North Carolina Newspapers

in side . : !U - tnz vv nuing i ears -01 JTdf Cooking 'Page 8 . We are no a minority Editorial 14 Sensational Nightingales ; ! ' o celebrate 40th Entertainment Front Money-saving coupons ; Pages 9,11 6 1 rT tUhPS 1)91-380) Words Of Wisdom , : Always mistrust subordinate who never . finds fault with bis superior. . ' John Cborton Collins , There are no uninteresting things, therr are. only uninterested people. ' G.K. Chesterton Volume 60 -number 44 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA -SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1982 TELEPHONE (919) 632-2913 PRICE: 33 CENTS Valentine Wins But Mm By Donald Alderman la Tuesday's 2nd District Congressional election, ... North Carolina's Democrats sent Nashville attorney, I.T, "Tim" Valentine to Washington, but blacks in "the district sent the party a loud and forceful message. ' Valentine's victory came as no surprise as he ran strong in his home base in the eastern end of the 10-county district. The district's counties are: Caswell, Durham, Halifax, 'Granville, Edgecombe, Nash, Pcr- son, Vance, Warren, and Wilson; along : with O'Neal's township in Johnston County. i Running . under the banner of L.H. Foiin tain, the venerated old warhorse who ruled the district for about y. 30 years, Valentine polled about 59,000 votes, com pared to just , under 35,000 votes for ( Jack Marin, the ' Durham lawyer and former NBA basketball player. The ' surprise was the strength of the 'Michaux write-in effort where mostly black voters across the , district gave the v Durham attorney who5 had, been defeated by Valentine and some believe, the North Carolina ' Democratic of the Durham Commit Party in a rundff , tee: on the Affairs of primary just over 1 3 ,000 Black People. votes. In Durham Coun- $; There will be a tenden ty, Marin led the fight lcy that people wont with just over 12,000 votes. Valentine got about 1 1 ,000. The write in polled about 7,500 votes. .. " The message of the Michaux . write-in is clear, and was summed up Tuesday :i night by Willie Lovett, chairman jump to conclusions about you," he said. "It (the yrite-in) is 'a tool you can call on and im prove; an effect. It was worth, it." . Loyett's reference was to ; the Democratic, Party's habit of taking black voters for granted. Durham Committee officials also say the write-in ' effort i wasn't anti-party, but father an effort to champion the best interests of Commit tee members. "We feel we haven't defected from the Democratic Party; we voted for a Democrat Mickey Michaux," said Dr. Lavonia Allison, Durham Committee's political sub-committee chairman. "The only thing we regret is that we didn't get started earlier ... the vote was based on principles." Nevertheless, the message is clear: North Carolina's black voters particularly those in the 2nd District are not afraid to vote vested ' interest, even if it takes a non-traditional tool such as a write-in. Mrs. Spaulding Durham Voters "Change" County Commission By Joseph E. Green and William Bell, who was first Durham County voters sent a elected in 1972, finished first and strong message to the Durham , third, respectively. Newcomer Mrs. County Commission luesaay. uecKy Heron nnisnea secona. Simriv Duti they want change. For the 'good ole boys' who have run Durham County for the last 40 years, the results were devastating. Two black incumbents and a white woman who is expected to change the board's balance of votes not on ly were elected, but the three of them were the top vote getters for the commission's five seats. The commission's chairman, Edwin Clements, finished last and businessman Dillard Teer finished fourth. The balance of power has shifted. Mrs. Elna Spaulding, who was first elected to the commission in 197 Mrs. Heron did well throughout the district, but did extreniely well in the black districts. The Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People decided at the final hour to endorse her. There was some reluctance to en dorse Mrs. Heron because some members believed that William Bell would be lost if the committee en dorsed three candidates. So, instead of playing it safe and telling black Voters to vote only for Bell and Mrs. Spaulding, who are black, the committee took a, bold step and also went with Mrs. Heron. "It was time that we took the in my election." An important factor indeed. At least 25 per cent of Mrs. Heron's vote came from the county's predominately black precincts, gamble," said Willie Lovett, "We decided that we could not play it safe." Lovett said that the commis sion would be a different body with Mrs. Spaulding, Bell and Mrs. Heron. He said "change has been long overdue." : Mrs. Heron, who ran for the county commission