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Thursday, May 11, 1989
Winston-Salem Chronicle
50 c?nts "The Twin City's Award-Winning Weekly" VOL. XV,
Black doctor
fights Forsyth
. By ROBIN BARKSOALE
Chronicle Staff Writer
A District Court case involving
an Afro- American physician could
cause serious damage to the doctor's
practice and challenge the North
Carolina state law guaranteeing
doctor-patient confidentiality.
Dr. Jonathan Dunbar Weston,
the plaintiff in the case, in October
1988 filed a complaint against Car
olina Medicorp Inc., operators of
Forsyth Memorial Hospital, alleg
ing that his staff privileges at the
facility had been unjustly suspend
ed. According to Dr. Weston's com
plaint, hospital officials maintain
that Dr. Weston violated hospital
policy when he did not inform hos
pital nurses that one of his patients
had tested HIV positive for the
AIDS virus. When the patient l$ter
came in to deliver a baby, one of the
staff nurses delivered the baby but
did not have both gloves~on. She
later discovered the results of the
woman's AIDS test and complained
to hospital officials about the fact
that Dr. Weston had not informed
nurses of the outcome of the patien
t's test.
The officials then threatened to
suspend Dr. Weston on the grounds
that he was causing disruption at the
hospital.
In February 1988, Paul Wiles,
president of Carolina Medicorp
Inc., initiated disciplinary action
against Dr. Wftstnn charging that
"his management of patient
#164071 was disruptive to the oper
ation of the hospital."
Dr. Weston was requested to
Please see page A2
Darryl Hunt conviction overturned by court
Defense committee calls on Sparrow to drop charges, reopen investigation
By TONYA V. SMITH
Chronicle Staff Writer
Celebrating "a victory" and gearing up for the fight ahead, about 50
members of the Danyl (Eugene) Hunt Defense Fund Committee met
Monday night in Lloyd Presbyterian Church calling for District Attorney
Warren Sparrow to "act like a man and have some backbone" and dismiss
the murder charge against the 24 -year-old.
Mr. Hunt was convicted in June 1985 of the murder of Deborah B.
Sykes, a copyeditor with the now defunct Winston-Salem Sentinel. How
ever, the N.C. Supreme Court overturned that conviction last week saying
that prosecutors improperly used hearsay evidence, particularly that of his
then 14-year-old girlfriend who was a prostitute, in Mr. Hunt's trial.
Mr. Sparrow now has to decide whether to dismiss the charge against
Mr. Hunt or to retry the case.
Mr. Hunt is presently serving a 40-year sentence in the Southern Cor
rectional Center in Troy, N.C., for stabbing Arthur Wilson in 1983. That
murder conviction was overturned in 1988 by the state Court of Appeals,
however, the Supreme Court is slated to review that decision.
Among those in attendance at the meeting were Attorney Larry Little,
who plans to represent Mr. Hunt if there is another trial, and the Rev. Carl
ton A.G. Eversley, Kahlid Fattah Griggs and the Rev. John Mendez -
members of the defense fund steering committee.
"Darryl was a gift to all of us because through Darryl we were able to
expose evil in the police department* in the judicial system," said Rev.
Mendez, chair of the defense committee. "We were fighting not just for
Darryl, but we recognize if Darryl had been allowed to be convicted at
that time . . . then any individual black or white could have."
"God has spoken from Raleigh," Rev. Mendez continued, adding that
if bond is set for Mr. Hunt, the National Council of Churches will assist
the group in raising the money. An offering Monday night netted $160 for
Mr. Hunt's defense. ^
The Darryl Hunt Defense Fund Committee was established by Mr. Lit
tle . However, he said he can no longer be active with the committee
because he is now an attorney who may be involved with Mr. Hunt's
future trial.
"We will see this through to the end," Rev. Mendez said. "Warren
Sparrow, who begged us for votes in the last election, he said he would
have been more fair* than (Donald) Tisdale (the prosecuting attorney in
Mr. Hunt's case). Now the ball is in Sparrow's hand. It's not Darryl whols
Please see page A9
File Photo
Darryl Eugene Hunt
Coble places racial harmony high on agenda
Photo by Son ja Covington
Dr. Larry D. Coble has plana for
better relations In the schools.
By TONYA V. SMITH -
Chronide Staff Writer
In less than 10 days at the helm
of the city -county school system,
Dr. Larry D. Coble has devised a
plan thai he predicts will repair the
widening rift between the Afro
American community and the Win
ston-Salem/Forsyth County
Schools' administrators.
"What I have done is I have
asxea some Key lnfiuenuais in the
community to make some recom
mendations to me and I am assem
bling a small group of representa
tives from the black community to
advise me of community percep
lions as it relates to what's happen
ing with black children and black
affairs," Dr. Coble said.
Letters were sent to five poten
tial members of his advisory board
May 2, but Dr. Coble said he wants
to confirm their acceptance before
he releases the names of the five
individuals.
Dr. Coble, who was the superin
tendent of Durham County Schools,
said he sees three separate issues
affecting the Afro-American com
m unity and school administrators:
?the communication problem
between central office and the com
munity,
?the Afro-American communi
~ ty's perception of what occurred in
the superintendent selection pro
cess,
?a general race relations prob
lem.
