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http;//www.thepost.mindspring.com Charlotte 7B REGION THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1997 Camp for the holidays City Park Center in Salisbury will host a Holiday Camp with arts, crafts for kids K-5. Rowan Events, page 8B Black farmers talk discrimination with Clinton THE ASSOCIATED PRESS RALEIGH - Black farmers from North Carolina and around the country got a chance to speak to President Clinton Wednesday about discrimination that some times led to financial ruin, f Several \vere from North Carolina, home to one of every nine black farmers in the United States. Among them were Griffin Tbdd, who farms in Wake County and has never forgotten a slight he Bufiered three decades ago. On a late summer day at a Black Moravians studied THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WINSTON-SALEM - The his- toiy of blacks at Old Salem will take a more prominent place in the community with the help of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. A $600,000 grant from the organization, announced last week, will be used to strengthen Old Salem Inc.’s study of black history and to renovate the old St. Philip’s Moravian Church, built for black Moravians on the south ern edge of the community in 1861. “It gives us a center from which we can really concentrate on the African American-in-Old-Salem experience,” said Hobie Cawood, the president of Old Salem. “It further makes the point that Old Salem is the roots of all the com- munily - not just the European- American, but also the African American.” Under the terms of the grant, the NEH will award Old Salem $600,000 if it raises $2.4 million. In addition to the St. Philip's ren ovation, Old Salem officials plan to use the money to reconstruct a log budding budt in 1823 that served as the original church for black Moravians and an outbudd- ing, as well as to endow White's position. White Moravians in Salem ovmed black slaves. At first, his torians say, the Moravians and their slaves worked together. The Moravians taught their slaves German, and the slaves taught them English, White said. Many black slaves joined the Moravian church in Salem. But in the early 1800s, accord ing to historian Jon Sensbach, “fear of slave revolt and increas ing racial chauvinism” led white Moravians to segregate the black Moravians from their congrega tion. The white Moravians formed a black church in 1822 that came to be known as St. Phdip’s. Sensbach has just published a book on Salem’s black community prior to the Civd War. Many of the blacks who once lived in Salem moved across Salem Creek to the Happy Hid area but continued to retinri to St. Pbdip's for worship. In 1952, the St. Phdip’s congregation left the brick budding in Old Salem for a community center in Happy Hdl. In 1967, the congregation moved again, to Bon Air Avenue. tobacco weuebouse in Wilson, a U.S. Department of Agriculture grader gave Tbdd’s leaf the top rating. Then, Tbdd made the mis take of standing near his crop and letting the grader see that he was black. The next thing Tbdd knew, his tobacco had been downgraded. The insult took money from Todd’s pocket. Far worse, it seared a wound into his sold. “It hurt me so bad,” he said last week at his brick ranch home on the edge of Zebulon. “I was like a dog who put his tad between his legs and crawled off.” The farmers are at the center of a nationwide class-action suit against the government. The lawsuit, which had 641 farmers when it was filed in August and now has nearly 1,000, seeks almost $1 biUion as compensation for what the farm ers allege is decades of racial dis crimination in the distribution of agricultural loans. The plaintiffs contend that a good ole boy network of local Farmers Home Administration agents and boards, nearly aU of them white, delayed or denied their loans, accelerated their pay ment schedules, foreclosed early on their property, gave them less money than white neighbors and excluded them from technical training. The lawsuit also alleges that the Agriculture Department ignored hundreds of ivritten complaints filed by black farmers, especially after President Ronald Reagan dismantled the department’s civil rights office in 1983. Such discrimination, the law suit says, sped the demise of the black farmer and helps explain why blacks have left the land at twice the rate of whites since 1950. Tbday, only 18,000 black families still till the land. Pushed by the Congressional Black