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LOME 71 - NUMBER 3£ ^n/91 QOQOO ^’^CHUIL 1-^^'-^ COLLECT ION north UNC-CH LILBON Ll ^599-.3930 CB 3930 NC 275 chapel hill USPS 091-380 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA — SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1993 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE:30 CENTS Responses to NationsBank’s g The Carolina Times will be open w Refusal of Sturdivant H Labor Day, 9 a.m. to 5 pm. Satjurday’ Cekbratton Page 11 ||[^ Usual Deadlines Apply Insights - Page 3 • — > lorth Carolina Jesidents Recall Washington March By The Associated Press liat Francine Davis remembers most is listening to Peter, Paul and while she cooled her feet in the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, (was only 13 when she left Statesville and went to Washington with parents, who were active in the civil rights movement. {jr were among the hundreds of thousands of Americans who were •onAug. 28,1963. ns a steamy Saturday in the nation’s capital and a defining moment (Civil rights movement. It was when Martin Lnther King Jr. stirred iouls of thousands and prodded the conscience of a nation with his otial T Have a Dream” speech. ivis, 43, now a nurse at Duke University Medical Center, returned to lation’s capital on Saturday for the 30th anniversary of the 1963 lion Washington, is time, she listened to the speakers and noticed a greater emphasis iilticuRuraiism than there had been 30 years ago. afcrs talked about bringing together ali minorities. is was one of the scores of North Carolina residents who ipatcd in the anniversary march. Jocelyn McKissick, the first black ji| to graduate from Durham High School and daughter of (he late lights leader Floyd McKissick, also was there, was Rosa Parks, the Montgomery, Ala., woman whom many ricans associate with the start of the civil rights movement. were Coretta Scott King and Joseph Lowery, now president of the hern Christian Leadership Conference. Jesse Jackson and Andrew igwere amon^ the fiery, forceful student leaders of 1963. ns of those famous faces returned in 1993, joining .thousands less known. Jis is a reminder that the job is still unfinished," said Mary Perry of dell, who was so moved by King’s 1963 speech that she became dent of her local chapter of the National Association for tlie jneement of Colored People. ivian McCoy, a Durham resident who attended the 1963 march, said »as encouraged by the namber of young people she saw this year tho spoke as parfof the program. Iliink there were more kids here than 30 years ago," McCoy said. I they seemed to be real disciplined, listening with a positive outlook that they .have to do. That’s the purpose of passing the torch.” ten Herndon, assistant administrator of patient services at Duke leal Center and a community activist, said several dignitaries on the ram "were speaking directly to the issue of not just passing tlie but of nurturing young peopie into leadership roles, hat’s what we’re going to need,” Herndon said, lior Watson, a salesman from Raleigh, wasn’t even bom when King oned to future generations to help turn the dream of equality into a ty- Blue today to show my representation for the struggle of the dream ware still pursuing in the ’90s," said Watson, 28. im going to be one to admit we have come some of the way, but we much further to go, and it’s up to us to strive to keep the dream nniversary March arks Crossroads Where ders, Youth Coliide By Sonya Ross ASHINGTON (AP) - Two notices were served on the civil rights ement at the 30th anniversary march on Washington; the young may 110 lake over, but the old aren’t ready to retire. k believe this march is not the benediction, but a rebirth," said pb Lowery, 70, president of the Southern Christian Leadership itrcncc for the past 17 years. tre was some talk that maybe, just maybe, the movement's, elders Id "pass tlie torch" of responsibility for social change at this fional cciebration of 1963 and the dream of equality Martin Luther jJr. embossed on the nation’s psyche. lion Saturday, fond remembrance prevailed, and the old guard made ar that fond remembrance will endure. fc'rc going to celebrate the march on Washington until there’s i"g left to celebrate," declared Benjamin Hooks, 68, who retired ihc NAACP and resurfaced at the helm of the Leadership Itrcncc on Civil Rights. It young, however, made a few things clear, too. It let everybody know we will challenge, seriously, their leadership," I Carl Upchurch, 35, head of the National Urban Peace and Justice 'cmcni and the most .ocal critic of Saturday’s festivities. "They’re on It now." Upchurch, along with three other ieaders from his group of mictl sheet gang members, appeared at Saturday’s march, even igh they had said they weren’t coming. iiy stood with NAACP executive director Benjamin Chavis, 45, who Jed his group’s support of their efforts to curb violence in the innei In have worked with these gang members for over a year," Chavis I "They are my friends. I intend to