■iiiliaiiin
iHiBii
7A
AFRICA/ The Charlotte Post
Thursday, January 16,1997
Focus on Leadership turns 10
By Herbert L. White
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Public speaking made A1
Austin nervous.
Focus on Leadership
changed all that.
Austin, public relations
manager for the American
Association of Minority
Businesses, was unsure of his
ability to communicate effec
tively to audiences when he
joined the organization’s Class
VI. Seminars and exercises
that included public speaking
helped strengthen his skills.
“They definitely put you out
there,” he said. “Through the
classes, I learned how to be
better prepared in speaking
before people.”
Focus on Leadership is cele
brating its 10th year with sev
eral events, including a blood
drive and Martin Luther King
Day parade. The highlight of
the academic portion is the
graduation of Class X in June.
Bridget Wall, Minority and
Women Business Program
administrator for Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Schools, said she
joined Class X to learn more
about the contributions of
African Americans in
Charlotte as well as the net
working and leadership train
ing.
“I wanted to affiliate with an
organization that fosters lead
ership among African
Americans,” she said.
Founded at Johnson C.
Smith University in 1987,
Focus has graduated nine pre
vious classes, with 200 indi
viduals successfully complet
ing the course. Some notable
alumni include Mecklenburg
County commissioner Hoyle
Martin, community activist
Joyce Waddell and Austin,
who is the first African
American president of Young
Democrats of Mecklenburg.
Class X had its orientation
last week and will go through
five months of classes at
Central Piedmont Community
College’s Freedom Drive loca
tion. Wall, one of 20 members
in the class, said she is look
ing forward to learning more
about the political process in
Charlotte-Mecklenburg and
its relationship to the black
community.
“Some of the workshops and
seminars are on dynamics of
politics in the area,” Wall
said. “As an African
American, I wanted to see
what role it plays in our com
munity.”
Focus helps develop skills
that otherwise could stay sub
merged, Austin said. As a
result, participants learn
more about themselves and
their abihty to lead.
“I felt better prepared to
tackle any leadership role,”
Austin said. “Focus very much
prepared me for leadership
positions.”
FOL doesn’t make African
American leaders, Austin, a
former Focus board member,
points out. The skills and
knowledge are there, but the
classes help “crystalize” those
assets.
“There’s leaders every
where,” Austin said. “We
cover all the leadership bases.
We have a pool of leaders.”
Martin Luther King calendar
•The Central Piedmont
Conmumity College Chapter of
the Southern Regional Council
on Black American Affairs pre
sents Frances Cress Wesling,
author of the Cress Theory of
Racism today at 11:30 a.m.
awards presentation will be
held.
For more information, call (910)
334-5371.
Monday
• McCrorey YMCA presents
third annual Martin Luther
Ring Prayer Breakfast at 7 a.m.
Tickets are $15 per person and
are on sale at McCrorey YMCA,
3801 Beatties Ford Road.
•The Community Relations
Committee will host the annual
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Parade. The parade starts at 10
a.m. at West Charlotte High
School and ends at the Charlotte
Convention Center, where an
•Martin Luther King
Luncheon will be held at noon at
Renaissance Place, 201N. Tryon
St. Sponsored by Harold
La’Mont Grier. The Rev. Mazie
B. Ferguson, pastor of First
Baptist Church of Siler City and
Assistant Legal Counsel at N.C.
A&T State University, will be
the guest speaker.
Also:
•Former U.S. Rep. Shirley
Chisolm, the first African
American woman elected to
Congress, will keynote the
Martin Luther King birthday
observance at UNC Greensboro
on Jan. 29. Chisolm served 14
years before retiring in 1982.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Take an honest look at King
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -
Americans have chosen to
handle Martin Luther King
Jr. with kid gloves and have
lost sight of the civil rights
leader’s real life and legacy,
says a black University of
North Carolina professor.
Too many Americans have a
selective, dishonest memory of
King and have created a nos
talgic picture of a safe black
prophet, UNC-Chapel Hill
communications professor
Michael Eric Dyson said in a
speech Sunday.
The palatable King that peo
ple invoke today - the man
whom President Lyndon
Johnson consulted and who
initially thought American
society needed only some tin
kering _ wondered later in his
life whether white and black
society could change, Dyson
said.
That image of King has been
forgotten and abused, he said.
“You can’t be a black leader
today without saying you
loved him,” Dyson said at the
Community Church of Chapel
Hill. ‘Tou can’t meet a white
person today who opposed
him, you can’t find a white
politician who ever called him
‘nigger.’”
But King had plenty of
detractors - both black and
white - in the late 1960s,
when he began to criticize the
Vietnam War, became more
arrogant, and evolved into a
“peripheral” and dangerous
prophet, Dyson said.
