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[Letterhead content]:
JULIAN BOND Representative, District 136 162 Eurahlee Street, S.W. Atlanta, Georgia 30314
COMMITTEES
EDUCATION Transportation INSURANCE Surety & Title STATE INSTITUTIONS & PROPERTY
[Image]: inner circle: Three pillars supporting an arch, underneath which stands a soldier with musket and bayonet. The text on the arch reads: CONSTITUTION, while the banners wrapped around the pillars read, left to right: WISDOM, JUSTICE, MODERATION. Outer circle: STATE OF GEORGIA 1776
The House of Representatives Atlanta, Georgia
Dear friends:
The last day for you to register to vote if you want to vote in the September primary is July 22. The last day of voter registration for the November 5 General Election will be September 16. If you don't register, you can't vote.
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If you have legal problems and can't afford a lawyer, try the new Hunter Street Office of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society. It is located at 947 Hunter Street, Northwest, and will handle civil cases, including consumer, welfare and housing cases.
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I have been chosen as a member of the Fifth District's 12-man delegation to the Executive Committee of the Georgia Democratic Forum and a member of the Advisory Board of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. I have also been selected as a member of the Board of Directors of the Atlanta NAACP. These are great honors, and I will try to live up to them.
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The numbers of all of the Fulton County House Districts have been changed and will all be new next January. Our district, the 136th, is now the 111th. Rep. Grace Hamilton's District used to be the 137th; it is now the 112th. Rep. Ben Brown's District used to be the 135th; it is now the 110th.
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I know you have all read of Attorney Maynard Jackson, who is running against Senator Herman Talmadge. You can vote for Jackson in the September Democratic primary. Herman Talmadge has never done anything for us and never will. I hope you will urge all of your friends and neighbors..in Atlanta and all across Georgia..to vote for Maynard Jackson.
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The statement on the right is from Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy. It explains what were the reasons behind the Poor People's Campaign in Washington. We should support efforts like this one, and do all we can to help those people who are not as fortunate as we are.
[Statement in box]: There are those who like salve their consciences and confirm their prejudices by saying that most of the poor really don't want to work, that poor people really prefer the shabby and insulting handouts which represents welfare in too many cities and counties of this country.
We are here to tell you that this is not true. We are here because we want to work.
But we are tired of being told that there are no jobs for which we are qualified.
We want training programs.
But we are tired of training programs that either screen us out by discrimination or meaningless tests, which ask our families to suffer from inadequate support while we are in training.
But the most bitter mockery of all is to find that either there is no job at all waiting at the end, or that we are once again condemned to exchange our manhood for dead-end jobs which pay a boy's wages.
---REV. RALPH ABERNATHY, statement for Southern Christian Leadership Conference, before Senate Subcommittee on Employment, Manpower and Poverty, April 30, 1968
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Congress will be considering gun control bills. After the killings of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy, we need a law that will regulate the sale and possession of guns. We have to buy licenses for cars, and we have to register our cars before we can drive them. We should have to do the same thing for guns. You can write your United States Senator and Congressman to let them know you want a strong gun law. Write to: Senator Herman Talmadge and Senator Richard Russell, Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C., and to Representative Fletcher Thompson, House Office Building, Washington, D. C.
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If you do write your Senators and Representatives, ask them to support the aims of the poor people's march. The statement at the left tells how great the problem of poverty is in America, and indicates it is getting worse instead of better.
Don't forget....write today!
[Statement in box]: "we believe the situation is worsening"
"We have found concrete evidence of chronic hunger and malnutrition in every part of the United States where we have held hearings or conducted field trips.
"These conditions are not confined to Mississippi. . . . We are convinced that chronic hunger and malnutrition are not confined to those places we visited personally but are national in scope and distribution. . . . This prevalence is shocking. A thousand people who must go without food for days each month would be shocking in a wealthy nation. We believe that, in America, the number reaches well into the millions. And we believe that the situation is worsening." ---from "Hunger, U. S. A.," a report by the Citizens' Board of Inquiry into Hunger and Malnutrition in the United States, Washington, 1968.
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Fulton County has switched to using voting machines called Vote Recorders. Some of you may have used machines like these in the last election; others may be using them for the first time. I am enclosing a leaflet which tells how the machines are operated. If you know of anyone who needs this information, please pass it on to them.
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I want to thank all of you who wrote in about the last newsletter. I'm sorry this one is so late getting to you, but hope it also contains useful information. Once again, if you know of others in our District who would like to receive it, please send me their names and addresses.
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I was honored to be invited to the funeral of the late Senator Robert Kennedy, and rode on the train from New York.....where services were held at St. Patrick's Cathedral.....to Washington where the body was interred at Arlington National Cemetery. We have suffered two great losses in the deaths of Senator Kennedy and Martin Luther King...we must all dedicate ourselves to the things they lived for.
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If something comes up at night and you need help fast, call the Night Mayor's Office at City Hall. There is someone there from five o'clock until midnight every night and all day Saturday and Sunday afternoon and evening. You can get things done faster at night than you can in the daytime, some people say.
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I have been trying to help some parents in the Harris Homes Housing Project get new playground equipment. They also want to see if the city will turn on the fire hydrants on Norcross Street during the day so that children there can have some place to cool off.
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[Quote inside box]: Have your written your Congressman about gun control?
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The cartoon at the right shows how the poor are suffering because of the war in Viet Nam. This country spends $70 billion dollars a year for guns and weapons, and only $2 billion for the War on Poverty.
We will never have an end to poverty until we have an end to war.
[image]: illustration of a man from the torso down wearing a military uniform and combat boots with tactical gear (barrel of a rifle, pocket knife, buckled-up sleeping bag and a radio walkie talkie). Text on the bottom of his coat reads: $70 BILLION FOR '68 MILITARY BUDGET. Walking behind the soldier is a young boy shabbily dressed wearing a cap and tattered clothing while carrying a large spoon. Text on the back of the boy's shirt reads: $2 BILLION FOR '68 WAR ON POVERTY. Caption under the drawing: Tail Gunner.
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Remember ..... register, then .... VOTE!
Sincerely, [signed] Julian Bond Julian Bond