Black Journalists convene in Triangle, pg. 4
( H iOHl K
Durham,
North Carolina
N O R T H C A R O L J N A C E N T R A L UNIVERSITY
Campus Echo
VOl.LiME 89, ISSUr- 2
919 530 7116
CampusEcho@wpo.nccu.edu
NCCU lands $466,000 grant Chambers
honored
for law
practice
By Kendall Jenkins
ECHO STAFF WRITER
Chancellor Julius Chambers’ vision of a thriving
community surrounding N.C. Central University is
one step closer to being South Central Durham
reality and NCCU is a major stakeholder in the the
area’s revitalization.
In September, the US Department of Housing
and Urban Development awarded NCCU a $466,000
grant to revitalize and jump-start the once bustling
communities surrounding the campus.
The grant is part of a program from HUD that
links HBCUs to their surrounding communities. It
emphasizes community involvement and self-help.
NCCU will be teamed with the Eagle Village
Community Development Corporation, the Durham
Housing Authority, the City of Durham, and neigh
borhood leaders and civic groups to address a host
of community issues in Eagle Village—a 1.5 mile
tract of neighborhoods, churches, schools, and busi
nesses—that surround NCCU in all directions. The
grant extends to other communities in South
Central Durham.
Currently, all paths leading to NCCU bring visi
tors down narrow decaying roads through neighbor
hoods that were once swarming business districts.
South Central Durham, wKich is 92 percent
African-American and includes Eagle Village, was
once the pride of black Durham and North
Carolina’s pinnacle of black success. It is now
tagged with the labels of “high crime” and “high
poverty.” Education, household income, and employ
ment rates are the lowest in Durham County.
Eagle Village itself was first conceived in 1996 by
Chambers with intentions of mobilizing student,
faculty, and staff to help uplift surrounding neigh
borhoods and communities. Chambers hoped that a
■ See GRANT, Page 2
Rashaun RucKER/PIioto Editor
This Fayetteville Street home is one of many in Eagle
Village that may soon be renovated with grant money.
Hurricane
Floyd scars
Eastern NC
Leaving many uninsured peopie homeiess,
Hurricane Fioyd has infiicted deep psychoiogi-
cai and economic wounds in North Caroiina.
By Rainah Seumons
ECHO ST AFF WRITER
The news coverage of Hurricane Floyd is noth
ing compared to seeing the misfortune of Eastern
North Carolina up close. The harshest reality for
many North Carolinians is that it is still not over.
In Rocky Mount, store owners were amazed to
see cash registers, washers and dryers floating into
the streets.
Last week the eastern counties received more
rain. This sent area rivers rising again. The chil
dren missed more school, local businesses had to
shut down operation again, and people are still
struggling to obtain housing.
The clean-up process has been a slow one. U.S.
Public Health Disaster Mortuary team continued to
help the state in identifying floating caskets. In
Rocky Mount, the ground is moist and damp. It is so
soggy that mourners are unable to bury the dead.
The death toll is hovering at 50 for the entire
state. The cresting river has made it hard to be
sure. Many people were taken under by currents;
others have died trying rescue others.
People have been injured and killed by
kerosene lanterns after trying to provide them
selves with a form of electricity. People who work
at hospitals, banks or prisons, have been injured or
killed trying to go to work in spite of the warnings
by media or family.
Rochelle Herring, a BB&T mortgage loan officer
said: “ I did not realize how bad it was until I got
out there in it... after I was out there I just called
on the name of Lord to help me reach my destina
tion..” Herring, a Goldsboro native that commutes
to Kinston, was shocked at the devastation just east
of Goldsboro.
“As bad as it here we are really blessed,”
Herring said. “There are some folks that everything
they ever had is underwater. A local family at our
church lost everything to an electrical fire, but no
one was hurt.”
Mount Olive native Ruby Simmons, a nurse man
ager at Cherry Hospital, says she got stuck at work
while the Little River crested around Cherry
Hospital until it looked like a small island. She also
said that she lost her best employee at the hands of
the fatal flood.
“It looks like he was on his way to work and his
truck just starting sinking,” Simmons said. “He was
still in his truck when they found him. I tell you it
is just devastating.”
The funeral homes have had to put corpses in
storage until the ground dries out. Many families
have to get assistance from the Federal Emergency
Management Team to help with the funeral costs so
that deceased family members can be buried.
The rivers are now full of human and animal
waste and carcasses contaminating water supplies.
■ See HURRICANE, Page 3
THEY MAKE MY DAY’
Chambers
William WATERS/Staff Photograpfier
Cortland Parker plays with a puzzle at NCCU Child Development Lab.
Inset: Mariah Alexander romps in the playground.
Daycare has personal touch
By Christine Newman
AND Rainah Simmons
ECHO STAFF WRITERS
It’s morning, just after
snack time at the N.C. Central
University Child Development
Lab in the Diana Dent Human
Sciences Building. Pre-school
ers are singing.
“Crisscross and applesauce
and hands in your lap/Criss-
cross and applesauce and
hands in yOur lap,” a song that
signals to all that it is time to
form a circle.
“Head, shoulders, knees,
and toes/ Head, shoulders,
knees, and toes,” they sing.
