October 19, 1976 BLACK INK 3
BSM seeks reversal of Space Committee decision
By BERNADINE WARD
News Editor
The Space Committee’s Sept. 16 decision
to move Servomation cafeteria from
second floor to first floor Chase has been
met with negative reaction from the Black
Student Movement (BSM).
If the cafeteria is moved to first floor it
will include space presently serving as
Upendo Lounge. The lounge has been used
for several years by the BSM for
academic, social, and cultural programs.
There has been no guarantee that space
will be provided for Upendo on second
floor Chase or anywhere else.
Moving the cafeteria to the first floor
would make 5,400 additional square feet of
space on the second floor. The Space
Committee, which determines space for
University groups, must decide how this
extra space will be used.
Opening a South Campus union on
second floor is one possibility. Parties and
other social events would be held in this
union. A reserve reading room, library,
photography darkroom, and meeting
rooms would also be available.
The Institute of Speech and Hearing
Sciences and the Health Sciences
Research Center will also be given space
upstairs.
The Daily Tar Heel (DTH) quoted
□aibome Jones as saying “The South
Campus population has grown to the point
where it (the Carolina Union) is not cen
trally located for the 3600 students who live
in Teague, Parker, Avery, Morrison,
Ehringhaus, Craig, and Hinton James.”
The BSM has met with Dean Boulton and
Chancellor Ferebee Taylor in separate
meetings and has held a press conference
with the DTH. The organization has
maintained that it would try to get a
review and reversal of the Space Com
mittee’s decision.
BSM Chairperson, Jackie Lucas stated
at the press conference that the BSM was
neither consulted nor informed before the
committee made its decision.
Although he has the authority to reverse
the committee’s decision, Taylor noted he
“had not done so in the past and would not
do so now.” He added that he would sup
port the Space Conunittee’s decision.
Taylor encouraged the BSM to work with
the Space Committee and agreed to set up
a meeting between the two groups. This
meeting was scheduled for Oct. 12.
BSM officers and members met Oct. 6
and unanimously agreed to support a
review and reversal of the decision.
Referring to the Oct. 6 meeting, Lucas
responded, “The goals of the meeting were
definitely accomplished in that the
General Body made a decision and for
tunately decided to back the Central
Committee’s decision to fight for a
reversal to keep Upendo where it is.”
An advisory committee of governors
from James, Ehringhaus, Craig, and
Morrison dorms, and representatives from
the BSM and the administration was
proposed by Dean of Student Affairs
Donald BoiUton to help determine how
second floor space allocated to Student
Affairs will be used.
The committee would make suggestions
regarding the allocation of Student Affairs
space in Chase, and should have held its
first meeting with Dean Boulton by the
time of this publication.
Such space may or not include Upendo
Lounge.
staff photo by Phil Geddle
News Briefs...
Few economic
The U.S. Census Bureau, in it’s annual
study of family incomes, shows few
economic gains by Black Americans.
Not only is the median income for Blacks
(when adjusted for inflation) lower than
six years ago, reports Newsweek, but the
Wonder unveils new album
Donned in a stylish Cowboy outfit and
framed by the plush surroundings of a
rented New England farm, Stevie Wonder
finally unveiled his long-awaited new
album, “Songs in the Key of Life.”
The LP, a 21-song, three-record set
ended a two-year drought for Wonder, who
gains by Blacks
number of Blacks below the poverty line
increased by one per cent.
Moreover, says the report, the per
centage of Black families headed by
females has risen by almost seven per cent
as compared to five years ago.
had not released an album since
“Fulfillingness First Finale” in 1974.
Said Wonder to 76 memisers of the press,
as the album was played, “I hope you
enjoy this, but it really doesn’t matter. I
gave it my all and all is the best I can do.”
Not a stick up: While NCNB teller Susan Baldwin appears spellbound by
photographer, associate Sabrina McDanicl doesn’t seem to care one way or another.
NAACP sued by merchants
The NAACP, along with more than 125
individuals is faced with a $1.2 million suit,
stemming from boycotts in the late ’60s.
