mm
VERSATILE DIVA
Actor-singer Heather
Headley comfortable
on any stage/1 D
Headley to perform April
9 at Ovens Auditorium.
SECijRITV‘
^St/IAL^^U
National program
helps entrepreneurs
decrease risks for
customers/7C
Volume 31 No. 28
Cliarlotl
!,l!l,„!l m
$1.00
n«*n«n*»5*DI6IT 28216 SIO PI
James B. Duke Library
100 Beatties Ford Rd
Charlotte NC 28216-5302
i
The Voice of the Black Community
Also serving Cabarrus, Chester, Mecklenburg, Rowan and York counties
Immigrant
rights vs.
security,
economy
N.C. lawmakers
weigh effect on
state and nation
By Herbert L. White
herb.white® thecharlbtteposi com
A nation of immigrants is
wrestling with how newcom
ers should be treated.
The U.S. Senate is debating
immigration reform with an
eye on balancing a risir^ tide
of illegal immigration with
concerns that the nation’s
security coidd be at risk. The .
House passed a bill last year
that woiild build a 700-imle
wall between the U.S. and
Mexico and impose heavy
fines on businesses that hire
illegal immigrants,
Ihe immigration divide
cuts across all lines. At its
core is how the U.S. balances
an estimated 11 million file-
gal immigrants against the
nation’s economic and securi
ty concerns.
“Our top priority must be to
secure our borders, by
increasing the number of bor
der agents, makir^ better use
of technology and having ade
quate facilities to detain
those who are caught filegally
entering our coimtry” said
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-
N.C.). “We are a nation of
immigrants, and we are also
a nation of laws. I oppose any
proposal that provides
amnesty to those who have
broken oui' laws and entered
this nation illegally”
See IMMIGRATION/3A
Statistically, black men have always lagged behind in employment,
education and income. Today, the gap is more likely self-inflicted.
PHOTO/CUFITIS WILSON
Corey Baker of Charlotte blames the breakdown of the family and lack of options for young people as
responsible for the difficulty black men face.
It’s hard out here
for a brother
By Virlanda Miller
FOR WE CHARLOTTE POST
For years, Americans
have bemoaned the
plight of black men in the
United States, quoting
statistics about the num
ber in college compared to
those in prison or tmem-
ployment lines.
The discussion has
become more heated in
the last week as a New
York Tmes article sug
gested the number of
black men who are unem
ployed is actually higher
than previous statistics
showed. Jobless rates are
based on the number of
people filing for imem-
ployment benefits, but do
not include those who are
not looking for work or
who are in jail.
The article was based
on studies conducted by
experts at Columbia,
Princeton, Harvard and
other rmiversities, and
included statistics that 50
percent of black men in
their 20s without a col
lege education were
unemployed, as were 72
percent of high school
dropouts.
The article also claimed
60 percent of black male
high school dropouts had
served time in prison by
the time they reached
their mid-30s, as did 30
Please see ODDS/2A
“I had to be true to the game.”
Corey Baker of Charlotte, on the allure of hustling and drug use.
Basketball a study in humanity for collegian
By Herbert L. White
herb.white®thecharlottepost com
Basketball is making
Chris Clunie a globetrotter.
The Davidson College
senior won a $25,000
Watson Award fellowship
that pays for a year of
study abroad. Clunie, who
• plays forward on the
Wldcats basketball team,
is amoi^ 50 seniors nation
wide who vyere announced
as winners of the fellow
ship.
Clunie, a political science
major with a Spanish
minor, won his fellowship
with a proposal to study
basketball as an agent for
social change around the
world. “Being able to link
my two passions, interna
tional politics and basket
ball, will help me under
stand how the game can
become more than just a
game,” he said.
Clunie wfil begin his year
abroad in Japan in August
as a volunteer at the
International Basketball
Federation World
Championships. He wfil
examine how the event
serves as a tool for interna
tional solidarity among the
24 teams planning to com
pete.
In South Africa he wfil
coach a youth team in the
Playing for Peace organiza
tion to see how it uses bas-
Please See SPORT/BA
. PHOTO/CURTiS WILSON
TEARFUL REUNION:
JoAnn Johnson embraces
Cora Jetter at a recent
reunion of Piedmont Courts
residents. The public hous
ing complex will be redevel
oped into a mixed-use com
munity. Johnson and Jetter
hadn’t seen each other for
more than 10 years.
Charlotte boxer Calvin
Brock aims for world title
fight by year’s end./IC
Liberian warlord nabbed during escape try
ISTERL'AVOSAL PRESS SERVICE
Former Liberia presid^t
Charles Tajdor was cap
tured yesterday by
Nigerian authorities after
he took an unauthorized
leave from Calabar,
Nigeria, where he was liv-
ir^ for since 2003 in exile.
Tajdor, who was about to
be handed over to a U.N.'
war crimes tribimal, was
nabbed on the Nigerian
border with Cameroon,
about a thousand miles
Sum Calabar.
Police spokesman Haz
Iwendi told local media
that he was arrested in
Bomo state, at the
Cameroon border, in the
early hours of this mom-
ii^. He was traveling in a
jeep with diplomatic plates
with a woman and boy and
a large amount of money in
dollars in a trunk, officials
Stale Of
America:
Reversal
Stagnation and some
retrenclment prevalent
By Hazel Trice Edney
NATIONALS-EWSP.\PFH
PUBUSHERS ASSOClAVON
WASHINGTON - In evaluath^
recent nominees to the U.S. Supreme
Court, too much emphasis was placed
on compet^ce and academic achieve
ment while not enou^ weight was
given to basic values, retired federal
Judge Nathaniel R. Jones says.
Jones’ analysis appears as an essay
in the National Urban League’s 2006
State of Black America report,
released on Wednesday.
“One’s fitness to be a U.S, Supreme
Comd justice transcends what so
many focused on during the recent
confiirmation process - stellar academ
ic achievements and a degree of
imquestioned professional compe
tence,” writes Jones, a former lawyer
for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and ex
general counsel for the NAACP.
“While such credentials are relevant,
they shoifid be the beginning of the
scrutiny not the end. The critical
question is one of values, not compe-
Please s
3 BLACK/3A
said. He was escorted
imder heavy security to an
airport in Maiduguri,
Boiho State, where he
boarded a Nigerian presi
dential jet bovmd for
Monrovia, Liberia,
President Olusegim
See FORMER/7A
the box
NEWS, NOTES & TRENDS
Grassroots
opposition
to task force
proposal
By Herbert L. White
herb.while®thecharlottepost com
Coimt Charlotte’s civil rights
and black religious leaders
against a Charlotte-Meddenburg
Schools task force’s recommenda
tions.
The Charlotte-
Mecklenburg
NAACP and People
United for
Education held a
press conference
_last week to voice
their opposition to
what they claim is a McElrath
plan to increase
racial and economic segregation
in public schools. NAACP presi
dent Kenneth White and activist
Richard McElrath of People
United for Education issued a
joint statement annomcing their
opposition.
“As leaders of local congrega
tions and leaders of local dvfi
rights organizations, we oppose a
new regime of segregated school-
Please see OPPOS1TION/7A
• •Ol
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