Page A16-The Chronicle, Thursday, June 13, 1985
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Womble
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From Page A1
“The same tricks and tactics are being planned in this 1985 bond
issue that were used in the 1983 bond referendum,” he said.
Womble said blacks are making the mistake of agreeing to back
the coliseum bonds without having the promises made to them in
return written down. “We made these same mistakes in 1983,” he
said, referring to a bond referendum that helped finance the
reorganization of the city-county schools and downtown develop
ment.
Womble said he is especially concerned about blacks on the col
iseum committee whose job it is to sell the coliseum idea to blacks
in the comrriunity.
“They (the white leadership) come to the black community and
pick black leaders to be their flunkies and sell their ideas to other
blacks,” he said. “After they get what they want, blacks don’t get
anything.”
. Womble said he’s tired of whites using blacks to get things for
the community.
“Blacks don’t have parity,” he said. “We are wrong for letting
people take advantage of us.
Womble said he is concerned about the coming bond referendum
because blacks were promised jobs and education during the 1983
referendum.
“We got no jobs and they closed the black schools,” he said.
“They have never delivered what they promised.”
Womble called black leaders who are attempting to sell the col
iseum idea to blacks “turncoats who are helping to castrate the
black community.”
What’s good for the city, he said, is not always good for blacks.
“They (the coliseum committee) are doing slick ads and televi
sion and radio spots to push that coliseum,” Womble said. “They
ought to tell the people the truth.”
“1 don’t know why the black leaders won’t speak their minds,”
he said. “Have their jobs been threatened? Have they been promis
ed something?”
Womble said he has not seen any of the promises made to blacks
concerning the proposed coliseum written down on paper.
“There is a possibility that blacks won’t even get to build the
damn thing,” he said. “Show me where it says blacks will help
build it.”
Womble suggested that blacks on the coliseum committee “smell
the coffee” and examine the facts.
“They must have been taken into a back room and patted on the
backs,” he said.
Womble said the only thing blacks have is their vote. “We have
to stop prostituting our vote,” he said.
He said that black people need to clearly understand that there is
a possibility of an automatic tax increase with this bond proposal.
“If the bond is not paid off with the debt service revenues, there
will be a tax increase,” he said.
“Suppose it (the coliseum bond revenue) doesn’t come in like
they expect? They can raise the property tax without asking the
people.”
City officials have said a tax hike would be possible but not pro
bable if the bonds pass.
Womble also said he agrees that the city is beginn'
its housing problem, which black leaders felt had be
ing the 1983 referendum. 'Sooted'du,
But he said he is waiting for the outcome of
which would guarantee black participation in city coii T
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tracts, before he endorses the coliseum.
“If it doesn’t pass, I will go on every talk show
con
and hold'c
conferences and tell the real deal,” Womble said.
He said that people who are pushing the approval of the i-
bonds are “raping the black vote.”
“We won’t hear from them if the bond passes,” he said
According to Womble, other people in the community hav
tacted him and told him to “hold his position on the bond
dum.”
teferen
“There’re a lot of people who haven’t made up their minds"
said. ’
Teen pregnancy, crime, hunger, slum areas, black
unempii
ment and the enabling legislation are more important than build'
a coliseum, contends Womble. “These things are moreimpo ^
than a rock concert,f’ he said. --import^
Womble said thert has been strong city support for buildi’
new coliseum, but there was little support for theenablinel '
tion, which would help local blacks secure work, °
“If the white people love the city so much,” Womble said “i
didn’t they lobby for;the enabling legislation?”
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Hunt
From Page A1
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testimony of Thomas Murphy,
who said he had seen Hunt and
Sykes hugging as he drove
around the curve on West End
Boulevard enroute to work.
The judge refused the jury’s re
quests but allowed the jurors to
review several documents while in
the courtroom. They returned to
the jury room at 3:45 p.m.
eyewitnesses. He asked them not
to question what the state didn’t
have: physical evidence.
“I’m sorry we didn’t have
(it),” shouted Lyle, “but we
didn’t have (it). You have seen
Hunt walked into the packed
courtroom Wednesday morning
more slowly than usual and wear
ing an unusually solemn face.
The Hunt on Wednesday and
the Hunt that the jury has seen
throughout the 11-day trial has
been a different Hunt from the
one that killed Sykes on Aug. 10,
District Attorney Donald Tisdale
told the jury Tuesday afternoon
during his closing argument.
“That day he had his hair in
knots,” said Tisdale as he show
ed the jury an enlarged
photograph of Hunt in braids
and pictures of Sykes’ blood-
covered body as it lay in the
grass.
Hunt testified that he is afraid
of that picture.
Said Assistant District At
torney Richard R. Lyle in his
closing argument to the jury:
“Don’t be misled by the way
(Hunt) is now. Try this case by
the way he appeared in August.”'
Lyle asked the jurors to con
sider what the state has presented
every bit of evidence that we had.
The state is trying to get this man
in a position where he will never
do it (commit murder) again.”
Lyle and Tisdale then attacked
Hunt’s lifestyle. They said he is
unemployed, frequented illegal
drinkhouses, dated a prostitute
and gambled.
But Hunt’s attorneys, Gordon
Jenkins and S. Mark Rabil, asked
the jury to put aside Hunt’s per
sonal life and base its decision on
the facts, not the theories, that
the state presented.
