Delta Fine Arts Celebrates 20 Years
Delta Fine Arts Inc. celebrated
20 years of service to Winston
Salem and the state of North Car
olina in the areas of the arts and the
humanities in i vvi. Established in
1972 as a cultural and educational
corporation by the Winston-Salem
Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma
Theta Sorority Inc., Delta Fine Art*,
is the city^s oldest incorporated^
African-American, non-profit cul
tural and educational organization.
The principle mission is to stimulate
community interest and pride in
American arts and humanities, with
emphasis on the contributions of
African Americans. Beginning in
- 1982 when the Delta Arts Center
opened its doors, the organization
has been offering programs in
visual arts, music literature, drama,
history, and folk arts to the commu
nity.
The programs at Delta Fine
Arts Center afford people of all eth
nic and socio-economic back
grounds an opportunity to come
together and participate in programs
developed from the African-Ameri
can perspective. Though the audi
encesare primarily African Afheri
can, many programs have attracted
diverse audiences, including per
* sons from outside the city and from .
neighboring states.
On display now in the Delta
Arts Center at 1511 E. Third St.
between the hours of 12-5 p.m.,
Monday through Friday, is an excit
ing exhibit of a prominent North
Carolina artist. Landscape paint
ings by Francis Baird will be on dis
play now through June 15.
Francis Baird is a graduate in
fine arts from North Carolina A&T
State University and has earned a
MBA from the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro. He has
studied abroad and with artists
including Peter Agostini, Dan
Flavin and Andrew Martin. Baird
has exhibited extensively in North
Carolina in solo and group shows.
Ctrrrentlyr he is a professor ot art at
Fayetteville State University
The acrylic paintings in this
collection are actual sites familiar to
the artist. Some an*
based on memories of particular
places. Each painting presents a
youth and a public reading. The
1989 guest was Rita Dove. Pulitzer
Prize recipient in poetry . The 1991
guest vva?i A Hoe VVulkei. Puln/i'i ? 1
Prize recipient for The Color Pur
ple
ArtsR EACH
I m C
By REGGIE JOHNSON
facet of the artist's thoughts and
temperament directly engaged in
the possibilities of his medium.
As the exhibition just described
illustrates, Delta Fine Arts has
worked extensively in focusing the
public eye on the contributions of
native North Carolinians. In 1989,
Winston-Salem Delta Fine Arts
commissioned two major murals
by Gastonia natives-John Biggers.
Biggers is internationally known as
a painter, muralist, sculptor and
educator. Though hjs career spans
47 years, these are his first murals
in his home state. The murals, each
15 feet wide and 30 feet high, are
on permanent exhibition in the
atrium area of the new addition to
the O'Kelly Library at Winston
Salem State University. The murals
represent the seventh gift of art the
Delta Fine Arts organization has
given to the university.
Other special projects have
included three outdoor folk festi
vals, celebrating African-American
traditional arts and ctafts; the
Undine Smith Moore Music Festi
val, commemorating the music of
Undine Smith Moore and other
African-American composers; a
reading program. Reading Achieves
Positives (RAP), designed for ele
mentary and middle school chil
dren, featuring a nationally
"acclaimed author in a workshop for
To continue such events and
programs in our community, the
Winston-Salem Delta Fine Arts Inc
has recently announced the launch
ing of its first major fund drive to
be conducted from April 13 to June
15. The fund drive, which has
received the support of three major
foundations, has a goal of $50,000
and will be used to support opera
tions and arts and humanities pro
gramming at the Delta Fine Arts
Center. Membership contributions
to the fund drive will expose new
audiences to the organization's cuL
tural and educational programming
and broaden its base of support.
The drive will be spearheaded by
the organization's 1 1 -member board
of directors, with the cooperation of
its Fund Drive Advisory Commit
tee.
The need for such. an organiza
tion in our community is undeni
able. And this organization's need
for our support during their fund
drive is crucial. As a community,
we should support the Winston
Salem Delta Fine Arts and its con
tinuing effort to celebrate the arts
here in Winston-Salem and North
Carolina.