Caucus, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman has launched an initiative to reverse his department’s record. Among them: a moratorium on new foreclosures and ordered that any already started be frozen if the property owner files a civil rights complaint. Despite his reforms, Glickman Donation for civil rights landmark PHOTO/N/^TIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION Greensboro City Council member Earl Jones (left) accepts a check from the National Education Association for $10,000 to the International Civil Rights Center and Museum. Making the presentation are Eddie Davis, NEA Executive Committee member and Joyce Elliott, president of the North Carolina Association of Educators, an NEA state affiliate. Donations will be used to renovate Greensboro’s F.W. Woolworth’s building, site of the 1960 lunch counter sit-in that sparked civil rights demonstations across the South. Three honored for humanitarian service to N.C. By Herbert L. White THE CHARLOTTE POST Three of N.C.’s unsung heroes were honored for their courage and commitment to improving the human condition recently. The Rev. Harrison T. Simons of Oxford, Mother Mary Benigus Hoban of Belmont and Chenay Costen of Sunbury were named recipients of the Nancy Susan Reynolds Awards by the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. The awards are awarded annu ally and cany a prize of $25,000. Each recipient receives $5,000 personally and then can desig- Hoban Simons nate $20,000 for a charity of his or her choice. “We do not have to search for saints or heroes in dis tant lands, in the slums of Calcutta, mine fields of Bosnia and Africa, or hospitals for incur ables in England,” said Stephen Neal, president of the foundation. “Look and we will find them in North Carolina.” Costen is founder of United Family Support Services in north eastern N.C., which offers adult basic education, day care and meal services in addition to home ownership programs for first-time buyers. She has worked on behalf of poor rural people in five coun ties, initiating programs that built economic opportunity and literacy. Costen recently founded a com munity devel opment pro gram. Simons, rec tor of two Episcopal churches in Oxford - one black, the other white - helped bring together the congregations in worship and social ministry. He and his churches have been central fig ures in improving race relations in Granville County, a rural com munity on the Virginia border. Hoban, founder and president of Holy Angels, a nursery for dis abled children in Belmont, has Costen cared for children from N.C. as well as other states and countries. Now 91, Hoban founded Holy Angels in 1955 after a severely handicapped and sick infant was left at a day care center operated by the Sisters of Mercy, a Catholic order. The child survived, and at 42, is employed at Holy Angels. A native of Ireland, Hoban has lived in the U.S. for 71 years, most of it in North Carolina. She has been a teacher and administrator of a college and hospital. “Saints?” Neal asked. “It never would occur to them to consider themselves anything but ordinary human beings who have seen needs and determined to meet them - regardless of the odds. “They have proven that even with limited resources, one can change lives and move people by the powerful force of love.” missed his own deadline of clsar- ing the old complaints by July. In fact, the backlog has grown as investigators discover old cases that lay dormant for years and as farmers come forward with more claims of past grievances. At his age, Tim Pigford says there is no time for delay. Pigford, a Bladen County man who is lead plaintiff in the law suit, is 46. Thirteen years after he claims Farmers Home Administration discrimination drove him from the land, Pigford still longs to return to farming. Duke to keep raee scholarships THE ASSOCIATED PRESS DURHAM - Duke University plans to nearly triple the annual amount of its main minority scholarship program in 1998 despite recent legal and federal challenges to race-based scholar ships. “We think this is the right thing to do,” said Judith Ruderman, vice provost for academic services. “The chips will fall where they may. We’re committed to doing this at Duke.” However, the number of the the four-year Reginaldo Howard Scholars awards vrill drop to five from seven. The award, named for the first black person elected student body president at Duke, has offered $6,000 annual schol arships to about seven incoming