Duke University library
Newspaper Department
Durham NC 27706
A This week we comma mtr-Ji-depth look
at the state of Durham's black community.
And we show that the term , "black com
munity" often means more than is often
understood when the term is used. There's
an underground black community. There's a
hard working black community that believes
its principle organizations are out of touch,
and for the most part, the black community
' & now spread all over town. :
msm
ben
. . ' (USPS 091.380) .V
Words Of Wbdoni
Those readiest to criticize are often least
able to appreciate. ,
. : . . JoseoB Joabert
A problem wed stated k a problem half
solved. ...
Charles F. Kettering
It b not work that kills men, It Is worry.
-Ilenry Ward Beecher.
VOLUME 63- NUOER 39
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1982
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913
PRICE: 33 CENTS
, Second Issue In A Series of Three
The' Slate Off TEie
C- Black Com
Durham's Underground
Black Community
A Vision of Despair
W.W.EASLEY
"...for the most part, the black church has -surrendered
Its leadership role' in the black '
struggle to other organizations and is now
serving In a supportive role. "
The Durham Committee:
Out Of Touch, or Misunderstood?
WILLIE LOVETT
"...a lot more things need improving.. .we
need more people willing to come and work
with us... I don V think we are going to solve
the problems right a way, but you keep plug
ging away, and I believe eventually we will
get there." , V
imiini: i mill iiiiiui in mmM
-t - J, J'
By Milton Jordan
Durham's major black
organization has ap
parently lost touch with
a broad array of needs in
the black community, or
it is being victimized by a
lot of vicious rumors.
Interviews with a
broad sampling of black
people here, including
neighborhood and com
munity leaders "unerr
ingly point to one of the
other conclusion, ;
The organization is
The Durham Committee
on the Affairs of Black
People which has a long
history of involvement in
Durham with varying"
degrees of success, it is
generally conceded that
the Durham Committee
is the city's most power-
ful black organization.
."They are powerful,"
but they are not really
tuned in to what's going
on in this community,"
said Ms. Etta . Vinson,
president of the.Fayet
teville v Street
Neighborhood Council.
1 "And I really don't
think the Committee
particularly is responsive
Ao our problems because
most of the neonle in
our problems."
share
Ms. Vinson is one of
more than 9,500 Durham
blacks who live in sub
sidized housing, and she
feels that because most
Durham Committee
members, in her words,
"live in good houses and
have good jobs," they
, are not in touch "with
those nitty gritty , issues
with which many, black
people have to deal.
, But .Willie Lovett,
president of the Durham
Committee, says that's
not true.
"it is possible,"
Lovett said, "that we
have not done all that
could be done, or even
should be done,1ut it is
not because we have not -tried
to be responsive."
; Lovett went on to say
that the Committee has
made a concerted effort
to be more open and to
encourage more people,
from all areas of the
community, to get in
volved with the Commit
tee. "Involvement is a
two-way street,"- Lovett
continued, "because
some people have this
idea that what they
should do about their
lap and leave them. But
we need their help to
work on some of these
problems."
But . another
neighborhood . leader
contends just the op
posite; "You never see those
people until it's time for
an election," said Mrs.
Mamie Young, president
rof Durham's average
black rfolk and some of
their more, well-known
leaders. Second,1 black
leadership i in Durham
functions on v two
separate . and distinct
levels. There, are those
neighborhood level
leaders who jare usually
hard working," commit
ted people often suf-
of the Hoover Road " fering the same problems
Neighborhood Council as the people for whom
They come around then z they speak . Their percep-
and talk all that good
stuff. Ypu go out and
follow their ballot, but
they never make a
political issue out of the
things we're involved
in." .
r Both Mrs. Young, Ms.
Vinson, as well as John
Thomas Moore, presi
dent of the . Edgemont
Neighborhood Council,
contend that their" pro
blems, such as better
housing, better services
for the elderly, and more
jobs, especially for the
youth are not issues that
the Durham Committee
spends a lot of time on.
Several, things very
clearly emerge in this
debate: One is the fact
that there is an ever-
problems 1 is to dump widening ,, communica
them in the Committee's.' tions gap' between many
tion of the; struggle of
black people zeroes on
the basics: food, clothing
and shelter. These
leaders apparently are
not often consulted, and
seldom receive much at
tention from the white
dominated power struc
ture in Durham except
when they become too
much of a nuisance.
Then there are the
black, community
leaders, those blacks
who are often, as Ms.
Vinson said, relatively
secure in their jobs and
have nice homes, and
who deal 'more with the
philosophy of the black
struggle. The power
structure consults them '
often. - ' i
The clear differences '
between the two leader
ship levels is : often
revealed in the rhetoric.
