North Carolina Newspapers

N.C. 2000 (Continued from Front) said she had only been ' Orange and Wake coun- wans. chairman for a short time and had not had time to call the county meetings. She also noted that the controversial civic center bond Referendum, her. par ticipation in - efforts to fight back a proposal to extend legislative terms and summer vacations had . made county meetings difficult to call. "But Durham has ex perienced difficulty with this project from the beginning. Stan Roberts was Durham County's first county chairman with the N.C, 2000 project. He resigned, he said, to be on the N.C. 2000 statewide commission. Floyd F. Patton, who succeeded Roberts, said: I ran into a lot of brick It was. little tough get the people I need ed to pull this thing off." He refused to say what the "brick walls" were, or who he needed to "pull this thing off." Ed Clements, then chairman of the Durham County Commission, the body that , appointed Roberts, Patton and Mrs. Elkins, said recent ly it .was his understan ding that another project called Project 2000 was the Durham County's contribution to N.C. 2000. Project 2000 is a long range planning report on Region J, a six-county Piedmont region that in cludes Chatham, Durham, Johnston, Lee, ties. The Project aw report was compiled by the Triangle J Council of Governments, a plann ing body made up of elected officials from those counties. There is nothing, however, to indicate any relationship between the two projects, or to show that Project 2000 was Durham County's con tribution to N.C. 2000. For example, county chairmen appointed in other counties in Region J held county meetings, according to the N.C. 2000 plan, though their counties, too, were in volved with the Project 2000 plan. Of course, a substan tial difference between the two projects is that the Region J effort prin cipally included govern ment and business leaders, while the N.C. 2000 program emphasiz ed broad base "people approach." The idea, according to Gov. Hunt, was to get people from all levels of North Carolina's society involved in both identi fying the problems and discussing possible, solu tions. The county meetings were the principal vehicles used to get peo ple personally involved in the project. In Durham County, the leaders apparently fumbled the ball, and it might work out that the people here suffer the loss. A I?' ) - . - 1 . THE POLL LADY AT WORK--Working hard, Mrs. Beatrice tirewington, puts together another one of her dolls. The f rst dollmaker to develop a black doll with black eatures, Ms. Brewington recently opened a Durham-based toy manufacturing company. (Photo By Mtyfkid) IWCXX.W liUi ill ... i, j- , " -Vt- --T :..v. rr-- .?'L'f,,"- ft -v.r"-- ri.var .'4 iV.- 1 WITH HER COLLECTION Ms. Beatrice Brewington, who makes dolls for a living, shows off some of her, work.. Her friend is Kelly White, 7. (Photo By MayMd) Durham 's 'Dofl Lady ' Struggles For Success Durham Committee (Continued from Front) Mrs. Callina Smith, housing; William A. Marsh, Jr., and Glennis M. Matthewson, II, legal redress; Dr. E. Lavonia Allison and Clarence Brown, political; Mrs. Mertice Monroe and Mrs. Harnetha Hudgins, youth affairs; .and the Rev. J.W. Barnes and the Rev. J.L. Monroe, religious and human af fairs. In addition, special recommendations were accepted by the Commit tee: Eliott Walker was named assistant ex ecutive secretary; At torney H.M. "Mickey" Michaux will serve as special consultant and John "Shag" Stewart was , elected Chairman Emeritus. Holmes, Evans To Get Honors Legion On December 28, at 7 pmM the Weaver McLean American Legion Post No. 175 will honor two of its long time veterans at the Post Headquarters, 2110 Rid dle Road, Durham. I.R. Holmes, Past Ad jutant, who served the post for 20 years as adju tant, and John D. Evans, who is now Service Of ficer, will receive honor from the State Depart ment of the American Legion at the annual Christmas party of the Post and Ladies Aux iliary. : A.R. Thompson is Commander and J.W. Carrington is Adjutant. I I I , n i, in ii Hum iinnnnm ) v 1 n oil iwm I ' innnMaa M immmmmmm,mmmm EVANS HOLMES Cold Wave Specialist (Curly Look) Permanents, Blow Drying, Precision Cuts Manicures and Pedicures . "you've been to the rest now try the best" Ethelene Prayloe & Barbara Bruloo, Operators Shop:. (919) 682-2884 Home: (919) 544-3553 3035 Fayetteville St. Durham, N.C. 27707 By Donald Alderman Ms. Beatrice Wright-Brewington loves dolls, and f(or hearty fifty years now she's been majcing them. She makes all sorts of dolls large ones, small ones, black ones, white ones. She even crafts porcelain dolls tnat ddll '.collectors pay'upwards of $1000 for. Ms. Brewington, who will admit only to being in her sixties, says, "...dolls are symbols of love and beauty. Dolls will sell as long as there are children." Part owner of a New York doll . company, the energetic woman with a degree in elementary education and art from Shaw Universitys recently opened another toy com pany in Durham. The company's name is Patricia Ann Toy Manufacturing Company which Ms. Brewington operates out of her home at 8 Hawaii Court, off Cook Road. Ms. Brewington says she hopes stock sales will help finance a full-fledged factory soon. Selling dolls has been a struggle, and Ms. Brewington remembers vividly experiences that have been both embarrassing and heartbreaking. For example, during a Chicago Dolls Fair during the late 60's, Ms. Brewington recalls standing all day . in a booth with her dolls and wat ching black people come by, look and walk away. That was bad enough, since she is NCCU Finalists (Continued from Front) Charles E. Dave, dean of Board of the NCCU School . of Law; Dr. Nebraska Mays, associate vice president for academic affairs in the University of Tennessee system? Dr. Carl H.: Marbury, vice president' for academic affairs and dean of faculty at the Garrett Evangelical Seminary in Evanston, Illinois; Dr. Wright L. Lassiter, Jr., , president of Schenectady County Community Col legejn Schenectady, New York. Though the faculty re jected all candidates, they did rank them in order of preference if any of them is the final choice. Using a 1 to 5 scale with 1 being the highest, the faculty rank ed Daye as the least unacceptable, followed by Marbury, Mays and Lassiter. But as .one faculty member said during the meeting, applicant experience . The faculty's represen