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7A ® @ O
NEWS/C^e Cl^arlone
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Road to justice winds
through Carolinas
Continued from page 1A
conveyed through the students, not just
throio^ their tour of Levine Museum of the
New South, but prominent speakers as well.
Summerton, S.C. native B.B DeLaine joined
the students for lunch, and gave them a rous
ing history lesson.
“How many of you can imagine what it’s like
to be in Charlotte and be on Tryon Street and
be hungry, because they won’t serve you in a
restaurant, because of the color of your skin,”
he asked. DeLaine, who lives in Charlotte, was
one of the children whose parents sued
Clarendon Cormty, S.C., schools to desegregate
in the 1950s. Their case, Briggs v. Elliott,
ended up bang one of the five cases consolidat
ed into one case in 1954, more widely known as
Brown v. Ibpeka Board of Education. DeLaine
talked about how Clarendon Coimty parents
pursued the case, despite knowingtheymay be
lynched, and asked the students if they could
do the same.
“My grandmother always used to say Ain’t,
nothing worth havir^ if it’s not worth dying
for,” said DeLaine. ‘You are tomorrow’s lead
ers. You are at a point in your lives that you
need to start thinking about issues you care
about that are worth fighting for”
Despite the gravity of the information they
are learning, and the v^orous schedule, the
students have a positive outlook. “It’s not over
whelming, though at times it is strenuous,”
said Melissa Fuller. “It’s wonderful to hear
what people have to offer. This chance is a once
in a hfetime type of thing.”
In addition to Delaine, Charlotte’s first black
mayor, Harvey Gantt, discussed pubhc service
and his experiences desegregattr^ Clemson
University They also met with Susan Jacobs
and Norm Levin at Tfemple Beth El in Shalom
Park, who discussed the Jewish communities’
involvement in the civil rights movement.
Operation Understandir^ is a decade-old
educational leadership development program
whose mission is to bridge racial, religious, and
cultural divisions by engaging young people in
dialogue that leads to increased understand
ing. OUDC uses a two-community model to
explore Afiican American and Jewish cultures,
religion and histories.
“We find that blacks and Jews have some
what of a special relationship,” said program
director Rad Ndson James. “They have simi
lar histories; narratives of oppression, discrim
ination, being maligned by the larger commu
nity which allows for a common ground that
wouldn’t be there otherwise if you chose two
communities that just existed in the world.
Because of that, we are able to nurture and fos
ter a levd of deep communication between the
kids.”
Students were chosen for the year-long pro
gram by demonstrating responsibility, leader
ship potential and a “char^ the world” atti
tude.
“This time in hi^ school is when people are
really deciding what kind of path they are
going to take in their lives, and weather or not
issues of justice and issues of working on behalf
of thdr communities or other communities is
something they will be committed to,” James
said. ‘I think this program allows for kids to
examine their place within their own commu
nity .. and decide what types of things they wiU.
be involved in college, which will then shape
their adulthood.”
Marcus McNair learned about the program
when James spoke at his school, and after dis-
cussu^ it with his mom, decided to apply
“I wanted to get more information on the
Jewish community and the dvil rights move
ment,” he said “My family is fix)m North
Carohna, and I was hoping, maybe I might find
somebody fiom my family who was important
in the dvil rights movement.”
Though Marcus didn’t find a family member,
the group did find a wealth of knowledge.
“I think Charlotte is important not only for
the history it has here,” said James, who has
led the trip to Charlotte the last three years.
“But it’s also important for the kids to see a
thriving urban center in the South. I think a lot
of people who are fiom the dties in the North
don’t have a good idea of resettlement in the
South, and that’s what Charlotte gives them a
sense of A new dly a growit^ dty a changing
dty a young dty and that’s an important mes
sage, not only fhe history but to think of the
South as how it is in 2006. And how that re
growth is shaped by the past as well.”
“I hope we can create more of a black/Jewish
coalition,” said Aleinikoff “I know there was
one during the civil ri^ts movement, and we
learned how it fell apart. I want to try to bring
it back together.”