."A second step 1 have taken is
thai, prior to coming here, 1 had a
particular interest centering around
the concerns that were raised during
the public (superintendent candi
date) interviews about quote, the
widening gap between the achieve
ment uf black students and' white
students," Dr. Coble said. "Through
what I call a disaggregation of test
data, which suggests to us how stu
dents achieve individually on tests,
we began looking at how students
achieve based on race and we're
taking that information and trying
to evaluate it
"First inspection suggests that
there is a widening gap between
black students and white students,
particularly black males and that is
in keeping with national tMlfc."
There is still much review of the
test dam to be done, Dr. Coble aid,
adding that the schools' test coordi
nator said such raw data could be
deieitiiig on papei.
The major problem with the
city-county system is that it has had
no real agenda, Dr. Coble said. He
Please see page A9
National Urban League president praises local community efforts
By ROBIN BARKSDALE
Chronicle Staff Writer
&
National Urban League President John E. Jacob was in town Wednes
day morning to lend his support to a community event sponsored by the
local affiliate.
The Winston-Salem Urban League presented findings pulled from a
series of community focus group sessions which have been held since
April. The group sessions were held to solicit information from various
segments of the community with regard to their concerns about problems in
Winston-Salem, possible solutions and what the local league could do to
assist residents with those problems. The local Community Forum project
targeted five specific focus groups and held sessions in areas easily accessi
ble to those individual groups.
"Year after year , organiza
tions develop programs and
services without talking to
the people who are recipi
ents of those services.
Through projects such as
, this, the Urban League is
making a major contribution
to its community."
- John E. Jacob
Photo by Sam Grwnwood
At a press conference before the luncheon, Mr. Jacob commended the
local office for its efforts to take the services of the Urban League to the
people it serves. ?
"I am so happy to be here for what I consider to be one of the most
important events to take place in Winston-Salem, not only for the Urban
League but for the entire community," Mr. Jacob said. "I believe it is of
tremendous value for organizations like the Urban League to develop pro
grams that allow the community to be involved in problem -solving. We
want to allow constituents to share in the creation of programs and ser
vices. The truth of the matter is that most of them know what the problems
are and what they would accept as a resolution."
Mr. Jacob said that service-providers are more apt to develop effective
programs if they have some idea of what it is that people truly want and
Please see page A3
Legacy for posterity: The history of black politicians in Winston-Salem
By TONYA V. SMITH
Chronicle Staff Writer
This is the first in a three part
series looking at Afro-Americans
and the establishment, present
development and future progre s -
sion on their claims to political
power.
Williams
When Afro- Americans began
their metamorphosis from slaves to
free men and women, it was
because men with political power
mandated it. When so-called free
people could not vote, eat in certain
restaurants or sit in the front of the
bus, it was those who dared to pull
the reins of political power who
turned wishes into laws.
Politics is the science and an of
political government, according to
"Webster's New Twentieth Century
Dictionary." A political person is
one who is artful, skillful politic, it
further states. A politic plan is one
that is expedient, prudently and art
fully contrived. Such plans led to
the conception and subsequent
birthing of the black political power
movement in Winston and across
the United States.
As a little boy growing up in
Winston, the Rev. Kenneth R.
Williams' political path began tak
ing shape in his mind as he heard
stories about Justin G. Lattie, a
funeral director and embalm er who
was an alderman in the city of Win
ston during the 1890s.
But before Lattie became an
alderman, other Afro- Americans
were elected to the same office or
they served as commissioners. Men
such as Col. Israel L. Clement, a
tobacco roller, who was elected in
1881; his son Rcfus E. Clement
served two terms between 1891 and
1896. Other early Afro- American
politicians in Winston were J.F.
Hughes, a post office custodian;
J.B. Gwyn a grocer; Henry Pendle
ton, a tobacco worker and Aaron A.
Moore.
Many Afro-Americans aren't
aware of their early political her
itage because of laws enacted soon
after these men took office, accord
ing to "Forsyth: The History of a
County on the March" by Adelaide
Fries, Stuart Thuiman Wright and J.
Edwin Hendricks.
"Immediately after the turn of
the century, however, North Caroli
na followed other southern states in
the enactment of disfranchising,
segregating and disabling legisla
tion/ according to the book. "In
Winston as elsewhere the black
community disappeared as a politi
cal force until the 1940s."
It was during the 1940s that Dr.
Williams, now chancellor emeritus
of Winston-Salem State University
and pastor emeritus of United
Metropolitan Baptist Church,
became the first Afro-American
elected to the Winston-Salem Board
of Aldermen ? the town of Salem
and the city of Winston merged in
1913.
According to historians, the
election of Mayor Marshall Kurfees
and the organization of Local 22 of
the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural and
Allied Workers Union (CIO) at
Reynolds Tobacco Company, led to
Dr. Williams' winning the Demo
cratic Primary that would make him
an alderman.
"Kurfees did not create a Negro
political m*?vement," said Larry
Edward Ti< 5 in "Winston-Salem in
History, V< 'ume Government."
Photo Courtesy of the Rev. W.R. Crawford
A reflection of past Afro-American political power holders, Dr. M.L
King Jr., the president of the Winston-Salem Chapter of the NAACP
and the Rev. William R. Crawford had a meeting of minds In 1960.
"Rather he took advantage of exist
ing developments in the Negro
community."
During that time Afro-Ameri
cans were not allowed to vote, but
Reynolds Tobacco Company
employed them in huge numbers,
Please see page A9