Thursday, January 23,1997
NEWS/ The Charlotte Post
3A
Who’ll carry civil rights legacy?
Continued from page 1A
leading whites and almost sin
gle-handedly built a black
business infrastructure in the
state’s economic hub.
Patton was a mentor to
Richard Arrington, elected
mayor of Birmingham in 1979
and still the only black chief
executive of a major city in
Alabama.
“I considered him to be a
great pioneer, not only for the
city of Birmingham but for the
nation as a whole,” Arrington
said of Patton.
Truss, whose position as
Sirmingham-area NAACP
president was once held by
Patton, said commitment was
the key to the success of the
past leaders.
“Others would have quit,
given up, walked away. These
men kept coming,” said Truss,
48.
Times have changed, and
the kind of leadership needed
now is different from that
required in the 1960s. While
King and his lieutenants led
marches and confronted legal
ized segregation, a prime
focus from Arrington is build
ing business and making sure
blacks are included in the
profits.
Woods, president of the
Southern Christian
Leadership Conference in
Birmingham, said none of the
leaders who died in the past
year can be replaced, making
the whole community poorer.
“I’m not too sure we’re pro
ducing those kind of men any
more. If we are, I haven’t seen
them,” he said.
“You have a legacy that is
dying,” said Truss.' “I always
tell people I cannot apologize
for not being born 30 years
earlier.”
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Cruising focus of three county workshops
Continued from page 1A
is usually jammed with cruisers
- and police to direct traffic - on
warm-weather Sundays. Police
estimate they spend as much as
$20,000 a weekend in officers’
salaries and overtime.
Drivers who can’t get into the
park spill onto the street, where
some nei^bors - mostly black -
complain about the traffic and
Foundation announces grants
By Herbert L. White
THE CHARLOTTE POST
A Charlotte-based charitable
organization is opening its pmse
for grants.
The Foundation For The
Carolinas’ effort, called
“Building A Better Future,”
includes eight new grant pro
grams ranging from traditional
grants to regional grants and
strategic initiatives. The pro
gram’s goal is to award grants to
organizations that can help
improve the quality of life in the
region. Income for the program
comes fium a bequest by Lucille
Giles, who provided more than
$2 million annually for grants.
“The foundation will be more
proactive in its grantmaking
and we’ll be able to fund several
large intiatives annually,” said
John Boatwright, chair of
FFTC’s Distribution Committee.
Building A Better Future is
available to organization recog
nized as tax exempt under
Section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal
Revenue Code or units of gov
ernment. Organizations must
serve Mecklenburg County or
part of the surrounding region.
The new programs include:
• Venture grants of up to
$25,000 to stimulate and launch
new ideas from a broad range of
charities;
• Capacity building grants of
up to $10,000 to increase the
ability of nonprofit organizations
and community concerns to
carry out their work more effec
tively;
• Regional grants that encour
age regional solutions to prob
lems that cross geographic and
political boundaries.
Strategic grants are grouped
into five categories:
Building families of up to
$100,000 to prepare preschool
children to enter school develop-
©lack Monday marches on
Ipontinued from page 1A
■I
sens review board and other
•measures, including an effort
!by some African Americans to
yaise money to put video cam-
;pras in police cars.
■: Black Monday would be the
largest unified demonstration
•by African Americans in
iCharlotte, organizers say.
;J On Monday, African
l^mericans are asked, in addi-
Jtion to wearing arm bands
;and buttons and burning
headlights to:
li • Join in a moment of prayer
•at noon, wherever they are.
1! • Shop at black businesses
Ibnd avoiding shopping malls
,'and other white-owned estab
lishments.
• Take children to teach-ins
■planned at several churches,
■parents who feel their chil-
Idren must attend school
ishould accompany them and
;take an active part in their
jeducation. If possible, parents
|can then sign their children
■but of school in time to attend
■the midday rally at The
iSquare.
• Call someone with whom
[they have a conflict and
[resolve those conflicts and dis-
;agreements and ask for for
giveness.
i; • The march and rally will
■begin at 10:30 a.m. at Mount
IMoriah Primitive Baptist
[Church on 'Trade Street.