“They make my day,” said
Janise Baldwin-Brewer, an
assistant teacher who has
worked with the four-year-olds
for two years. “As soon as I
walk in, they just change my
day.”
Baldwin-Brewer says she
likes working at the daycare
because, with its two class
rooms, it’s “personal.”
According to Baldwin-
Brewer, the staff is working
hard to create a comfortable
atmosphere for the children
and their parents.
“We make the child com
fortable, once the parent sees
the child is comfortable, then
they are comfortable,” she
said.
There are two rooms—one
for the 3-year olds and one for
the 4-year olds. There are two
teachers, two teacher assis
tants, a meals coordinator, and
a director, Beverly Evans.
There are big bright red
and yellow colored cabinets in
both rooms filled with tables
and learning games.
There are blocks and puz
zles, a spot for “pretend play”
with dolls, a kitchen, and a
table. There is also a small
computer with math and read
ing programs.
“The daycare is being
exposed to new technology
and IBM is donating a new
computer,” said Lavonia
Brown, a teacher who has
been with the center for four
years.
This week’s activity
involves the three-year-olds
exploring their families and
homes. The children cut out
pictures they have in their
homes and create a family
tree on the door outside the
classroom.
Karen Thompson, who has
been at the center for two
years, says that the three-year-
olds work on different, self
helping skills because they
are younger.
They need help with tying
their shoes, zipping up their
pants and buttoning their
shirts.
Sarah Stroud, who has been
teaching at the center for 20
years, says that she has a hard
time not laughing when a child
says something a child would
n’t be expected to say like “you
just wait one minute.”
But the center is not with
out its traumatic moments.
Mr. Fish, the classroom’s
fish, died recently. They had a
“toilet funeral.” The children
also made picture tributes and
a poster titled “Good-bye’s to
Mr. Fish.”
“Good-bye fish. I like you
because you swim well and
the other fishy swims well
too,” wrote Adrienne, a child
from the daycare.
■ See DAYCARE, Page 2
By Christine Newman
ECHO STAEE WRITER
N.C. Central University
Chancellor Julius L. Chambers
was selected to receive the
Congressional Black Caucus
Foundation’s Adam Clayton
Powell Award for Legislative and
Legal Perfection at this year’s
Annual Legislative Conference.
The award was presented on
Sept. 18.
The Adam Clayton Powell
Award is given to those who have demonstrated a
notable act and achievement in the field of law
affecting the well-being of African Americans.
In the 1960s, U.S. Congressman Adam Clayton
Powell, a democrat from New York, sponsored the
Powell Amendment to deny federal funds to any
project where discrimination exists.
Chambers attended NCCU, formerly North
Carolina College, graduating summa cum laude
with a degree in history. He then earned his mas
ter’s degree in history at the University of
Michigan. In 1959, Chambers went to the
UniversityNorth Carolina’s law school as one of
the first African Americans to attend. Chambers
was ranked first in his class of 100 when he gradu
ated in 1962.
At UNC, Chambers became the first African
American to hold the title of editor-in-qhief of the
Law Review at a predominately white southern
university. After law school. Chambers continued
his education, earning a master’s degree while
teaching at Columbia Law School.
In 1963, Chambers was the first intern to partici
pate in the NAACP Legal Defense Flind. A year
later. Chambers opened his law practice in
Charlotte, the first racially-integrated law firm in
North Carolina.
Chambers was a lead attorney in the landmark
1969 case in which the Supreme Court of the
United States ordered busing to achieve school
desegregation in Charlotte. Since then. Chambers
has been widely recognized as one of the nation’s
leading civil rights attorneys.
In 1984, Chambers left the law firm to become
director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and
Education FVind in New York. He returned to
North Carolina in 1993, to become chancellor of
NCCU.
According to Dimensions magazine. Chambers
sees practicing law as a part of his lifelong commit
ment to advancing civil rights. In that article
Chambers said, “Some of the students who are
here now are children of those I represented 20
years ago. It’s very satisfying to know that my
efforts may have helped open more doors of oppor
tunity for them.”
Chancellor recuperating
from cancer surgery
FROM STAFF REPORTS
North Carolina Central University Chancellor
Julius Chambers’ recent operation for prostate
cancer was a success, according to doctors at
Duke University Medical Center, who said they
expect a complete recovery.
Chambers, 62, has taken a leave of absence for
several weeks, working from home while a
mangement team led by Gen. George Walls, Jr.
oversees the university.
Chambers’surgery had originally been sched
uled for early August, but was delayed for six
weeks so that additional treatment could be
administered prior to surgery.
The prostate is a walnut-sized gland in the
male reproductive system that produces semen.
Cancer of the prostate accounts for 50 percent of
male cancer cases.
The lady Ea^es cleaned up at the CIAA
Round-up. But th^ stundiled at Mt Olive. Can
they still dominate the Western Division? See
stoiyonpageS.
Echo colum
nist Kim
Arrington
takes on the
“black-white
thing.” Pg.
12.
Q&A with Dr. Jarvis Hall, chair of the
political science department. Hall
talks about his career, working
at NCCU and student activism.
— Page 5
Students transformed by Ghana trip.
Kara Edmonds gets interviewed
about her Study Abroad trip to
Ghana. — Page 2
LaKeeshio Austin serves to St. Augustine’s.
Campus
2-5
Beyond NCCU...
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8
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