WAR EAGLE '70s with MISTER HERB ON WEGL 91.1, AUBURN UNIVERSITY

1970 marked a construction project at then Lee Academy as registration began for the 1970-71 academic year. The project would increase the capacity of the building to hold 400 students. The school is now known as Lee-Scott Academy. . . Speaking of private schools, the I.R.S. announced the revocation of tax-exempt status of private schools practicing racial discrimination in admission policies. The agency did this in response to the growing number of all-white private schools in the South like Macon Academy, which moved from outside Tuskegee to Montgomery during its history. . . Four days of racial rioting occurred in Asbury Park NJ, Springsteen's hometown. 43 people were shot. Blacks in Asbury Park made demands for better housing, more jobs and increased efforts at halting narcotics traffic. . . 1970 marked the opening of the first tunnel under the Pyrenees mountains forming the French-Spanish border. The tunnel linked the Basque towns of Aranoutes and Biesma.

1971-AU Forestry Professor Dr. E.V. Smith testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommitee on Rural Development. Dr. Smith called for the development of more forests so that they can produce more paper and other similar products to keep Alabama's economy going. Forestry is big in Alabama. But with environmental issues at the forefront, some may be lobbying to preserve as much forest land as possible. . . 1971 marked two events in reference to Mobile. First, the N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense Fund and the Mobile school board agreed upon a school desegregation plan allowing at least 10 public schools to remain all-Black until the 1972-1973 school year. Secondly, Negro League and Major League Baseball superstar pitcher Leroy Satchel Paige won full membership into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Many Hall of Famers will be honored at next week's All Star Game, the last one played in Yankee Stadium. . . President Nixon signed the largest U.S. federal education appropriation bill at that time ($5 billion). In the bill was a provision prohibiting the use of any money to force school districts to use busing, abolish schools or set attendance zones against parents' wishes, all to achieve public school desegregation. . . Chile nationalized its copper mines. Copper mining made up 6.3 percent of Chile's GDP last year, as the country wants to promote free trade. Many of its people are still in poverty. As you know, the G8 Summit ended with an agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions with no timetable, and President Bush singling out China and India.

1972-An application for a new private school located on North Gay Street in Auburn was referred to the Auburn City Council's Public Safety Committee. It was reported that the building for the school had no sprinkler system, no exit signs over exit doors, not even a fire extinguisher in the building. . . In politics, former S.D. U.S. Senator George McGovern won the Democratic Presidential nomination during the Democratic convention in Miami as a result of a floor vote over former V.P. and MN U.S. Sen. the late Hubert Humphrey. The late NY U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm received 151 votes on the floor. Meanwhile, President Nixon appointed foreign service officer James E. Baker economic and commercial officer at the U.S. Embassy in South Africa. Baker became the first African American diplomat to gain permanent assignment in South Africa, which was then under apartheid. At its 1972 convention in Detroit, the N.A.A.C.P. criticized the Nixon Administration for being racist. But several African Americans in the Nixon Administration defended his programs.

1973 marked the launch of Project Uplift, thanks to a $50 thousand federal grant to the Lee County Youth Development Center in cooperation with Auburn University. Project Uplift had its headquarters at the campus Family Life Center. The host/producer does not know where it will be located in the new student center. . . 1973 also marked the appointment of the late Dr. Alonzo Crim as the first African American Superintendent of the Atlanta Public Schools. He had been the Superintendent of the Compton CA schools. Dr. Beverly Hall is the current Atlanta Superintendent. You heard and read about the groundbreaking of a new Montgomery elementary school named one of its civil rights heroines, Mrs. Johnnie Carr. . . 1973 also marked the debut of the National Black Network, the first coast-to-coast radio network owned and operated by African Americans. It later merged with Sheridan Network in the late 1980s to form the current American Urban Radio Networks. . . A Brazilian Boeing 707 crashed near Paris on approach to Orly Airport. 123 of the 134 on board died.

1974 marked an earlier closing of the Opelika Recreation Center. Parks and Recreation Director Bill Calhoun told the Opelika-Auburn News that the department closed the center because of vandalism and unsafe conditions. The center would now be open from 7 a.m. to 5:15 instead of 10 p.m. . . Along a Talbot County GA highway, about 200 African Americans marched about seven miles to protest police brutality. The white Police Chief of Woodland GA Doug Watson shot and killed 25 year old Black resident Willie Gene Carraker. Charges against Chief Watson were dismissed. You may have heard and read about the Hurtsboro Police Chief being in trouble. . . The Atlanta Constitution reported that the United Methodist Church abolished racially segregated districts. 37 of the 530 Methodist districts as of June 1974 had minority superintendents. The Rome-Carrollton District in west GA has had back-to-back African American superintendents in the late 1990s into the new millenium. . . In a Time magazine special supplement, 15 Blacks were named among the Time 200. Among them were Black Enterprise founding editor Earl Graves Sr., Children's Defense Fund Director Marian Wright Edelman, current GA Democratic U.S. Rep. John Lewis and the current chair of the House Ways & Means Committee Charles Rangel. Sen. Obama was attending private school in Honolulu back then, so nobody outside the school had heard of him.