four years ago, said, "I was very pleased that the committee decided to endorse me, I think that it was an important factor ' A major issue is who is going to be elected chairman once the new commissioners take office in the first part of December. The voters gave the largest vote to Mrs. Spaulding who continues to be one of the highest vote getters in Durham County. Many people at election head quarters speculated as to whether or not Mrs. Spaulding would be elected the commission's first black and first woman chairman. People at election headquarters were surprised at the fifth place finish of the current chairman, Ed win Clements. A member of the commission for thirty years,.. Clements finished only 3,000 votes in front of businessman Paul Nance. One source, who asked not to be identified, said that Clements' showing in the election would dampen his chances of being re elected chairman. The new commission will have a written affirmative action program. Its three top vote getters have said in the past that they favor such a policy which had been resisted in the past. Mrs. Heron said on election night that she favored an open commis sion that will be more responsive to the people than past one have been. It is doubtful that the voters of Durham County would have been able to elect such a commission had the Durham Committee not decided to take the chance that it did and en dorse three people that the majority of Durham County's residents decided that they wanted to repre sent them. U hi ( If5 ?t k 1 'V " NAACP To Honor T.R. Speight At Pinner By Donald Alderman SPKKiHT Sitting in the office of his Auto Service Center on Fayetteville Road, away from the clank clank of repairs, Theodore R. Speight, gently rolled one hand over the other as he pondered and then answered a question about blacks in business. "Personal freedom was more our concern than the money we thought we were going to make," he said, giving his perspective on the value he puts on owning a business. "A business was our only way to become independent; our only slavation." To Speight, 74, a short man barely topping 5'3" whose face is etched with the lines of time, owning a business paves the first road to freedom and supporting an organiza tion that fights for freedom is the second. He did both soon after coming to Durham from his native Snow Hill in Greene County in 1931 7 ' Then, when i the Durham NAACP Branch was only sixteen years bid, he joined. Speight has been an ac tive member for fifty years. He will be honored November 20 at the branch's Annual Freedom Fund Dinner at the Civic Center on Foster Street. The dinner, which gets underway at 7:30 p.m., serves to raise funds for local, state and national NAACP activities and to honor local citizens who have made contributions of service to the local branch. The speaker will be Leroy Mobley, national director of the NAACP prison program. Tickets for the 8th an nual Freedom Fund Din- ner are $20 and can be obtained from any NAACP executive com mittee member, or by contacting Mrs. Mabel Powell, ticket committee chairman, 688-1923. "I think Mr. Speight is Blacks Turn Bold , Win Big In Election 'i L. K til leader because he is able to follow." Speight has been very active in other organiza tions as well, including the Durham Business and Professional Chain, the ' John Avery Boys Club, and he is an active member of Community Baptist Church, Speight says the fight for freedom involves continuity, and that business ownership should lead the fight. And he adds that Durham blacks have suf fered from the razing of Hayti, a move that saw about 100 black businesses plowed under by an urban renewal pro gram. "The lack of business has taken right much power and influence ... most ' of the black economic strength (in Durham)," he said, frowning in disgust. "Back in the 40s and 50s, you could travel just about anywhere in the country and mention Durham and evervone '"MlitOtt Jordan - Executive Editor In a decidedly bold move in Durham, black voters shifted the power in the Durham County Commission, and sent the state's Democratic Party a not so subtle message. Led by two bold strokes from the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black Peo ple; more than 40 per cent of the county's black voters added newcomer Becky Heron to the County Commis sion, and gave H.M. 