6A
NEWS/tE^e Charlotte
Thursday, December 18, 2003
African flimiican support no sure Oiing for Dean
Cummings
Continued from page 1A
Employees International.
He also got the endorse
ment of Congressional Black
Caucus Chairman Elijah
Cummings
^ (D-Md.) last
week.
But the
party’s 2000
presidential
nominee’s
decision to
bypass his
vice presi
dential run
ning mate,
Senator Joseph Lieberman
(D-Conn.), in favor of Dean
has been the most surprising
development.
“It is a line of demarca
tion,” says University of
Maryland Political Scientist
Ron Walters, who has com
plained that Democrats have
drifted to the Right. “For
him, who was the highest
former official in the
Democratic Party leader
ship, to now apparently
break with that and is sup
porting Dean, means that he
supports a change in the
party’s direction.”
And because of Gore’s pop
ularity among African-
CMS
board
Collins
Americans - he won a larger
percentage of the black vote
than Bill Clinton — political
observers are eager to see if
that popularity can be trans
ferred to Dean.
“This gives Howard Dean
some inroads into the black
community because A1 Gore,
Uke Bill Clinton, was very
well respected, but Howard
Dean ultimately has to reach
out to African Americans,”
says Brazile, the only
African American to manage
the campaign of a non-black
presidential candidate.
Some observers feel that
political endorsements are
overrated.
“[Jesse] Jackson Sr. didn’t
have the endorsement of
black leaders in ’84 and he
still got about 70 percent of
the black primary vote,”
observes Katherine Tate,
chairwoman of the
Department of Political
Science at the University of
California at Irvine.
Jesse Jackson Sr. has
made no endorsement, but
issued a statement saying
the endorsements of
Congressional Black Caucus
members and A1 Gore are
“pivotal' milestones on the
road to the White House for
Howard Dean.”
Cummings says his
endorsement of Dean is indi
vidual; not as chair of the 39-
member CBC, which
appears to be stratified.
Veteran CBC member
Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y),
endorsed former Gen.
Wesley Clark last week.
When Clark told an audi
ence about his work for affir
mative action in the armed
services, Rangel responded.
"The biggest contribution
that this general can make
for civil rights equity and
justice in this coimtry is to
get rid of George Bush.”
Also, former CBC
Chairman Rep. James E.
Clybum (D-S.C.) endorsed
Rep. Dick Gephardt, former
House Democratic leader.
During a teleconference,
Clybum said: “I will work
tirelessly for him.”
Continued from page 1A
made,” she said.
The board also voted to
modify the current
Lansdowne Elementary
boundary to allow a small
area (Old Salem/Meredith)
to have Sharon Elementary
as a home school. This area
will feed to
Alexander
Graham
Middle and
Myers Park
High instead
0 f
McClintock
Middle and
E a S' t
Mecklenburg
High.
According to a spokesman
from the school system, the
change will only affect about
37 students.
The vote sends a mixed sig
nal on the board’s direction,
said the Rev. Dwayne
Collins, a community
activist who sued CMS to
keep its race-based student
assignment plan in place,
“If that vote is any indica
tion of what will play out, it’s
not going to be good for peo
ple who suffer from high-
poverty, low-performing
schools,” he said.
School choice has been an
area of controversy for the
school district, prompting
lawsuits from black parents
and bringing up memories of
a time when school were sep
arate but imequal. Cramer
admits the choice plan has
flaws because it is a compro
mise, but it also has
strengths.
“Strong public schools are
vital to this community,” she
said.
Collins agrees with the
goal, but criticizes the
method, which he said has
resegregated inner city
schools to low-income blacks
and Hispanics. Ensuring
their educational opportuni
ties “is going to take a
groundsweU of activism,” he
said.
“The onus is really on the
people who are getting the
thorns instead of the fruits of
what Charlotte-
Mecklenburg has to offer.”
Cramer said the board
plans to look at ways to
make many inner city
schools more attractive to
parents, that way alleviating
overcrowding at some subur
ban schools in the system.
“There is a lot of tweaking
that can be done to the
choice plan,” she said,
adding no major changes are
planned in the first three
years of the plan. “There are
no simple answers in any of
this,” she said, ‘Tf there were
then they would have been
implemented.”
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