tatives 1 on the search committee, Dr. Authrell Sanders and Dr. John Meyers, said they will Friday report the vote to the however, that search committee, f The eleven-member search committee, ap pointed by NCCU' black, trying to make it in a business world dominated largely by white manufacturers! but even worse, her dolls were black. Ms. Brewington is creator of the market's first black doll with black features. Before her "first Negro doll", black dolls were made "tar black" from the same mold that white dolls were made' from, but with black "skin" or black colored vinyl. "They said our features weren't beautiful," she said, "but when I made a doll with our features, it sold." Back to the Chicago fair. The first day of the fair, I stood all day with my dozen or so black dolls, and black people would come and look, but no one would buy," she recalled. "The second day, a white man who worked with dolls said he would help me sell my dolls. I stood in the background so as not be associated and he sold all of the dolls. Black people bought them. They would buy from him, but they wouldn't buy from me." ' The Chicago experience was neither her first nor her last ex perience with the problems some blacks seem to have believing that other blacks can actually be suc cessful. Similar problems have hap pened in Durham; Ms: Brewington explains, noting that for the most part, these problems come from professional, well-educated blacks. Trustees in January, was to have met at NCCU Thursday.. The chairman of the search " committee couldn't be reached for comment, and there ,was no word on any action taken at that meeting on the faculty's vote. But apparently the em battled search commit tee, responding to what seems to be growing disgruntlement among the faculty, has backed up a bit. Speaking for Holloway, who didn't attend the meeting, Dr. Sanders said; "The search committee is still seeking the best possible person to lead the university and even now will accept new can didates. William Friday, presi dent of the 16-campus state-wide university system V and who ultimately will accept or reiect two finalists, said . even the best 1 in response to the facul-f (Daye) lacks ty's vote that it would be "inappropriate tor him to discuss the process and added that he would continue to work with the. search committee." added, there is absolutely no reason (why the process can't be , extended), and no one is under any time con straints from me." V During the discussion, Dr. Sanders said that Holloway wanted to complete the search as soon as t possible, but didn't know how the vote would affect the overall search process. Dr. Charles Nicholson, who supported the rejec tion vote," said the search should be extended, ad ding that "NCCU deserves better!'. Earl Sanders, a music professor and husband of search committee member, Dr. Authrell . Sanders, urged the facul ty to support the search committee and said, "remember Pembroke".. A lot of fuss was rais ed a couple of years ago when the N.C. Board of Governors appointed a white chancellor for predominantly Indian Pembroke University. But Friday said that there is no evidence that the board would appoint But she has fought trTf the temp-1 tation to be bitter, largely because , she really loves doll-making, an ' avocation now that started more as, an answer to an'immediate problem. A native of Faison, a farming town in northern Duplin County, near the state's eastern fringe; Ms. Brewington recalls the first doll she made. , "I started making dolls when I was eleven," she said. "I wanted a large doll, but my father said he. couldn't afford one, so my sister! and I decided we would make us one." They made the hair from unravelled burlap fertilizer bags, and clothes were salvaged from bad ly worn shirts and pants. That started the doll-making, and it has continued, off and on, for nearly half a century. But for many reasons, making and selling dolls has not been easy. "When I first went to New York, I couldn't get much help. One man( told me 'you'll never sell it' (the black doll)," she recalled. ,"I really didn't know (how to market) Iny dolls, but. I would go to different, doll companies and see if they were interested. One man told me he wouldn't make a black doll iq his' factory." ' She says a lot of whites wouldn't help because k black' ddlf might cut too deeply into their own business. Tired of running from doll shop to doll shop requesting that her black doll be put on sale beside the white, ones, she got a couple of loans and a white chancellor of predominantly black NCCU. "Any rumor of, that type is totally without foundation, and there is no evidence to support that type of' allegation." Friday also said that the board has appointed acting chancellors before, and "if that's necessary in this case, , then that's what we'll do." opened her. own shop.' , ' ' i She notes one regrettable monient, when Mattel, the large toy manufac- turer, offered $150,000 for what later became the patented "Beatrice Wright Doll". She turned them down, "but I had no one to advise me and I didn't know enough." She ; said she could have started her own . business and saved a lot of pains. Ms. Brewington even makes white dolls, but mostly from' the same mold of the black ones. She takes orders in December for the next Christmas season? making the dolls during the spring and sum mer. She is the only black listed , in Modem Collectors' Dolls, a book which serves as a guide to collectors and investors offering selections of ' 'specialty and high quality' ' . And she makes all kinds of dolls porcelain, china, vinyl, Raggedy Ann puppet, high fashion, infant, toddler, Barbie-type and Bye-Lo-type. The porcelain and china dolls are mostly for collectors, though they all are collectibles, but the vinyl ones are for the children to play with. ' Her biggest gratitude, she says, comes from the wonders that dolls work with children, watching more of her dolls go into nursery 'and kindergarten schools around the' country. , "For the schools,' it builds a social ' relationship between the children. You have two races in school, so ,vou have two races of dolls." ex ?, ' 'A F or Your Transportation Needs See Dwight ) Perry Uzzle Cadillac-Olds. Inc. 3737 Chapel Hill Blvd. Bus. Ph .489-3331 Durham, N.C. 27707 Chapel Hill 929-0393 1 . T, - - ' '' .V Give A . 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