Marchers share
their experience
By Anna West
Reporter
Carpe diem! The Junior Classical
League (JCL) has returned to Grimsley
after a two-year absence following a
request for the club to leave the 1993
JCL convention.
Grimsley has had a Latin Club for
these past two years, but was never rec
ognized as a member of the National
JCL, which requires acceptance by the
JCL administration. At the closing cer-
emonies of the 1 993 convention,
Grimsley’s JCL chapter got a little too
spirited and rowdy for the
administration’s liking and was asked
to leave. However, this year the Latin
Club will also hold a chapter of JCL
and will attend the state JCL Conven
tion in the spring of 1996. This year’s
JCL chapter is presently anticipating a
trip to either Paramount’s Carowinds
or Busch Gardens in Virginia in late
spring.
At their first meeting on Thursday,
October 19, the members of the club
elected the 1995-1996 JCL officers.
Seniors Patrick Kinlaw and Anna
DeCasper are the president and vice
president, respectively, junior Sarah
Pendergraft is the secretary/treasurer,
senior Alec Ferrell is the sergeant-at-
arms and freshmen Sam Cone and
Brian Katz with sophomore Ingrid
Chen make up the 1996 JCL conven
tion planning committee.
The state JCL convention is an an
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nual gathering of all JCL chapters in
North Carolina in the spring of each
year. Activities and competitions in
clude a Latin skit in either Latin or
English, a team-built chariot race, a
Latin art exhibition, various athletic
competitions including a swim meet,
track races, frisbee throws, and softball
tosses. There are also two academic
competitions, one in the form of a writ
ten test, and the other, the Certamen,
which is similar to a High IQ Bowl with
questions pertaining to Roman history
and the Latin language. The conven
tion offers an opportunity for JCL
chapters across North Carolina to meet
and get to know each other and share
ideas. Katz says, “One purpose of the
JCL convention is to spend time with
our fellow JCL members.”
Katz and Cone both attended the
1995 convention on the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus
with their JCL chapter from Aycock
Middle School. Cone says, “We got to
walk up and down Franklin Street,
whoop up on Page, and we won the
whole convention!”
At the 1996 convention. Cone hopes
to perform well again. “We want to
win the Omni Award, which you get if
you enter something in every event,
and we hope to have someone from
Grimsley run for a state position,”
Cone says. State positions include
president, vice president, secretary,
treasurer, tribune, and parliamentarian.
As far as goals for the club this year.
Cone says, “We want
to make our chapter
bigger and get more
people to come to
meetings and to be in
volved. We’d like to
have more parties with
more food, too, to in
crease involvement
and excitement at the
meetings.”
“And, of course,
have fun,” Katz adds.
Dr. Frost, a Latin
teacher as well as the
staff advisor for the
club is optimistic
about the club’s com
mitment. “We hope to
do three interesting
things this year at
least. We know what
these things are; we
are undaunted in are
commitment to our
doing of these three
things. If there are
any other things, we
don’t know yet.”
By Brian Schiller
Reporter
At a recent meeting, JCL members shar ed tlicir exitement about the coming year. Pendergraft Photo
JCL returns
It was more than one year ago that Nation of
Islam leader Louis Farrakhan first claimed to
have received a vision from God giving him the
idea to hold an enormous rally directed at black
men to discuss the problems that plague black
communities in America today. ITiis vision was
transformed into the Million Man March.
The march finally occurred on Monday Oc
tober 16, 1995.
Estimates on the
number of black
men that con
verged on Wash
ington D.C. for
the widely publi
cized Million
Man March range
from 400,000 to
2,000,000. When
Mr. Joel White
first heard about
the march he de
cided that he
would make the
trip to Washington.
Jackson spoke throughout the day. The final
speaker was Farrakhan who spoke for two and a
half hours in the late afternoon. Farrakhan’s
speech covered many topics from criticism for
the black men who attended the march to accu
sations about the true motivations and thoughts
of the writers of the Constitution.
“He stepped on everybody’s toes,” said Mr.
White.
