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58 Pages This Week
Thursday, June 8, 1989
Winston-Salem Chronicle
50 cents "The Twin City's Award-Winning Weekly"
VOL. XV, NO. 4t
JAIL CONTROVERSY CONTINUES
County launches P.R. effort to sell site, but opposition still strong
County says new building
would be an improvement
By TONYA V. SMITH
Chronide Staff Writer
When city residents think of a
jail one of two images usually are
created in their mind's eye. The first
is reminiscent of Marshall Matt Dil
lon's jail in Dodge City. The second
image is of the nearly quarter of a
century old, rustic-looking facility
at the corner of Church and Chest
nut streets.
However, jail or detention cen
ters built today are usually state-of
the-art facilities that are-pleasing- to
the eye, secure and are those that
have increased the land value in
areas where they've been erected,
said A. Edward Jones, assistant
manager of Forsyth County.
The county is planning to build
a new jail and possibly a sheriffs
department complex off Patterson
Avenue in East Winston. The 6.5
acre site is bounded by Eighth
Street on the north, Seventh Street
on the south and the Norfolk and
Southern Railway on the east
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
announced May 12 that it would
donate the land to the county.
?Opposition, in the form of Pas
tor James A. French and the mem
bers of his Golcr Memorial A.M.E.
Zion Church at 630 Patterson Ave.,
and Clark S. Brown, owner of a
funeral home and a would-be neigh
bor to the proposed facility, have
had meetings to plot strategy and
discourage the county commission
ers from building the jail in their
section of the city. Most recently the
group began circulating petitions
against the project
The reaction from the Afro
American community in the Eastern
portion of the city has shocked Mr.
Jones, he said.
"This is not an unknown entity
going in there to develop something
in there," Mr. Jones explained.
"This is county government and
commissioners elected by everyone.
We want to assure those residents^
. that their security is going to be
maintained. They aren't going to
have some dungeon or concentra
tion camp in front of them."
AldermafT Virginia K7 Newell
has vehemently opposed the pro
posed jail location because, she
said* locating it in predominantly
Afro-American East Winston is
degrading. She has also said the
proposed location could threaten
residents' security.
Mr. Jones disagrees.
"I think there are some myths
about jails I would like to dispel and
let people who live in that area
know that their security is not going
to be threatened," he said. "If any
thing the level of security will
increase, particularly because of the
number of police that will be com
ing and going in that area."
The new jail would not house
desperate en minats, he said. I n fact,
80 percent of the prisoners in the
new jail would be awaiting Dial for
misdemeanor offenses, the assistant
manager explained.
"This is a security facility for
those who have been accused of a
crime, for whatever reasons, and
their stay there is in terms of weeks
Please see page A7
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Funeral Home
Barber Shop
Goler Church
Apartments
Vacant Buildings
"prnve: Aerial map Indicat
ing proposed Jail alta and
surrounding properties.
Right: Forsyth commis
sion e rs say h I g h Point's
$31 million facility will
pale next to the one they
will build.
Jailer recalls
20-year growth
By TONYA V. SMITH
Chronicle Staff Writer
Nearly 20 years ago eight jail
ers, three cooks, the chief jailer and
his wife, acting as a matron/secre
tary, oversaw about 80 inmates at
Capt. Thomas Andrews
the Forsyth County Jail. Today, 56 *
jail officers oversee an' average of :
315 prisoners a day.
Capt. Thomas Andrews Jr.,
chief jailer and the first Afro- Amer
ican to hold that position in this
county, remembers he and his
supervisors being concerned when
the jail population rose to 100.
HWljen I first xame here was -
when the jail population began to
grow," said Capt. Andrews, who
began his tenure with county law
enforcement as a jail officer/sherif
fs deputy in 1969. "Originally it
was less than 100 and when the
population started getting closer to
100 we.thought we were in trouble."
Jail populations began to rise
across the state and countiy in 1982,
Please see page A7
Capital campaign a WSSU priority
By TONYA V. SMITH
Chronicle Staff Writer
Winston-Salem State Universi
ty needs at least $25 million to meet
the needs outlined in its "Strategic
Plan 1990-2000," according to uni
versity officials. A major capital
campaign slated for the first of 1990
would put the university closer to
that goal.
