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1" I f nIjIii1(11(1i 111! 1 i I (1! W-l.-S rar ./cicr '■ILP'JM .}:n:?pr7'' -■ C0LLECT7: c;:;fipLL Hii^L Nc a?" VOLUME 88 - NUMBER 36 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2009 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 30 Durham Branch To Celebrate NAACP Centennial, Will Honor Jenkins, Marsh and Schelp The Durham Branch NAACP Centennial Freedom Fund Banquet will be held on Sat., Nov. 14. at 6 p.m. at the Durham Marriott at the Civic Center. 20I Foster Street. The theme for the occasion is "We Are IDO!" Dr. William J. Barber. II. pr esident ofNorth Carolina NAACP Suite Conference of Branches will be the keynote speaker. "This powerful orator will issue a clarion call to attendee and the Durham Community to remember the important role the NAACP has played in American history, the civil rights movement and its continued leadership to fight discrimination and improve the social and economic conditions of African American", said Fred Foster. Durham Branch president. "The Durham NAACPCentennial celebration is one of many being held across the nation and throughouit this y ear", he added. The highlight of this year’s event will be to honor two life members of the organization with long tenures of service to the Durham community. William A. Marsh. Jr., a distinguished attorney was active during the Durham civil rights movemtint: offering pro bono legal services to freedom fighters. His accomplisi'iments include but are limited to having served as the first black chairman of the Durham County Board of Elections and as such, he was the fi rst black chairman of any of the 100 counties in the state. He later became the first black chairman of the N.C. Board of Elections. He has been inducted into the National Bar Association Hall of Fame and has been honored by the N.C. Bar for more than 50 years of active legal practice. MARSH JENKINS SCHELP Marsh is active in the Prince Hall Bodies of Masoniy and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. He is a member of St. Joseph AME Church and serves as a member of the Senior Steward Board. He is now the general counsel for the African Methodist Episcopal Church. There will be a posthumous honor presented Chester L. Jenkins. Durham’s first black mayor. "Mr. Jenkins was aware that he would be honored and was excited about it. It saddens us that he died before the honor could be bestowed, but we will share in the celebration of his many life works vsith his family." Foster said. Jenkins served on the Durham City Council for seven years before becoming mayor, where he championed the cause of minority/ women business participation in city contracting and neighborhood and downtown revitalization. He led the city’s successful effort to acquire the local bus system and worked with surrounding municipalities to prevent the departure of the Durham Bulls Baseball Team from Durham. He volunteered as a little league baseball and basketball coach, served as chainnan of the Political Committee of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, served in the Prince Hall Masonic Order, was a member of the Sertoma Club and many other oruanizations. Additionally, there will be special recognition of local community activist. John Schelp. past NAACP Vvce president; who has devoted considerable energy to the cause of environmental justice and neighborhood activism across all sectors of the Durham community. Schelp is president of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association. For ticket, sponsorship and other information, contact the Durham Branch office at 682-4930. One Billion in Africa, New Study Finds Special to the NNPA from GIN (GIN) - Africa’s population has reached one billion and grows by about 24 million a year, according to the Washington-based Population’Refer ence Bureau in a new report. The report published jointly with the US government agency USAID, says the African population will likely double to nearly 2 billion by 2050. The study found that on average, women in sub-Saharan Africa have more children than women elsewhere. ’While globally the average woman has 2.6 children, in sub-Saharan Africa she has 5.3 children (which is down from 6.7 children in around 1950). the world’s highest.’ the report said. After 35 years, next Atlanta mayor could be white By Errin Haines ATLANTA (AP) - The city that became a post-civil rights movement emblem of the political power hel(d by African-Americans could have a white mayor for the first time in a generation - a possibiliu that has some in the black community scrambling to hold on to City Hall. Atlanta Councilwoman Mar> Norwood, who is white, is one of the front-runners for the Nov. 3 election, along with City Council President Lisa Borders and state Sen. Kasim Reed, both of w hom are black. All three have bristled at a racially charged e-mail circulated by a black leadership group calling for Norwood's defeat before a possible runoff. If the black candidates split the African-American vote. Norwood may find herself In a runoff, where she could benefit. ‘’Blacks do not return to the polls in a runoff, historically." said Clark Atlanta University political science professor William Boone. ”It's going to be very interesting. This is the election that some folks had talked about was coming." Atlanta, which has billed itself as "the cit\ too busy to hate." elected Maynard Jackson as its first black mayor in 1973. Blacks who had won the right to vote less than a decade earlier rallied behind Jackson, wdio forced the city 's white business elite to open their doors to minorities and adopted strict affirmative action policies. His election solidified the voting power of urban blacks, and the city has elected black mayors since. And while blacks have been the majority population and voting bloc in the city for decades, the demographics have changed in recent years. A large voting bloc - residents in the city's public housing - was erased as Atlanta's crumbling projects were demolished over the past decade. And young professionals, black and white, have flocked to opportunity in the city. In 2000, Atlanta was 33 percent white and 61 percent black. In 2007. the numbers were 38 percent white and 57 percent black, according to the U.S. Census. In addition, blacks may no longer feel obligated to elect a black mayor, Boone said. "You have a young generation of blacks - not native to Atlanta - who don't necessarily see that as something that has to happen." said Boone, who is part of a group that circulated the racially-charged e-mail. "They may be staking their vote on matters more critical than race." However, a group of black community leaders is urging black voters to rally behind Borders, whose grandfather desegregated the city's police force and who was recently endorsed by the city's black clergy, to prevent a runoff that could hand Norwood a victory. In late August, an incendiary and widely circulated e-mail specifically noting Norwood's race began circulating among black Atlantans, encour aging them to back Borders. "Time is of the essence because in order to defeat a Norwood (white) ma\ oral candidacy we have to get out now and work in a manner to defeat her without a runoff, and the key is a significant Black turnout in the gen eral election." the message sent by the Black Leadership Forum reads. "There is an unstated assumption that having a black ma\or in Atlanta is equal to having a black social, economic and political agenda or at least someone in office who would be sensitive to iliai agenda if not a full pro moter of that agenda ... A black agenda would better enable us to have our interests respected by and our influence realized in any administration." Borders is seen as the more formidable challenger to Norwood, but Reed, an Atlanta attorney who ran current Mayor Shirley Franklin's two successful campaigns, was recently endorsed by civil rights icon and for mer Mayor Andrew Young and enjoys suppon from the cit\''s young, black professional community. They and Norwood, a former radio executive who also heads an au tomated telephone call business, are among 13 ma} oral candidates - at least four of them white. Franklin, who became the city's first female chief executive in 2002. is limited to two consecutive terms and will finish her second.with mixed reviews. Borders. Norwood and Reed have all denounced the Black Leadership Forum's e-mail and attempted to shift the conversation away from race. Norwood, who so far has not been embraced by any prominent black Atlantans, would be the first white woman to run the city. For eight years, the petite, scrappy 57-year-old has held a cin w ide post on the 16-member Atlanta council, where she is one of five white members. She said her ap proach is more on results than race. "We all come in our packages," she said. "This is the package I got." Not that Norwood is averse to using racial symbolism. Her campaign headquarters is in the former offices of the Southern Christian Leader ship Conference, co-founded by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1957. And when she won support from the city's firefighters, she announced the endorsement from a shuttered fire station in the heavily black West End neighborhood, home to some of the nation's best-known historically black colleges. David Bositis of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington said cities with large black populations like Gaiy, Ind., Philadelphia. Baltimore and St. Louis have all had white mayors in recent years. "African-Americans are very pragmatic. When they look at politics, they look at what's going to work," Bositis said. "It's perfectly fine if a white mayor gets elected with black support. On the other hand, it's not a good sign if you