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40 Pages This Week ** SUBSCRIPTION HOTLhNE -- 722-8624 ** Thursday, April 6, 1989
Winston-Salem Chronicle
SOctnts "The Twin City's Award-Winning Weekly" VOL. XV, No. 32
Status Quo
Recent conference brings
women's problems to light
! ?. ?
V? 4
-
What's Cooking?
Twin City caterer's culinary
skills include artsy touch
NAACP supports
Kennedy-Burke Plan
Local board to seek national support
By TONYA V. SMITH
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The Winston-Stlcm NAACP
Executive Board unanimously voted
Tuesday to support a county commis
sioner election bill sponsored by state
Reps. Annie Brown Kennedy and
Logan Burke, overruling a rival bill
supported by President Walter Mar
. shall *
Opting in favor of a legislative
remedy over a judicial settlement, the
group's endorsement counteracts Mar
shall's support of a rival bill spon
sored by the Forsyth County Board of
Commissioners. The commissioners'
bill was introduced by Rep. Frank
Rhodes, a Republican, and represent
ed a compromise reached last June
between county commissioners and
Marshall. The NAACP had filed suit
against the county, charging that its
at-large election system based on dis
tricts diluted Afn> American voting
strength.
Federal Judge Eugene A. Gordon
approved the compromise in a con
sent decree signed in June and direct
to aeek legisla
tive fpprovj. Since then, however,
4he majority of Afro- Americans in the
commumty have criticized Marshall
M selling it sliort in the deal. The
most recent NAACP Executive Board
bill gives Marshall's critics more fuel
for the fire. Reacting to similar public
protests, Kennedy and Burke intro
duced their bill March 14. -
Three NAACP Executive Board
Members, Naomi Jones, Vernon
Robinson and Mazie Woodruff, called
a special meeting of the committee at
7 pjiL Tuesday. According to a press
release, the purpose of the meeting
was "to discuss the Forsyth
County/NAACP out-of-court settle
ment as well as the Kennedy-Burke
bill for redisricting the Board of
County Commissioner elections."
Robinson, the organization's
Political Action Chair and former
Republican candidate for the state
senate, said the meeting was called to
state the NAACP's position on the
bills in question.
"I was concerned about the mis
conceptions, which were widespread
in the community, of where the
NAACP stood," Robinson said. "I
received a letter from Ann Duncan
(another state representative). I had
asked her why she was in support of
the commissioners' plan, and she said
in the letter that she w*s supporting
the plan because the NA ACT and the
commissioners supported itN
However, the NAACP Executive
Board has never gone on record in
Please see page A10
^umMxw waiijiiam.1 ,ti??o j "Plw^'Hy'tjknT Orffifffiotifll '
Peter Llglitfoot: "There are more Afro-Amertcans (opera per
sonalities) than most Americans think. Most Americans know
the black females, but there are a lot of Afro-American males
In the field. But most of us work In Europe."
Afro-American baritone
stars in Mozart's 'Figaro'
By TONYA V. SMITH
Chronicle Staff Writer
It's not often that you find a premiere baritone who hasn't been
primed and prepared for that position all his life. But up and coming
opera sensation Peter Lightfoot was studying for his MBA degree
when he received the calling.
'Talways had been interested in classical music because I guess I
was sort of raised on it," said Lightfoot. "My grandmother listened to
the Metropolitan broadcast every week, and my dad loved symphonic
music and church music. So the opera was always something I had a
passing interest in."
The Queens, N.Y., native is the-'only Afro-American to have a
leading role in the Piedmont Opera Theatre's upcoming production,
"The Marriage of Figaro." Lightfoot will portray Count Almaviva in
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's soap-opera-like tale of castle romances.
It is Lightfoot's Piedmont Opera Theatre debut.
Lightfoot, 39, has always enjoyed singing but no more than play
ing football or the other activities he participated in while in high
school. After high school Lightfoot attended Tufts University in
Boston, Mass., where he majored in economics and history. He con
tinued his studies at Columbia University in New York, N.Y., and
received his master's of business administration degree there.
"I was singing for fun then and I liked it a lot," Lightfoot said.
"When I was in Boston I worked for extra money with the Boston
Opera. When I finished at Columbia I got talked into applying to
music school at Juilliard."
So after receiving his MBA from one of the nation's leading busi
ness schools, Lightfoot spent three years at the country's most presti
gious music conservatory.
In 1979 Lightfoot appeared in his first major opera. He made
his European debut in 1983. Since then he has won the coveted
National Opera Institute's Bronze Career Medal and Career Awards
Oram, audhas been deemed "vocally brilliant" by "Opera News," a
trade publication.
Daring the 1986-87 season, Ugfetfoot's appearances included
concert presentations of "Fidelio," "Tosca" and 'Ttigoletto." The fol
Please see page A8
City aldermen agree to table
plans for East Winston Parkway
By TONYA V. SMITH
Chronide Staff Writer
Plans to build a parkway through East Winston were put on the
back burner by the city Board of Aldermen Monday night as board
members opted to further study a consultant's recommendation to con
struct an eastern leg of the Northern Beltway in its stead.
"Our recommendation is that 14th Street be improved . . . and that
Northern Beltway construction be accelerated," said J. Steven Mifflin,
assistant Regional manager for Kimley-Horn and Associates, a Raleigh
based consulting engineering firm. "Improving 14th Street and extend
ing it improves accessibility and opens a wide area for development.
We can make local improvements and build the Northern Beltway to
serve through traffic."
