2A
NEWS / The Charlotte Post
Thursday, December 11,1997
Race talk of conference
Continued from page 1A
recently it has not been subtle. It
has blossomed into a full-blown
crisis...a deadly disease. This
racial divisiveness is like a cancer.
Here we are a healthy city with
' good economic momentum, but if
we don’t find a cure it will kill us.”
The conference is part of the
answer, Helms said.
The cure will come out of this
laboratory,” he said. “This is like a
revival meeting. We are preach
ing to the choir, but everybody
here has a sense of urgency...a
view toward bringing about posi
tive change.
“What we are looking for out of
this conference is a rededication
and commitment to the value of
persons. That’s my hope for this
conference.”
Others held similar hopes.
The dialogue has begun,” said
Geneal Gregory, a member of the
task force which organized the
conference. Tt is wonderful for
Charlotte to step up to the plate...
I knew it was successful, not
Sunday, but on Monday morning
, when people had returned. In his-
; tory, Charlotte will go down as a
. community that tried to deal with
; the problem.
; “We didn’t go there to solve the
problem,” she said. “We just went
there to find out how to resolve
the conflict and how we come to
some form of resolution to begin
to understand how to resolve con
flict.”
While a broad cross section of
people attended the conference -
business executives, housewives,
laborers and professionals — the
lack of grassroots input was
noted.
“One of the things discussed
was being able to set up satellite
areas to enable the entire commu
nity to be apart of the race sum
mit,” Gregory said. “But when you
talk about satellites, you are talk
ing about a lot of money. I am hop
ing those that were there will go
out and share with churches and
civic organizations what came out
of the conference.”
N.C. State Senator Charlie
Darmelly identified the core of the
problem for many blacks.
“Whites don’t understand what
we have gone through over the
past 400 years,” he said. “They
want to fix it by saying so.”
The problems linger, Darmelly
said.
The retired Charlotte-
Mecklenburg principal compared
the plight of many poor children
to slavery, where some slaves
were well-fed and thrived, while
others were left to get by the best
way they could.
“Tbday we have children who
because of their economic status,
are coming to school hungry, tired
and sleepy,” he said.
While the conference caimot
erase 400 years, “it’s a beginning,”
Darmelly said.
The difficulty is making sure
each side understands the other’s
perspective.
For example, whites complain
about busing today, while blacks
recall that they were bused past
white schools prior to integration.
“One of my bus routes at J.H.
Gurm was 54 miles long in the
morning and afternoon,”
Darmelly said. “Kids came from
all over the county who rode past
Garinger and East Mecldenburg
(high schools).”
Nation of Islam Minister Robert
Muhammad said because of this
week’s dialogue, “a doorway to
find solutions has been opened.”
“We found, many of us, a lot
more common threads that can
bind us, than those that tear us
apart,” said Muhammad, who
calls himself an ambassador for
controversial Nation of Islam
leader Louis Farrakhan.
Muhammad promised to
remain involved in the process.
“The black community needs to
take the initiative to build infra
structure and work on the irmer
dynamics of our community so
ideas are not only doable, but can
be done without any one else,”
Muhammad said. “Whites must
ask questions pertinent to the
survival of the
community...whether there is
moral correctness in what is done.
Does it serve not just the majority,
but the so-called minority popula
tion as well.”
Attorney James Ferguson, chair
of the Community Building 'Lask
Force’s leadership team, said the
conference was designed to spark
dialogue.
Tt worked,” Ferguson said. “It
was a success. It was clear the
conference participants want to
carry it further. We are develop
ing plans for a second phase that
will be much more action orient
ed.
He said a written report on this
week’s conference should be ready
in 30 to 60 days.
Astronaut finally gets an honor
By Marcia Dunn
■ms ASSOCIATED PRESS
; CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -
• Thirty years to the day after his
death in an Air Force plane crash,
Mqj. Robert Lawrence Jr. was rec
ognized as a full-fledged astro-
■ naut, the first black astronaut, in
. fact.
His sister refuses to dwell on the
. long bureaucratic struggle to get
' her brother’s name carved into
the four-story granite monument
that honors astronauts killed in
; the line of duty.
• The recognition is appropriate
; whenever it comes,” said Barbara
; Lawrence, a university adminis
trator in New York.
Lawrence’s son is less charita
ble.
While gratified that his father’s
name finally is on the Astronauts
Memorial Foimdation’s Space
Mirror, ’IVacey Lawrence had no
intention of attending Monday’s
dedication ceremony because of
“the antagonism, or what might
appear to be antagonism, on the
part of the board of directors.”
They refused to recognize him.
What do they call it? It was real
ly unanimous refusal to recognize
him for a period of years,” TVacey
Lawrence said last week from
: Chicago, where he runs a philo
sophical organization. The folks
^in the family have suffered a lot
• through the years because of this
ongoing circle of non-recognition.”