black freshmen each year. Beginning next fall, the annual award will jump to 75 percent of tuition for both freshmen and upperclassmen who receive Howard scholarships. With tuition now topping $21,000, the scholarship’s value would be almost $16,000 a year. “We’ve been looking at African American recruitment for a while,” Ruderman said. “We don’t want to lose African American students for reasons of money. We want to reclaim our lost ground.” The announcement came less than a week after the president of the 16-campu8 University of North Carolina system ordered a review of all race- and gender- preference policies. Earlier this fall, the UNC sys tem began assessing its scholar ship program to make sure it complied with a 1994 decision by the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The court struck down a state scholarship program for black students at . the University of Maryland at College Park. Black students make up about 8 percent of Duke’s 6,200-student undergraduate enrollment. The university has seen a recent drop in the number of black high school seniors applying for, and accept ing, admissions offers. A survey of black students who turned down Duke and current scholarship recipients revealed concerns about the Howard Scholars program, Ruderman said. Many of those questioned said they had received better scholarship and financial aid offers from other schools. Duke officials last increased the Howard award in 1984. Rowan Events 9 a.m. - Kwanzaa exhibit, Rowan County Public Library, 201W. Fisher St, Salisbury. Showing now through Dec. 31, Hours: Monday through Thursday; 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 1-5 p.m. Closed Dec. 24, 25, and 26 for Christmas holidays. 6 p.m. - Christmas Party for In-Patients, Veteran’s Administration Medical Center, Social Room, Building 6, 1601 Brenner Avenue, Salisbury. Festivities and refresh ments. Public is invited. Dec. 19 7 p.m. - Christmas Program, Tbwer of Power United Holy Church, 601 W. Cemetery St., Salisbury. 7 p.m. - Festival of Carols, Bell Tower, Comer of Innes and Jackson Streets, Salisbury. Area groups will perform the music of the season by the li^t of 150 luminaries. 7 p.m. - Bible study, Jerusalem Baptist Church, N. Long St., Spencer. 7:30 p.m. - Bible study. Tower of Power United Holy Churdi, 601 E. Cemetery St., Salisbury. Dec. 20 9 -10 a.m. - Intercessory Prayer Line, Jerusalem Baptist Church, N. Long St., Spencer. Call In prayer requests. From 9-10 a'rni. each Saturday morning: 637-3447. 6 p.m. - Everybod/s Birthday, Southern City AME Zion Church, 940 S. Long St., E. Spencer. 6 p.m. - Annual Christmas dinner, Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church, 935 Mt. Tabor Church Rd., Cleveland. Sponsored by the Presbyterian Women. 7 p.m. - Christmas Concert, Rose of Sharon Holiness Church, 255 Camp Rd., Salisbury. Visiting groups from Fayetteville, Raleigh and other places. 8 p.m. - Big Band Music Club Dance, Rufty-Holmes Senior Center, 1120 Walnut St, Salisbury. Featuring the Hi-Llters Band. Sponsored by the Big Band Music Club for interested older adults. Admission; $3. includes refreshments. For information: 633- 7862 9:45 a.m. - Christmas Program, Moore’s Chapel AME Zion Church, 500 Partee St., Salisbury. Sponsored by the Christian Education Department. 9:45 a.m. - Christmas Program, First Calvary Baptist Church, 400 S. Long St, Salisbury. Sponsored by the Youth Department. 9:45 a.m. - Children’s Christmas Program, Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church, 935 Mt. Taboo Church Rd., Cleveland. 11 a.m. - Christmas Program and Morning Service, Hall's Chapel Primitive Baptist Church, 611 E. Monroe St, Salisbury. 11 a.m. - Christmas Program with Worship Service, Fairview Heights Baptist Church, Old Concord Road, Salisbury. 11 a.m. - Christmas Program with Morning Worship, Knox Grove Baptist Church 3500 Third Creek Church Road, Cleveland. 11 a.m. - Christmas Program with Morning Service, Third Creek AME Zion Church, 415 E. Main St., Cleveland. 1:30 p.m. Christmas Dinner, Dorsett Chapel United Church of Christ, 1280 Hollywood Drive, Salisbury. 2 p.m. - Christmas Program, Macedonia Baptist Church, 6734 Macedonia Church Road, Concord. Program will be followed by Christmas dinner. 2 p.m. - Christmas Program, Jerusalem Baptist Church, N. Long St, Spencer. 3 p.m. - Youth Sunday, Church of Christ See ROWan on page 11B
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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