Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / June 6, 1996, edition 1 / Page 4
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lure in Havana hospital going cancer treatment HAVANA <AP) ? His hair ;tsjgoing gra\. and hi> bod\ is 'fighting cancer ? ?'*. But when Ku ainc lure. 6fuc widch m the news as black *5c 11\ ist S t o k e Is Carmichael, -reaches trom his hospital bed tor -the telephone, he answers it as ^alwass: "Ready tor Revolution." A central figure in the -1 nited States' "black power" ?fnovement of the 1960s and a ;cru s a d er for pa n- A trie am sm ?since. Ture came to Cuba in ? *April for treatment of prostate ?cancer discovered in January. Ture. whose name is pro nounced KWAH-may tour-Ray, ? said he first felt leg pains in ?November, while home in the "West African, country of Guinea, land took medicine for the pain. When the pains became ''more severe, he visited Dr. Bar Ibara Justice during a trip to New 'York and wound up spending 'nearly a month undergoing treat ment at Columbia Presby terian 'Hospital. Smiling frequently, often .laughing. Ture seemed as upbeat "and polemical as ever during an ^hour-long interview at the Cira ;Garcia clinic in Havana. "Actually. 1 lived ion bor rowed time." he said. "In my job. death is an occupational hazard. *So whether it's a bullet, whether ;it's cancer,.makes no difference." He said he came to Cuba for ^care because he is a socialist. .."Cuba does have excellent ?health care. As a socialist. I must ?be consistent. 1 cannot attack ?capitalism and attack an entire ?system, and when 1 get sick, run ?to capitalism and ask them to -patch me up." Ture. 54. has responded well -to treatment, said Justice, who ? accompanied him to Cuba. She I.said the tumor and sites to which the cancer has spread seem to he repressing. "So we're quite opti mistic at this point." lure said Justice, a cancer specialist, accompanied him without pay. It is one sign of the regard with which he is held in much of the black community in the United States. "He is a living legend, a hero who dedicated his life to the lib eration of African people world wide. and it's vers important that we, the members of the commu nity. support him in the same way he has supported us." Jus tice said. Ture said he has also received financial help for his treatment from the Nation of Islam, led by Louis l-'arrakhan. In the 1960s, the Trinidad native, then know as Stokely Carmichael. led the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Com mittee. He participated in some of the first U.S. civil rights sit , ins and freedom rides, was repeatedly arrested, and became a national figure leading a group that challenged the credentials of the official Mississippi delega tion to the 1964 Democratic con vention. Growing more frustrated with the American system, he became prime minister of the Black Panther Party, then embraced pan-Africanism and. in late 1968. moved to Guinea. He founded the All-Ameri can People's Revolutionary Party under his new name, taken from African leaders Kwame Nkru man and Ahmed Sekou Ture. l ure said he hopes to see a single., socialist state for all of Africa, which would give Africans there and abroad pride and power. He rejects the term "African-American." "For us. once Africa is uni Kwame Ture, formerly known as Stokely Carmichael, talks on the phone in his hospital room in Havana, Cuba, May 2, 1996. A central figure in the t'.S. Black Power movement of the 1960s and a crusader for pan Africanism since, Ture arrived in Cuba last month from his home in the tied and strong, the problem will be solved, because Africans will be respected wherever they are. And if they're not, they can just get up and go home," he said. The state that comes closest to his vision, he said, may be Libya, led by Moammar Gad hafi. Ture defines himself as a revolutionary. "Revolution is the continual and constant qualita tive change of humanity. That's all it is." That doesn't require outright war, he said, pointing to the end of legal segregation in the United States as a revolutionary step. "We are still the only people who create urban rebellions in America, without planning," he said. "You know what's going to happen when we plan it?" he added with chuckle. "It will be planned, of course." Ture said he sees progress for some American blacks, but also growing poverty. ."The number of (black) con gress people has increased, the number of newspaper commen tators. the number of basketball players. Put that in there." he added with a grin, "because they think they got there without their people's struggle." Also growing among Ameri can blacks is a consciousness of oppression, he said. He cited community efforts to combat drugs, the rise in interest in Africa, and the big turnout for the "Million Man March'' orga nized by Farrakhan. "The people are ready for our struggle," he said. "Worsen ing conditions and rising con sciousness must lead to revolu tion, and I am a revolutionary. So for me, everything is going well." Ture said a lack of organiza tion and petty quarrels had diluted black political power at a national level in the United States, but predicted that would change "America and capitalism itself is pushing us to revolution. If I shed my blood for the vote to reform something and 1 don't get anywhere, 1 might as well shed my blood for revolution, oxer throw the whole system. Let's get it now. Makes sense to me. I'm shedding my blfSod anyway. I might as well shed it for vic tory." Customer's petition result in hiring of college students B> M \l Kl( 1 C K(X M K ('?>mnuimt\ News Repnrtei lor college students from Winston-Salem State University, and elderly residents, emplov ment opportunities will soon increase with the development of a managers training and elderly employment program at McDon alds Restaurant located on Martin Luther King Drive. The new programs are the result of a petition signed by over 50 residents complaining of poor quality service they received from employees at the restaurant. The petition stated. "We the under signed who are frequent cus tomers at the McDonald s store, located at M.L.K. Drive in the city of Winston-Salem. NT. are petitioning the McDonald's Cor poration for better and improved services at this location. Our con cerns are (1 ) long waiting peri ods. (2) no. or very little prepared food in the holding bends, and (3) a shortage of quality employees." Willie Cunningham, a Win ston-Salem resident, developed the petition after he found out others had the same concerns as he. "I'm glad 1 did what 1 did because 1 got the community involved," he said. ? "Among our people we do a lot of complaining than anything else, it's, time we done some thing." Cunningham, who is also a student at Winston-Salem State, said he has been patronizing the restaurant since the fall of 1992. "1 would always stop there on my way to or from class for a cup of coffee," he said. According to Cunningham, he began noticing the problems in service a year ago. Some of the problems Cun ningham said he encountered weie mow service, unfriendlv employees. and a sense of low morale. A meeting was held between the petitioners and Dar nell C rews, operation manger for McDonalds Corporation During that meeting C rews gave sugges tions fur some of the problems customers were experiencing. Low morale, a high, turnover rate, and managers working, against one another were some of the explanations Crews told resi dent As a result of the petition and customer complaints. Crews said * 20 new employees have been hired at that particular location. Crews said the corporation is very interested in hiring colleges students and placing them in a management training program. According to Crews.*the students would receive 10 hours of college credits to work toward their grad uation. and at the same time earn extra income. Also during the meeting pre sent employees raised complaints concerning pay and said that they may have something to do with the type of service people were receiving. Cunningham said. Crews said the average pay scale is $6.15 to $7.50 an hour. He also said the scale doesn't depend on the length of time an employee has been working for the corporation. "If they don't pay people on the length of time, then what constitutes who gets $6 15 and who gets $7.50," Cun ningham said. According to Cun ningham a committee was formed, which consisted of five petitioners. The committee will help regulate and see that improvements are made. "It's about taking action, we can solve problems, but you have . to do something to bring about change," he said. "Just complain ing isn't going to get it " NEW REDUCTIONS LADIES' SHOE CLEARANCE SAVE BANDOLINO ? 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Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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June 6, 1996, edition 1
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