mmmmmmmmmrn
The Mighty
(and we do
mean Mighty)
O’JAYS play
Cricket Arena.
Page 1D
$1.00
The Voice of the Black Community
Also serving Cabi
«««*umw5-digIT 28216 Sll PI
James 8. Duke Library
100 Beatties Ford Rd
Charlotte NC 28216-5302
PEOPLE OF PROMINENCE
Bryant
Weighing
in on race
matters in
Charlotte
Panel discussion
with community
leadership
URBAN LEAGUE WHITNEY M. YOUNG AWARDS
PHOTOS/PAUL WILLIAMS III
By Erica Bryant
FOR THE CHARLOTTE POST
Editor’s note: On May 31
The Charlotte Post will host a
serious discussion about race
in Charlotte.
Six major community fig
ures will come together at
the Center Stage in NoDa to
talk candidly about social
and interracial trust - what's
working and what’s not.
WSOC-TV Channel 9 news
anchor Erica Bryant will
facilitate the conversation.
This is the first of a series of
participant profiles.
Harry Jones is
Mecklenburg County man
ager.
‘EB - Describe an event in
your formative years when
you first became truly aware
that because of your skin
color people might treat you
differently.
HJ - 1 recall living on the
Island of Taiwan in the late
‘50s and my sister and I
were the only black stu
dents attending the military-
based elementary school
there. Two things I recall
vividly, the first was our
daily walk to school and
being followed by throngs
of Taiwanese who had not
seen many black people and
who would approach us and
rub our skin with their fin
gers to see if our skin would
cause a stain on their fin
gers. It was as if we were
freaks of nature. During that
same time frame while in, I
believe, the fourth grade our
class was reading the book
about Robinson Crusoe
which made repeated refer
ences to "black savages”
and every time that refer-
Please see A MATTER/6A
Comedian June Boykins, perfoiming as Just June, broke up the audience with her Imperson
ation of legendary comic Jackie “Moms” Mabley.
Mission is to
help others
help selves
Former Urban League president Madine Falls (second from right)
earned the Lifetime Achievement Award. From left, Kevin Henry
(past chairman of the board), Minerva Mitchell (chairman ot the
board) and Geoff Durboraw (vice chair) made the presentation.
The Rev. Claude Alexander, pastor at The Park Ministries, (left)
with his family. Alexander, a former Urban League board chair
man, was recognized for his contributions to the organization
and greater Charlotte community.
Corporate, nonprofit, and
political leaders helped cele
brate the Urban League of
Central Carolina's Whitney
M. Young, Jr. Awards Gala
April 21 at Renaissance
Charlotte Suites Hotel.
The event honored the
Rev. Claude Alexander,
senior pastor at The Park
Ministries and former Urban
League board chair. Former
Urban League president
Madine Falls earned a life
time achievement award for
20 years of service to the
Charlotte area.
Supporters also pledged
their commitment to help
the Urban League with pro
grams that empower com
munities across the region.
The Whitney M. Young, Jr.
Awards Gala is one of the
Urban League’s largest
fundraisers.
The Urban League is only
reaching 2 percent of resi
dents eligible for its pro
grams and services. Coca-
Cola Bottling Co.
Consolidated and Enterprise
Rent-A-Car gave $15,000 to
the Sustaining Campaign
and another $9,000 in
pledges was tallied from
individual supporters. The
campaign's 2007 goal is
$175,000.
Herbert L. White
RiwinN.c.
dnHHmto
dropout
hearings
Participants rare at
statewide meetings
By Sommer Brokaw
THE TRIANGLE TRIBUNE
RALEIGH - North Carolina lawmakers are
seeking public input on how to lower the
state’s dropout rate.
But few people are showing up for public
hearings.
A small group of parents,
former teachers and represen
tatives from nonprofit agen
cies attended a hearing on
dropout reform earlier this
month at Southeast Raleigh
High. A meeting at Shepard
Middle in Durham had a simi
lar turnout. The same hap- Parmon
pened late last year at West
Charlotte High School.
"1 was disappointed with the low atten
dance considering the epidemic we have
across the state,” Charmaine Fuller, assistant
director for the Carolina Justice Policy
Center, wrote in a May 2 e-mail.
Only 68 percent of high school students
graduate in four years, according to the
state’s first four-year cohort rate released by
the Department of Public Instruction.
The statistics are even more grim for black
students with a graduation rate of 60 percent.
Please see DROPOUT/3A
Economics on
national county
officials’ agenda
By Herbert L. White
herb.wHife@ttiechariofieposf.com
Economic development and partnerships is ,
the focus of a national conference in
Charlotte this week.
The National Organization of Black County
Officials will host the economic conference
May 17-20 at the Omni hotel, 132 East Trade
St. The meeting will bring together national
experts to share strategies for improving
county government and partnership oppor
tunities for small business. Of particular
interest is finding creative solutions that >
make government more efficient.
“It gives county officials new tools and
resources on what’s going on around the
country as far as governance," said Linda
Haithcox, NOBCO’s executive director.
Sessions wiD include discussions of 457
investments, environmental justice, afford
able housing and public-private partner
ships. Keynote spe^ers include Carolina
Panthers President Mark Richardson; Ronald
See COUNTY/3A
Urban farms
empower Afriea
By Stephanie Hanes
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo - The
fields that ended hunger for Henriette Lipepele’s
family are squeezed between a trash-strewn dirt
road and a cluster of one-room cinder-block houses.
They are not exactly pretty, at least not in the wide,
pastoral way that one might imagine fields and
farms. Ms. Lipepele’s beds of sweet potatoes and
leafy bitekuteku are narrow and not quite straight;
the patch where she added bananas and sugar cane
seems almost overgrown with competing greenery.
The setting is hardly bucolic.
But these plant beds wedged into the Quartier
Mombele - one of the unpaved slums of Kinshasa,
the sprawling capital of the Democratic Republic of
Please see AFRICA S/2A
GROWING SUC
CESS: Henriette
Lipepele works in
one of the gar
dens outside her
one-room home
in Kinshasa,
Democratic
Republic of
Congo. She start
ed growing veg
etables in 1999
and her family
has not gone
hungry since.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR/STEPHANIE HANES
appreciation: ray gooding
Radio personality was
a man of substance
By Cheris F. Hodges
cheri5.hodpes@fhechariofleposf.com
Ray Gooding, the first
African American to host a
show on WBT-AM, was
always a trailblazer.
As a child, Mr. Gooding
put together a soap box
racer and entered a soap
box derby where he was the
only black participant, said
childhood friend Robert
Johnson, co-publisher/gen-
eral manager of The Post.
“I knew he had the gift for
radio. He always liked to talk
and like to be around
crowds,” Johnson said. "He,
always had an exciting voice
and had excitement in his
voice. He had the radio
voice.”
Johnson said that he was a
strong willed person. “If it
could be done, he wanted to
do it,” he said.
Mr. Gooding, who died
Sunday at age 68, launched
his radio career at WGIV,
3 see RADIO/3A
Ministry works to have
fun and bring young
people into church/5B
Life IB
Religion 5B
Sports 1C
Business 6C
A&E ID
Classified 3D
0©OE
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