m
Look back at Charlotte’s African American communities/Page 15A
Cfjarlotte Bosit
VOLUME 21 NO. 22
FEBRUARY 15, 1996
75 CENTS
Controversial slave ship exhibit docks at Spirit Square
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
The Henrietta Marie slave
ship exhibit will come to
Charlotte’s Spirit Square in
November.
Dawn Womack, Spirit
Square’s vice president, was
instrumental in securing the
Henrietta Marie, which was
spurned By Discovery Place
and Museum of the New
South. Those museums cited
Robinson set
to run again
for state post
By Herbert L. White
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Vernon Robinson hopes his
message of reforming how
North Carolina educates its
children will
Robinson
be better
received dur
ing his sec
ond run for
the state’s
highest edu
cation job.
Robinson, a
former
Winston-
Salem State
University
professor, said public educa
tion isn’t doing enough to
ensure student safety or help
them compete in the world
economy. As Superintendent-
of Public Instruction, he
would force them to do more
or help put them out of busi
ness.
“Public schools have moved
further and further away from
parents so that it is no longer
clear whose values are
taught,” he said. “Parents fear
for the children’s safety, and
many believe that their chil
dren are not learning enough
to secure their future in the
21st century.”
Robinson, who lost the
Republican nomination for the
same office in 1992, advocates
empowering parents to make
education decisions for stu
dents by eliminated public
schools’ domination of state
funds.
“We must change the incen
tives in the system so that it
responds to the parents as
customers. We must tie educa
tion money to the child so that
parents have the power to get
better learning opportunities
and take power from politi
cians and bureaucrats who
don’t even know the child’s
name.”
Public schools should be
forced to compete for students
and funding, Robinson con
tends. Schools that prove to be
safe learning environments
will get more money than
those who don’t. That stance
has its strongest support
among conservatives, while
teachers groups have been
among its staunchest oppo
nents. Robinson doesn’t offer
any apologies, saying that a
free market approach to edu
cation would be especially
beneficial for African
Americans.
“Competition is the only
likely way to restore discipline
in the classroom, restore high
er levels of academic achieve
ment and to stop the erosion
of parental authority,” he
said. “I am not an advocate for
public schools or for private
schools. I advocate defining
public education as learning
opportunities for children
rather than tenure opportuni
ties for bureaucrats.”
the lack of scientific and cul
tural relevance as factors in
rejecting the
Womack
exhibit.
The ship’s
wreckage
was discov
ered in 1972,
nearly 300
years after it
sank. The
Henrietta
Marie disap
peared in
1700, 35 miles sourth of Key
West, Fla. after dropping off
its human cargo. It’s the only
known recovery of an actual
slave ship in the Eastern
Hemisphere.
The November showing
makes Charlotte the third
stop on the ship’s national
tour. The exhibit is currently
showing in Detroit and will
spend the summer in Chicago.
Womack said she decided to
seek permission to bring the
Henrietta Marie’s unique dis
play of artifacts to Spirit
Square after it was turned
down by Discovery Place and
Museum of the New South.
“I started to investigate why
we weren’t doing it in
Charlotte,” Womack said. “I
couldn’t find any reason why,
so I made some calls.”
She said the exhibit will
appear in the Knight Gallery
at Spirit Square Nov. 3
through Jan. 26. It will
BLACK, WHITE, OTHER
PHOTO/ CALVIN FERGUSON
Edward Shalati blends In physically with whites, but Identifies more with African Americans.
He's one of a growing number of mixed race people who claim ties to both races.
Ethnic category debate stirs passions
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Edward Shalati has been
defacing government forms.
When he’s asked to indicate
his “race,” he adds the word
“mixed” in parenthesis, next
to the “Other” category.
The federal government and
most states only recognize
four ethnic classifications -
black , white, American
Indian or Alaskan Native,
and Asian and Pacific
Islander, There’s also the
added “Hispanic origin.”
But for Shalati, 28, and a
growing number of people,
race is not a matter of black,
white or other, it’s black and
white, black and red or black
and yellow.