For more information concern
ing the fund drive or any Delta- Art v
*
Center programs, call 722-2625.
Church's National Racial Justice Unit
A North Carolina, pastor and
son of sharecroppers has been
named interim executive director of
the Commission for Racial Justice,
a national body of the United
Church of Christ.
The Rev. Leon White, 61, will
assume the post of the Commission
for Racial Justice, a permanent
replacement for the Rev. Benjamin
F. Chavis Jr.. who has served as
executive director since 1985.
Chavis. named executive director
of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People in
April, will continue to work part
time at the commission until his
tenure officially ends July 31.
White will head an influential
agency that has left its mark on the
civil rights movement. The com
mission's work, well known out
side the United Church of Christ,
has ranged from voter registration
drives to the widely publicized
urban gang leaders' summit held
April 29-May 2 in Kansas City.
White is tne commission's l'mis
sion interpretation" associate, based
in Manson. N.C.
White's roots were in the Afro
Christian churches of the South.
White traces his calling back to
the age of 14 when, at a Christian
camp meeting in North Carolina, a
minister preached on Luke 4:18.
"The text was, 'The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me, because he has
anointed me to preach the good
news to the poor,'" White remem
bers. I left that meeting certain that
my life would be ministry. I didn't
know then it was going to be a min
istry of liberation."
A defining moment in White's
ministry of liberation came in 1968,
when a court decided to executf"
Marie Hill, a 16-year-old African
American girl, in North Carolina's
gas chamber. "The trial was only
40 miles from my home," White
remembers. "If it hadn't been for
the death sentence. I wouldn't be
where 1 am today."
With support from the United
Church of Christ. White organized
a campaign to save the girl's life to
abolish the death penalty in North
Carolina. Ministers rallied to the
causc. White organized the fami
lies and friends of death-row pris
oners ? both black and white.
Hill was eventually released
after serving 10 years in prison.
In 1970 White, now active in
the United Church's Commission
for Racial Justice, asked a young
university graduate named Ben
Chavis to join the commission's
field office in North Carolina.
"The North Carolina office turned
to the struggle of black students in
integrated white school systems."
White says. "They were trying to
maintain their culture while pursu
ing their education."
But White's hostility mounted
against the organizers of the black
student movement. In 1972,
dumping in their towns."
White has been arrested three
times during protests. "If you're
serious about change." he says,
"you'll end up in jail."
The North Carolina pastor and
civil rights leader is still active in
. the struggle. to -help African Ameri-j
cans preserve their cultural identity \
In April, he walked 30 miles from
Chapel Hill to the state capitol in
Raleigh to support students at the
University of North Carolina, who
were denied permission to build a
black cultural center.
"If you're serious about change,
you'll end up in jail."
? Leon White
Chavis and nine other young
activists were wrongfully accused
in a fire -bombing of a grocery store
in Wilmington. The "Wilmington
1 0" were convicted and sentenced
to a total of 282 years in prison.
The case absorbed the energies
of the United Church of Christ,
which campaigned to exonerate the
activists. White led the campaign
and acted as pastor and counselor
to the prisoners and their families.
Chavis and the other activists were
released in 1981 after a federal
court overturned the convictions.
White was one of the first
African-American leaders to protest
"environmental racism" ? the
deliberate dumping of toxic wastes
in minority communities. In 1982.
residents of predominantly black
Warren County asked the commis
sionto help them fight a decision by
the state government, to dump tons
of soil contaminated with deadly
PCBs near their homes.
White led the protests.
Demonstrators repeatedly
attempted to form a human chain to
prevent trucks from entering the
dump site. White fasted 26 days, in
jail after he was arrested with 500
other protesters. "Protests contin
ued for three weeks, galvanizing
the entire country about this prob
lem of toxic-waste dumping in poor
communities," White savs. Since
then, North Carolina has not been
able to establish a single toxic
dump or incinerator in the state.
