69.

Photo by Vincent Hobbs

2015

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15 UrbanProWeekly • FEB. 26 - MAR. 5,

2015

2015

Urban Pro Weekly—Making A Difference in the Augusta Community

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CHURCH

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Good Shepherd Baptist Church

Sunday School 8:30 am Morning Worship Services: 9:45 am Evening Worship Services 6 pm (4th Sunday) Bible Study: 6pm (Mondays) Midday Bible Study: 12pm (Tuesdays) Prayer Services: 6pm (Wednesdays) Celebrate Recovery: 6pm (Fridays) and 12pm (Mondays)

Rev. Clarence Moore, Pastor 1714 Olive Road / P. O. Box 141 (mailing address) Augusta, GA 30903 706/733-0341- Telephone/706/667-0205 – Fax E-mail address: admin@goodshepherdaugusta.org Web address: goodshepherdaugusta.org Rev. Clarence Moore Church Service: 7:45 & 11:00 a.m.

Church School: 9:45 a.m. / Prayer Service: 11:00 a.m. – Wednesday Bible Study: 9:00 a.m. - Saturday / 7:00 p.m. - Wednesday

2323 Barton Chapel Road • Augusta,GA 30906 706.790.8185 / 706.922.8186 (fax) Visit Us @ www.broadwaybaptistaug.org • Join us on facebook Dr. C. William Joyner, Jr. Senior Pastor

Everfaithful Missionary Baptist Church

314 Sand Bar Ferry Road Augusta, Georgia 30901 (706) 722- 0553 Church School Sunday 9:25am Morning Worship Sunday 11am Evening Worship 6pm (1st & 3rd Sunday) Midday Prayer 12pm Wednesday Intercessory Prayer/Bible Study 6pm Wednesday

Bishop Rosa L. Williams, Pastor

Radio Broadcast: Sundays • WKZK 103.7 FM at 7:30 a.m.

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typical views of blacks as illiterates, prostitutes, or servants.

Though his early short fiction was received well critically, Yerby was dismayed by its lack of commercial success. He’d hoped to reach out to the public through his fiction and expose the follies of segregation and racial stereotyping, but the public, he felt, wasn’t interested in what he was trying to say.

Yerby expressed his frustration thusly in an interview with Harper’s Magazine: The idea dawned on me that to continue to follow the route I had mapped out for myself was roughly analogous to shouting one’s head off in Mammoth Cave.

Disillusioned by the public’s lack of interest in his work, Yerby took a new direction in his writing career: instead of dealing with racial problems directly in serious short fiction pieces, he would explore ideas of race and identity in the form of the historical novel, which, he felt, would be more appealing to a wide audience.

Yerby’s move to the historical novel format and away from serious short fiction was not without controversy. Some critics felt that he was abandoning the cause of racial equality in order to achieve personal fame and fortune, yet they did not see that Yerby was still dealing with the same issues he’d dealt with before in stories like “Health Card” and “White Magnolias”, but that he was dealing with those issues in a new, more subtle way.

While his first historical novel, The Foxes of the Harrow (New York: Dial Press, 1947), did not win the same type of critical praise that his short stories garnered, it did gain a wide audience, as it became one of the best-selling novels of the l950s by selling over 2 million copies worldwide. Yerby continued to publish best selling historical novels -- most set in the Antebellum South, but some set in ancient Greece, Spain, the Near East, and Africa - throughout the next three decades. While not all of these novels dealt with the racial problems of American society, he continued to explore ideas of identity, ambition, and marginalization.

Disillusioned by the racial problems in America, Frank Yerby chose to relocate to Spain in 1955. He passed away in Madrid in 1991.