“It’s hard to define myself
by race,” said Shalati. “It’s so
hard trying to belong, but
everyone is afraid of some
thing. There’s not a single
race that is perfect. Race has
nothing to do with behavior,”
Shalati came to Charlotte
12 years ago from Europe,
where he grew up with a.
black father from North
Africa and a French mother.
In Europe and most parts of
the world, people are not
classified by race, but by reli
gion or socio-economic status,
Shalati said.
After coming to the United
States, he became conscious
of his racial status and has
since identified himself with
blacks more than whites.
“I’m being steered like a
ship in the current,” Shalati
laments. “I’ve become part of
it. It affects you in your
everyday life.”
Of course, the number of
undocumented non-wedded
See MIXED page 2A
Married Couples of Same or Mixed Races
366,0
other
799,000
other
40.6 Million /
WhIte/WhIte /
\ 46.3 Million
\ WhIte/WhIte
I other
50.9 Million
White/White
1970
1980
1992
Total Married Couples
44.6 million
Total Married Couples
49.7 million
Total Married Couples
53.5 million
include a series of educational
lectures hy African American
history experts, including
author Cornel West and
Pulitzer Prize-winning jour
nalist Michael H. Cottman.
About $35,000 is needed to
fund the exhibit and the lec
ture series planned during the
exhibit, Womack said. Spirit
Square is providing $5,000 for
the project.
Womack said U.S. Rep. Mel
Watt of Charlotte has already
agreed to help lead a grass
roots fundraising drive and'
that dozens of callers have
already promised to help.
Wendy Mills, a member of
the National Association of
Black Scuba Divers, said she’s
elated that the exhibit is com
ing to Charlotte. She’s already
planning presentation on
African American inventions
before and during slavery.
“The Henrietta Marie will
See SHIP page 2A
Center aids
anti-drug
programs
By Andrea R. Richards
THE CHARLOTTE POST
A northwest Charlotte drug prevention center is taking a new
approach to helping its community.
Fighting Back Cluster One Resource Center, 2730 Rozzelle’s
Ferry Road, not only offers information on substance abuse pre
vention but now includes other services to residents. Services
include summer internships for students, computer training,
monthly guest speakers, job fairs and health care services.
By making access to general services available from one loca
tion, the center meets the needs of the 17 neigh
borhoods in the cluster.
"The resource center is really designed to sen/e
as an anc'/ ’r Tr all of the neighborhoods in lifis
area," said Rock Johnson, a member of Fighting
Back's executive committee. "Because different
neighborhoods are at different levels of develop
ment, we've been able to learn, nurture and sup
port each other,"
Helping individuals solve problems without
turning to drugs is the major objective of the cen
ter. However, the it also offers shelter for people
who have been burned out of their homes, acts as
a sign-up point for youngsters to join an innova
tive work program through the Job Training
Partnership Act and educates residents on the
importance of voting.
"People need to know that when we start voting
again, then a lot of our other problems will be
addressed," Johnson said. "We want people to
understand more about the system and how it
works. We want to help them make (the system)
work for them."
Several services operate out of the facility: the
Children's Law Center, Drug Education Center,
Mayo
Johnson
Charter Pines Outreach Center, Project Aspire and a Charlotte-
Mecklenburg community police substation.
The neighborhood assistant and service providers are eager
about the new additions at the center.
"The cluster centers are basically the wave of the future," said
Winston Lassiter, who works for Fighting Back. "Especially in
the northeastern states, people can go to a specific center and get
all of their needs met. This is something that is going to happen
in years to come. Community centers are going to be the focal
point for people to get their needs met."
Maceo Mayo, also a Fighting Back employee, agreed that hav
ing several services within the community center is bound to
become popular.
"With the decentralization of services, you have a positive
impact on high risk factors that manifest themselves in destruc
tive behaviors, like substance abuse, crime and teenage pregnan
cies," he said. "We're pushing for them to have empowerment.
Empowerment means not teaching them how to fish, but how to
own the pond that the fish are in.
"Eventually, we can get to that point, and we'll be the least like
ly to engage in those destructive behaviors."
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