have... a white candidate getting elected with white votes. It's an indication of polarization." On the Net: Lisa Borders: htlp://\y\v\v.hordersforatlanta.coni Maiy Noi'M'ood: htlp://w\\'w. marynorwoodformayor. com Kasim Reed: http:/hy\v\v.kasimreed.com 1 Ms. Andrea Harris and Rev. Kenneth Hammond were honored by the Durham Committee at its Founder’s Banquet. See photos on page 2. Eddie Davis Asks NC Panel To Add Diversity to Capitol Markers RALEIGH (AP) - The former headof North Carolina’s lamest tea teachers lobby ing group wants to end a moratorium on new statues and monuments at the state Capitol so the antebellum building can reflect the contributions of American Indians and blacks to the state’s heritage. Eddie Davis, the former president of the North Carolina Association of Educators, calls the shortage of minorities in and around the 1840 edifice "segregated history in the 21st centuiy." a local newspaper reported Aug. 31. The Capitol grounds include a statue of former Gov. Charles Brantley Aycock. a leading spokesman for the white supremacy campaigns of 1898 and 1900 that were marked by violence and voter intimidation, and Presi dent Andrew Jackson, who oversaw the forced removal of Cherokee Indi ans from their homelands in the 1830s. resulting in thousands of deaths. The dozens of statues, busts and plaques inside and outside the ante bellum Capitol also salute the state’s three signers of the Declaration of Independence, former governors, and women behind a 1774 tea party in Edenton. Only the Vietnam veterans memorial includes a Lumbee Indian and a black soldier among the three troops portrayed. At a meeting of the state Historical Commission last week. Davis sug gested the addition of a series of plaques to the second floor of the Capitol recognizing historical contributions by racial and ethnic minorities who make up more than a quarter ofNorth Carolina’s population. "We should look for cooperative and jubilant ways to respect the com posite history of our state." Davis said. A historical commission committee will study Davis’ suggestion for a "Hall of Inclusion." as well as other possibilities for recognizing minori ties, to break the moratorium in place since the 1980s. The pressure for who history should honor is omnipresent. Historical Commission chairman Jerry Cashion said he has fielded inquiries about erecting statues to evangelist Billy Graham, who is still alive, and former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms. R-N.C.. who died last year. The law requires an individual to be dead for 25 years before he can be honored w ith a statue. Cashion said. The push to expand the monuments is likely to build as American soci ety grows more diverse, said Bill Ferris, a University ofNorth Carolina at Chapel Hill history professor and former director of the National Endow ment for the Humanities. "We’re changing as a society, and down the road there will be monu ments to Hispanic leaders." Ferris said. Former Helms Aide Closes School System Desegregation Case By Emery P. Dalesio RALEIGH (AP) - A federal judge is about to close the book on a 1967 civil rights lawsuit against the rural Bertie County schools that dates back to the days of separate schools for black and white students, the school district’s superintendent and attorney said Aug. 28. The school district and the U.S. Justice Department had earlier agreed on language declaring the school board had "eliminated the vestiges of its past (legal) discrimination to the extent practicable." Judge Terrence Boyle agreed Aug. 28 to sign the order. Bertie County schools superintendent Chip Zullinger and attorney Carolyn Waller said. Boyle’s signed order had not been filed with the court clerk’s office Aug. 28. Michael Crowell, a professor of public law at the University ofNorth Carolina School of Government, suggested the move is a little unusual because school systems in recent years have not sought to close desegrega tion cases that are echoes of an earlier generation. "The orders were dealing with circumstances in place in the 1960s." said Crowell, who has advised several North Carolina districts on handling vestigial desegregation cases. "The reason a school district wouldn’t go to court (to close the case) is the order’s old, it doesn’t say much about what the school system is currently doing." Zullinger said the 3.000-student district wanted to close the case which periodically needed management attention and incurred legal fees. "You’ve had this 40-year drain on legal expenses," he said. Officials at the state Department of Public Instruction nor the North Carolina School Boards Association say they don’t know how many of the state’s more than 110 school districts still operate under federal desegrega tion oversight. Bertie Countv ' to .school systems for a decade c.'ter the U.S (Commued On Page 4)
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