sports Week
Twin City Minors losei
in district tourney
? ? ? ?
Clark settling in at
FAMTJ
-m T *
See CI
See 8 7
C7
See A3
Community
Youth institute
coming back to city
Happy Hill holds
annual reunion
wm ------1 ..r?i2 Winston-Salem Gkkknsboro High Point Vol. xxv" *??. 46
?CAR-RT-IJOT C012
18 120101 K n
^iii; CHRONICL""":
The Choice for African-American News froin **** uU
Unexpected Drama
Photos by Kevin Walker
Larry Leon Hamlin is bombard
ed by reporters as he walks out
of City Hall. Hamlin was forced
to rethink his plans to make the
Winston-Salem Adam's Mark
the official hotel of his National
Black Theatre Festival, which
will kick off July 30.
NAACP's renewed boycott against hotel chain sends*chills through festival
The Adam's Mark Winston Plaza is one of 24 hotels in the chain.
The hotel in Daytona Beach, Fla., sparked tHe boycott.
BY T KEVIN WALKER
THE CHRONICLE
The NAACP's decision to
renew its hoycoli against the
Adam's Mark Hotel chain could not
have come at a worse time for the
2001 National Black Theatre Festi
val and Larry Leon Hamlin, the fes
tival's founder.
Hamlin was dotting the i's and
crossing the t's as the clock to show
time was winding down to the start
of this year's festival w hen the deci
sion by the civil rights organization
came down during the NAACP's
annual convention in New Orleans
last week.
The Winston-Salem Adam's
Mark has served as the home away
from home for celebrities that have
attended the biennial festival: the
hotel's central, downtown location
also has made it popular among the
ater fans who travel from around the
nation for the one-of-a-kind, week
long festival. News conferences,
workshops and nightly receptions
take place at the hotel as well during,
festival week.
"It's not a very good situation to
be (in) two weeks before the festi
val," Hamlin said last week.
"We have people already calling
us concerned about the boycott."
Though Hamlin says he has
some apprehensiveness. he says
because of time limitations and a
contract that binds him to make the
Adam's Mark the official hotel of
the festival, he is unable to ditch the
Adam's Mark for another hotel. He
is leaving open the possibility of
what he calls a silent protest, in
which festival activities go on as
planned but at the same time it's
made perfectly clear to the hotel
chain that the festival is not pleased
with the problems that first led to an
NAACP boycott of the chain in Jan
uary 2000. Hamlin said he also may
shift a few activities scheduled for
the Adam's Mark to other facilities.
"I don't want to belittle the boy
cott." said Hamlin, a life member of
the NAACP. "but unless somebody
gives me money to buy out my con
tract with (the Adam's Mark), I can
not make other arrangements."
Hamlin was at City Hall the day
after the boycott was announced,
supposedly to meet with city offi
cials and Joseph Falceto. general
manager of the Winston-Salem
Adam's Mark, about the situation.
Falceto met w ith City Manager Bill
Stuart and several assistant city
managers without Hantlin present.
See Adorn s Mark on A2
Grand Beginning
File Photo
Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis welcome the crowd at last year's gala.
Festival gala will be harbinger
of what s to come, Hamlin says
?> -j
BY T. KEVIN WALKER
THE CHRONICLE ?
If it is true that history repeat?
itself, then the Opening Nigh
Gala will be the most talked aboui
single event during the week-long
National Black Theatre Festival.
The gala is like the Academ)
Awards of the 12-year-old festi
val. featuring a glamour-drenched
procession of stage and screen
stars, the premiere of a much
talked about musical bio-play and,
of course, a swank after party that
will give average Joes a chance to
hobnob with the famous.
"The gala is indicative of what
is going to happen for the entire
week." said Larry Leon*Hamlin,
the founder and creative force
behind the festival. "The way the
gala goes, so goes the festival. I
love to see African Americans and
others in their elegant attire and
* in their hest spirits, and all the
1 love that you see at the gala car
' ries over through the whole
' week."
Hamlin has never had trouble
finding star-power for the gala, i
Past events have featured the likes
I of Debbie Allen. Billy Dee
1 Williams. Delia Reese. Oprah
Winfrey. Maya Angelou and Lou
Gossett Jr. This year, the red car
pet will be trampled on by equally
famous feet. Among those sched
uled to appear at the gala are Cice
ly Tyson, who will receive the
Sidney Poitier Lifelong Achieve
ment Award during the awards
banquet; "Roc" star Charles Dut
Stf Gala on AlO
CBC wants banks'
lending records
considered in mergers
Current Community Reinvestment Act
numbers favor First Union over Suntrust
Watt
BY SHERIDAN HIUL
THE CHRONK I I
More than 30 members of the
Congressional Black Caucus and
tsep. Mcivin
L. Watt sent
letters recent
ly to Federal
Reserve
Board Chair
man Alan
Greenspan,
cautioning
that the cen
tral bank
should not
a n n r n v ?*
mergers in which one bank has a
low community reinvestment
grade.
The letter carries the implica
tion that First Union should be
favored over SunTrust Banks Inc.,
(both are trying to buy or merge
with Wachovia) because it has a
better community reinvestment
grade. But the CRA rating needs to
be carefully examined.
The Community Reinvestment
Act (CRA). enacted by Congress in
1977, outlawed the practice of
redlining (unfair lending practices
in low-income areas). The CRA
defines responsibilities of financial
institutions to provide equal treat
ment to all communities, including
low- and, moderate-income neigh
borhoods. 7
Wachovia and First Union both
See CBC ,m A11
WSSU opens second
health center in low
income community
BY T. KEVIN WALKER
llll CHRONIC I I
Daisy Foston already has
reaped the benefits of having a
health-care facility just a stone's
throw away from her residence.
While working in her kitchen
recently, Foston injured her leg and
was in excruciating pain.
A nurse practitioner from the
new Winston-Salem State Univer
sity Community Wellness Center -
located in her Piedmont Park
neighborhood, where she has lived
for two decades - examined Foston
and immediately got her to a hospi
tal.
"I am glad (the wellness center)
is over here, " Foston. now all
healed up. said at an open house for
the center last week. "I hope people
take advantage of it. because 1 sure
am." "
The Community Wellness Cen
Scc WSSU on A12
' Sylvia Flack talks to a guest after
last week's open house for the new
wellness center in Piedmont Park.
Mayoral candidate
Wagoner says, 'I'm
not the same old thing'
After running for other seats, Wagoner hopes
success will finally come this November
BY MELDE RUTLEDGE
THE CHRONICLE '
Ann
Wagoner
believes
that even
though the
mayor's
role in city
government
is1 mostly
ceremonial,
there are
some
responsibil
ities in that
position that are very important
for the well-being of the city.
The Tobaccoville native decid
ed in July of last year that she
would run for mayor of Winston
Salem because she feels that the
city needs someone in a leader
ship position that is not part of
city administration - that didn't
"owe favors."
"I'm not the same old thing,"
she said. "We can't keep doing the
same thing we've always done, or
we're going to keep on getting out
the same things that we've always
got."
A vital responsibility of the
mayor is to be the public relations
manager for the city, and repre
sent its diversity, which Wagoner
said she will recognize, focusing
on economic and job develop
ment.
She is a small business owner
and retiree of Bell South, where
she once did the task of climbing
telephone poles - one of the few
St< Wagoner on All
Wagoner
CAIL (336) 722-8624 ? MASTERCARD, VISA AND AMERICAN EXPRESS ACCEPTED ?