ft
lULumr u . uiiusrn !'. t , i
: w.HPCn i , r . - ' ' UUHHAM, NOHTH CABDUNA - SATURDAY, JANUARY 3, 19tf1
sSSSSSl TencMs; Housing
TELEPHONE (91.9 j 682-2913
PRICE: 30 CENTS
Authority
aintenunce
Martin lather King, Jr.
Memorial Celebration Planned
Phillip Rosser, prcsi-'
dent of the North'
Care na Central'Universi
ty Ciupter of the National
Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored
" People, has announced
plans for a Dr. .Martin
Memorial Birthday
celebration- on Thursday,
January 15 at 6 p.m. in
. B.N. Duke Auditorium.
t A march is nlanned for
tne same day at 4:30 p.m
REGISTRATION
The Durham City Community Education Prd-;
gram; will extend Winter Quarter registration'
through January 16, 1981, k , 7 .
January 5- 9-6-8
. . r "Xtil luui OU1UU1 '
-" iui itfiuicr iniormanon.
acceptQ$ti.:.;,in.vit9tions tq
participate." Ottier colleees
and universities ; expected
wall ; and FayK.HIe; Sir5'- "SS'
streets and proceed to
B.N. Duke Auditorium.
Rosser confirmed that
Durham ministers, cam
pus fraternities, sororities,' '
social fellowships and!
other organizations have:
NCA&T, f Campbell.
UNC-Chapel Hill Black
Student Movement, Duke
Black Student Alliance,
and Fayetteville State.. !
Area high schools have
ialso been invited.
Rosser anticipates1
Overflow crowds and ex-
: pects this to be one of the
greatest . student
movements since the Six
ties based on response
from Masonic, civic and'1
community leaders and ;
organizations.
Persons interested in
joining the events may
contact MV Nina Moore,"'
P.O. Box 19361, NCCU,
Durham, NC 27707.
NEA Endorses Boycott
Of NestleiProducts
By Barbara Taylor
Mrs. Lyon and her family at 2422
Bluefield Street could not go to church a re
cent Sunday morning because there was no
heat in their Apartment. The temperature
had gone downto 15 degrees too cold to
take a bath. f
The Lyons' had been cold since 1 1 o'clock
the night before. "I called central
maintenance emergency number and I got a
recording," said Mrs, Lyons, "and I woke
up about something to three and I called
again. It had gotten real cold."
The 59-year-6!d grandmother has "five
children here, two real small ones and the
rest of them grown. I got them together so
they could be warm. . .on a mattress in front
of the cook stove... . .in the floor. . : .and
turned on the oven and dropped the door."
No one had come to service the heater at
,2422 Bluefield .,by mid-afternoon and Mrs.
Lyons says she got tone of her sons to drive
her to the Centra) Maintenance office of the
Housing Authority where she found
employees on duty but could not determine
why the phone wasn't answered.
' Several '; families , reportedly experienced
similar problems on Sunday, December 21,
1980. Mrs. Laverne Harris and a Mrs.
Malone of Hoover Road oroiects had snpnt
the night sweeping water from their apart
ments. Two families at Few Gardens went
through the night without heat. None of the
families in difficulty could reach
maintenance until mid-afternoon Sunday.
Poor housing conditions, inefficient
maintenance services, and lack of heat have
been issues of hot- debate- between tenants
and the Durham Housing Authority. Mrs.
Pat jRogers, director of the Tenants Steering
,. : Committee,' jftells t'pf another issue which
; drove tenants to. seek help from the Housing
Authority's BoardVof Comrnissinners. Mrs.
Rosters savs 'Residents frnrn all
TUecember U atMcDcuafd Terrace to vo ce
.sentiments about the new maintenance
u charge list that was being sent out by the
.Housing Authority to the presidents of the
neighborhood councils." She said the
residents were not. informed of the list.
"What really made them tenants maJ was
the fact that the Housing Authc-.ty did not
. give each of the tenants a copy of the list.