'Mickey" Michaux slightly more than 7,500 votes in a write-in effort. In Durham County, Michaux finished only 3,500 votes behind I.T. "Tim" Valentine, the Democratic nominee. Republican candidate Jack Marin carried the county. The Committee, Durham's longtime "siorr racey the risk involve -i ed going for a possibility and maybe losing a sure ty. The possibility was Mrs. Heron, who is perceived as more likely to support Mrs. Elna Spaulding and William Bell in many controver sial votes on the five member commission. But in a race where the top five vote getters in a field of six candidates get the seats, it was possible that Bell could be. defeated. It was a simple matter of arithmetic. It was understood that Ed Clements, Dillard Teer and Paul Nance would get mostly white votes. Mrs. Spaulding would get many white votes and practically all of the black votes, and as usual would likely lead the ticket. Mrs. Heron would also get a sizeable number of black votes, and when you add the black vote, vis-a-vis the Mrs. Heron -Mtf-- Tlta. '., , Bell nowerful black political Committee endorse- il . . . n 11 . r . 11 1 . r,li organization mai usuauy mem, suaneniy oeu, delivers more than 90 per cent of the black vote, Durham Elderly Must i Watch For Con Games who would not get many white votes, becomes vulnerable to Nance, the lone Republican in the race. But the risk paid off. Mrs. Spaulding, Mrs. Heron and Bell finished , 1-2-3, not only shifting the commission's balance of power, but also indicating a ground swell of interest in change on the county government policy body: Teer finished fourth, and Clements finished fifth, just 3,500 votes ahead of Nance. In the write-in, the risk was even greater in some sense, because the Com mittee put its credibility and power on the line. If black voters had rejected the write-in endorse ment, and stuck with the Democratic Party on this one, the Committee would have faced an uphill battle to regain the awesome electorate sup port that makes it a fac tor to reckon with in Durham. But the troops stuck, and the 7,581 votes that Michaux got on a write in don't really reflect the write-in's ..support in Durham, mostly because Durham's voting marhirvff uipro ,ac,as4 beyond. endurance to handle ,. the new ap proach.,'; "It was somethine we naa not naa to deal with (Continued on Page 3) By Isaiah Singletary More than 26,000 peo ple, 50 years old and older, live in Durham County, and a great many of them need help. More than a dozen agen cies in the , county, employing several hun dred people are organiz ed to give that help, ranging from social security, to emergency assistance. In many instances, the elderly person works with an individual employee of an agency, and for the most part has to trust that person not to take undue advantage. 1 According to Ms. Ann Johnson, executive '' at -i director oi me uurnam Coordinating Council for Senior Citizens, that ' trust is a vital factor in ; the effective delivery of .services.' , but oy tne same token, this trust can lead to situations where elderly clientele become vulnerable to various forms of chicanery. A good case in point grows out of a civil suit filed in Durham Superior Court in July where a widow charges that a worker with Operation Breakthrough, a federal ly funded "social ser vices" agency, allegedly bilked an elderly woman out of her home, and then set the woman in the street when she got ; behind in monthly I payments. And, according to of ficials of several local social services agencies, elderly service recipients : must be careful who they trust even an agency ; worker. The officials say they have ho real way of : protecting clients against unscrupulous people. 1 "I'm not sure you, , (Continued on Page 3) . - jit, I -jr Police Beof Up Patrols Shopping Center - fii - i .JJM ? ..ill' I . - -'-s 1111 'ti- ... WIDOW'S FORMER HOME This is the v formerly owned the house, alleges that an employee house al 802 Lee Street here that is the subject of a f of Operation Breakthrough fraudulently obtained Superior Court suit. In the suit, the widow who V the house and then set her in the street. By Joseph E. Green Durham police recent ly beefed up their patrols nea' the Boykin's Shop ping Center on Fayet tevillt Street following the fa;al shooting of a black man two weeks ago. According to mer chants in the shopping area, it is not uncommon to see several police cars and even uniformed of ficers walking in front of the businesses in the 2500 block of Fayetteville . Street. The police have been closely monitoring and dispersing groups of young men who have been congregating in front of some of the businesses. This all comes in the wake of the fatal shooting of Sam Winston, a 25-year-old black man, two Satur days ago. Mortally wounded, Winston died in the front doorway of one of the businesses in the Boykin's shopping center. The increased police presence was also prompted by repeated complaints by the Durham Black ' Mer chants Association that drug dealers and pushers were ruining ' their businesses. "The police are work ing on the problem," said William (Continued on Page 8).