PAQE A4
Winston-Salem Chronicle
Thursday, aprii. 1993 "Power concedes nothing without a struggle. " ? Frederick Douglass
Mt|MMiluiajJiVJ| ^ . - 4
Invitational track meet held
Forsyth High School.
Delta Fine Arts Inc. announces fund
raiser for African-American Arts.
JV Track
y
The Arts
hr I
at West
PAGE B1
VOL. XIX, N?. 33
Leaders Say Keith's 'Mind Made Up'
L Keith: Not influenced
by Justice Department
By MARK R. MOSS
Chronicle Staff Writer
Despite assurances from
Forsyth County District Attorney
Tom Keith that the U.S.' Department
of Justice's decision to drop the
Sheila McKellar case will have no
bearing on -his decision, members
of the black community believe
Keith has already made up his mind
to exonerate the five police officers
from wrongdoing in her death.
' The Rev. John Mendez of Citi
zens United for Justice said he was
"very upset" that the Justice Depart
ment decided not to prosecute the
police officers who were responsi
ble for bounding and gagging her on
July 18, two days before she died.
"Her death was not taken very
seriously by this city, period," said
Mendez, pastor of Emmanuel Bap
tist Church. "From the very begin
ning, the DA wanted to exonerate
the officers involved."
Mendez said Keith's "mind was
made up" before the Justice Depart
ment's ruling in March and that the
report will be used to "substantiate"
Keith's decision.
"The job of the district attorney
is to prosecute, and Keith has
betrayed the community's trust in
him," Mendez said. "He should pre
sent the evidence before the grand
jury and let them decide if they
should be prosecuted."
William Tatum, president of the
local NAACP, said: "The commu
nity at large will have to come
together and demand that justice be
done."
Tatum said evidence will sur
face that shows that two of the offi
cers may be more culpable than the
others. Those two officers, and a
third are white, and two are black.
McKellar was black.
McKellar, 33, died two days
after police responded to a call at a
New Walkertown Road apartment
and found McKellar struggling with
an elderly man at a New Walker
town Road apartment While trying
to arrest her, McKellar attempted to
bite one of the officers, according to
police reports. When brought to the
warrant office, police s#id, she again
tried to bite the'officers, so they
placed gauze in her mouth, put tape
around it and placed her face down
on the floor of a holding cell. She
also had been handcuffed and her
ankles were bound. Moments later,
officers found her unconscious. She
died two days later at Baptist Hospi
tal.
Dr. Donald Jason, a pathologist
at Baptist Hospital, ruled that
McKellar died of "positional
asphyxia" and said a high level of
cocaine in her system was a con
tributing factor.
Keith said that the position
McKellar was placed in would not
alone have caused her death.
"You can't die from that alone
without a high degree of cocaine in
your system," Keith said. "Jason's
opinion was that it was an Acciden
tal death."
Keith defended his consulting
other pathologists and reading med
ical journals.
"This is a medical case and I'm
not a doctor," he said. Dr. Page
Hudson, who retired as the state's
chief medical examiner, has not
made a final ruling, Keith said.
Keith, who expects to announce
whether the officers will face prose
cution at the end of this month, said
r
Sheila McKellar
he is in the process of summarizing
the 4,000 pages the case's investiga
tion has produced. Obern A. Rainey,
a Justice Department spokeswoman.
Mid it was department s policy not
lo comment on why a case has been
bropped.
Please see page A3
N*a*tM*o*n*a*l
NEWS
Business B8
Classifieds B12
Community News A3
Editorials A12
Entertainment B9
Obituaries Bll
Religion BIO
Sports Bl
mmm : " TmBWrntlHtueKBamm l*
* On April 18, 1966, Bill Rustell was named coach of the
Baton Celtics, becoming the first black coach of an established
N A ACP : Changing of the Guard
A Chavis: Man
of the people
By SONYA ROSS
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The
NAACP gave the Rev. Benjamin
Chavis his start in the civil rights
movement. Now, more than 30
years later, he is being asked to give
the timewom group its rebirth.
Chavis was chosen last Fri
day as the NAACP's new executive
director, succeeding the retiring
Benjamin Hooks. He brings varied
experience to the job: civil-rights
activist, theologian, environmental
ist, presidential adviser, defendant
in the celebrated Wilmington 10
firebombing case of the 1970s.
He is regarded as a man of
the people.
"He is very alliance oriented
and very people oriented," said the
Rev. John Mendez, pastor of
Emmanuel Baptist Church in Win
ston-Salem, N.C.r and a close^
friend. "He cares about the poor and
' the oppressed. He'll bring that grass
roots vision and concern to the
NCAAP. "
Other leaders across the coun
try agree Chavis' grassroots appeal
will allow him to steer the organiza
tion in the direction it needs to go.