They were the ones who were going to pay
the high prices."
Residents urged the Housing Authority's
administration in the meeting to postpone,
beyond "January '1; 1981, putting the new
price list into effect. They suggested to the
Authority that a survey be made to assess the
condition of the housing units in order to
fairly charge families for items which had to
be replaced becaase of excessive wear and
tear. Tenants said the administration turned
a deaf ear to all suggestions.
Tenants from all over the city crowded in
to the small commissioners meeting room
and angrily related conditions in which they
lived with rats, lack of heat, unsafe wall
cabinets and others which were going unad
dressed. The top priority items seemed to have
been the new maintenance charge list and
lack of heat. Tenants tried to pressure the
commissioners to direct James Taborn to
survey allhousing units in the projects
before implementing new charges. The
debate ended with a Few Gardens resident
offering his apartment keys and cab fare to
any one of the commissioners willing to
spend the night in the project. He got no
takers.
The board suggested that the Housing
Authority arid the Durham Tenant Steering
Committee set up meetings to establish lines
of communication.
Taborn
. ( Comments
In an interview, Taborn was asked why
the' two administrations were having pro
blems communicating?
Tabrn said, 'I could equate it with the
difficulties which traditionally characterize
labor and management. They both want a
good work situation. Yet one tends to be ex
tremely cautious in terms of taking at face
value what the Cher says. And sometimes
that slows- iwp the ability qf those two en
- tities to w ge,' for some common
ends. Sometimes more so than it ought to
be."
Taborn says when he came to Durham,
one of the problems he recognized v. as the
weakness of the project councils. lEach
public housing neighborhood has a council
of leaders elected, by the community. In an
. attempt td strengthen the councils, the ad-
i ministration rWMwt tn tnlr ti OOrt.fvr unit
fxQrnjjbe, i3Bexaikg-x?cnsefthe-DurJjaj
T1 j . ." i I . .
iciia'u oiccnng uommiuee ana aiveri n to
the individual councils. Taborn says, "In the
r. A, all of those monies had been going just
to the steering committee. While I'm not go
ing to say that was bad, I'm not going to say
either that that was good. What I will say is
that we found that a number of very in
teresting beneficial programs begin to
develop and occur in the various
neighborhoods when the authority adopted
the position of making funds available."
Taborn says, "In addition to that funds,
the Authority, with input from" various
councils, arranged to have a community
organization type of consultant come in and
there had been several meetings with the
various councils and those meetings were
designed to assist them the councils in
becoming more effective entities in their
"reas. If we were not interested in havins
more effective vehicles to" provide us with
ideas, to critique whatever we do, we would
not have initiated some of these moves."
Asked if he felt the Steering Committee to
be an ihef fective vehicle to voice resident
concerns, Taborn said that because of a
variety of needs in different developments,
reeds are prioritized differently and
"sometimes there has been a question as to
whether cr not all those needs have been ful
ly recognized, dealt with or what have you,
by a single group." Taborn says he sees the
Steering Committee as an advocacy type
group.
Steering
Committee
Official Voice
The DHA board of commissioners voted
to recognize the Durham Tenant Steering
Committee as the official voice of public
, housing residents in 1971.
The tenants steering committee has been
the official voice of the residents for almost
ten years.
Mrs. Ruth Markham, assistant to the
council president of the Hoover Road pro
ject, said in an interview Sunday morning,
"fussing and fighting won't solve anything.
Both tenants and Housing Authority can
work together to make our communities bet
ter." When asked if he is receptive to ideas and
resources provided by tenants, referring to
putting some skilled and trained tenants to
work in the maintenance department,
Taborn expressed positive support of any ef
forts which, after being weighed and
studied, "can be more effective than what
we're now doing."
Tpborn sees developing community
strength through sponsoring community
fairv scout organizations, community ap
preciation dinners, etc.