Niang said that he saw Farrakhan’s message
as, “You can’t make peace with someone if you
can’t make
peace with
yourself.
You need to
start with
your own
people and
work out
ward.”
One im
portant pur
pose of the
march was to
counter the
negative im
age of young
"The worst thing we can ever
do is not talk about problems.
It is time to bring them out and
talk about them. It is the only
way to work thnigs out. ”
- Mamadou Niang
Blvd.
It was my obligation as a black man,” said
Mr. White, “I wanted to do something to show
I recognized the problems that are in black com
munities, and how much of the responsibility
falls on the shoulders of black men.”
The march, which brought one of the largest
crowds ever to gather in the Mall in Washing
ton, has been surrounded with controversy from
its veiy beginning. Much of the controversy
stems from Farrakhan’s association with the
march. In the weeks before the event Farrakhan
fell under heavy criticism for remarics in which
he referred to Jews, Vietnamese, Arabs, and
Koreans as “bloodsuckers”, saying that these
groups drained money out of black communi
ties but put nothing back. In the past, Farrakhan
has made other anti-Semitic remarics which have
prompted labels such as “separatisf ’ and “bigof’.
Many different groups representing a wide
variety of people expressed their concern for the
march’s outcome. It was feared that the march
might do nothing more than polarize racial
groups in America that were already drifting
apart.
Even now that the march is over, the contro
versy refuses to die. Immediately afterthemarch
the Paric Service released official estimates plac
ing the crowd at 400,000 individuals. However,
march oiganizers claimed that the number was
closer to two million. Mr. White estimated the
crowd to have been around 1.5 million and called
the count of400,000 “ridiculous.”
March leaders have filed a lawsuit against the
Park Service claiming the count was lowered to
reduce the march’s effectiveness. In response
to the lawsuit the Paric Service has considered
ending its role in the business of estimating the
size of the crowds that attend events such as the
Million Man March.
Mamadou Niang, a senior who attended the
march, recalled that after he arrived at 2:00 A.M.
on Monday morning march organizers began to
announce over the speakers the estimated size
of the crowd. There were more than 500,000 by
6:00 A.M., and more than 1,000,000 by day
break. At one point during the day it took Niang
40 minutes to walk the distance of one city block.
The march drew many famous black leaders
to Washington to speak to the crowd. People
such as Maya Angelou, Ben Chavis, and Jesse
black men that is being promoted by the media
today.
“The march proved to the country that the
stereotypical myths and images put forward de
picting the young black man as naturally violent
and aggressive are false,” said Mr. White.
“The worst thing we can ever do is not talk
about problems. It is time to bring them out and
talk about them. It is the only way to work things
out,” said Niang.
Mr. White said that the main effect the march
will have on his life came from the vows that
Louis Farrakhan asked everyone in the crowd
to take on Monday evening. The men vowed
never to raise a hand or a weapon in an act of
violence towards another human being except
in a case of self defense, to never abuse a child
or to allow a child a to be abused in their pres
ence, and to never use derogatory language to
wards women. Mr. White said that the vows
caused him to adopt a stronger commitment to
himself, his family, and the community, as well
as a desire to seek out knowledge of the past of
his people and pass it on to his son and others.
It was these vows ftiat Mr. White also cited as
being the most important potential area for
change to come out of the march. It was Mr.
White’s hope that if all of the participants live up
to their vows, and if they carry these values into
the lives of several other people, and they in turn
affect several more the effects could canvass the
entire nation.
BothMr. White and Niang repeatedly stressed
the harmony and peacefulness of the event as
one of the march’s most important successes.
Mr. White described the march as, “A day of
unity, harmony, andrespecL If it could be dupli
cated a lot of the country’s problems would take
care of themselves, particularly race relations.”
Niang summed up the purpose of the
march, “It was a day of atonement. The rea
son it was called the Million Man March and
excluded women is because we are the ones
that have problems. We are down at the bot
tom of the barrel and we have to uplift our
selves by redefining our roles in society, by
making sure that we can make decisions in
our communities, by being registered voters,
and by working together to make peace with
ourselves before we can make peace with
others.”