-While the philosophcal
leaders talk about
Minority Business Enter
prise Program$ for the
Raleigh-Durham Airport
Expansion, the
neighborhood leaders
are wrestling with how to
get . ramshackled houses
repaired, and how to get
a handle on "excess utili
ty bills" for those who
live in subsidized hous
ing. ,
While the community
leaders discuss more
black representation on
city and county boards
and commissions, and an
'affirmative action pplicy
Jbr county government,
the neighborhood
leaders are trapped bet
ween police brutality,
and neighborhood black-on-black
crime.
.Third, it is clear that
currently therejs no ac
cepted forum within
which these differences
can be discussed and
solved.
Lovett says the Com
mittee has tried.
"We have tried going
to the neighborhoods,"
Lovett said. "We tried
with the political com
(Contihued On Page 7)
Reporter Goes to J ait:
By Isaiah Sinjtletary
EDITOR'S NOTE:
Isaiah ShmU'tary, a
writer for The Carolina
Timcs.-wv? to Aft on in
Warren County to cover
another day , of
demonstrations there
Monday by residents
fighting' the dumping of
PCB-laden soil in a state
owned landfill. As he at- ,
tempted to.--, interview
D.C. . Congressman
' Walter Fount roy, who
, was arrested Monday,
and . , other
demonstrat ors ,
, Singietary was arrested
and jailed, This is his
story, from the 'inside'. J
AFTON - There I
was, squatting behind,
Gets 'Inside' Story
D.C. Congressman
Walter Fauntroy as he
spoke to a young girl,
one of about a doen
demonstrators lying in
the middle of a Warren
County secondary road,
protesting the dumping
of PCB soil in a landfill
there.
Swooping in quickly
and efficiently, four.
North Caroliria Highway
patrolmen hauled Faun
troy off, though he told,
them he is a congressman
and asserted that it is
against federal law to ar
rest jucongressman while
Congress is in session.
They ignored his pro
testations as they carted
the congressman off to a
waitinji nrison bus
Still squatting in the
; roadway, I turned to in
' tcrvicw other
demonstrators, and
' seconds later, four of
ficers appeared at my
side. - .
Two reached to grab
i my arms. 1 '
"I'm a reporter,". I.
' said loudly.
They kept', grabbing,
i accompanied by ; their
; partners who reached for
' my feet.
"I'm a reporter." I
,'isaid again, even louder
this time.
'; The officers ignored
i my protestations as they
i carted me off to the same
waiting prison bus.
It was not a good day
to be arrested.
A warm, sunny, late
summer day, it was more
a time for fun and gaity.
- In many respects, it was
not even 'a day for pro
test. But;, the people had
come, most t of them .
Warren " County 4
.residents, .angered and
frightened because the
state had decided to
dump about 60,000 tons
of roadway soil ; laced
with . cancer-causing
polychlorina I c d
biphcnyls, called PCBs
for short, in their coun
ty. The deadly substance
was dump, d along 210
miles of Ncth Carolina
roadway moe than four
years ago.
. Now it is being dug up
and hauled to a landfill
in Warren County that
slate and federal officials
say is (he safest way lo
dispose of ; the, toxic
waste.
Many people in
rcn County - deny
and for almost
weeks " have
demonstrating
disbelief by attempting
to block the bright
yellow dump trucks that
daily haul ton. after ton
of the deadly dirt into a
large, clay-packed land
fill sunk in the middle of
a 140-acre tract of land
in rural Warren County.
(Continued On Page 7)
By Milton Jordan
As" the sun sinks away on
Durham's western rim and the long
shadows of night grasp the city, a
hidden black community springs to
life.
For the most part, this black com
munity, often violent and always
difficult to fathom, is hardly notic
ed except when its lifestyle clashes
with that of the larger black com
munity. The clash is usually costly.
A black store owner opened his
business one morning recently to
find it had been burglarized. Total
cost: $18,000.
A young black professional
woman .came home to her apart
ment from a party just two weeks
ago to find that thieves had ripped
her off for more than $1,000.
Several months ago, two young
black men allegedly welched on a
drug-buying scheme. One of them
was killed.
All this slithers from Durham's
black underground where lifestyles,
for whatever reason, run counter to
the accepted norm. Residents of this
black community never attend a
Durham Committee meeting,
seldom if ever vote, are more than
likely unemployed, poor, on welfare
and poorly housed. But out of this
community comes a preponderant
number of headaches that plague
the black community at large.
Hanging out is the chief pasttime
in the underground.