During a speech Sunday,
[Chavis said Monday’s demon-
;stration was being done in the
Chavis
spirit of Martin Luther King
Jr., who “did more than
dream.”
“Dr. King
changed his
mind
between 1963
and 1968 on
what was
needed in
America,”
Chavis said.
“He realized
there was a
need for fun-
damental
structural
change. High government offi
cials felt the later King was a
threat to the stability of
American society because of
his views against the Vietnam
War and on economic injus
tice.”
The lukewarm response to
Black Monday was an incor
rect interpretation of what
protest is all about, Chavis
said.
“White people need not fear
black people coming together,”
Chavis said. “Since this is
Charlotte, I’ll say some
Negroes don’t need to fear
black people coming together.”
He said even Kng had a dif
ficult time finding a church to
preach in when he was invited
to speak in Charlotte on
behalf of Dr. Reginald
Hawkins’ gubernatorial bid in
the late ‘60s.
“They felt he would stir up
the natives,” Chavis said. “We
are on the threshold of follow
ing through in the Kng tradi
tion. Despite the stones
thrown at us. Black Monday is
on.
“No one has yet to mobilize
the entire black community of
Charlotte. We believe that
time has come...a time long
overdue.
“Charlotte has been blessed,
but have those blessings been
evenly distributed,” Chavis
asked.
In a prepared statement,
local organizer the Rev. Kojo
Nantambu said the purpose of
Black Monday is a peaceful
observance to promote unity
among African Americans in
Charlotte and to demand fair
ness, equal justice and end all
acts of racial brutality and
violence against African
Americans by local police offi
cers.
“It is the mission of Black
Monday to take greater self
responsibility to end crime,
violence, drugs and all forms
of self-destruction that is in
our community and lift up the
positive culture and history of
our race,” Nantambu said.
“Finally it is the mission of
Black Monday to focus on the
need to improve our overall
quality of life as a community
through long-term economic
development and empower
ment which will require us to
earn, spend, deposit and
invest our money differently,
i.e., ‘Buy Black and Bring Our
Dollars Back for Black
Empowerment.’ ”
■Eldest King son to battle Prop. 209
■i THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
|1 SAN FRANCISCO - Martin
■Luther King Jr.'s oldest son is
•forming a group to fight for
iiaffirmative action in response to
Ip Californian’s efforts to do
;away with such programs
•around the coimtiy.
■j Martin Luther Kng III will
ijiead the new Atlanta-based
:[Americans United for
;[Affirmative Action.
;i “Our country is currently
embroiled in a backlash against
hard-won gains made during
the civil rights movement -
namely, affirmative action,”
Kng said near a memorial to
his father on Saturday, two
days before the national obser
vance of his father’s birthday.
Kng said the coalition was
prompted by the passage of
California’s Proposition 209,
which would end race and gen
der as factors in government
hiring, contracting, promotions
and university admissions.
Voters approved the measure in
November, but it is now tied up
in court.
Key Proposition 209 supporter
Ward Connerly last week
launched the American Civil
Rights Institute, a clearing
house for groups interested in
promoting similar measures in
other states.
Kng said his effort is “a direct
result of what Ward Connerly
and others are trying to do.”
Details of King’s group, includ
ing whether Kng would be paid
were not disclosed.
noise. They contend that
clogged streets will impede
emergency vehicles should they
be needed in the area.
mentally ready to learn;
• Building Bridges grants of
up to $50,000 to address diversi
ty issues with the goal of devel
oping increased understanding
among people of different back-
groimds;
• Building Potential grants of
up to $100,000 to empower indi
viduals to be self-reliant, eco
nomically independent members
of the community. Target popu
lations are the economically dis
advantaged, homeless, disabled
and senior citizens;
• Building Civic Vision initia
tive that will fund Central
Carolinas Choices, a joint effort
among 14 counties;
• Building Youth grants of up
to $100,000 starting in 1998 to
focus on school-age children and
teens to help them make the
transition to adulthood.
For more information of the
grants program, call Marilyn
Bradbury at (704) 376-9541.
o
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