The essence of freedom is understanding
Black Student Movement Official Newspaper
The University of North Carohna at Chapel Hill
Vol. 17 No. 6 Feb. 25,1986
Wright receives life,
gets consecutive term
by Kenneth Harris
Special Project Editor
Sixteen-year-old Maxwell Avery
Wright received a life sentence plus
an additional 45 years in prison on
Feb. 10 in Orange County Superior
Court after he pleaded guilty to the
murder and attempted rape of
graduate student Sharon Lynn
Stewart.
Stewart and her roommate,
Karla Kae Hammett, were kidnapped
at knifepoint by a black male in the
parking lot of the Morehead Building
on Aug. 24. After the man forced the
two women into Stewart’s car, he then
ordered Hammett to drive to Swain
Hall parking lot.
The man and Stewart then got
out of the car and Hammett was told
to drive away. The man led Stewart
away in handcuffs toward Franklin
Street.
Wright, who was arrested in
Nashville, Tenn., on auto theft charges
a couple of days after Stewart’s disap
pearance, was charged with Stewart’s
murder after leading the police to her
body. The body was recovered Aug.
30 at a construction site in eastern
Guilford County.
Stewart had sustained several
wounds.
Wright received a life sentence
for the second-degree murder charge;
14 years each for two counts of armed
robbery; 12 years for kidnapping
Stewart; nine years for kidnapping
Hammett; and six years for the first-
degree attempted rape charge.
Excluding the life sentence,
Wright has received a total of 45
years in prison. These sentences,
including the life sentence, are to be
served consecutively, that is, once
continued on page 6
First Black Graduate
Remembers UNC
by Shirley Hunter
Managing Editor
On a warm night in 1952, a lone
black man marched down an aisle in
Kenan Stadium here at UNC to
receive his diploma from the Law
School. Harvey E. Beech Sr., was the
first black man to receive a graduate
degree. Marching by himself, because
the white student assigned to march
beside him refused to, Beech heard
some most important words by the
commencement speaker.
“Never in my life before have I
seen so many intelligent people sit
ting in the dark,” the speaker said.
Beech said he would never forget that
statement because it was so profound.
He said it was a tough time, then, to
be one of the only blacks at a
predominantly white institution, and
this statement summed up the atti
tude of the era. Whites were so intel
ligent, yet ignorant of some things,
he said.
“It was a tough time,” he said.
“What you have now is a
sophisticated brand of discrimination,
but what you had then, was flagrant.”
Even though Beech said it was hard
attending school where there was so
photo courtesy of Harvey Beech
much misunderstanding and ignor
ance, he did not regret making the
decision to come to UNC. Events that
occurred in his early teenage years
prompted him to be a lawyer, he said.
Born in Kinston, N.C. in 1924
Beech’s father was a barber. All of his
siblings, two brothers and two sisters,
had attended college but none of them
had graduated. “My father told me I
was going to be a barber,” he said. “He
was set on it.” So, after, Beech
graduated from Adkin High School in
1941, his father sent him to a barber’s
continued on page 7
' ' - s ' '''
NeO Jones and Anette Parker per
forming at their concert on the 13th
of February
photo by Tammie Foust
Family support helps
Hawkins excel
by Laurie Denise Willis
Editor
When John Wayne Hawkins
graduated from Weldon High School
in Weldon, N.C., he said he wanted to
attend college but circumstances
prevented that. Nine years later he
entered UNC as a freshman and on
April 15 he’s scheduled to be
inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, an
honorary fraternity that requires at
least a 3.7 g.p.a.
Hawkins, a senior English major
from Halifax, N.C., said that during
those nine years the desire to attend
college never left him. “But when I did
get here I was terrified because I’d
been out of school for so long and
wasn’t exactly sure that I’d be able to
make it.”
Deciding to come to college was a
big decision for Hawkins because he
has a wife, Mattie, who is a secretary
in the school of education, and a son,
John Wayne Hawkins Jr.
continued on page 7
H.
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photo by Tammie Foust
John Wayne Hawkins