We helped people to understand
they could successfully resist waste
"You've got a lot of folk who
talk the justice talk but won't walk
the justice walk." he told an
African-American newspaper after
the demonstration.
White says his interim admin
istration at the Commission for
Racial Justice will center on "the
issue of health care and healing ?
both physical and spiritual." The
commission's mandate, he says, "is
to promote racial justice and recon
ciliation."
"I really want to focus on rec
onciliation." he adds. "To move
forward towards justice, we have to
move together ? not only African
Americans, but also Hispanics.
Whites. Native Americans and
everyone else in our society."
White's wife of years. C'leo
Evans, is a retired schoolteacher.
The commission's chair, the
Rev. Edwin R. Edmonds, describes
White as "the most capable and
experienced person availnMe to
assume this important leadership
mantle during this interim adminis
tration." Edmonds also has
announced that Andrea C Ciibbs of
Cleveland will be interim associate
director for administration, and
Charles Lee of New York will
serve as interim associate director
for program.
The L'nited Chimb c'
with national offices in ( lew i. i,a.
is a union of the Congregational
Christian Churches and the Evan
*
gelical and Reformed Church.
M Mr
(MPW5L-..
fL. to r.): Past Matron Edith H. Matthews , Worthy Matron Martha Jones , Worthy Matron Mary Bradley ,
Grand District Deputy Ricky F. Wilson , Worthy Matron Delation Campbell, Vivian Burke , Worthy Matron
Gretha Michael , Worthy Matron of the Administrative Council Elizabeth Durham , Chlories P. Shore and
Worthy Matron Louise Davis. Not pictured are: Worthy Matron Delia Speas, Worthy Matron Alma Dalton,
Worthy Matron Shirley Allen and Worthy Patron Ellsworth Jessup. ( Photo by Lester B. Speas Jr.)
Grand Chapter Order of Eastern Star
Hosts Annual District Eleven Tea
The Grand Chapter Order of
the Eastern Star, an affiliate of the
Most Worshipful Prince Hall
Grand Lodge Free and Accepted
Masons of North Carolina and
Jurisdictions held their annual
Eleventh District Tea April 25 at
the Carl H. Russell Community
Center.
Chlories Pinkney Shore, a
member of Bivouac #530 was the
chairman of the 1993 Fellowship
s>J^ia?JSlie-4telivered the welcome
and program occasion.
J Two hundred members and
,?gtiests attended. Eight chapters pre
? senttrd talent and entertainment
The Eleventh District includes
members from the following chap
ters: Beauty of the West #36,
Bivouac #530. James H. Young
#592, Meridian #308, Queens of
Olympic #620, Rose McCloud
#608, Pride of Yadkinite #612 and
Rose DeMall #531.
Jeanne Williams of Bivouac
#530 provided the musical prelude.
Worthy Matron Gretha Michael of
Meridian #308 gave the fellowship
prayer. Greetings were presented
by: Worthy Matron Louise Davis
of Bivouac #530; Associate Patron
and Grand Trustee Albert Wardlow
of Bivouac #530; Vivian Burke of
Meridian #308, mayor pro-tempo re
and alderman of the Northeast
Ward; and District Deputy Grand
Master Francis Eaton.
the Eastern Stars. She provided
inspirational remarks and
expressed gratitude for the support
she receives from the Eleventh
District.
The stars and their guests
enjoyed an evening of fellowship,
good food and outstanding enter
tainment.
The program committee mem
bers were: Worthy Matron Louise
Davis, Bessie Henderson, Worthy
Matron Delarion Campbell, Wor
thy Matron Alma Dalton and Cas
sandra Douglas.
Appreciation certificates and
merit ribbons were presented to
each chapter for outstanding partic
ipation and support.
Grand District Deputy Ricky
Fair Wilson received a gift from
The Eastern Star's grand offi
cers are: Grand Worthy Matron
Marian E. Covington. Grand Wor
thy Patron Frank Evans and the
Honorable William C. Parker Jr.,
the most worshipful grand master.
? i
PRIZES
Forsyth
County
Cancer
Screening
Project
&