Winston-Sol«fn State Univenily
December 1996
R
NEWS
BRIEFS
Farrakhan Returns Home
Fee Increase
Proposed for
WSSU Students
SPEQAL REPORT
Students at Winston-Salem State
University may have to pay more in
student fees next academic year.
On December 6, the WSSU Board of
Trustees voted unanimously to ask the
University of North Carolina board of
governors for permission to raise fees for
full-time students by $205. That would
bring the amount of fees that each student
pays to S959.
Athletic fees and activity fees would
increase by S50, but the biggest increase
would come in fees for computer and
technology services. Those fees would
increase by SI05 to SI50.
According to Chancellor Alvin J.
Schexnider, the extra money from the
fees would help the university update the
equipment in the computer labs.
BY AMY PHIPPS, STEPHANY
COUSINS, DOUGLAS CLARK
AND QUEN ROBINSON
Staff Writers
The students of Winston-
Salem State University were
granted their wish to have the
Honorable Minister Louis
Farrakhan, leader of the Nation
of Islam speak on campus.
On November 25, he
addressed over 1,800 people in
K.R. Williams Auditorium and
hundreds more via closed
circuit television in Hall-
Patterson and Dillard
Auditoriums. The spcech was
also broadcast on WSNC 90.5
FM, the campus radio station.
Farrakhan delivered a
message emphasizing the
cultivation of knowledge,
character, personal direction
and empowerment to WSSU
students, faculty/staff and
community residents.
Many people arrived two
hours before the speech to
obtain a seat close to the front.
Several times during the two
hour speech, the audience rose
to their feet and cheered what
the Minister .said.
Farrakhan condemned
those individuals who try to
keep part or all of their
knowledge from those who do
not have it.
“Education is not for the
privileged. Education is a
human right. To deny any
human being the right to the
best education is to deny that
human being the right to
human cultivation,” he said.
“Education was given to
the slave to make the slave a
better tool for the master,” he
said. “If a man won’t treat you
right, what makes you think
he’ll leach you right?”
Character was another key
component of Farrakahn’s
message. “Knowledge without
character is a devil in human
form,” he said. Farrakhan
also noted that although
America is considered a
superpower of financc and
military, that “America is
morally and spiritually
bankrupt.” Furthennore, “The
beauty of human kindness
must radiate from within us to
make ‘Amcrica the Beautiful,’
instead of ‘America the Ugly,’
and the degenerate.”
“Nothing created by God
is without aim and purpose,”
he said. He urged students to
address their own personal
needs before tackling the
greater problems of the
community, the nation and the
world. He said, “(Your)
energy should be focused on
the aim and purpose of your
personal life...You must love
yourself to have a starting
place.”
Farrakhan also addressed
ways to become empowered.
“The power of the human
being is in the mind,” he said.
"Knowledge is a key to human
cultivation." He used Jesus’
ministry to explain how “the
power of the developed mind
can control those living when
the body is dead.”
Later during his speech,
he told students that, “White
supremacy and black
inferiority must die in oder for
the spirit of God to live.”
He added that it is the
mindset of the individual that
counts; not the color. “ 1 hate
the evil mindset.” He
supported this statement with
the scripture, “For as a man
thinketh in his hciirt; so is he.”
After the event, students
said that they paid close
attention to Farrakhan’s
message; but were cautious
not to become loo
overwhelmed about what he
said and U'ied to read between
the lines of Farrakhan’s
me.ssage.
See Minister, Page 3
Modeling page 2
Toy Shop page 3
Wordsworth page 4
Library Friends page 5
The Season page 6
Football Review page 7
Germs page 8
Did You Know....
Born in 1821, Harriet Ross
Tubman, became the greatest
conductor of the Underground
Railroad, a network of way
stations that helped Blacks
escape from the South to free
states and Canada?
Angelou, Davis Appear In Benefit
BY LOUQUENDER ROBINSON
Staff Writer
“A Healing Time, A Healing Place,”
an evening of poetry and song featuring
Maya Angelou, Ossie Davis and the Mi.
Zion Baptist Church Inspirational Choir
was held Nov. 22 at the Benton
Convention Center in Winston-Salem.
Angelou and Davis, both
inlemationally known authors and actors,
agreed to support the program for the
purpose of bringing attention to the
church burnings that have recently
occurred across the South. Sixty African-
American and multi-racial churches, most
in the Southeast were burned from
January 1995 through June 1996. A
portion of the proceeds from the general
admission fee will be given to a fund
dedicated to re-building burned churches.
At a press conference held the
morning of the program, Angelou and
Davis answered questions about their
involvement in the project.
Angelou, a resident of Winston-
Salem, has been a member of Ml. Zion
Baptist Church for several years. She
became involved with the program when
choir mistress, Sharon Buford approached
her with the idea of having an evening of
poetry and song to raise money for the
burned churches.
In an effort to enhance the program,
Angelou made a call to her friends, actors
Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis. Dee, who
was preparing for a one woman show.
was unable to participate. “She sent her
love and all that and did a little bit better
than that, she sent her husband,” says
Angelou.
Davis has been concerned for a long
lime about the burning of churches. He
and Gerald McRaney, his co-star on the
the television series, Promised Land,
have taped a commercial asking people to
stop burning churches. Both men were
raised in the South.
The importance of the church in
African-American’s lives is the main
reason for Davis’ participation. “The
church has defined us as a people,
organized us as a people and given us a
See Angelou , Page 4