work with them in every iiniiniiy in this nation." "Ben Chavis is weicome in our circles. He is a valiant effort to link the traditional civil rights efforts with our W struggle," Upchurch said. Otlier older black activists, he added, t not been so forthcoming. ut the young were. Upchurch’s National Urban Peace and Justice itment plans to link with the Student Coalition of Conscience, the kagers and young adults who worked with Saturday’s march, lie Rev. Barry Hargrove, 27, a leader of that coalition and a youth idiitator for Saturday’s march, said, "V/e were on the same side" on a of issues and will meet further >o discuss strategy. I*y want to "weave young America with urban America," Upchurch Und lake this mixture into every major civil rights forum, to tackle problems most affecting the young: unemployment, poverty, murder, iiose sentiments were echoed by Lani Guinier, whose nomination as If civil rights enforcer in the Justice Department was withdrawn by tident Clinton aft?r controversy arose over some of her writings. ■ ■ jT-.'.-yV.i 'U. ^ I ^ ■ "A * ? ■' ’ HONORING DANCEAFRICA’S "SWEET SIXTEEN" ANNIVERSARY — Celebrating DanceAfrica’s "Sweet Sixteen" anniversary are: (from 1-r) Karen Brooks Hopkins (executive vice president of Brooklyn Academy of Music); Linda Dukette (UniWorid Group); Chuck Davis (DanceAfrica Founder and Black Cultural Center Group Unsure About University’s Funding Director); and Joan Purkiss (staff manager, Research & Planning, AT&T). For its anniversary Chuck Davis brought together dance companies from the past sixteen years and engaged them in a variety of seminars, master classes, special events and educational outreach. Autopsy: Pepper Spray A Factor In Death Of IVIan In Police Custody CHAPEL HILL (AP) - Trustees of the University of North Carolina at Chapei Hill have offered to use money from the school’s bicentennial fund-raising campaign to help build a Black Cultural Center on campus. Several trustees made the offer last week to leaders of the Black Cultural Center Advisory Board. Advisory board members haven’t decided whether they want to be included in the bicentennial bounty. Chairman Harry Amana said that decision wouldn’t be made until after a board meeting Sunday. Some student supporters of the BCC, who think the cash is a thinly veiled effort to quell protests over the center’s site, say board members should reject the offer. The trustees approved the center in July - while most students were away on summer break - but said it should be built near Coker Woods, a site most student groups opposed. Now, the trustees are trying to help BCC supporters develop ways to raise money for the center, estimated to cost S7 million. "What we want is aii the support we can get for the funding of the facility so it can be the best that it can be," said Johnny Harris, chairman of die trustees. But some students aren’t exactly welcoming the help. They interpret the suggestion for bicentennial aid as the trustees’ way of ensuring they won’t oppose the Coker site as they did last spring. Michelle LeGrand, co-president of the Campus Y’s executive board and a BCC advisory board member, said the Y thinks that "if we say we want the BCC to be funded with bicentennial, then in essence we’re saying we endorse the Coker site. We’re not ready to do that yet, because there are a lot of unanswered questions." The Campus Y is a leading group in support of the new, freestanding cultural center, which would replace one now in the student union. Not everyone is suspicious of the trustees’ motives. "I think that, throughout this whoie process, there have been people on both sides who consistently misinterpret and misrepresent a number of things, and it’s caused a great amount of distrust on both sides," said Amana, a journalism professor. "It was the initial overture from the bicentennial steering committee to the advisory board to see if we can’t work out a plan for mounting a campaign to raise the S7 million," Amana said. "And that’s all it was." Trustee John Harris, who also is a member of the bicentennial steering committee, arranged the meeting last Thursday at the Carolina Inn. Other trustees in attendance were Billy Armfield, co-chairman of the bicentennial campaign committee. Cressie Thigpen and student body President Jim Copland. Armfield and Copland deny charges that board members are trying to force BCC supporters to accept the site. But both said protests regarding the site, would only hurt the fund-raising effort. "The basi-; premise behind the discussion was that fund-raising success was dependent upon harmony and accord," Copland said. "So to that extent, any serious disharmony on any issue would undermine the fund-raising goals." "1 think that there’s a,lot of energy in our youth and what we need to do is to lap into that energy and to help to create a climate in which people are not afraid to talk about the hard problems," said Guinier on Sunday, in an interview on CBS’ "Face the Nation,” "I think that the apathy or the sense of