1975 marked two bills before the AL Legislature related to Lee County. One was the home rule bill that would give the County Commissioners authority to levy additional taxes; that one was stuck in committee. The other would give the Sheriff's Department more deputies and increase salaries of everyone in the department; that one had passed the House. . . In international news, Senegal's National Assembly passed a law that paved the way for a highly-restricted multi-party system. The African nation currently has 80 political parties. And the Comoros island nation in the Indian Ocean declared its independence from France. It had been a French colony since 1841. . . You know about radio stations that have switched formats over time. Well in July 1975, a country station in Dallas K.R.R.V. abandoned the country format and switched over to top 40 music as K.I.K.M. It went back to country in the mid 1980s before switching to various other formats. It is now Catholic talk radio K.A.T.H. . . Meanwhile, back at the Skywalker Ranch, George Lucas formed his visual effects company Industrial Light and Magic to create the visual effects he wanted for Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. His next Star Wars movie, The Clone Wars, is scheduled for release just before Welcome Week. He's also working on a movie on the Tuskegee Airmen.

1976-Lee County Health Officer Dr. James Walker asked the Lee County Commissioners to approve funding for adding a thousand square feet to the hospital and health center. Dr. Walker made the request after the commissioners approved funding for rebuilding and expanding the parking lot. . .Then AL Attorney General Bill Baxley and his bride the former Ms. Lucy Richards began their honeymoon after they were married at Whitfield U.M.C. in Montgomery. Ms. Richards, who had divorced her first husband, was Mr. Baxley's private secretary for ten years. So what's happening with A-Rod, Cynthia and Madonna, not to mention Christine Brinkley, Peter Cook and whoever Peter Cook is hitting on is not unusual. . . Women made history during the week after the Bicentennial. First, the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis inducted its first academic class of women. Later that week, the late TX Democratic U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in New York's Madison Square Garden. Some media reports claim that Sen. Obama wants to give his acceptance speech outdoors at Invesco Field in Denver at the end of the upcoming convention. . . In international news, four German left-wing terrorists escaped from a West Berlin maximum security prison, three British and one American were killed by firing squad in Angola, and an explosion at a chemical plant in Seveso, Italy killed several people and created an environmental disaster.

1977-AU Student Services Dean Dr. Wilbur Tincher announced a cutoff of freshman applications for fall quarter. Dr. Tincher told the Opelika-Auburn News that the university had already admitted 185 more students than during the entire 1976 application period. Those of you here for Camp War Eagle need to make sure that you have everything together, because Welcome Week starts August 16th. . . In Winchester TN, U.S. District Court Judge Charles Neese dismissed Virginia Price Street's $6 million libel suit against NBC. His Honor ruled that NBC was not shown at fault for airing the TV movie "Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys" in reference to the infamous rape trials of the 1930s. Ms. Street had been claiming all along that she and another white woman were reped by Black men, even though later revealed evidence proved that no rape occurred. And all this time, no one sued her for unfairly singling them out, neither was she convicted of perjury. . . President Carter awarded Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. posthumously with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Mrs. Coretta King received the honor on behalf of the family. This year's recipients are Drs. Benjamin Carson and Anthony Fauci, Gen. Peter Pace, former HHS Secretary and University of Miami FL Pres. Dr. Donna Shalala, Laurence Silberman and the late CA Democratic U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos. WSB-TV has reported about a feud going on among the King children over Mrs. King's estate. . . In Pakistan, Gen. Muhammad Zia ul-Hag overthrew Prime Minister Ali Bhutto. He later had Bhutto executed.

1978-The Lee County School Board decided that the elementary school addition to Smith's Station High was "safe and sound" as reported in the Opelika-Auburn News. A Columbus engineering firm managed the project. . . The gay and lesbian rights issues in California are nothing new. For example, in July 1978 the City of Los Angeles passed its own homosexual rights bill, this after protests in San Francisco in reference to violence against gays. . . A truck carrying liquid gas crashed and exploded at a coastal campsite in Tarragona, Spain. 216 tourists died in the Los Alfaques Disaster. . . The Solomon Islands gained independence from Great Britain. It is still under the British Commonwealth. They had an earthquake and tsumani there last year.

1979-Conflict over the cost of sewage coming from Auburn University facred the possibility of arbitration. The Opelika-Auburn News reported that the City of Auburn felt that the university was not paying a fair price to have the city pump out the sewage. . . The space station Skylab returned to Earth after being in the Earth's orbit for six years. A full scale training mockup is currently being restored in Huntsville. . . 1979 marked the famous or infamous Disco Demolition Night at old Comiskey Park in Chicago in between games of a scheduled doubleheader between the White Sox and the Tigers, put on by then White Sox executive Mike Veeck and famous Chicago DJs Steve Dahl and Garry Meier. Lots of disco records were destroyed. The White Sox had to forfeit the second game. They better not try a hip-hop demolition night, especially now that the White Sox are in first place in the AL Central.

You can put it on the board!!!! YES!!!! And this segment is O-VA (over)!!! War Eagle 70s Wednesday morning at 11 a.m. and Friday night at 7 p.m. on W.E.G.L. 91.