THE CAMPUS ECHO
EXCELLENCE WITHOUT EXCUSE
ISSUE 17
NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL UNIVERSITY
DECEMBER 3,1992
Spike Lee Reflects On Malcolm X
SGA Wall TVibute To Malcolm X
Kwanzaa Celebrated In
Seven Prong Program
BY JASON WILLIAMS
EDITOR
Withaunified stq)showby oigani-
zations of tfie Pan-Hellenic Council,
NCCU’s first cdebralion of the Afii-
can-American cultural holiday
Kwanzaa ofiBdally opened last night
EstaUishedin1966by Dr. MMana
Kaig^ Kwanzaa is oeldxated na
tionally from Dec. 26-Jan 1, but the
SGA observance will be fion fiom
Dec. 2-8. ‘This is not a hdiday to
. kibstitute Christmas.” said SGA
cultural affairs member Alesia
Fleming. Fleming also said that the
holiday isn’t a honoic one, \t4ieie am
would cddxate a person, e^q^aining
Kwanzaa is a hdiday that can be cel-
d;>rated by peq^e of all religions, she
said.
: “It also shouldn’t be cxxnmetdal-
izEd; that’swiiy alloureventsarcfiee,”
Fleming said.
In all, there arc sev^ {xinci^ies of
Kwanzaa:
♦Umoja (Oo-Moe-Jah) Unity
*Kujichagulia (Coo-Gee-Cha-
Goo-Lee-Ah) Sdf-DdaTnination
*Ujiniia((k>-Gee-M^)CoDective
Work and Respcaisibility
*Ujaninia (Oo-Jah-Mah) Coop
erative Economics
*Nia (Nee-Ah) Purpose
*Kuuniba (Koo-Bah) Creativity
*Imani (E-Mahn-E) Faith
SGA have [banned activities for
eadiday.
On Friday, for exanqde, the fiesh-
man dass will iqxxisor Ujima They
seek he^ in a campus dean-iq) with
students, faculty, staff, and alumni.
“We are going tc^ and ackno ethe
See KWANZAA, page 5
BY IAN SPELLING
COLLEGE PRESS
“My previous five films were
worics of fiction, so I could do
whatever I wanted,” says Spike
Lee. “With Malcolm X, I didn’t
have that liberty. This is a person
who lived and breathed on this
earth. That was the challenge for
me, and it was an interesting
challenge: How was I going to
make this a personal film, put my
stamp on it without betraying the
legacy of Malcolm XT'
Lee, who was 7 when X
was assassinated and didn’t read
the “Autobiography of Malcolm
X” until junior high school, took a
script by Arnold Perl and the late
James Baldwin, and fine-tuned it
Then, with Oscar-winner Denzel
Washington as X, Lee headed to
Harlem, South Africa, Egypt and
Mecca to film his $34 million
biogrtqihy.
“We didn’t want to put
Malcolm into sainthood. That was
agreatconcemofours. We wanted
him to be human. Denzel didn’t
want to do a caricature. He under
stood that would not be right,”
says Lee, 34. “At best, all Denzel
could do was get the essence of the
man. We did not want this to
become a standard bio-pic. We did
not want to soften or dilute
Malcolm’s message. And we
didn’t want thi.s to be a two-hour
television movie.”
To accomplish his goals,
Lee, who attended Morehouse
College in Atlanta and earned a
degree in film production from
New Yoik University, stuck to the
facts. Malcolm Little was bom in
Omaha, Neb., and soon headed to
Boston, here he hustled on the
streets. Not long after moving to
Harlem, N.Y., Detroit Red, as he
called himself, wound up in jail,
where he learned the teachings of
Elijah Muhammad. As the leader
of the Nation of Islam, Muhammad
taught restraint ftom cursing and
fornication, as well as a {foiloso-
phy that deemed blacks superior to
“white devils.”
Upon leaving prison, the
newly dubbed Malcolm X studied
Muhammad’s teachings and be
came a force to be reckoned with.
His powerful words, spoken an
grily, threatened whites and at
tracted blacks, especially one Sis
ter Betty, who would become his
wife. Soon, however, X learned
of sins committed by Muhammad,
and despondent, he left the Nation.
A trip to Mecca revitalized his
belief in Islam, and he returned
from the Middle East no longer
preaching hatred.
Malcolm X was a
changed man, ready to cooperate
with such leaders as Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. in improving the
lot of black Americans. It wasn’t
meant to be. X had alioiated the
Nation of Islam, the U.S. govern
ment, and though the hows, whos
and whys are sketchy, X fell victim
to a hail of bullets in February
1965. No one would ever know
whateffect Malcolm Xmighthave
had, not just on his race, but on
America.
“I didn’t want this to
come off as a historical docu
ment, a museum piece. I wanted
to show that Malcohn is still rel
evant today. There are things
Malcolm talked about that stiU exist
today. We as a people, for the most
part, still are second-class citizens.
The Rodney King videotape,” says
Lee, referring to the beating footage
included in the film’s opening se
quence, “and the cops getting away
with it is an indication of that. In
some way s, things have not changed
that much.”
Lee says what he thinks,
which often gets him in trouble.
However, the media also has a
tendency to misquote the director,
worsening matters. During the de
velopment of X, Lee was in the
news several times. He demanded a
black director to make the movie,
then he went over budget. Then he
battled over the rights for the King
footage. He was also quoted as
saying he would only do interviews
with black journalists and that black
kids should skip school to see the
Malcolm X film.
Though Lee has a rebuttal
Students Respond to
Survey About New
Malcolm X Movie
BY MAURICE CROCKER
NEWS EDITOR
A Dec. 2 poll taken
among 25 NCCU students sug
gests why Spike Lee’s “Malcolm
X” is the hottest topic on college
campuses.