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One of the most prolific AfricanAmerican writers, Frank Yerby is also the first African American to become a millionaire writing fiction.

orn September 5, 1916, to Rufus Garvin and Wilhelmina Yerby, Augusta, GA native Frank Yerby began his literary career as a writer of fiction protesting the marginalization of African-Americans in American -- particularly Southern -- society and ended his career, living a self-imposed exile in Madrid, Spain, as a best-selling author of historical-fiction. Frank Yerby’s early life was marked by racial conflict, a theme which would dominate his fiction. Though he identified himself as black, Yerby was the son of a racially mixed couple and, as a young man, found acceptance by either white or black society difficult; he explained to People magazine: When I was young, a bunch of us black kids would get in a fight with white kids and then I’d have to fight with a black kid who got on me for being so light.

After obtaining a B.A. in English at Paine College in 1937 and an M.A. in English at Fisk University in 1938, Yerby began teaching English at Florida A. & M. College (now Florida A. & M. University) in Tallahassee, Florida; and then moved to Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA, where he taught for another year. Yerby quickly tired of teaching and felt constrained by the demands of academia, so he gave up his teaching career and began work with the Ford Motor Co. in Detroit which gave the time needed to concentrate on writing.

Yerby’s first published short story, “Health Card” (Harper’s Magazine, 1944), garnered critical attention and the O. Henry Memorial Award for best first short story. In “Health Card”, Yerby explored the emotional and psychological impact of racism on a young African-American soldier, whose young wife is assumed to be a prostitute by a group of white Military Policemen. Yerby dealt with similar issues in two more of his early stories, “White Magnolias” (Phylon, 1944) and “The Homecoming”. In each of these three stories, Frank Yerby explores the difficulties faced by African-Americans who want to transcend the negative stereotypes of blacks held by whites. Drawing upon his own youthful experiences, Yerby crafts African-American characters who are strong and intelligent, yet still held at the margins of society by the inability of the white characters they encounter to see beyond the stereo-

UrbanProWeekly • FEB. 26 - MAR. 5,

A TRIBUTE TO FRANK YERBY

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UrbanProWeekly - FEB. 26 - MAR. 5, 2015

18

COMMUNITY Rare books on Black Experience on display

HAPPENINGS Story Time with Hardie

S.C. and learn what life was like late in the Civil War for well-to-do Senator’s wife and refugee, Virginia Clay. The 4 p.m. tour is followed by a special presentation and discussion of Mrs. Clay’s popular memoir “Belle of the Fifties” and its vivid descriptions of Redcliffe’s African-American inhabitants. Register in advance by calling 803-827-1473 or e-mailing redcliffe@scprt.com.

Barnes & Noble will host Black History Month Story Time with Mayor Hardie In honor of Black History Month, Davis on Saturday, Feb. 28, at 11 a.m. at the Georgia Heritage Room of the Augusta Mall. There will be cookies, arts Augusta-Richmond County Public and crafts available for children.

Library will exhibit a collection of rare and antique books on AfricanAmerican history from the Elvin Tour Redcliffe Plantation Tour Cedar Grove Cemetery Thompson collection. The exhibit in Redcliffe Plantation will host a March Watch for finalized details on the the Heritage Room on the 3rd floor 7 event. Tour the historic 1859 mansion will last to February 28. The library is at Redcliffe Plantation of Beech Island, upcoming MARCH CEDAR GROVE CEMETERY tour to be conducted by located at 823 Telfair St.

Sodexo cooking demo Sodexo will host a cooking demo at the Terrace Cafe’s Magnolia/Dogwood Room on Friday, Feb. 27, at noon. The Terrace Café is on the second floor of the Georgia Regents Medical Center.

Slave Songs program The Georgia Heritage Room will also present “Slave Songs of Augusta” on Saturday, February 28, at 11 a.m. at the Headquarters Auditorium. The program will be presented by Robert Hester with musical accompaniment

by Creative Impressions.

the History Club of Paine College.

For those of you who have visited the past tours, it’s a treat to see the students in fine fashion wear of the times as well as to hear their recitation of some of the more memorable inhabitants of Cedar Grove.

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