Although no figure stating the
goal for next year's campaign has
been set, Ketchum Inc., a fund-rais
ing counseling firm, recently com
pleted a Capital Campaign Feasibil
ity Study which indicates that the
university is in an excellent position
to raise much needed funds, said
Dr. Nat Irvin II, vice chancellor for
development affairs.
"I think you could conclude
that this institution is in the best
place it has been in its history for
raising funds," he said. "Winston
Salem (State University) is the best
kept secret in Forsyth County. It
(the study) just uncovered what a
gem, a diamond in the rough, this
institution is."
The university's Board of
Trustees voted last week to pay
Ketchum an initial $324,000 to
cover the salary of a campaign resi
dent director and his support staff.
That fee will cover 18 months of
work by the firm, Dr. Irvin said.
"What we're doing now is wait
ing for the final contract from
Ketchum (which will be reviewed
and, hopefully, approved by the
trustees and sent back to the compa
ny), Ketchum will respond to that in
kind," Dr. Irvin said. "They will
recommend a resident director and
a campaign counselor."
The university will in turn
Please see page A7
Nat Irvin II
Election plan becomes law
From Chronicle Staff Reports
After months of controversy, debates and compromises, the state Sen
ate passed a bill Tuesday that will increase the number of Forsyth County
Commissioners from five to seven in December 1990.
The plan, a compromised version of two submitted by State Reps.
Annie Brown Kennedy and Logan Burke, and the county Board of Com
missioners, will slice Forsyth County into two districts, one a predominant
ly Afro- American district and the other predominantly white. Two commis
sioners will be elected from the predominantly Afro- American district and
four from the larger district Another commissioner would be elected at
large.
The plans from the opposing factions were birthed out of a lawsuit
filed by the NAACP against the commissioners. The lawsuit charged that
the at-large, staggered election method diluted the black vote. ,
Please see page A7
Bowman Gray gets first black chief resident
By ANGELA WRIGHT
Chronicle Managing Editor
A lifelong obsession with beat
ing the odds has landed one local
physician in a position that no Afro
American before him has held.
Dr. Robert C. Richard was
recently elected one of two chief
residents in Bowman Gray's
Department of Family and Commu
nity Medicine for the academic year
1989-90. It is the first time an Afro
American resident physician has
ever held the position at Bowman
Gray.
"This is just wonderful," said
Dr. Velma Watts, director of minori
ty affairs at Bowrf?an Gray, "J can
tell you that he earned it It was not
gift; he really earned it."
Elected to the position by the
35 resident physicians in the pro
gram, Dr. Richard was chosen as
one of two out of a field of 1 1 can
didates.
As chief resident Dr. Richard
will spend the next year handling
the schedules of other resident
physicians, chairing meetings and
resolving internal and interdepart
mental problems ? responsibilities
he will share with Dr. Terry Hess.
"It means that they are highly
respected by their colleagues
because the others wanted them to
be the leaders of their group," said
Sharon Persianni, the department's
administrative assistant
This latest achievement is one
in a long list for Dr. Richard. The
youngest of eight children, he grew
up on "the other side of the tracks"
in Birmingham, Ala., and is a first
generation college graduate.
He received his undergraduate
and medical degrees from the Uni
versity of Alabama at Birmingham,
and he said it was strict discipline
and a burning desire not to become
a casualty of his impoverished
upbringing tha^ drove him to aca
demic excellence and, subsequently,
the medical profession.
Dr. Richard said also that it was
his faith in God that steered him
through the hard times when funds
for his education were tight and
almost non-existent. It is a faith that
his mother, Mrs. Thelma L.
Richard, says she tried to instill in
all of her children.
"I raised them up in Sunday
school and church," she said in a
telephone interview from her home
in Birmingham. HI always told them
that if they would pray, God would
make a way for them. I always
taught them to put God first in their
lives."
The motherly pride radiates
from her voice when Mrs. Richard
discusses her son's achievements.
"I am really proud of him. He
always was a smart child and he
always knew he wanted to be some
Please see page A7
Photo by Mike Cunningham
Dr. Robert Richard consults with collsague Dr. Dan Worrsll.