The Guilfordian
March 27,1998
Students plan march to Raleigh
♦The march, which organizers hope will attract at least 100 Guilford students, protests
Kwame Cannon's imprisonment and deals with other issues of racial diversity
BY EMILY DINGS
Staff Writer
If you're in the mood for a Jubi
lee, put on your walking shoes and get
on the bus to Raleigh.
The "Jubilee 2000" march, spon
sored by the April 4 th Survival Coali
tion, will demand the release of politi
cal prisoner Kwame Cannon and oth
ers unrightly imprisoned in the state of
North Carolina.
The April 4 th Survival Coalition, a
conglomerate of church officials and
community members, will highlight the
example of Kwame Cannon in the
march as a way to tap into and expose
the undercurrent of racial injustice it
has perceived in the judicial system of
North Carolina.
The visage of Kwame Cannon
posted throughout Guilford's halls has
been such a mainstay for several years
that many students have ceased to no
tice it. The April 4 th "Jubilee 2000"
march to Raleigh, North Carolina, es
tablished to refresh the history of
Greensboro's civil rights activism and
call attention to present-day race-re
lated injustices, promises to renew the
immediacy of Cannon's plight.
Cannon was imprisoned in 1986
for six accounts of non-violent burglary,
the results of which added up to less
than SSOO.
He was given two life sentences
for these crimes, despite the fact that
white men guilty of violent burglaries,
and even some convicted for man
slaughter, have been convicted and re
leased while he has been in prison.
Cannon's sentence is considered
by many to be an expression of blatant
racism as well as punishment for the
role that his mother, Willena Cannon,
played in enacting a lawsuit to revenge
the deaths (at the hands of Greensboro
police, Klu Klux Klan members, and
Nazis) of five civil rights activists in a
1985 march. At this time, Ms. Cannon
had already made a name for herself
as a prominent figure in the civil rights
movement in North Carolina.
The struggle to free Kwame Can
non has been a long-standing focus of
Guilford activism.
The upcoming march to Raleigh
taking place April 1-4 will provide stu
dents with an opportunity to put their
concerns into action.
To -
gether with
members of
the Greens
boro com
munity as
well as
groups from
A&T Uni
vers i t y ,
UNC-G and
Bennett
College,
Guilford stu
dents will
travel to Raleigh to rally at the State
Capitol building.
The Coalition hopes to have 100
students from Guilford participate.
Although the release of Cannon
and other prisoners will fuel the march,
broader racial and social issues con
cern the Coalition as well. Welfare,
health care and education reform, as
well as a plan to carry out these re
forms in the future, will also be high
lighted by the April 4 th Survival Coali
tion.
Participants in the march will
have the choice to march most of the
way to Raleigh beginning on Wed., April
1, or to ride the bus to Raleigh on Sat.,
April 4 and complete a march to the
capitol building.
Those convening in Raleigh will
assemble at 10:30 a.m. at the Office
Park near 1-40, Exit 300.
The march will begin at 11:00 and
will take a route that includes the Wake
Advancement Minimum Security
Prison, the MLK Memorial Gardens,
the Women's Prison, the Chavis Heights
Public Housing unit, and Shaw Univer
sity (the birthplace of the Student Non
violent Coordinating Committee), end
ing in a rally at the State Capitol at 1:00
p.m.
The sojourn to Raleigh commemo
rates the 30-year anniversary of the
assassination of Dr. Martin Luther
King.
Additionally, the march holds
many layers of symbolic value for
Greensboro at large and Guilford in par
News
"As long as racism exists in the
outside world, it will seep onto
out student life. If we want to do
something about racism at
Guilford, we can t ignore what
goes on in our surrounding com
munity. " Rob Maggard
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ticular.
For Greensboro, it evokes memo
ries of the nascent fight for civil rights
begin
ning with
the
SN C C
sit-ins at
Wfolvsalhs
in 1960.
For
Guilford,
the
march
redirects
the atten
tion of
the col
i A. ir. L —A. i
lege to its first struggles with race re
lations and the ones it still suffers from
today.
Math professor and Guilford alum
Rudy Gordh remembers the admission
of the first American student of color
to Guilford in 1962 (there were inter
national students of color at Guilford
from Kenya prior to this date).
Gordh recalls a spectrum of re
sponses to this event and other race
related ones.
Some students responded nega
tively by shunning the new student and
even moving out of his dormitory.
Others responded supportively by
blasting "We Shall Overcome" through
stereo speakers loud enough to perme
ate the campus when racial tension
came to the fore.
"There were people on the edge
of the protest movement on campus,"
he recalls, "and a lot of folk music that
correlated with [racial issues]."
The recent focus on the racism
latent at Guilford today parallels the
spectrum of responses mentioned by
Gordh.
Debbie Kiliru, a student organizer
of the Guilford group, discusses her
views on the importance of student
participation in the event given the vola
tile environment of late at Guilford.
"(We are) living in a crucial time
right now. It's very important to ex
amine where wc are and take energy
from what's going on on campus and
put it into positive work," she states.
She adds that the April 4 th march in
volves a concern for "social justice, a
thread that weaves through anyone who
lives or participates in a system. It is
an inclusive movement."
Rob Maggard, also involved in the
organization of the movement, claims
that the presence of racism in greater
North Carolina cannot be ignored by
Guilford students.
"As long as racism exists outside
of campus, it will seep into our student
life. If we want to do something about
racism at Guilford, we can't ignore
what goes on in our surrounding com
munity," he states. If you are inter
ested in participating in the march, con
tact Maggard at x 3276.
5