"One of the things I think will
make a difference in his leadership
is his being able to touch the local
folks," said Chicago NAACP offi
cial Louis Myers, a close friend of
Chavis.
Chavis says his top priorities
pie's hands."
To show his intentions, he
said, he was to be in Los Angeles
this week to monitor the mood in
black communities in anticipation of
a verdict in the federal civil-rights
trial of four white police officers
accused of beating black motorist
Rev. Benjamin F. Chavis , left, with NAACP chairman William F. Gibson,
for the nation's oldest civil-rights
organization are bringing young
blacks ? particularly disadvantaged
or disaffected youth ? into the
NAACP, and curbing a tendency to
look to government for racial jus
tice.
"The federal government,
even under the Clinton administra
tion, will not do all of what's needed
until the African-American commu
nity is better organized and mobi
lized," Chavis said "We have to be
careful how we position the destiny
of our communities on the person in
the White House. It's much more
realistic to put it more into the peo
i F. Chavis
I- Jut. 22. 1948
> B.A., Univerrity
i; Master of DHria-;
iversity Divinity
r., theology, Howard ,
iRIENCE - exe<
istion for Racial I
I Church of Christ;
r Wastes and Race In.
States," report on envi
clergy coordina
r. Jesse Jackson's 1964
campaign; imprisoned
r$or Wilmington fire- J
iCoatL
married; six children.
Rodney King.
He also pledged to continue
his work with community activists
and gang members on building a
Please see page A14
Congresswoman
Clayton to
Address NAACP
j fry KlCMAltbL. WtLUAMS
Chronicle frlmfing Editor
Four months ago,
Eva M. Qayton made his
tory by becoming the first
woman ever elected to
Congress from this state.
The Wirrenton native
has continued to gather
momentum following her
victory last November in
the 1st Congressional dis
trict and is fast becoming Eva Clayton
a major player on Capitol
Hill.
"My brief stay in Washington has been hectic."
Clayton said this week in a telephone interview. "My
experience Jias been more than I would have ever
expected."
Qayton said that during her stay in Congress, she
hopes to make a difference in the lives of North Car
olinians, particularly among her constituents in the
eastern part of the state. She has a seat on several key
committees, including the Agriculture Committee and
Small Business Committee. She also was elected presi
dent of the Democratic freshmen class, the first woman
to hold such office.
Clayton will share her Congressional experience
? and her experience of being a longtime member of
the NAACP ? when she speaks at the civil-rights
group's annual Freedom Fund Gala tomorrow at 7 p.m.
at the Benton Convention Center.
Although Winston-Salem is not a part of her dis
pose see page A14
Farrakhan to Showcase Musical Talents at Gateways
From staff reports
Some know him as a militant, outspoken African
American of the Nation of Islam who travels the world
giving speeches of emotional appeal for self-empower
ment
But there is a genteel side to the Minister Louis
Farrakhan that even those close to him are unaware ?
that side being an accomplished classical violinist.
That other side of Farrakhan will be displayed this
weekend during "Gateways: Classical Music and the
Black Musician," a symposium featuring an array of
nationally known African-American musicians.
A member of the Nation of Islam in Chicago con
firmed this week that Farrakhan would perform at Gate
ways on Saturday. The member, Laweeda X, executive
secretary of the editor of The Final Call newspaper, said
Farrakhan would perform Saturday. Farrakhan is the
publisher of the newspaper.
A spokesperson at Gateways said Farrakhan was
not on the program, but declined to say whether he
would make a guest performance.
As a youngster in Boston, Farrakhan was a vocalist,
calypso singer and dancer and an accomplished violin
ist.
Farrakhan's mother had insisted that both of her
sons learn a musical instrument. As a young man, he
won an amateur competition on the "Ted Mack Ama
teur Hour." While headlining a show called "Calypso
Follies" on Chicago's Rush Street in 1955, he was
invited to attend the Nation of Islam's National Savior's
Day Convention, which was being held at the newly
purchased Muhammad's Temple No. 2.
Malcolm X was informed that the young, talented
musician from Boston would be at the convention. As
Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam,
began to teach that afternoon, Farrakhan, seated in the
balcony, said to himself, "This man can't speak." An
excellent student
in English him
self, the minister
was criticizing
Muhammad's use
of the language.
As these
thoughts crossed
Farrakhan's mind,
Muhammad
looked up in the
balcony at him
and said: "Don't
pay attention to
how I say it Pay
attention to what
I say. Then you
take it and put it into that fine language that you know.
Please see page A3
Louis Farrakhan
TO SUBSCRIBE CALL 919-722-8624 <