In addition, the city should widen 14th Street to three lanes begin
ning at Northwest Boulevard heading east to open new land for devel
opment and smooth traffic^KtwegiLEasL Winston and downtown, Mif
flin said. He recommended that 14th Street be extended one~and^ha#
miles from Addison Avenue through undeveloped land to Old Greens
boro Road.
Whereas the proposed East Winston Parkway would carry traffic
through East Winston, an eastern leg of the Northern Beltway would
carry traffic around the community. City officials have estimated con
struction of a another leg of the Northern Beltway at $83 million.
Giving a brief history on th?v proposed parkway, Brent McKinney,
the city's traffic engineer, said discussion on the project began more
than 20 years ago. .
"The objective of this road as presented in 1968 was to provide
continued east-west traffic flow in the Northern portion of our city,"
said McKinney.
? Then the parkway was called the Winston Lake Connector, he s aid.
Over the years the planned project took on other objectives including
improving traffic flow in East Winston and facilitating economic devel
opment in the developmental^ barren community, said McKinney. In
1987 the project was added to the city's Highway Needs List And by
that time, "we began to get some very incompatible objectivesH for the
project, McKinney told board members.
Mifflin has said building a parkway in East Winston is not feasible
because those using it would not stop in the community. In contrast,
Please see page AQ
Business Assistance Center opens;
?>
Johnson named director
By TONYA V. SMITH
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New business owners and those
wishing to expand their services now
have a one-stop assistance center to
aid them in their endeavors.
The Business Assistance Center
opened Monday, and its director
Steven L. Johnson is ready to do busi
ness, said Fred W. Nordenhoiz, presi
dent of the Greater Winston-Salem
Chamber of Commerce.
"This is a community-wide pro
ject in which we hope to provide con
tinued services and expert advice/
Nordenholz told a crowd of about 150
small business owners who attended a
reception March 30.
In addition to the center, Sandra
K. Mitchell announced the formation
of a Small Business Forum.
"We are creating a small business
forum to serve as that critical link
between chamber members and the
chamber structure," said Mitchell, the
chamber's vice chair for small busi
nesses. "The success of this forum
will depend on your willingness to
input into it."
The forum will be an open meet
ing of small business members who
will meet regularly to share concerns
with the chamber and to assist in the
development of new programs and
services aimed at small businesses,
said Nordenholz.
The BAC will be housed in the F.
Roger Page Business & Technology
Center at 1001 South Marshall St The
center is being funded during its first
year with a $100,000 grant the BTC
received from the Appalachian
Regional Commission. The Chamber
of Commerce is expected to provide
continued staffing and funding for the
BAC in later years, subject to
approval of its board of directors,
Nordenholz said.
The chamber is planning to open
a BAC satellite office in the East Win
ston community and to form ap/area
council to aid in that area's economic
development. Both recommendations
were made in the Battelle Economic
Development Study, which the cham
ber and Winston-Salem Business Inc.
commissioned in January.
Johnson, a Clemmons resident
with 16 years of marketing, finance
and management experience, will be
responsible for the coordination and
delivery of business, technicaj, finan
cial, marketing and related a<Syj$ory
services to new and small business
clients in the greater Winston-Salem
"We are creating a small busi
ness forum to serve as that criti
cal link between chamber mem
bers and the chamber structure .
The success of this forum will
depend on your willingness to
input into it. "
? Sandra K. Mitchell
area, said Nordenholz.
Johnson has spent the last five
years with the New York based
Please see page A10
Sandra K. Mitchell
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grader
" motorist
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A nil??e?M*4 Afro- American girl was struck and killed Wednesday
fidttd to stop for s bus the child was attempting
bm |cQd|jitber,?*id SgL l W. Marble of the Win
Mi their 'wtfia Bolto# saw the fatal accident, said
|? CteSOn, schodl-cdmmunity relations director for the Winston
1
CLU counselor:
Abolish death penalty for mentally ill
By TONYA V. SMITH
Chronido Staff Writer
Capital punishment does not
deter crime. In fact, some studies
have shown that the death penalty
tends to stimulate violent crime
instead of suppress it, said Norman
B. Smith, counselor for the North
Carolina Civil Liberties Union, in a
lecture to students at Wake Forest
University.
"A study of homicides in the
state of New York in the months
following an execution . . . found on
the average two more homicides
take place in the month after an
execution*" said Smith, who has
drafted a bill for the abolishment of
capital punishment for the mentally
ill and retarded. "It's very v interest
ing that in that study and in all stud
ies there are those who agree that
larger conviction rates and longer
prison sentences have longer
impacts on reducing homicide rates.
"It's my own personal belief
that until we have longer prison
sentences for the most violent
crimes, public opinion will not lean
toward abolition of capital punish
ment."
While Smith is a supporter of
the total abolition of capital punish
ment, he said he has narrowed his
focus to abolishing the death penal
ty among the mentally ill and
retarded.
He citcd the history of capital
punishment in the world and noted
how public executions such as
hangings have been abolished in the
United States and abroad.
"Over the long view, the histo
ry of punishment has been of a
gradual abolishment of the death
penalty," said Smith. "On the eve of
the American Revolution, 153
crimes were punishable by death."
The number of executions
began to decline in the early 1900s.
In 1935, 100 people were sentenced
to the death penalty and killed in
the United States, according to
Smith's statistics. In the 1960s there
was 29 executions. In 1979 that fig
ure rose to 103 executions. But
Smith said the country is executing
Please see page A7