Box 9, Folder 1, Document 11

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Box 9, Folder 1, Document 11

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Plu Tribble

Youths Ready To Help
lf Adults Will Listen

To the older generation, he is acceptable in
dress and appearance. The dark hair of this
handsome young man is longer than the white
shirt and tie boys would prefer, but it doesn’t
run down his neck and curl back up. It doesn’t
come down over his ears and the sideburns are
reasonable in length.

His clothing, though fashionably modern, is
not mod. And his steady eyes clear and blue
compell respect; by his mere presence this 24-
year-old man compells respect. 4

He’s Sam Williams, director of the Atlanta
Urban Corps. -

Sam is an electrical engineering graduate of
Georgia Tech. He was student body president
there and “‘Time’’ magazine selected him as one
of the nation’s 12 outstanding college leaders at
that time.

So, what’s he doing heading up the Atlanta
Urban Corps? What has organizing youth activi-
ties, city planning, developing community pro-
grams, working in head start, teaching prison-
ers, listening to citizen complaints, making
films for the city to do with electricity?

Nothing , Sam told the West End Kiwanians
last week at their meeting in the Braves Sta-
dium Club. He freely admitted urbanology is a
field in which he has no business in the light of
his major.

But, he also freely stated that this nation’s
most pressing problems are in the cities. And
that’s why he’s in Atlanta, along with 224 other
college graduates, trying to do something to
correct some of the city’s ills, trying to correct
from within!

That’s significant about this young man and
his colleagues and that’s one reason older peo-
ple should listen to and try to help and support
their efforts.

They are not destroying. They aren't running
wild through the streets rioting and dissenting
merely for the sake of dissent. From the point of
view of ‘‘racial students’ these young people



have copped out, joined the establishment.In a
sense, they no longer belong to their own.

And Sam asked, even pleaded, that the suc-
cessful businessmen of the West End Kiwanis
Club LISTEN to what ‘‘the most highly skilled
minority in the nation has to say.

‘Help us bridge the gap between genera-
tions. So far, we have made all the efforts in this
direction. It’s important for you to make an ef-
fort also.

‘Young people aren’t motivated by the same
things which motivated you,’’ he told the audi-
ence of men, most of whom lived through the
agony of a depression. “We aren’t motivated by
money, amassing material possessions, building
up power. Young people want to correct the ills
they see in their country.”

Sam was quick to add he loves America and
if he didn’t think it good and great he wouldn’t
be here. But he’s not blind to its imperfections.
Neither are other young people. Nor are they
afraid to speak up and say America is not per-
fect. This is one of the nation’s strength’s—it
can allow dissenting voices, Sam said.

As a consequence of their beliefs Sam and
224 others have involved themselves in this city
and its problems. They have put to use their
classroom skills and talents and abilities in the
real world and Atlanta is benefitting from their
fresh ideas. :

Soon the aldermen and the mayor will have
to decide if the Urban Corps should continue.
They will have to decide if they are willing to
continue with a bold experimentation,at a cost
of less than $40 per student per week.

The time is right for action and experimenta-
tion, with its inherent possiblity of failure, Sam
told the Kiwanians.

He said ‘‘It doesn’t matter if we can send a
rocket to Mars if we can’t do something about
the problems of our city, some of which exist
within the shadow of this stadium.”

Sam’s right.

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