The law suit was filed by 12 white
merchants in Port Gibson, Mississippi,
who claim to have lost $1.2 million as a
result of the boycotts. Hinds County
Chancery Court Judge George Haynes
ruled that the NAACP was involved in an
illegal boycott against the merchants.
An appeal bond of $1.6 million was paid
off with the help of the AFL-CIO.
The boycotts stemmed from the feeling
that Blacks, who constitute a majority of
the population in Fayette, Mississippi,
were not adequately represented.
By mid-October of 1965, a Fayette,
-Mississippi branch of the NAACP was
formed. Blacks organized a boycott which
was lifted by June of 1966. Of the 16 stores
that were boycotted, 11 hired Black
salespersons, eight of the nine service
stations took out their third toilet
designated for Blacks and integrated their
regular toilets; more Blacks were allowed
to vote.
Charles Evers, formerly a Mississippi
field secretary for the 67-year-old civil
rights organization, is one of many being
sued. Evers is present mayor of Fayette.
Editor opposes A and T arena
Although a new basketball facility,
currently under construction at North
Carolina A and T State University, will
seat over three times as many spectators
when completed, Maxine McNeill,
Associate News Editor of the A and T
Register, questions the priority given the
arena.
“If the administration had the interest of
the largest number of students in mind,
“she writes in a September 14 editorial, “it
would first alleviate the overcrowded
situation in the dormitories before
focusing attention to the athlete’s needs.
“Faculty members and administrators.
I’m sure, would not live in the crowded
conditions some of the girls on campus live
in from day to day.”
Columnist chides
Howard Lee
The lack of Black support in the Howard
Lee campaign for Lt. Governor was not
due to apathy, but “sophistication” on the
)art of Black voters, contends a local
columnist.
Mark Pinsky, a columnist for the WDBS
“Guide,” wrote, in the publication’s
October edition that “all this weeping and
wailing and somber pontificating over the
failure of Howard Lee’s campaign is
beginning to get downright irritating.”
“Rather than apathy among Black
voters,” he continued, “I prefer to think
that it was then- sophisitcation that kept
them home from the polls on September
14.”
Pinksy further cited what he considered
Lee’s lack of involvement in the struggles
of North Carolina Blacks.
“Since his arrival on the scene,” Pinsky
wrote, “he (Lee) has maintained a con-
spicous silence on the struggles of Black
workers to organize into unions, especially
at Duke and UNC, as well as on the show
trials of various Black activists around the
state.”
Pinsky contended that Lee purposefully
down-played the issue of race in his
campaign, noting, “if one had not seen a
picture of the candidate, met him in person
or watched him on television, one wouldn’t
have known that Howard Lee was Black.”
“At times,” Pinsky added, “his repeated
de-emphasis of his race was almost em
barrassing.”
Ink to move to new office
Frats, sororities should stop dances
“It is time for Black sororities and
fraternities to stop dancing, pool their
monies, and buy what they’re dancing in!”
writes Lillian P. Benbow, former
president and an executive board member
of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.
In a column published in the October
edition of Ebony, Benbow contends, “The
eight Black sororities and fraternities
alone represent more than 500,000
professionally trained men and women
endowed with tremendous skills and
resources. Each organization has a history
of laudatory achievements in public
service. It is high time these groups take a
collective vow of abstinence from the
giving of the annual dance and use the
money and the energy in the iirferest of the
more serious ‘nVeiis ‘ol'BfacK*people.”
Plans are currently underway by the
Black Ink staff to move its editorial
operations into second floor office space in
the Wesley Foundation on 214 Pittsboro
Street says Editor-in-chief Allen Johnson.
“As a growing newspaper, we need an
office of our own,” said Johnson. “The
University, however, instead of ourselves,
should foot the bill.”
The Ink previously has been sharing
office with the Black Student Movement
(BSM) Central Committee in Suite B, the
Carolina Union.
Three years ago. Black Ink was
allocated an individual office in Suite B
before the space was allotted, in 1974, to
the Student Consumer Action Union.
“When you begin to drastically expand
operations, as we have this year,
physical expansion is also necessary. We
particularly need a central office for our
advertising staff,” Johnson said.
The move is expected to be made in late
October, Johnson indicated.