“Drinking and loafing might
not be what we want for so
meone, but it’s not against the
law,” said Jenkins. “It doesn’t
make him a murderer.”
Rabil and Jenkins spent the
rest of their two-hour closing
arguments attacking the credibili
ty of the state’s eyewitnesses.
Hunt has maintained all along
that he did not kill Sykes and said
so Monday during his two-hour
testimony.
“I don’t bother nobody,”
Hunt told the jury, speaking soft
ly and slowly into the
microphone.
In the early morning hours of
the Sykes murder. Hunt said he
as well as the , testimony of was spending the night at the
Democrats
From Page A2
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and fairly.
“The Democrats have tradi
tionally said to minority and
poor people, ‘We are the party
of civil rights, of
opportunity,”’ Hart said.
“We want minority business.
We want to see black people
owning their own business.
Before, we fought for black
people to ride in the front of
the bus. In the 80s, we want
black people to own the bus
line. We want to take it one
step further.”
Hart also said he does not
like the Reagan administra
tion’s handling of apartheid in
South Africa.
“I am opposed to this ad
ministration’s policy of sup
porting racism in South
Africa,” he said.
Hart suggests a system of
sanctions which would be im
posed over a period of time
unless South Africa moderates
its civil and political policies.
He said this is the policy most
of the major black leaders in
South Africa, including
Bishop Desmond Tutu, want
to see implemented.
Hart said he will support
proposed U.S. economic sanc
tions against South Africa that
have been approved by the
House and are expected to
come before the Senate short
ly.
On other national issues.
Hart said he opposes the presi-
home of a friend. Three witnesses
corroborated that testimony.
Hunt also told the jury how he
called or came by the police sta
tion three times to talk to detec
tives about the Sykes murder.
During much of his questioning
by Detective J.l. Daulton, Hunt
said, he was constantly told to tell
the police that his best friend
Sammy Mitchell committed the
murder.
“He (Daulton) said they could
put me at the scene of the crime
on top of the hill,” testified
Hunt. “They said they know he
(Sam) did it.”
At one time. Hunt said District
Attorney Donald Tisdale offered
him money. “ ‘You can get the
$12,000 if you just say that Sam
my Mitchell did it,’ ” Hunt said
Tisdale told him. “He (Tisdale)
looked at Daulton and said.
‘Ain’t that right?’ Daulton shook
his head, ‘Yeah.’
“I told them I wouldn’t tell no
lie for nobody or against nobody
for $12,000.”
Hunt also disputed testimony
given by his former girlfriend,
Margaret Crawford, who initially
told police that Hunt spent the
night with her on Aug. 9 at Motel
6, that he got up the next morn
ing early, and returned to the
motel exhausted between 9 and
9:30 a.m. with grass stains and
mud on the knees of his pants.
Hunt said he spent the night
with Crawford at Motel 6 on
Aug. 8, but not Aug. 9. In addi
tion to being a “liar,” said Hunt,
Crawford has a $200-a-day drug
habit and will do anything for
drugs.
Hunt said that he could not
have been in the Hyatt House, as
state’s witness Roger Weaver
testified, because he has not been
in the downtown hotel since
1982. Weaver testified that he
saw a man with a curly,
“Michael-Jackson-type”
hairstyle at the hotel on the mor
ning Sykes was killed. Weaver
identified Hunt as the man he
saw.
When asked if he was angry at
the police for being arrested for
something he says he didn’t do.
Hunt said: “Everybody makes
mistakes.”
Other witnesses who testified
this week included:
• Sammy Mitchell, who agreed
with Hunt’s testimony that the
two of them spent the night at a
friend’s house.
• two prosecution witnesses who
testified that they saw Hunt in the
early morning hours of Aug. 10
I
on Liberty Street. The two™
bondsmen said they knew hti
Hunt and Mitchell and saw fcii
standing at Service Distribul
Co.
• a cab driver, James Johns)
who testified that, at the
time the two bail bondsmen said
they saw Hunt on Liberty Stree
he picked Hunt up a mile awa
and drove him to M
Johnson had no record of'lit
Hunt trip on his daily log,
• several residents from the
neighborhood where Sykes
killed, who said they sawaioca
street person in the area on i
morning of Sykes’ death. Latei
that same day, one of the
residents testified that she saw the
same street person at the spol
where Sykes’ body was founi
cursing with his pants pnlle
down.
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dent’s “Star Wars” defense
program. He said the weapons
system is not affordable and
the research alone will cost
about $28 billion. “It will be a
dark day for the human race if
weapons are deployed in
space,” he said.
As for his presidential
aspirations in ’88, Hart said,
“1 don’t know yet. I’ve tried
to keep in touch with our sup
porters and see how they feel
about it. If I feel I have
something to offer the party
and the country ... if I feel
some of the ideas I’ve been
working on make sense and
the people are responding to
them, then I would be very in
terested in trying again.”
The trip to the Greensboro
airport was almost over and so
was the interview. But the Col
orado senator and presidental
hopeful had some words of
advice for young blacks look
ing for success.
“Pay attention to politics,”
he said. “Listen to the can
didates; listen to the two par
ties, then determine which one
represents your point of view.
Get as much educational train
ing as possible. The best tool
you can have is your mind. If
that mind is trained and skill
ed, you’re going to be ahead
of the game. Last, work to
break down barriers, and
when you have that chance,
take it.”