It's the view that Eiing grew
into - the idea that govern
ment and capitalism have
crushed and are crushing
blacks and others - that
toda/s leaders forget, accord
ing to Dyson.
“Martin Luther King Jr.
became a peripheral prophet,”
Dyson said. “People can’t rec
ognize that the man changed
his mind.”
Americans hold similarly
myopic views of John F.
Kennedy, whom many revere,
and of Johnson, blamed for
miring the country in the
Vietnam War.
Kennedy “did nothing” for
black Americans, but
Johnson, “that Southern
cracker, did more for black
folk than any president in this
century,” Dyson said.
Dyson painted a picture of
King, who was assassinated in
1968 at age 39 in Memphis,
Tenn., as a man who grew dis
tressed about economic racism
in the United States and wor
ried constantly about his
death.
“He was constantly thinking
of his own death, and in the
end was obsessed with it,”
Dyson said. “He spent his life
on death row.”
The harsh message of Ring’s
later life has been lost in pub
lic tributes, political rhetoric
and even in blind condemna
tion of young “peripheral
prophets” such as slain rapper
Tupac Shakur, Dyson said.
The rap music lyrics and
King's later speeches tell of
pain and near loss of hope for
blacks and other oppressed
people, Dyson said.
Society dismisses Shakur
and his music as filth without
gleaning the real message or
recognizing the pain it repre
sents, just as society has dis
missed the later King, Dyson
said.
Dyson criticized white liber
alism as a movement that
loves victims and hates con
troversial figures, like King
became late in his life.
Dyson, who has written sev
eral books on race relations, is
an ordained Baptist minister
and former welfare father. He
recently drew criticism for his
speech at UNC-Chapel Hill’s
December graduation ceremo
ny.
In the commencement
speech, Dyson quoted rap
lyrics containing profanity
and said the American dream
had been lost for some and is
a nightm£U‘e for others.
Some students walked out.
Ft. Bragg soldier admits to assaults
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FAYETTEVILLE - A Fort
Bragg soldier pleaded guilty
Monday to assault charges in
connection with what authori
ties say were the racially
motivated murders of two
black Fayetteville residents.
Randy Lee Meadows pleaded
guilty to conspiracy to commit
assault £md to being an acces
sory before the fact to felony
assault in connection with the
December 1995 shooting
deaths of Jackie Burden and
Michael James.
As part of a plea bargain
with prosecutors. Meadows
agreed to testify against Army
Pvts. James Burmeister and
Malcom Wright, who are
charged with first-degree mur
der.
Jury selection in
Burmeister’s trial is scheduled
For more information on
Focus on Leadership, call 559-
4191.
• - MUSIC LESSONS - •
Piano/ Organ/ Vocal/ Band/ Orchestra/ Theory
Specializing in Improvisation
Gospel, Jazz, Pop, Etc.
Young & Old
BEGINNERS TO ADVANCED
For Appointments call:
(704) 341-9166
La’Jeune K- James
Bachelor of Arts Instumental/ Vocal Music Education
Master of Arts Degree in Music
to begin next week.
Prosecutors claim that
Meadows drove the car in
which he and the other .two
defendants rode to downtown
Fayetteville in search of
blacks and drug dealers to
harass.
Prosecutors said that, after
Burden and James were shot
on Dec. 7, 1995, Meadows
drove off, leaving Burmeister
and Wright behind.
BIG
WHICH WILL COME FIRST?
SUPERBOWL? N.B.A. CHAMPIONSHIP?
CHARLOTTE
HASN’T HAD
EITHER ONE
A WORLD
CHAMPION
BOXER,
KELVIN SEABROOKS
COMMUNITY RELATIONS DIRECTTOR
KELVIN SEABROOKS,
and
HIS CHIROPRACTOR
DR. WATTS
OF A & W CLINIC, HELPS KEEP KELVIN’S BACK IN SHAPE
IF YOUR BACK OR NECK IS INJURED
WITH 3 OFFICES ON: BEATTIES FORD, WILKINSON & THE PLAZA
OUR STAFF WILL TREAT YOU LIKE A WORLD CHAMPION
p Pamela Rodgers
GM Dealer
"General Motors
believes in my goals
as strongly as 1 do."
"Being a successful woman in what's seen
as a 'man's world' is quite an accomplish
ment. What makes it important is sharing
that success. General Motors believes that
as strongly as I do.
With GM training, I have the know-how
to run a successful car dealership; and I
have something else...an opportunity to
show young minority women that they
can be successful too.
Who said it's a 'man's world'?"
General Motors^
Wc Never Forget Who’s Driving.
Chevrolet i
Pon tiac • Oi.osMonii t. • Buick • Caoii.lac • GMC
©1996 General Motors Corporation'