. Lawrence, a Chicago native,
.' was killed in the crash of an F-104
^fighter during a training exercise
on Dec. 8, 1967, six months after
he was named to the Air Force’s
manned orbiting laboratory pro
gram. The other pilot on board
-survived.
Had he lived, Lawrence likely
would have moved to NASA, as
did many of Ws colleagues when
the Air Force canceled the short
lived and unsuccessful orbiting
laboratory program in 1969.
By National Aeronautics and
Space Administration standards,
anyone selected for astronaut
training is an astronaut, plain
and simple. Teacher Christa
McAuHffe’s name, for example, is
on the Space Mirror even though
she died without ever reaching
space when the shuttle
Challenger exploded.
But by Air Force standards of
the 1960s, the 32-yeaf-old
Lawrence, a test pilot with a
Ph.D. in chemistry, never earned
his astronaut wings since he
never flew as high as the required
50 miles.
“A forgotten figure,” says his
son.
And because he did not meet
that Air Force criteria, the
Astronauts Memorial Foundation
refused repeatedly to etch
Lawrence’s name onto the Space
Mirror at Kennedy Space Center.
“We wanted to make sure he
had the same full honor the other
16 had,” explained Jim De Santis,
foundation president. “We never
wanted a situation where people
came to see the Space Mirror and
said. There were 16 astronauts
and there was Maj. Lawrence
who was never declared an astro
naut.”’
Everything changed last year
when U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-
Chicago, persuaded the Air Force
to verify Lawrence’s astronaut
status. Rush saw it as “a classic
case of institutional racism.”
Lawrence - who would have
AP PHOTO
Air Force Major Robert
Lawrence Jr. was honored at the
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
Monday, where his name has
been carved into the granite
monuments that honors fallen
astronaut Lawrence was killed
in a plane crash Dec. 8, 1967,
and is being finally recognized
as the first black astronaut
been America’s lone black astro
naut until NASA chose three in
1978 - officially was confirqied as
an astronaut by the Air Force last
January. ’Two weeks later, the
foundation’s board of directors
voted unanimously to add his
name alongside 16 others on the
Space Mirror.
“I don’t think they’re bestowing
an honor on Lawrence,” said
James Oberg, an aerospace con
sultant who pushed long and
hard for Lawrence’s inclusion.
“Having Lawrence’s name on the
memorial honors the memorial -
not the other way around.”
Omega Psi Phi revokes 22 chapters
By Herbert L. White
THE CHARLOTTE POST
One of the nation’s largest
black fraternities has revoked
charters of 22 chapters across
the U.S. and suspended more
than 50 members for alleged
hazing.
Omega Psi Phi Fraternity
revoked charters on 22 college
campuses in response to the
alleged incidents, Dorsey C.
Miller, the organization’s
Grand Basileus, or internation
al president Miller declared an
indefinite moratorium on the
intake, or induction, of under
graduate members in the fra
ternity. Hazing is forbidden by
the fraternity and is illegal in
most states, including North
. Carolina.
“These alleged hazing inci
dents threaten the future of our
fraternity, desecrate our legacy
and severely damage the good
will the fraternity has built
over the years,” Miller said.
Five of the 22 revocations
affect Carolinas campuses;
East Carolina University,
Western Carolina University
and Fayetteville State
University in North Carolina;
and Winthrop University and
Clemson University in South
Carolina.
’The fraternity notified admin
istrators at each college where
members were expelled or sus
pended, as well as alerting all
schools of Omega Psi Phi’s
moratorium. Miller said. ’The
fraternity will also make public
the names of expelled or sus
pended members and will take
civil or criminal action against
those that violate policy.
An undergraduate conference
will be convened in January to
map a plan for Omega Psi Phi’s
campus chapters.
The results of this meeting
will help determine the future
of our undergraduate activi
ties,” Miller said.
Omega Psi Phi was founded
in 1911 at Howard University
in Washington, D.C., and has
chapters throughout the U.S.,
Europe, Africa, Asia, the
Bahamas and the Caribbean.
Its members include NBA
standouts Michael Jordan,
Shaquille O’Neal, former
Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder
and former presidential candi
date Jesse Jackson.
Conference could’ve used
more truth and less comfort
Herbert
L.
White
’The warning came early in
the recently-completed race
summit. 'There was no way
two days of dialogue could
solve Charlotte’s simmering
ethnic and cultural strife - no
matter how helpful the con
versation became.
’They were absolutely right.
A recurring theme at
Charlotte Convention Center
Sunday and Monday was that
somehow the meeting of com
munity leaders would lose
steam once the last partici
pant left to go back into the
real world of Us vs. Them.
