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VOLUME 73 - NUMBER 25
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA — SATURDAY, JUNE 24, 1995
TELEPHONE & FAX (919) 682-2913
PRICE: 30 CENTS
Too Few Black Males
In Teaching Profession
See Page 3
State Voters Likely to
Get Decision On
Alternative Punishments
An AP News Analysis
By Dennis Patterson
RALEIGH (AP) - If lawmakers have their way, voters will be looking
at a fairly long list of constitutional amendments in the next 18 months.
The November 1996 ballot will include veto power, for sure. And
voters could decide on term limits, merit selection of judges and a vic
tims’ rights amendment this fall.
Add to the list, almost as a certainty, an amendment on alternative
punishments for 6onvicted criminals. That amendment has passed both
the House and Senate, with only the date of the election in conflict.
Senators want the election held in November 1995, while the House
wants it in November 1996.
It would give judges more leeway in sentencing. Right now, possible
punishments are limited to prison time, fines and removal from office for
elected officials.
Under the proposed constitutional amendment, judges could sentence
criminals to probation, community service, restitution, suspended
sentences - with or without conditions - electronic house arrest or work
programs.
All of those can be ordered as part of a sentence now, but the criminal
can refuse to accept them, opting for prison time instead.
Opponents of the amendment say it is an idea whose lime has come and
gone. But supporters say it is needed, if for no other reason than to take
away the right of criminals to refuse a sentence.
"1 think if you tell people that a convicted criminal has the right to
refuse these alternatives, they’re going to be in favor of doing away with
that," said Sen. Charlie Albertson, D-Duplin, who has been pushing the
amendment for years. "I just don’t think a criminal ought to have a say-
so over what his punishment is." Albertson said the hardest hurdle sup
porters might have to overcome is convincing people that alternatives
like house arrest and work programs really are punishment.
"And restitution is important," Albertson said. "That’s one that
criminals ought to be forced to do." Albertson has been so persistent that
last year he took out a newspaper ad to try to get the measure moved out
of a House committee.
"This is the only bill in recent history where the sponsor was so inter
ested in its passage that he spent $3,000 of his own money to buy a
quarter-page ad to try to get it out of committee," Rep.
Larry Justus, R-Henderson, said in arguing for final House approval of
the bill Thursday.
But opponents remained unimpressed.
"If a good bill is made a good bill because you take out an ad in the
newspaper... then all of us will be taking out ads in the newspaper and
the amount of money you spend will determine if it is a good bill," said
Rep. Toby Fitch, D-Wilson, whose committee held the bill before. "That
is not how this body works." When Albertson started pushing the amend
ment, the state’s prisons were overcrowded and nonviolent inmates were
being paroled quickly to make way for violent ones.
Stories abounded of convicted criminals who asked for prison time
rather than probation, knowing they would only serve a few days in jail,
rather than two years under the requirements of probation.
Eventually, Albertson said, 3,500 criminals chose prison over proba
tion.
But a massive prison-building program and a new sentencing format
that started last year ended that, many lawmakers say.
"It might would have been needed when there was no room in the inn,"
Fitch said of the amendment.
When Albertson began offering the bill, "it was needed, but it’s time to
wake up," said Rep. Bob Hensley, D-Wake. "Those particular things
have been changed." Structured sentencing, which eliminated parole, im
poses penalties like community service and probation. And people sent to
prison under the plan will serve an average of 93 percent of their
sentence.
With enough prison beds, nobody will be taking an "easy-out" from
probation.
"If my options are two years under probation or eight days in prison,
then maybe I might take the prison term," Hensley said.
"But going to prison knowing I’m going to serve 93 percent of my
sentence? "These are not nice places," he said. "People are not going to
want to go there."
Morehead School Salutes
Volunteers
See Page 13
Aviatrix Bessie Coleman
First Black Woman Pilot
See Insights’ Page 2
Baseball thrives with mem
bers of the South Durham
Youth Athletic League
players. Shown are some
members of the Salvation
Army team who regularly par
ticipate in league play. See
story and photos on page 9.
(Photo by Trent)
Schools Revamping Minority
Scholarship Programs
CATONSVILLE. Md. (AP) - The
U.S. Supreme Court has forced uni
versity officials throughout
Maryland to sit down with their
lawyers to redraw their minority
scholarship programs so they’ll
pass constitutional muster.
Last month, the high court struck
down a blacks-only scholarship
program at the University of
Maryland at College Park. The de
cision has forced other colleges
into action.
The University of Maryland at
Baltimore County is changing its
prestigious Meyerhoff scholarship
program, designed to promote the
education of blacks in science and
engineering.
The Meyerhoff program has been
hailed nationally as a model for im
proving the pool of future genera
tions of black scientists. But state
attorneys suggest that it may not
pass constitutional muster.
So instead of a race-based merit
scholarship, the selection criteria
for the program may hinge on
grades, test scores and the desire to
work with inner city students in
reading and math, said UMBC
President Freeman A. Hrabowski.
When the scholarships are offered
to the class entering the school in
fall 1996, students of all races
probably will be eligible, "I suspect
that we will decide that the pro
gram will no longer be exclusively
for African-American students," he
said.
The University of Maryland’s
Banneker scholarship in 1988 was
limited to blacks. Daniel J. Pod-
beresky, a student of Hispanic de
scent, sued the .rll^ ,IoIty in 1990
after he was denii. i ’he scholarship.
A federal judge upiiela the pro
gram, but in October the 4th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that
students who did not qualify be
cause they are not black were being
discriminated against.
