imiiiiiiii
Hrr WOMEN
Charlotte boxers
compete in U S.
championships/1 C
Tameka Stephens (ieft)
and Courtney Hunter
going for the gold.
FEELING FESTIVE
EdecFest brings arts
and commerce to North
Davidson area/1 D
NoOa business owner and
EdecFest founder Darren
Vincent
Volume 31 No. 25
$1.00
Cliarlotte
The Voice of the Black Community
Also serving Cal
M
WEEK OF MARCH 9-15, 2006
fORD RO
™R1.0Trf NC 28216-530?
King
Center
rift near
an end?
CIAA BASKETBAU TOURNAMENT
%
Attention turns to
‘07 improvements
US. Park
Service likely to
play major role
By Sian Washington
mE.ATLASTA VOICE
ATLiANTA - The dispute
between the King family sib
lings on the direction and
future of the King Center is
close to being resolved,
according to King Center
president and CEO Isaac
Farris Jr.
Following a program spon
sored recently by the History
Makers, Farris told The
Atlanta Voice that there were
a few issues left to be settled
between the children of
Martin Luther King Jr. and
Coretta Scott King, but he is
positive those issues will be
worked out in the foreseeable
future.
“Its been pretty much
resolved. We all want the
same thing. We all want the
King Center to be here long
after we are all gone.
Everything will be worked
out,” he said.
The four children are split
down the middle on who
should have control of the
King Colter. Dexter - who
succeeded his mother as diair
— and the oldest daughter,
Yolanda, favor turning over
the maintenance and control
of the buildings and grounds
to the National Paik Service.
That course of action is
shared by Farris, board man-
ber Andrew Young and U.S.
Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.).
The Park Service reportedly
already contributes $1 million
a year toweirds the King
Center. Martin III and
Bernice King have publicly
expressed their fear that the
King Center would lose its
independence if the Park
Service assumes full control of
the facilities
The group favoring the
transfer contends that the
King Center would remain
independent and the board
would still be in control of the
King Papers and the pro
gramming. They ccffitend that
the federal government would
not be dictating what types of
progranuuing they would ini
tiate
“Why not turn it over to the
Parks Service?” Farris asked.
“Nearly 1 million peofde come
SeeRIFT/2A
PHOTOS/CURTIS WILSON
Fans queue to enter Charlotte Bobcats Arena for an evening session at the CIAA basketball tournament
More than 124,000 fans visited Charlotte for the tournament, topping Raleigh’s 110,000 last year.
After successful first
run, time to take stock
By Chens F. Hodges
cherisJiodgesQ. thecharlottepostroin
Tim Young (right) and Virginia
Union University won the men’s
tournament for the third straight
year.
Aside from parking prices and
traffic snarls, last week’s CIAA
tournament was a success, orga
nizers and league officials say
“The CIAA was a grand slam
for Charlotte, for the CIAA, for
fans, for alumni and for the
economy,” said Lermy Springs,
chairman of the local organizing
committee. “We had a wonderful
time and we expected that. If I
had to grade the tournament
and Charlotte’s first time host
ing it, I would have to give it an
A”
Not that there isn’t room for
improvement before next year’s
tournament.
Many fans grumbled about the
parking aroimd Bobcats Arena.
Center City Partners spokes
woman Moira Quinn said some
visitors had a siiburban perspec
tive about urban traffic.
“That’s not how we intended it
fo be,” she said “The plan was
for people to park and move
See CIAA/3A
Will center eity weleome us after CIAA?
Cheris F.
Hodges
The CIAA tournament
injected some color and life
into uptown Charlotte, but
will the feeling last once the
tournament visitors have
gone home?
I doubt it.
Uptown clubs and bars
turned black for a week, the
crowd was a diverse mix of
regulars and people in town
to cheer on their alma
maters. The women were
stjdish, the men were fly and
everyone was nice. But what
happens this weekend when
my fiiends and I decide to
head uptown to party?
WTll bars that we’ve gone
to BC (before CIAA) revert to
their randy ways? Some
never stopped.
One sports bar in an
uptown hotel that rarely has
more than five black folk in
there at one time didn’t quite
understand • that Friday
night people wanted to see
and hear the Johnson C.
Smith-Bowie State game
and not the NBA game that
they turned the sound up on.
Please See WILL/2A
Support
UrCMS’s
schools
West Charlotte High
aliunni plan rally
c
By Herbert L. White
herb.whited thecharlotteposteonx
Alumni of West Charlotte High
School don’t want their alma mater
shut down.
Weike County
Superior Court Judge
Howard Manning’s
threat to close four
Charlotte-
Mecklenbiarg high
schools has struck a
nerve with suppoiters
of campuses like West Manning
Charlotte, one of the
at-risk schools.
“’It was a pren^er school in the ‘80s
and it can be that way again,” said
Larry Bumgarner, a 1973 graduate.
Manning, who has upbraided CMS
for “academic genocide” in low-per
forming schools, said Garinger, West
Charlotte, West Mecklenbui’g and
Waddell hi^ schools could be shut
down if at least 55 percent of stu
dents fail to pass state exams this
year. Manning, who is presidir^ over
the Leandro lawsuit that alleges
Please see RALLY/6A
GORDON PARKS 1912-2006
Photographer directed ‘Learning Tree,’ ‘Shaft’
By Polly Anderson
WE .ASSOCIATED PRES.^
Gordon Parks, who captured
the struggles and triumphs of
black America as a photogra
pher for Life magazine and
then became Hollywood’s first
major black director with “The
Learning TVee” and the hit
“Shaft,” died Monday in New
York, a family member said.
He was 93.
“Nothing came easy,” Parks
wrote in his autobiography “I
was just bom with a need to
explore every tool shop of my
mind, and with long searching
and hard work. I became
devoted to my restlessness.”
Parks also wrote fiction and
was an acccanplished compos-
Parks
er. Working at Life fium 1948
to 1968, he covered subjects as
varied as fashion, politics and
sports.
But as a phot^rapher, he
was perhaps best known for
See DIRECTOR6A
the box
NEWS, NOTFii & TRP;NDS
Caldwell a
Voice of
Democracy
Caldvi/ell
Charlotte Christian School
sophomore Phillip Caldwell won
the North Carolina Voice of
Democracy competition spon
sored by the Veterans of Foreign
Wars. Caldwell is one of 54 win
ners from a field of
more than 80,0(K)
participants across
the country
Caldwell joins
CTiarles Kuralt as
one. of only three
state winners fium
CTiariotte. The last
was in 1974.
The Voice of
Democracy is an audio essay con
test for students in grades 9-12.
gives away more than $2.5 mil
lion in scholarships and incen
tives.
Caldwell wrote and recorded an
essay titled “How I Demonstrate
My Freedom.” As the state win
ner Caldwell earned a $4,(K)0
scholarship and an all-expenses
paid trip to Washington, D C., to
meet Presideiit Bush and exym-
pete for more than $146,(XX) in
scholarships to be awarded by the
VFW and its Ladies Auxiliary
Exhibit shows country side
of music legend Ray
(Dhartes/IB
Life IB
Religion 56
Sports 1C
Business 7C
A&E1D
Happenings 3C
INSIBE
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