“Preaching to the choir” was
the phrase more than one per
son used, perhaps to acknowl
edge that everyone agreed
that the racial divide is a pow
der keg waiting to blow up in
Charlotte’s collective face.
Any bridge, even one that’s
started over two days, can
only help us avoid a calamity,
but there’s work to be done.
The summit’s goal was
noble, but had a shortcoming
that’s typical Charlotte.
Organizers did a good job of
pulling together people of dif
ferent races, creeds and reli
gions, but the overall tenor
felt suspiciously middle class
and comfortable. That’s no
way to get at the root of
what’s really lurking under
Charlotte’s can-do outer shell,
especially for people who to
some extent are enjoying
some of America’s bounty.
To help people really under
stand how insidious racial
intolerance is means getting
them to walk a mile in your
shoes, not praying they’ll
understand. ’There was some
- but not enough - hard-
nosed, honest dialogue to
open the conversational flood
gates about what really bugs
us. Most of us feel free of prej
udice of any kind. But that’s
not true, because there’s a lot
of hurt, anger and suspicion
out here. It’s the rare human
being who hasn’t felt wronged
by 'The Other Guy, whether
it’s a white cop shooting an
unarmed African American, a
Latino taking a job through
an affirmative action program
or a white who’s afraid to
walk downtown after dark
because “colored” people are
crime-prone. But to become
OK with the greater human
community, we need to
become more honest with who
we are, especially when it
comes to dealing with the
artificial boundaries set up by
society.
I met many wonderful peo
ple - white, Hispanic, Asian
and black - during the sum
mit, but there was a feeling
that perhaps more people
should’ve been present. What
about the economically dis
possessed who can barely
afford bus fare downtown? Or
the student who is steered
away from a potentially
bright future because he or
she doesn’t test well and is
somehow labeled learning dis
abled? Or the elderly, who can
school us on Racism 101, the
kind that should make people
under 50 glad they hadn’t
been bom during the bad old
days? They deserve a chance
to be heard as well.
The summit’s ultimate suc
cess, if there’s any to be had,
can’t be measured by rehash
ing the highlights. The real
proof will come when every-i
one in attendance makes up
his or her mind that one can
gain strength as an individual
by fighting through the labels
that literally color the way we
see each other. And convince
their friends, relatives and
acquaintances to do the same.
When that happens, we
won’t need more race sum
mits.
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Facilitated by the Wbme/i’s Commtssioft 'VTilT^T presents
OPEN HOUSE special guest '''
Dr. Gwendolyn Goldsby Grant
author of The BEST KIND OF LOVING
Saturday, December 13
2:00 p.m.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center
600 E. 4th St.
For more information,
call 568-9760
■■ '^... ■ - -/ V I
• .a-
Dr. Gwendolyn Goldsby Grant is a ps>chologist, a
mental health educator and certified counselor, and
for the last eleven years, the advice columnist for
Essence Magazine. Her monthly column “Between
US'* is read by over 5 million readers Dr. Grant has
also hosted a mental health radio talk show. She
serves as a regular consultant for se\ eral fortune 500
companies and has conducted countless workshops
on male-female relationships. Dr Gram regularly
lectures and facilitates seminars for business organi
zations, women’s organizations, universities, civic
and church groups and governmental and grassroots
organizations.
She has appeared as expert guest on many national
talk shows such as CNN, OPRAH, Good Morning
America, Black Entertainment TV, The Macneil/
Leher News Hour, Rolonda, The Maury Povich
Show, Montel Williams, Sally Jessy Raphael, Ricki
Lake, Geraldo, The Jerry Springer Show, Jenny
Jones, and others.
Gwendolyn Grant’s philosophy is: “ONE WOMAN
CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.” She believes that
DR. GWENDOLYN GOLDSBY GRANT
author of
THE BEST KIND OF LOVING ■* *
Published by HarpeiCollins
Photo credit; Dwight Carter
whatever the mind can conceive, heart believe. the hands can
achieve.
In her book. The BEST KIND OF LOVING Dr. Grant addresses
head-on the complex challenges in Afncan-American relation- -
ships. In addition to the social dynamics affecting male-female
communication.
In writing The BEST KIND OF LOVING, Grant has provided
an invaluable resource for Black women searching to understand
the choices they make, and how to make the most of their strength,
intellegence and wit. Compulsi^ ely readable, this book is unique in
its scope and vision; women of all races and backgrounds will
laugh, sympathize, and nod their heads in recognition as they read
^x)ut others unlike themselves. Finally, what we can all take
from this book is the lesson that love for self is the ultimate and
Best Kind of Loving.
This program is co-spoosored by
Meektenturg County Women's Commission
■ ' Carolina Panther Teammates
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