Mint Museum exhibit highlights animals in African art/Page 4B
Cljarlotte
VOLUME22NO.il
THE VOICE OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY
THE WEEK OF NOVEMBER 27,1996
75 CENTS
ALSO SERVING CABARRUS, CHESTER, ROWAN AND YORK COUNTIES
Killing sparks anger
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
k1
PHOTO/SUE ANN JOHNSON
Central Piedniont Community College student Solodeen
Muhammad draws a poster protesting the James Cooper shooting.
She missed her daddy, her
sign said.
Plaits and barrettes aflutter,
she sat patiently before
Charlotte City Council, along
with dozens of other African
Americans Monday night.
Perhaps little Shaquelea
Digsby was a symbol of the
anger that swept through the
African American community
in the wake of the shooting of
her father, James Willie
Cooper, by a police officer.
The 4-year-old witnessed the
shooting Nov. 19 off The Plaza
near Sugar Creek Road.
Cooper was taking her to the
movies, a regular outing,
according to family members.
The child was found huddled
on the floor in the back of the
car after the shooting, which
occurred shortly after 7 p.m.
in the yard of a residence on
Commercial Avenue.
The officer who shot Cooper
is Michael D. Marlow, 28, a
two-year veteran.
Cooper was buried Tuesday
after a wake and funeral at
Mayfield Memorial Baptist
Church.
Cooper had dropped out of
Independence High School in
the 10th grade, after Shaqulea
was born. He had worked at
S&S Auto on North Tryon
Street for about a year, said
his aunt, Coreleen Cooper.
“He never owned a gun,”
Cooper said. “I’m not going to
build him up to be no angel,
but aU the times they arrested
him, they never ever arrested
Wallace
trial moves
forward
By Paul Nowell
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Prosecutors continued to put
a human side on the case
against Henry Louis Wallace
Friday as the mother of mur
der victim Debra Slaughter
testified about discovering her
daughter’s body.
Lovie Slaughter, 60, testified
at Wallace’s capital murder
trial that in early March 1994
she went to the east Charlotte
apartment that she and her
husband, Alphonso, had once
shared with Debra.
She was dropping by to
.return a photograph.
Inside the Glen Hollows
Apartment, she found her
daughter’s body. She had been
strangled and stabbed.
Prosecutors claim she was
the 10th young black
Charlotte woman whose life
was snuffed out by Wallace
over a 20-month period that
ended with his arrest shortly
after Debra Slaughter’s death.
An 11th victim was in South
Carolina.
Wallace, 31, a Navy veteran
and former restaurant worker,
is on trial in Mecklenburg
County Superior Court for
nine of the killings.
Prosecutors are seeking the
death penalty in each of the
killings.
“Nothing can be done to
bring my daughter back,” Mrs.
Slaughter said after she was
finished with her testimony.
“Something needs to be done
with the person who is respon
sible.”
It’s been more than two
years since her daughter’s
death, but the pain is still
there, she said.
“I try not to think about it
but every time I close my eyes,
I see her laying there,” Lowe
Slaughter said, adding that
her religious faith and strong
family support have helped
See WALLACE on page 3A
PHOTO/SUE ANN JOHNSON
Ranson Junior High School Principal Kevin Sawyer asks ninth-grader Jasmine Penn about a note she wrote Monday.
Principal interest
Sawyer leads academic, discipline and
improvement at Ranson Junior High
By Jeri Young
THE CHARLOTTE POST
It seems like everyone at
Ranson Junior High School
wants something from Kevin
Sawyer.
The head of the math
department wants him to
teach radicals to her seventh
period class.
Josh needs a hall pass to
show the new girl from
Cahfomia around.
Keisha wants to spend third
period with him. She needs to
talk.
“She’s the first student I had
to deal with when I got here,”
sa3rs Sawyer, Hanson’s princi
pal. “We’ve developed a good
rapport. She’s come a long
way.”
The head of the parents
organization needs him to sub
stitute for teachers who have
won awards. Two classrooms
need subs this year, she says.
“FU done myself,” he says.
Sawyer spends the rest of
the five-minute class change
greeting students.