alienation is profound. It is real and we have to deal with it," warned Guinier, But dealing with the problem goes beyond the generational dispute to the arena of partisan politics where Republican and Democratic blacks often disagree over how best to improve conditions for African Americans. "I think the government can play an important role in trying to correct these things,” said Guinier. "We have seen that help rebuild Japan, help rebuild Europe ... it needs to rebuild American cities." "The government has a role to play ... (but) what the U.S. government did was help to create the environment where the Europeans rebuilt Europe," said former Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan who appeared with her on CBS. "We can’t look to government to solve all this. Having served in the government for four years I can tell you that government is a big bureaucracy that indeed doesn’t do a lot of things well," he added. CONCORD (AP) - The Rev. Jesse-Jackson says a man who died after police used pepper spray to subdue him was thd victim of state- aided terrorism. But local NAACP leaders expressed relief that Angelo Robinson’s death appeared to be accidental and did not involve physical brutality. An autopsy report issued Monday said Robinson died of asphyxia due to bronchial spasms that were precipitated by pepper spray. Lisa Flannagan, assistant state medical examiner, said Robinson had a chronic lung condition and a mildly enlarged heart, both conditions that predisposed him to have a serious reaction to an external iiritant like pepper spray. Robinson had no physical injuries that caused his death. He had no broken bones, but did have scrapes on his arms, stomach and face. Concord police arrested Robinson. 24, after a disturbance at a restaurant. Police said Robinson was transported to police headquarters and was unresponsive upon arrival. Officers and medical personnel were unable to revive him. Robinson’s July 11 death set off a riot in tile town of 30,000 that left eight police officers, two fire fighters several residents injured. One stoic was burned to the ground and windows were broken out of others, Jackson issued a statement this morning asking U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to investigate the Robinson’s death. He urged Robinson’s family to sue those responsible. Local black leaders met Monday night to share facts from the autopsy with about 70 residents of the Logan community. Many residents questioned whether police followed proper procedure when they sprayed Robinson. The Rev. Harold Robinson, president of the Cabarrus County NAACP, said he believes police should review the use of pepper spray. But when used properly, he said, it is a more humane way to subdue someone than using physical violence. "We were elated that the report showed there had been no beating," said Harold Robinson, not related to Angelo Robinson. "The question now becomes, how many officers sprayed Angelo Robinson and for what duration," he said. State Attorney General Mike Easley urged law enforcement agencies Monday to stop using the spray untii their officers could receive more training about possibie adverse effects. The Concord police department stopped using pepper , spray after receiving the autopsy report Monday morning and will review the policy on use of the spray, Coley said. "To the best of our knowledge, this tragic and unfortunate incident is the first and only time in the nation that serious injury or death has been medically linked to any use of... pepper spray," Coley said in a suitement released Monday. He said the department would provide information on Robinson’s death to law enforcement agencies and medical experts. The Mint Hill-based distributor of First Strike, the pepper spray used on Robinson, denied the spray caused his death. Howard Perry, president | of Advanced Defense Technologies, called the report "double-talk."' "It says, ‘We don’t know exactly what killed him, but because he was sprayed with pepper gas, we’ll blame it on that,’" Perry said. Perry said national associations of pepper spray manufacturers arc trying to draw up industry-w'ide standtuds for the spray. Its use on people is not regulated. Coley said a 1989 study by the FBI and die U.S. Army indicated pepper spray was safe and was widely used in the United Suites. Concord police conducted a field test of the spray in 1992 and every officer is sprayed with pepper before being allowed to use it. Col. R.A. Barefoot, the Highway Patrol commander, whose troopers have used the spray for the past two months, said he considered it to be , safe and effective. Robinson’s death is being investigated by the Suite Bureau of Investigation, Also Monday, 12 of 13 defendants were arraigned in Cabarrus Superior Court on felony charges in connection with the rioting July 11. Join The NAACP
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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Sept. 4, 1993, edition 1
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