From Charlotte, the contingent will travel by
bus to 11 dties in four states starting with
Atlanta and continuing to Birmingham,
Montgomery, and Sehna, Ala.; Meridian,
Jackson, and the Mississippi Delta to
Memphis, Term., before returning to
Washington on July 28.
“I hope that they take fiom this a willingness
and enthusiasm to create change in some-
small or large way in their lives in the future,”
said James. “The most important thing is that
they get the message that change is possible,
dialogue is possible Creating bonds with peo
ple who are seemii^y different for you is a pos
sibility in your life.”
“I really want my sister to join OUDC next
year,” said Deborah Krat. ‘I would love for her
to expaience this, and to be able to pass on
information to her about my summer trip, and
that you learn so much more than you’d ever
learn fi-om your history dasses in school.”
Airmen blazed astronaut trail
Continued from page 6A
quicldy The fellow overshot
me, and this left me on his
tail.” He machine-gunned the
Messerschmitt down.
According to another
accoimt, he passed up a third
“kill” that day to stick with
his primary mission: protect
ing Ihe bomber.
He deflects questions about
his postwar military career,
preferring to focus on the
unit. “I did a lot of stuff in
intdligence,” he said.
The liiskegee Airmen - also
referred to as the schwartze
Vogehnaischen (‘black bird-
men”) and the Red-Tail
Angels - have become the
stuff of myth and made-for-
TV movies. Laurence
Fishbume played the lead in
a 1995 HBO film.
Image mattered to the
black men and women fight-
Whites may have been driven
by hate in rapes of two blacks
By Katrina Goggins
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Two white men suspect
ed of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old black
girl and a black woman appear to have target
ed victims because of their race, officials said
Dustin L. Evans, 21, and Jeremy Shaw
Sweat, 24, have been charged with kidnap
ping, sexual misconduct and assault with
intent to kUi the teenager on July 3. They will
also be charged with sexually assaulting a 45-
year-old woman on June 20, said Joe
Bradham, chief deputy in Clarendon County
“Over the weekend we’ve had others come to
us sayir^ they were approached but did not go
with them,” Bradham said Monday “All four of
these women were black.”
'Hie girl told deputies two men offered her a
ride but took her to a home and repeatedly
raped her, authorities said.
The -victim said the men then told her to get
in the shower and began stabbing her, deputies
said. She fell into Jhe tub and played dead.
As she was lying in the tub, she said, she
overheard the men talk about getting trash
bags and dumping her body in a lake, deputies
said.
When the men left, the girl ran next door for
help, authorities said. She has been released
fix)m the hospital-
The 45-year-old woman also said the men
offered her a ride home, then took her to a
home and raped her, authorities said.
Caucus meeting Sunday
Charlotte-MecMenburg Black Political
Caucus will meet Simday at Little Rock
AME Zion Church at 6 p.m.
For information, call Danielle Obiorah at
(704) 752-8953.
ing for d-vil li^ts at home.
The first black fighter pilots,
grirmir^ for the cameras,
were charismatic, but not too
cocky
For the flesh-and-blood
men, the saga is winding
down. “There’s only a few of
us left,” Weathers said.
He will be on hand to
receive the medal. “If the
president calls you, know
you’ve got to go,” he said.
Evans was arrested Thursday and Sweat
was arrested July 3. They are bang held with
out bail at the Clarendon Coimty jail.
Investigators have obtained letters written
by Sweat in which he claims to be linked with
the Ku Klux Klan, Bradham said.
A counselor at a behavioral facility in
Louisiana, where Sweat received treatment as
a teen, also wrote that Sweat talked about
involvement with the Klan, Bradham said
Investigators have not found any information
to connect Evans to white supremacist groups,
Bradham said. Evans’ wife. Crystal, said
Monday liiat her h-usband is not a racist.
Sweat’s last known address has an unpub
lished phone number.
Deputies are investigating the case against
the 15-yeai'-old girl as a hate crime, Bradham
said.
The state attorney general’s office cannot
prosecute cases as hate crimes because South
Carolina law does not address them, but feder
al law does.
A caU to the U.S. attorney’s office was not
immediately returned.
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