“Hey, Barbecue,” he says to a
girl walking down the hall.
“Hey, Mr. Sawyer,” she says
with a grin.
“Sawyer,” a young man yells
finm the mall.
“Hey, what’s up,” he yells
back.
“You have to be able to relate
to kids,” Sawyer said. “You
have to let them know that
they can trust you. It’s about
building a relationship.”
When Sawyer, a 22-year
education veteran, took over
at Ranson two years ago, it
was a school on the bubble.
Low reading and math scores
pleigued the school, as did non
chalance. Students didn’t care.
Neither did many parents.
“His first year, he was deal
ing with a nei^borhood group
who had a negative image of
the school,” said Charlotte-
Mecklenburg school board
member George Dvmlap. “He
had to make them feel com
fortable, hke they wanted to
send their kids there.”
Now, test scores are better.
Not perfect. Sawyer admits,
but a lot better than before.
This year Ranson scored 10
points above the CMS average
in algebra. Reading scores
have increased, but are still
below average.
“If you look at the statistics
on reading that the superin
tendent has recently shared,
on the third graders reading
See PRINCIPALon page 2A
McHeroes honored for
community service
By Herbert L. White
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Eight Charlotte-area citizens
were honored for being heroes
in their communities.
Local McDonald’s owners. The
Charlotte Post and WPEG (FM
98) saluted them at the 1996
McHero Awards recently at the
Adam’s Mark Hotel. The
awards recognize and honor the
contributions and positive
impact of citizens in the Afiican
American community.
Nominations were made in
’ August, and the winners were
selected to appear in
McDonald’s newspaper and
radio advertisements.
“As a local McDonald’s
owner/operator, we saw a need
to recognize and honor people
who are making a difference in
our communities,” said Gordon
Thornton, a Charlotte fiinnchise
owner. “The McHero Awards
gave us the opportunity to
acknowledge those individuals
for their endless efforts and out
standing contributions.”
The winners were:
• Mr. and Mrs. Fred Lipscomb
of Gastonia, who formed a cam
paign to help save lives through
organ donor transplants.
• Joyce Waddell, who provided
See McHEROES on page 3A
. ' . A
him with a weapon. He was
into (drugs),...but at this time
he was tr3dng to turn his self
around.”
The community has been
restless since Cooper’s shoot
ing, angrily shouting at police
and other city officials in pub
lic meetings, plotting strategy
behind closed doors and in pri
vate conversation decrying the
killing of an unarmed black
man.
Groups have led demonstra
tions, including the Black
See SHOOTING on page 3A
Spann
didn’t
Death row inmate
has York hearing
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
YORK, S.C. - Police investi
gators should have known three
1981 murders of elderly white
women in a four-month period
were the work of a serial killer,
forensic experts testified
Monday in a hearing for death
row inmate Sterling Spann.
The murders occurred within
12 miles of each other in west
ern York County. The victims
were strangled and sexually
assaulted. Spann was already in
jail when the third murder
occurred. He’d been charged in
the second murder, of Melva
NeiU, 82.
Spann, then 19, was convicted
but has maintained his inno
cence through 14 years on
South Carolina’s death row.
A federal judge in February
ordered the hearing, which
began Monday before Judge
John Hays. Hays will decide if
Spann’s attorneys have gath
ered enough new evidence to
warrant another trial in the
case. Among that evidence is
the confession of involvement by
William Johnny HuUitt, who is
serving a life sentence for the
third murder, Bessie Alexander,
69, who was killed on Nov. 16,
1981.
The first victim, Mary Ring,
was found is her bathtub on
July 18, 1981, two months
before Neill was found on Sept.
14.
Hullitt and his brother-in-law
had a produce sales route in the
area of the deaths.
Hullitt, clad in jailhouse
orange coveralls, refused to
answer questions about the
Neill killing from either the
See DEATH ROW on page 2A
McHeroes (left to right): Robert Brown, Rev. James BameH, Fred Lipscomb Jr.
Hairston and Joyce Waddell. Theresa Bethea and Anna Hood are seated.
PHOTO/SUE ANN JOHNSON
Zola Lipscomb, Andre
Inside
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