The Steering Committee has developed
runaea oy the Campaign for Human
Development diich would help the
organization set up an exterminating com
pany. They envision a maintenance co-op
that would provide services such as plumb
ing, electrical wiring, brick masonry and
carpentry. With skilled manpower, the com
mittee wants to be able to contract with the
Housing Authority to provide the services
the ' hority needs and employment the
tcnaii desire.
Mrs. Rogers says, "We foresee this as a
way alleviate some of the maintenance
prot that we have and also as an
ecor.u ges ture to provide some jobs for
unemployed tenants. . . .a chance to
demonstrate some self-worth in our com
uiuniiies. We also plan to develop two day
care centers. . . .one to be run by public
housing mothers. . . .These are positive
things that tenants can identify with."
WASHINGTON, DC
. The National Educa
tion Association announc
ed last "week the endorse
ment of the boycott of
Nestle Company, ' Inc.,
products because of the
firm's activities in connec
tion with infant formula
distribution in developing
countries, f,.
The action was taken by
the board of directors of
the 1.8 million-member
organization at its
. quarterly meeting at NEA
Center here in mid
December; .
Board ('members also
directed that the position
be made known to NEAJs
fifty state affiliates, as
well as to its associations '
in the. District of Colum
bia and Puerto Rico ''and
' to its overseas unit.
The policy item had
been under study by the
NEA sinceJulyi
In boyedtting Nestle,
the educational organiza-.
tion joins hundreds of
other associations, church
groups, .unions, social ac
tion groups, women's
organizations;; and con
sumer interest associa
tions, as well as individual
political civic and church
leaders., .
Bpyeott efforts were in
itiated in 1977 by the In
fant Formula "Action
Committee v (INFACT),
based in Minneapolis, a
;; coalition of various
organizations that con
tends Nestle's infant for
mula distribution and
merchandising methods
contribute to infant mof.
tality in Third World
countries.
The Nestle firm denies
that its activities are in
jurious to infant health,
i suing that the formula
provides a vital food sup
plement to breast milk for
mothers whose milk is in
adequate or who must
work tohelp support the
family.
The NEA action in the
matter is in line with its
stated goals and policy
positions on social issues.
V1
a
'! J --"t0t,.. . J-
ft 4 I W ,1, ' J,
- i 1
4.
'1
Walter Crorikite ToReceive
C hileiiansr HeriWedal
A 40
NEW YORK CBS
News Correspondent
Walter Cronkite, who has
been described by fne
Magazine as the "single
most convincing J and
authoritative figure in
television news," has been
selected as the recipient of
the 1 6th Charles Evans'
Hughes Cold Medal of the
National Conference of
Christians and Jews, the '
, organization's highest
award, it was announced
by Irving Mitchell Felt,
national chairman v of
NCCJ's Executive Board.
The veteran journalist ;
will be presented with the
gold medal at the CJtarles
Evans Hughes 'Gold
Medal dinner on February
9, in the Grand Ballroom
of the Waldorf-Astoria
Hotel in New York City. '
- Felt, who will chair .the
dinner, said that the
Hughes Gold Medal is
given "for courageous
leadership in governmen
tal, civic and
humanitarian affairs." It
is named for Chief Justice '
Hughes, one of the
founders. of the NCCJ in
1928 and it was first
presented in 1965.
Three Presidents of the
United States, two
Supreme Court Justices '
arid a Secretary of State
are amohg the other
distinguished Gold Medal
recipients in its fifteen
year history.
;J i s. -i . .v i " - . J
f '.J:-:,-.'T ' .' , 4 ', , " .
V , ' 1 - 1
'.0
0 1
I ' 1 1
uannoi ds uovea v
. r' i v
Join The NAACP In 1981
, mm. .miu huuiikuii, u dvdiuv, wt" nuKoi nor noma unaar an interstate . .
VSH f BimHhamLAtabm. Pus? Tuesday at a barking . Jwed to move. City officials said they would not continue their afTcrta ta
lot near her cardboard shelter after an Alabama judge ruled she could not be "oman committed for psychiatric testa. : larJ '
4
'