You can see them these
hangers-out almost any place in
Durham, During the daytime, quite
a number hang, out in ?Tin City'V
a that v group of temporary,, f
. prefabricated buildings that the city 1
threw;' up vto house businesses
displaced by . Durham's- urban
renewal program.
Another group , frequents what
has been known over the years as
"Buzzard J Roost", the corner of
Mangum and Pettigrew Streets,
hanging out, hoping to pick up a
couple of hours of manual labor,
just enough to help finance the day;
"I do alright out here," said one
bleary eyed Buzzard Roost squatter
early one morning last week. "I
come out here, and sit and talk with
the boys. And I get 'nuff work here,
there and yonder to get me a little
drink, buy my cigarettes and have
me a woman every now and then."
And yet another group hangs out
at a small shopping plaza in the 2500
block of Fayetteville Street, On the :
surface, they seem harmless enough,
mostly unshaven, disheveled, dress
ed in nondescript clothes and jingl
ing two or three quarters in their
pockets, they just languish wherever
they happen to be at, the moment.
But both law enforcement of
ficials and black businessmen, as
well as others, testify that there's
more to this group of underground
residents than meets the eye.
Consider a typical night, a Satur
day, between 10 p.m. and midnight.
Lights from the row of store
buildings barely pierce the en
shrouding darkness. The street
lights don't help much either.
Along the front of the buildings,
more than 30 people loungeand
loiter. In each parking space,' a cat is
parked. Raucous soul music blast .x
from one car, occupied by two , "
couples. The pungent odor of mari
juana smoke wafts through the air.
At one corner of the low row of
one-story buildings, a quick transac
tion takes place. An attractive
young black woman, her Jheri curl ,
glistening in the dim light, her skin
tight designer jeans flashing an un
mistakable message, now clutches a
small packet of white powder in the
same hand that seconds before clut
ched several tightly rolled bills.
And suddenly, without warning,
midway the plaza, violence ex-
plodes.
A squat, powerfully built man
pops two quick right hands off the
head of his slender and taller oppo
' nent. The tall one falls against a car,
and almost magically, a knife blade
glistens in the night. His hand
swipes out, carving a deadly arc, but
the shorter man moves backward,
stumbling against the wait and slipp
ing to the pavement. At once, the
taller man is standing over him, the
knife held menacingly.
But someone called , the 'police,
and minutes later, as three cars
wheeled into the parking lot, the
violence melted into the darkness.
"I'd bet that group of loiterers
account for more than half of tha
black on black crime in this city,"
said one black public safety officer
who asked not to be identified.
"But we can't do a whole lot about
it because we just don't have the
manpower, and the black communi
ty seems to protect them."
But at least, one black
businessman contradicts that posi
tion on both counts.
' "Crime is allowed to exist at ob
vious levels in the black
community," said William
McLaughlin, who owns
McLaughlin Medical Arts Phar
macy in the same block of Fayet
.teville Street. "In the white com
munity, there is more crime deter
rence. We want black merchants to
receive the same type of protection
that white merchants receive."
McLaughlin isv working to
.otganizev" b; neM, WafikJusmes;,r
organization whose first project will
be the crime and loitering problem
faced by many, black business
operators in Durham. In other
words, they are planning to take on
the underground black community.
' It will be a tough, and probably
protracted struggle.
The underground black com
munity is a small but formidable
foe. While actual statistics on crime
in the black community are rather
hard to pin down, it is generally
understood r that ' blacks commit
crime disproportionate to their
numbers jn the general population,
and the: black community is the
main target of black crime.
For example, in August, accor
ding to Durham Public Safet
Department computer reports, mon
than 500 incidents of robbery
burglary, aggravated assault am
larceny were Committed in areas oi
the city clearly identified as black
neighborhoods. During this same
month, slightly more than 850 of
these incidents were reported
citywide.
All the experts say definitely thai
most of that crime is committed by
members of Durham's underground
black community. But why do thev
do it? s
"It's money, man! You need the
money and you can't get no job."
said Coco, a young man in his
mid-20's, who says he's committed
more than 100 burglaries and about
half that many strong-arm robberies
since he was 15 years old. He says
he's never been caught.
Coco he says that's his
nickname is a slender, rather nice
looking man with chilly brown eyes
and a face that seldom laughs. He
lives orK Durham's westside in a run
down house with his girlfriend, a
woman in hei early 30s who refused
to give her name, but they both
agreed to talk about life in the
underground. A N
"It's a b. the woman spit
the words around the filter tip
cigarette she's smoking. "Don't
nobody care about .you if you's poor
(Continued On Page 8V
THIS HARDWARE, pictured In the Durham Sheriff Department's display
case usually comes out of the Durham underground black community, and
causes many of the headaches that plague the black community.
'I