At NCCU, the poll sug
gests, 80 percent of the student
body has already seen the film,
and the other 20 percent plan to.
An overwhelming ma
jority, 90 percent, say they en
joyed the film. Those who didn’t
like the film complain that it is
not faithful to Alex Haley’s “Au-
tobiograffoy of Malcolm X,” wi
which the film is based, or that it
places too much stress on
Malcolm’s racial attitudes before
his pilgrimage to Mecca.
Most viewers, however,
find the film atributeto Malcolm
and to his struggle for racial
identity and self-determination.
According toone viewer, Charles
McNair, “Malcolm’s greatest con
tribution to the African-American
community was the raising of black
consciousness. Malcolm helped the
black man develop pride and
changed the way blacks looked at
themselves.”
Spike Lee’s film and the
interest it has generated in Malcolm
has also changed the way blacks
look and dress. “X” pamphemalia
has become the latest fashion fad.
McNair, who was wearing
a Hii Beta Sigma jacket and a blue
baseball cap sporting the “X” logo,
said that he knows a lot of people
wear the “X” clothes because their
friends are wearing them but that
he has other reasons. “I waited be
fore purchasing anything with the
“X” logo because I first had to
research the man himself and un
derstand just what he stood for.”
to each of the situations, he per
haps sums up his thoughts best
when he says, “A lot of stuff I say
gets twisted around, attributed to
me, or it wasn’t my intent, or I
never said it in the first place.”
In the end, the hoopla
doesn’t matter to Lee. X is fin
ished and out there in theaters.
“We’re not saying, ‘You’ve seen
Spike’s film, there’s no other in
formation on Malcolm. You don’t
have to read “The Autobiography
of Malcolm X.’” If we are suc
cessful, this film will make people
want to read the book before they
see the film or run out to the
bookstore right after to read the
material they missed,” Lee said.
“If their image of Malcolm
had been narrow, limited to one
they got through the white media,
hopefully their idea of him will be
changed. I just want other people
to come out of the theater inspired,
motivated and spiritually uplifted
by what they’d just seen.”
Malcolm X
Survey
We asked the opin
ions of 25 students or
the campus of NCCU
on the much talked
about Spike Lee film
"Malcolm X"
The results
were as follows
80% agreed
10% disliked
it
10% didn't see
it
NCCU Chancellor To Recieve $550,000 Residence
BY ERNIE SUGGS
DURHAM HERALD
NCCU’s new chancellor will
live in a sprawling $550,000 brick
home in Croasdaile, one of
Durham’s most expensive and
exclusive subdivisions.
The Council of State agreed on
Nov. 10 to let the University of
North Carolina system to buy the
6,800 square feet house at 18
Appleton Place for Julius Cham
bers, who become NCCU chan
cellor on Jan 1.
Chambers and his family will
move to Durtiam in December for
New Jersey. He now worics in New
Yoric as director-counsel of the
NAACP Legal Defense and Edu
cational Fund Inc.
Chambers and C.D.Spangler Jr.,
president of the University of North
Carolina system, have said a larger
chancellor’s home is needed so
NCCU can hold receptions and
other money raising activities.
They have said the current home,
a 3,293-square-foot house at 1108
Chowan Ave. in Emorywood Es
tates about a mile south of campus,
needs numerous repairs repairs and
cannot meet the university ’ s future
needs.
The current chancellor’s house
was last permanently occupied by
Tyronza Richmond, who stepped
down as head of NCCU last Dec.
31.
The Herald-Sun reported more
that a month ago that the UNC
system was shopping for a new
house. It also reported that the
search was likely to lead to
Croasdaile in western Durham or
another of the city ’ s most expensive
neighborhoods.
Built in 1982, the Appleton Place
house is owned by retired business
Nelson Strawbridge. It is about 10
miles form campus.
‘[UNC officials} were primary
responsible for trying to locate a
place,” said Clint Jobe, director of
state property. “They felt that this
was was the location that best suited
their needs.”
Neither Spangler nor Cham
bers could reached for comment.
Eforham County tax records put a
$466,570 value on the one-story
Croasdaile home, which sits on
1.98 acres. Part of the lot borders
the Croasdaile golf course.
Of the $550,000 price,
$500,000 will be paid _ up
front.
The other $50,000 will be paid
interest-free within five years.
“That was designed to give the
university the option of raising
additional money,” Jobe said.
Jobe said $250,00 in private
donations has been pledged to
ward the purchase. The sale of the
current chancellor’s home is ex
pected to generate enough money to
make up the rest of the price, UNC
officials said.
The value of the current home,
built in 1974, has been estimated for
insurance purposes at $327,410.
It was built to replace the Shepard
House on Fayetteville Street, home
to the university leaders since it was
erected in 1925.
■ Because the Shepard house was
deteriorating, the 3,293-sqaure-foot
Chowan Avenue home was built,
essentially to specifications pro
vided by then chancellor Albert N.
Whiting.
Based on the insurance replace
ment costs of the 15 other
chancellor’s homes in the UNC
system, NCCU’s new house is the
fourth most-expensive-behind
UNC Wilmington, UNC And UNC
Greensboro.
Under UNC guidelines, a
chancellor mustlive in the officials
residence because of federal tax
laws. a
The chancellor is not required
to declare the home as taxable in
come, because he or she is required
to live there and uses the home for
state fund-raising purposes.
The home’s purchase by the
UNC system also takes it off the
tax rolls- meaning the city and
country get no tax revenue from
the property.
”By Any Means Necessary ” — Malcolm X