Winston-Salem Chronicle
B^R18,
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1993
"Power concedes nothing without </ struggle." ? Frederick Douglass VOL. XX, No. 12
Police Search Procedure
Comes Under Scrutiny
A
. A Officer was killed after he kicked door in
By RICHARD L. WILLIAMS
Chronicle Executive Editor
A week after Paul Eugene Lyons was convicted in a
Forsyth County courtroom of killing Officer Bobby
Beane, police methods of apprehending African-Ameri
can suspects have come undo1 scrutiny.
"I contend that what promoted the violence was
going to that house and kicking that door in, which ? in
my estimation ? has been a pattern in the African
American community," said Virginia K. Newell, a 16
year alderman whose fourth Consecutive term expired
this week. "I don't know whether it's police using
unwise judgement or the administration issuing bad
advice on how to apprehend criminals."
Lyons, 39, is black.. He was sentenced to life
imprisonment on Friday after a jury was deadlocked 8-4
favoring the death penalty. He shot and killed Beane
after police knocked down his door during an April 23
drug raid.
Lyons, whose apartment at 540-C Kennerly St., had
been broken into before, maintained that he thought he
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Coping With Violence]
With Violence All Around, Many Children are Living in Fear
^ 2 more killed over weekend
By DAVID L. DfLLARD
Chronicle Staff Writer
Latasha McCall thinks about death all the time.
She doesn't live in constant fear of dying, but admits that her lifestyle
makes the possibility of death more prevalent.
"I think about it lots of times," said McCall, a' 16-year-old student at
Parkland High School. "M6st of the people I hang around are violent peo
ple. They like to be around drugs and guns."
McCall said her friends don't intend to hurt anyone, they simply enjoy
the thrill of living on the edge.
Last week, the Chronicle went to two of the teen-agers' and pre -ten -
agers' favorite hangouts ? recreation centers and the mall ? and talked
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Sean Sprinkle (left) and Ron Braham play basketball to avoid violence.
? More weapons found in schools
By DAVID L. DILLARD
Chronicle Staff Writer
Schools in the city /county system have reported an increase in the
number of weapons found on campus since January 1993 than in the previ
ous year.
According to Sgt. Jimmy Burton, the school liason officer with the
Forsyth County Sheriffs Department, deputies from the various schools
have reported a total of 64 weapons found since January 1993.
Burton doubts that more weapons art being brought to school. He said
the reason for more weapons being found is due to the officers being more
alert and that students are beginning to report to them.
"The students are letting the officers know that somebody has a
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' <9
Chavis Urges Non- Violence in Visit to Gity
NEWS WEEK
NEWS AT A GLANCE
I By MARK R. MOSS
. Chronicle Staff Writer
The schedule of the NAACFs executive
director when he visited Winston-Salem last
week said a lot about the direction he would
like to see the country take.
The Rev. Benjamin S. Chavis, the cele
brated civil rights leader who became head of
the nation's oldest civil rights organization in
April, first held a tete-a-tete with executives
of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. when he vis
ited the city last week. He then spent a better
part of the rest of his day visiting at the
Chronicle and the Winston-Salem Housing
Authority.
Chavis capped off his day by visiting the
Happy Hill Mart convenience store and the
Sims Center, where he shook hands with the
20 or so African-American children from the
Happy Hill Gardens community.
When he addressed the crowd that had
gathered in the recreational center s gymna
sium, he applauded the grass-roots efforts of
the officials of the recreational centeT and the
convenience store. But he also called on cor
porate America to do it's share in helping to
right "economic inequality."
"Peace is not the absence of violence;
peace is the presence of justice ? economic
justice," Chavis said.
There must be a "stronger alliance"
between such companies as Reynolds and the
community, he said. There won't be any
racial justice until there is economic justice,
he added.
"(Chavis) was real impressed with what
he saw," said Winston-Salem NAACP presi
dent Bill Tatum, who accompanied Chavis
on his travels through the city Nov. 10.
Chavis' visit with Reynolds executives
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iUHWBH
WHERE TO FIND IT
Business B8
Classifieds B1 1
Community News A4
Editorials A12
Arts/Entertainment B6
Obttu ARIES BIO
Religion B9
Sports B1
Tuts Week In Black Hnrrony
On Nov., 14. 1915, Booker T Washington, educator and writer, dies.
The Rev. Ben Chavis (center)fyith Bill Tatum (I) and CUfton Graves.
With Black Jesus, Play Looks at Racism in Church
A " Color Blind ' opens this Saturday at Knollwood Baptist Church
By DAVID L. DILLARD
Chronicle Staff Writer
Are you dreaming of a white Christ
mas or are visions of a black baby Jesus
(lancing through your head?
A play entitled "Color Blind", per
formed by a racially mixed cast of actors
from the Pilot Mountain Baptist Church
Association and New Bethel Baptist
Church in East Winston, challenges the
perception of Jesus' color and the atti
tudes of some churches.
Knollwood Baptist Church, a local
white congregation, is presenting the
play where a fictional white church is
waiting for its new design of a stain-glass
window. They hired a black artist who,
unbeknownst to the church, paints a
black Madonna and black baby Jesus.
Louise W. Noffsinger, author of the
play, said it was written to spark discus
sion about racial divisiveness in society.
"We felt that not much is being
done," she said. "Schools are worse than
they were when integration first started.
We need to have more informal dia
logues because society is going down
hill/'
The play "Color Blind" is based on
"The Legend of the Black Madonna," a
Christmas story written by Margaret T.
Applegarth.
Noffsinger was so impressed that
she decided to re-write the story as a play
and has performed it at churches three
times since 1986.
Boyce Wilson, who plays Steve
Burton, the chairman of the church com
mittee that hired the artist, describes the
church as an "uppity, white congrega
tion," and "when the painting was
unveiled at the church their bitterness
comes out."
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