ustxtxb_obs_1983_09_30_50_00005-00000_000.pdf

Chuck Caldwell’s 11 11T 1731 New Hampshire Ave., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009 Dupont Circle/Embassy area Spacious rooms Coffee shop Parking Best buy in D.C. Present this ad when checking in and receive a $10 introductory rebate. CALL TOLL FREE 800-424-2463 ginnys ‘ COPYING SERVICE Copying Binding Prinring Color Copying Graphics Word Processing Austin Lubbock Son Marcos BEHIND THE TARPON INN PORT ARANSAS OPEN DAILY Fresh Drinks and Great Jazz Now Appearing, BU PLEASANT Jazz Pianist Wed. to Sat. ANDERSON & COMPANY COFFEE TEA SPICES TWO JEFFERSON SQUARE AUSTIN, TEXAS 7S131 512 453-1533 Send me your list. Name Street City Zip neither frivously weaken him nor fail to defend him now for his alliance with groups who are the people. Mrs. Randolph and I would spend especially intense pockets of time comparing notes on enemies of the public interest who parade as Democrats. We would discuss them by name and by deed. We would not forgive them, for the wrong they do lives a long time in the lives of the people. “Well, Mrs. Randolph, what can I do for you?” [Lyndon Johnson asked.] “Nothing,” she replied. Like Mrs. Randolph herself in life, her memory belongs to all of us . . . she is ours. She is the mother of our community of the good. She is not mine, I lay no claim to her. But I know that my life is specially graced because I became close to her. I know I am stronger and better than I would be if I had not been her partner, and she mine. I am grateful to life for having her in mine. I have a long essay to write about her, and I hope you’ll help me do it: tell me what you remember, or write it out yourself. We who knew her well have a responsibility to her memory. At the Observer we’ve come up with an idea for an endowment, the proceeds of which will go for an annual Frankie Randolph Award for Social Conscience in Political Organizing. If you like that idea, communicate with me, or maybe with Eleanor Freed. I spent my first prime on the Observer. I’m in my second prime; it’s my plan to have a third. In Mrs. Randolph’s memory, and here in the presence of her friends and those who love her, I wish to rededicate myself now to the Observer. I want to tell you that we have a fiveyear plan at the Observer to double the circulation and the contents. That we believe this plan will work. That we have Cliff Olofson and Frances Barton and Joe Holley and Geoffrey Rips as good a bunch of people as we’ve ever had at the Observer. We’re forming a new Limited Partnership at the Observer. I’ll be the general partner, and we’ll have 35 limited partners. Mrs. Randolph used to be the limited partner, but it takes about 35 to replace her. For those who know her, to fail her would be to fail ourselves, but worse, to fail each other. You will object or at least remark that I speak of her in the present tense, but that she died eleven years ago. No she didn’t. No she didn’t.” The next speaker was Ralph Yarborough, U.S. senator from Texas between 1957 and 1970, who said in part: “I’m honored any time to speak in honor of Mrs. R. D. Randolph. She was one of the great ladies of Texas, a great spirit. I’ve seen several books about leading women of Texas in the last two or three years. I’ll go to the bookstore, and they’ll have sketches in there of eight or ten women who never did one-tenth as much for the people of Texas as Mrs. Randolph. I just don’t buy them. They’ve left the chapters of the people out of all these books. They never told you who did the most for the people of this state. She was always four-square. I’m not going to repeat her great stands for civil rights for the right of everybody to vote, on the poll tax, her stand for Medicare and Medicaid so the people could get health care. Her stand for food for the hungry people. . . . She was a shrewd judge of people. Somebody would come in and tell her what a good Democrat he was, but you never saw her endorse anybody that turned around and turned Republican later. She could see through them the first time and rule them out. . . . You could depend on her if the going was rough; she’d be there every time. Some people have asked me: Would you explain to us how Mrs. Randolph to the purple born, from noble families she would end up making this great fight for the impoverished, the good fight for the blacks, the good fight for everybody to have a voice in this government, to have the right to vote . . . how could she do it? I said you have overlooked her Southern heritage. My people have lived in the South since 1643. You forget that this nation was founded by Southerners. The Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson. The Constitution was written by James Madison and the Bill of Rights by George Mason. The three great basic documents which created this nation came from those great Virginians. And despite the roughness of the Civil War and Reconstruction, those great traditions line the hearts of the people yet. She’s straight from that tradition. THE TEXAS OBSERVER 5