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The Chronicle
W~??N-^|^WINSTON.SALEM, N.C THURSDAY, January 28, 20,6
Is W-S Urban league targeted?
BY CASH MICHAELS
FOR THE CHRONICLE .
It was December 13, 2015 when local published
reports shocked the community with news that starting
July 2016, the Forsyth County United Way was cutting its
annual grant to the Winston-Salem Urban League's work
force development programming from $427344 for the
2016-17 fiscal year, to what was later revealed to be just
$100,000.
The news was stunning, given the fact that it came
days before the United Way board had even met to make
it official. And it seemed contrary to Mayor Allen Joines'
stated goal of using every resource in the city to effective
ly fight poverty.
" ... [T]he county's poverty rate continues to rise,
food insecurity is a growing con
cern, and health issues continue to
escalate," Forsyth United Way
Board Chair Sallye Liner said in a
Jan. 4 statement. "United Way
believes these challenges demand
that we evolve from operating sim
ply as a fundraiser and distributor of
grants to specific partners, to focus
ing on developing and executing
_ _0 ? - r?c c
Fajj^U'KiK] integrated and long-term Solutions
^^that address the root causes of our
community's challenges."
At the time, Urban League Chairwoman Evelyn Acree
did not share Liner's optimism.
"The cuts will be very severe for us," she told The
Chronicle then, referring to the many job training and
placement programs the Urban League currently offers.
"This will definitely be a major setback."
In a December 17 editorial expressing the communi
ty's outrage. The Chronicle stated, "The United Way
should take another look at the Urban League's mission to
help fight poverty through job opportunities, and change
its plans for huge cuts in its grants for the organization."
There are several in the community, however, who
firmly believe that drastically and inexplicably cutting the
Urban League's funding is part of a larger strategy by
some in the city's power structure and outside developers
to so cripple the black-owned and operated anti-poverty
agency, and deem it as no longer important, that it would
be forced to close, and either move from its prominent
See Targeted? on A8
Photo by Todd Uk*
Life on hold
Most life in Winston-Salem, Forsyth County and the entire Triad area crawled to a halt I
after a severe winter storm of snow, ice and wind walloped the area late last week.
There was no "-tivity" at Artivity on the Green, above, for instance. It took Winston
Salem/Forsyth County Schools days to reopen schools. The district operated on a
two-hour delay on Wednesday, Jan. 27. SEE MORE PHOTOS ON PAGE A4.
Question: How did you handle the winter weather?
By Tevtn Stinson for the Chronicle
Marcus Williams
(Winston-Salem)
"It was good. I just
stayed in the house and
played NBA 2K and spent
time with my family."
See People n A5 |
Top plaintiff
heard in trial
on Voter ID
BY TODD LUCK
THE CHRONICLE
Both sides of the N.C. NAACP vs. McCrory trial
returned to Winston-Salem on Monday as arguments
began over North Carolina's controversial new photo ID
requirement for voters.
For three weeks last July, U.S. District Judge Thomas
Schroeder heard the case in a trial that focused on other
aspects of the state's controversial voting reform law,
including the elimination of same-day registration, out-of
precinct voting, and pre-registration for teens. The main
argument of the plaintiffs against a new photo ID require
ment that will go into effect for the first time this year, was
delayed after the General Assembly altered the law to
allow for exemptions for voters who have a "reasonable
impediment" to getting a photo ID.
Even with the change in the law, attorneys for the
NAACP and the U.S. Justice Department returned to the
courtroom to argue that a photo ID requirement intention
ally places a discriminatory burden on minorities.
Attorney Michael Glick said the lawmakers knew that
African-Americans and Latinos where less likely to have
photo IDs when they passed the legislation.
"It means the ED requirement falls unequally on a pro
tected class of citizens," said Glick during opening argu
ments.
He said that changes to voting laws in recent years
have been playing a "game of whack-a-mole" with a fun
damental right without any valid interest to do so. He said
there's been no proof of in-person voter fraud and that
makes the ID requirement a "solution in search of a prob
lem."
Attorney Tom Farr, who represents the state, disputed
the amount of minorities who don't have photo IDs, say
ing that it was a "very, very small group" in his opening
argument. He said that the process to meet voter eligibility
is no worse than the process to qualify for things like
Social Security benefits.
Videotaped testimony of the NAACP's lead plaintiff,
Rosanell Eaton, spoke to the difficulties some have in get
ting a photo ID. "Die 94-year-old Franklin County resident
talked about long drives and long waits, including an
hour-and-43-minute wait at a Social Security office to get
her driver's license. Eaton had to change her name on her
birth certificate and Social Security card before she could
get a driver's license, which required 10 trips over a 27
day span in January 2015.
"It's a lot of headache, a lot of expensive trouble," said
Eaton, who's been voting for 70 years.
Expert witnesses were also called by the plaintiffs.
Barry Burden a political science professor at University of
See Voter ID on A2
vo
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