The University of Marylahd
failed to convince the appellate
panel that the scholarship was "nar
rowly tailored" to overcome the ef
fects of prior discrimination at Col
lege Park.
The nation’s highest court in May
last month declined to review the
4th Circuit decision, so the ruling
affects universities in Maryland,
North Carolina, South Carolina,
Virginia and West Virginia.
All of Maryland’s public
campuses are submitting their ra
cially limited scholarships to the
state attorney general’s offices for
review.
Johns Hopkins University pack
ages its scholarships for black stu
dents in a program targeting all
minorities, and its selection process
considers financial need as well.
At the College of William and
Mary in Williamsburg. Va., the 20
students who receive its "diversity
scholarships" represent a variety of
minorities as well as people who
are handicapped or have overcome
backgrounds of adversity.
John Lewis Blasts Newt Gingrich
On Race and Civil Rights Movement
WASHINGTON (AP) - Georgia
Rep. says House Speaker Newt
Gingrich doesn’t understand the
civil rights movement and has in
sulted blacks by claiming they lack
entrepreneurial traditions.
Lewis, an Atlanta Demoprat and
longtime civil rights leader, said
last Friday that Gingrich’s eom-
ments to a group of black journal
ists last Thursday are "an affront
and insult to the legacy of the civil
lights movement." Gingrich wa;
guoted as saying that after segrega
tion ended, the civil rights move
ment went off-track because it was
dominated by lawyers, ministers
political activists and others "who
thought there was some way to get
fairness of outcome as opposed to
equality of opportunity." Lewis
said he said would give Gingrich, a
former history professor, an "F’ for
his interpretation of the civil rights
movement.
"African-Americans do not need
Newt Gingrich to lecture them on
civil rights history, particularly tc
those of us who have lived through
the horror and degradation of
segregation," he said.
"I think that’s nonsense,"
Gingrich said last Friday night at a
reception in Smyrna, Ga. "I can’t
imagine a more racist comment
than to suggest that a white person
can’t talk about civil rights,” Lewis
said equality of opportunity was the
central thrust of the movement after
segregation was eliminated and
remains the focus of civil rights ef
.forts today.
Lewis said Gingrich’s ack
nowledgement in the interview that
America has yet to become a color
blind society could be interpreted
as an endorsement of affirmative
action programs.
But, he said, "it appears more
certain that Gingrich would rather
blame African Americans and other
minorities rather than embrace con
structive programs, s 'h ’VGr-
mative action."
Study Says GOP Plans Will
Widen Rich-Poor Gap
Washington, D.C. (NBNS) - "The poor are being asked to bear a
large share of ihe burden of this economic program ... at a time when
economic forces are already running against them." Those were the
words last week of Urban Institute spokesperson Isabel Sawhill refer
ring to the Republican tax and spending cuts currently making their
way through Congress. It is the view of Sawhill and an apparent ma
jority of economic analysts that the Republican budget plans will
have the effect of making the poor poorer and the rich richer. If the
plans become law, they will take effect at a time when a host of non
government economic factors are already making life increasingly
difficult for the poor. According to the Labor Department, for exam
ple, the income gap between upper income Americans and lower in
come Americans has been widening for the last 15 years in a row.
The result has been that households earning $60,(X)0 or more a year
have been getting better off over time while those earning $15,(XX) or
less have been getting worse off. The Republican plans will make that
situation worse because disproportionately the lax cuts will benefit
upper income Americans, while cuts in government programs will
most adversely affect those with lower incomes.
Heart Disease Hits Blacks
Differently Than Whites
Chicago. Ill. (NBNSt - Heart disease is the number one killer in
America. But it appears to affect blacks differently than whites. The
biggest problem among whites is clogged arteries which reduce the
ability of the heart to pump blood through the body. But according to
a Just-released study, the deadliest problem among blacks is the en
largement of the heart. This may explain why blacks with heart dis
ease have a higher death rale than whites with heart disease. It is not
that one ailment is worse than the other. The simple fact is that most
heart disease treatments have focused on clogged arteries and. as a
result the principle heart disease problem among blacks has gone
largely unstudied and untreated. Controlling blood pressure is
believed to be the best way to prevent enlargement of the heart. I'lic
heart becomes enlarged when it has to overwork and becomes over
muscled and thus inefficient. The study was published in last Wed
nesday’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
AIDS Cases Rise Sharply
Among Black Homosexuals
Atlanta, Ga. (NBNS) - Officials at the Centers for Disease Control
& Prevention are reporting a dramatic rise in the number of AIDS
cases among black male homosexuals. During the first half of 1994.
there was a 79 percent increase in AIDS cases among black gay
males as compared to the same period in 1989. The rate of increase
among white male homosexuals was only 14 percent. There was also
a dramatic rise among Hispanic gay males of 61 percent. Despite an
increased spread of the deadly disease into the general population, ap
proximately 90 percent of all Americans afflicted with the deadly
HIV virus fall into two groups; homosexual males and intravenous
drug users. The CDC also found that in recent years AIDS infection
has begun to spread faster in small towns and rural communities.
South Africa Abolishes
The Death Penalty
Johannesburg, South Afri'^'i - While the U.S. i.'-
toward establishing a,n ever la''r.y''Jniber of crimes for which i. ’ ,.
son can be put to death, SoUlH last week abolished the death
penalty after declaring it cruel and u,»t,sual puni.sri.T-cnt. The d. is,on
by the South African hijh eouf* Litd he,,- -) ,>..LK'd for some ume