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VOL. VII
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BATTLE CREE A
"Founders Day" ob rvance,
celebrating the 75th anniversary
y r of the ational Urban
Leagu movement, will be held
by the Battle Cree Are Urban
League, Inc., on Sunday,
January 27, 1985 t 4:00 p.m.,
at Second Baptist Church on
orth ashington Avenue.
ith the showing of "Honor­
in Ye erday, Challenging
Tomorro ", a film depicting the
. ory of e ational Urban
League, and having it's featured
ape er, Joseph' E. dison,
ational Director of the Politi-
cal Action of the AACP,
ttle Cree Are Urban Lea­
gue mo ement and it's effort to
eliminate racial descrimination
and segregation and to chi eve
parity for Blac and other
minoritie in every phase of
American life.
The ation Urban League
as founded in e York
City in 1910 as an interracial
J organization devoted to helping
recently uri d Black irnmi-
grants from the rural South
djust to the different type
of life they found in an urban
tting.
Such men as George Ed­
mund Hayne, Eugene Hickle
Jones, Le ter Granger, Whitney
M. Young, Jr., and Vernon E.
Jordon are p t leader of the
movement and were re pon ible
for bringing it to national pro­
minence ..
Since 1982, John E. Jacob
elf-re
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Though minoriti comprise 26% of
population of th City of egon, only
10% of th city employees are minorif .
The u egon Branch AACP, detennined
to correct th t inju tice, med . July 1,1984.
Score round on for the ACP. Tum to
Page 7 for tory.
25C
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By Ro d Leuty
BE TO HARBOR - The
orth of, ain Industrial Park
project ran into a snag Tue d y
night, Jan. �' at th Benton
Harbor City Commission meet­
ing.
Commissioner Charles Yar-
brough que tioned whether
er
has been president and chief
executive officer.
The Urban League in Battle
Creek wa established in Septem­
ber 1966 and will celebrate
it's 20th year in 1986.
Joseph Madison, of Detroit,
was the le der of the Over­
ground Railroad/Bury Voter
Apathy marches, covering 1,000
miles, 11 ates and registering
over 100,000.
At 24 he wa the younge t
executive director appointed to
serve the Association " largest
branch in Detroit and he es­
tablished . a political tion
network of 1,600 AACP chap-
ters utilizing gr oot volunteer
and community groups to regis­
ter one million new voters in
1984.
The Founders Day Obser­
vance will serve to kickoff
the 1985 membership drive of
the BCAUL. ,The League
hope to lncre it' member-
ship up to 700 individuals.
Public i invited without charge.
D
JEC
citizens living in the project
area had been kept up to dat on
the city's plan.
City Economic Development
Director Alex little said the
project would begin with the
city negogiating a purchas price
with property own rs. Should
that fail, the city would depend
on property appraisals.
According to little, a Phase
One of the project which in­
volve an area bordered 'by
East aiq St., Paw Paw Ave.,
Riford St., and Third St., the
city would "acquire property,
schedule them for demolition
and clearance, begin to m e
the public improvement
nece sary . . . that would ulti­
mately serve as a sort of model
for the total project."
Commissioner Yarbrough
questioned whether a citizen's
group in the project area had
been notified that the city was
going ahead with the project.
Commissioner Randall Juer­
gensen echoed Yarbrough's con­
cern and dded that the city
told members of the citizen'
group that "nothing would take
place in orth of Main without
us, the commi . on, having told
them, the citizens group, first."
"We have," Juergen n con­
tinued, "orne kind of moral
obligation . . . to keep them
informed."
Commissioners decided to
table the motion until
commission could inform
receive input at a meeting
with the orth of ain r •
dent this eek.
In other busine ,the com­
mission heard from citizens in
the Superior-Hurd St., area ho
told of b c ed-up er that
left two to three feet of water
in their ba emen t .
Citizens complained that the
city had not done anything to
alleviate the situation.
City Manager Ellis itchell
explained that the equipment
used to - pump the dewage out
of their b ments as tem­
porarily out of order due to the
ub-zero temperature of the
past weekend.
. tchell said other munici­
palities w�r contacted but tho
municipalitie had suffered same
problem with their equipment.
Commi sioners 0 heard" •
from George ysinger who
blasted among other things,
yor Wilce Cooke 's recent
$1,000 trip to ashington, D.C.
Cooke and Cornmissi oner
Yarbrough later explained that
the money used for uch trips
is accounted for in the city'
budget.
Wy inger himself came under
criticism from Yarbrough ho
labeled Wy inger "damn fool."
In other action, Commis­
sioners tabled a decision on
hether to approve contract
with Berrien County Video
Inc. to continue videotaping city
commi on meetings.
The deci ion to table aro
when commissioners became
hesitant because of ording
,.
pro lem in the contract.
yor Coo e set
J . 28 a the date
onday,
for the
public hearings.
One hearing for th con-
ideration of special use per-
mit for Por Pl ce on e
ainSL
..