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NAACP awards Judge Constance Baker Motley its 2003 Spingarn medal Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP Board of Directors, recently named Constance Baker Motley, senior U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York, the 88th Spingam Award honoree. Motley will receive the award during the 94th NAACP National Convention in Miami, Fla., on July 17. The Spingarn Medal is the NAACP's highest honor. President Lyndon Johnson nominated Motley to the Southern District Court of New York in 1966. She was the first woman appointed to the Southern District bench and the first African-American woman appointed to the federal judiciary. Motley received her senior judge status in 1986. From 1945 to 1965, she served as a law clerk and an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. During that period, she also served as a mem ber of the New York State Advisory Council on Employment Insurance and as a New York state senator (1964-65). In addition to appearing before state and federal courts throughout the country. Motley argued 10 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, winning nine, all of key importance in securing equal rights for African-Americans and the legal end of discrimi nation. The Spingarn Award, first given in 1915 by NAACP Chairman Joel E. Spingarn, is designed to highlight distinguished merit and achievement among African-Americans. Teacher suspended after racial epithet 1 SEATTLE (AP) - An NAACP chapter is calling for the fir ing of a Seattle School District teacher who used a racial slur when referring to a black student. The teacher said he used the term as an example of how it is inappropriate to use discriminatory words. Brian Emanuels. a computer teacher at Cleveland High School, said he was disturbed by the student's description of an assignment as "gay." He called the sophomore out into the hall and asked how the student would like being called a nigger. Emanuels said last Thursday. Emanuels, a former'Microsoft employee hired last fall by the district, returned to the classroom with the boy and said: "'Well, I guess the nigger can come back in,"' said Brenda Little-Latham, deputy general counsel for the Seattle School District. Emanuels said he never intended to offend or harm anyone and apologized to the student at the time of the discussion. "It was clear to the students that I was simply making an anal ogy that although they may not be offended by the use of the word 'gay,' the use of that term is highly offensive and inappropriate," Emanuels said. The local chapter of the National Association for the Advance ment of Colored People was contacted by the boy's mother after the May 2 incident. "It was both disturbing and shocking to the Seattle branch of the NAACP," the chapter's education chairwoman, Phyllis Beau monte, said last week. On May 8, Little-Latham met with Cleveland Principal Ted Howard, the student, his parents and representatives from the NAACP and the school district. The following day Emanuels was suspended with pay while the district conducts its investigation. The investigation, which includes interviewing Cleveland stu dents, could be completed this week. Penalties for harassment range from a verbal reprimand to firing. University of California regents oppose Ward Connerly's racial data initiative SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A decade of debate over race in academics flared anew as University of California regents formal ly opposed fellow regent Ward Connerly's new campaign to ban collecting racial data. The decision was a defeat for Connerly, who eight years ago led the fight to drop race in UC admissions and went on to suc cessfully dismantle many public affirmative action programs statewide. Connerly's new initiative, which will go before voters next March, could strike the "race box" from many government forms by forbidding state and local governments from classifying stu dents, contractors or employees by race, ethnicity, color or nation al oriein. " The measure exempts data collected for medical research, descriptions of prisoners or criminal suspects, and cases where the federal government requires that agencies report racial data. Connerly told regents his new measure stems from his experience as someone who is part white, part American Indian and part black. He said that identifying people by race is meaningless and a form of segrega tion. Opponents said they need the infor mation to conduct research and stop dis crimination. They noted that people have the option of leaving the box blank. _ , Regents debated^for nearly two hours before takingtSTvote? 15 to 3 with one abstention - with some arguing that UC had no business weighing in on a political issue. The vote capped years of friction between Connerly and UC administrators over race. Appointed in 1-993. Connerly led a 14-10 vote of a then Republican dominated board in 1995 to stop considering race and gender in UC admissions. The following year he oversaw passage of Proposition 209, which forbade considering race in public edu cation, hiring and contracting. Since then, the political makeup of the regents' board has changed as a number of vacancies have been filled by Democrat ic Gov. Gray Davis. Nearly two years ago. the board rescinded its 1995 vote dropping affirmative action, but Proposition 209 still prevents use of race in admissions. The Chronicle (USPS 067-910) was established by Ernest H. Pitt and Ndubisi Egemonye in 1974 and is published every Thursday by Winston-Salem Chronicle Publishing Co. Inc., 617 N. Liberty Street, Winston-Salem, NC 27101. Peri odicals postage paid at Winston-Salem, N.C. Annual sub scription price is $30.72. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Chronicle, P.O. Box 1636 Winston-Salem, NC 27102-1636 Connarly Motley 'Lynching' has twisted history BY ALLEN U BREED ASSIXTATED PRESS WRITER The word "lynching" carries a lot of historic baggage, evoking ugly images of white mobs storm ing the local jails, abducting black men and dispensing their own brand of justice at the end of a rope, s But in South Carolina today, it can mean two kids beating up another on the playground. In Cal ifornia, lynching is defined as any riotous interference with police custody. A 14-year-old black boy who escaped from officers was actually convicted of lynching himself. None of this is surprising to historian Christopher Waldrep. "No one has ever successfully defined lynching' in a way we can all agree on," said Waldrep, author of "The Many Faces of Judge Lynch." Historians can't even agree on how the term came into being. Some believe it was an hom age to Col. Charles Lynch, a Vir ginia magistrate who harassed and illegally punished Loyalists dur ing the Revolutionary War. Others say it's named for Capt. William Lynch, a Virginia justice who assumed charge over criminal proceedings in Pittsylvania Coun ty amid the mayhem of the war. Regardless, the phrase "Lynch's Law" became a byword for vigilante justice. And in the late 1800s, it became almost syn onymous with white vigilantism against blacks. Many states passed anti lynching laws in the early 20th century. But only four still have specific anti-lynching laws on the books: California, Virginia, West Virginia and South Carolina, the only state where it is routinely used. Waldrep said much of the dif ficulty in defining lynching is in the numbers. The laws of California and South Carolina define a mob as two or more people. In Virginia, it is "any collection of people, assembled for the purpose and with the intention of committing an assault or a battery upon any person or an act of violence" with out authority of law. In West Vir ginia, it's "a riotous assemblage" of five or more. Waldrep said the Truman administration approached the NAACP for help in drafting a fed eral anti-lynching law, especially in defining what constituted a lynch mob. His research uncov ered "a Hurry of memos" between the NAACP and the White House, though no consensus and no fed eral law. People can't even agree on whether an attack need be fatal in order for a lynching to have occurred. In Virginia and West Virginia, a mob action must result in the victim's death for it to be called lynching. But the laws are seldom, if ever, used because lynching is treated as murder - a policy illus trated by the case of Virginia resi dent Gamett Paul Johnson Jr. in 1997. After a night of drinking, two white men took Johnson out to a white cross, soaked him with gasoline and burned him alive. They then beheaded his charred corpse with a dull-edged ax. The men were tried and con victed of murder. The California penal code defines lynching as "the taking by means of a riot of any person from the lawful custody of any peace officer. " No one is sure how often the California statute is used, but it was employed quite creatively in 1997. A 14-year-old black boy was attending a "rejoice" after a Sec 'Lynching' on A11 Black officers' feud leads to one being fired BY MARCUS E. WALTON SACRAMENTO OBSERVER SACRAMENTO, Calif. (NNPA) - A growing rift between the two highest ranking officers in the California National Guard, both of whom are African-Ameri can. came to a head this month, resulting in the organization's sec ond-in-command being relieved of his duties. Brig. Gen. Ezell Wart Jr. claims he resigned from his Jrosi tion as assistant adjutant general a day before he was fired. He was dismissed from his post by his superior. Gen. Paul Monroe, end ing a four-year rivalry that was often played out in the pages of local newspapers. "I no longer have the confi dence in your ability to work with me to provide leadership for the Military Department to meet the new challenges that will enable us to accomplish our mission in a changed dynamic environment." Monroe wrote to Ware in a mem orandum obtained by The Observ er. The two had been competitors for leadership positions in the Cal ifornia National Guard for years, Monroe said. Their latest rivalry was born when California Gov. Gray Davis chose Monroe as the adjutant general and appointed Ware the assistant adjutant gener al. Ware was also in consideration for the job. Since then, there have been rumblings and newspaper articles documenting the tense atmos phere created by the feuding gen erals. "I don't have anything to be jealous of anyone for," Ware said. "If you look at my record, I know that it measures up to anyone else's, so I don't know where this talk about there being a rivalry is coming from. He is my com manding officer, and I do what a soldier is supposed to do: follow orders. If he had a problem with me. then he should have called me in to talk about if." While the two put on profes sional faces, especially after the events of Sepf. 11. 2001, they just couldn't put their differences behind them, Monroe said "We just weren't getting along," Monroe told The Observ er. "We had a difference of opin ions, and he wanted to be number one." Monroe said he and Ware were not getting along but that the assistant adjutant general never disobeyed his orders. "It's not that he didn't do what I wanted him to," Monroe said. "It was his interpretation of my poli cies." Ware told a much different story about leaving his post. He said he resigned, offering a letter dated May 1 addressed to Gov. Davis. Monroe dismissed him on May 2. ' However, a spokesman in the governor's office said a letter had come in, but there was no date stamp, rendering it impossible to tell when it arrived. Ware said he See Feud on A11 Ware Monroe Healthy starts here. You have lots of chgices^Every time yorrgrrtrrtftr grocery store, fix a meal or goout Weal. Tithes' each opportunity to opt for a balanced diet rich in fruits.f vegetables and grains, and leave foods high / in fat and salt behind. Feeling good /; ^ starts with eating right. So take the first step and choose smaller > portions of healthy foods. Take the second step and get active, too. Iti as easy as a ten minute walk three times a day. atartw mHeart North Carolina Heart Disease & Stroke Prevention Task Force C<yy right G200J NC Heart Disrate & Semite Prrventum Task Forte INDEX OPINION. .A6 SPORTS. B 7 RELIGION. 85 CLASSIFIEDS. 89 HEALTH. C3 ENTERTAINMENT. ...C9 CALENDAR. C12
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