DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012
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VOLUME 91 - NUMBER 3
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 30
Perdue invokes MLK to talk voter ID, education
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - The late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. would be
troubled by efforts in North Carolina to require photo identification
to vote and by education spending cuts, Gov. Beverly Perdue said
Jan. 13 at a King holiday event, using pointed words about Republi
can policies at the Legislature.
Perdue, speaking to several hundred at the annual state employ
ees’ observance of the King holiday at a church across the street
from the old Capitol building in downtown Raleigh, said the slain
civil rights leader would say the work toward equality for all people
isn’t complete.
With King’s leadership, she said, access to voting and better-
funded educational systems for blacks improved in the South. Not
ing that a black American is now president, Perdue said new voter ID
laws “are threatening to build new barriers at our ballot box.”
“I believe if Dr. King were here today he would remind the au
thors of those pieces of legislation and laws that to form a more
perfect union we should encourage more Americans of every stripe
to vote on Election Day. Why would he not do that?” Perdue said to
applause.
OMEGAS DONATE TO NCCU - Accepting a check representing the $100,000.00 contribution from Tau Psi
Chapter to North Carolina Central University are three members of the NCCU Board of Trustees who are
also members of Tau Psi Chapter: (left to right) Harold Epps, John Barbee, and Dwight Perry who is the
chair of the NCCU Board. (See story on page 2).
Tuskegee Airmen film being screened at White House
By Suzanne Gamboa
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Star Wars creator George Lu
cas may have had a tough time getting Hollywood inter
ested in a movie about the Tuskegee Airmen, but he has
the attention of President Barack Obama.
The president and first lady Michelle Obama planned
to screen Lucas’ film, "Red Tails,” Friday at the White
House, ahead of the movie’s Jan. 20 release in theaters.
Lucas, a few cast members and some original Tuske
gee Airmen were expected to be among the Obamas’
guests, said Trent Dudley, president of the Washington,
D.C., Tuskegee Airmen chapter.
Dudley, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, called
the White House screening "a tremendous recognition of
all the contributions the airmen made not only in World
War II but the fight against racism.”
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first black aviators in
the United States military. They were trained in Alabama
at Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University, during
World War II as a segregated unit. After being admitted
to the Army Air Corps, they were prohibited from fight
ing alongside white counterparts and faced severe preju
dice but went on to become one of World War II’s most
respected fighter squadrons.
They set themselves apart from other military aviators
by painting the tails of their planes red.
The airmen were honored with the Congressional Gold
Medal in 2007.
Lucas has spoken freely about his 23-year struggle to
make the film, which has an all-black cast, and get stu
dios to market it.
"I figured I could get the prints and ads paid for by the
studios, and they would release it, and I showed it to all
of them, and they said, "No,” Lucas told Jon Stewart in
an appearance on The Daily Show earlier this week.
"It’s because it’s an all-black movie; there’s not major
white roles in it at all. It’s one of the first all-black action
pictures ever made,” Lucas said.
Lionel Spearman, a 1988 graduate of Tuskegee Uni
versity, said he’s driving an hour to Greenville, S.C. for
a showing of the film this weekend and is trying to orga
nize friends to meet him there.
Perdue didn’t mention Republicans in her speech, and the Demo
cratic governor said in an interview afterward her brief remarks were
directed to the entire state. But she has targeted GOP leaders for criti
cism in recent months for sending her a voter ID bill and a budget
that cut state public school spending by $459 million. She vetoed
both bills, and the GOP-led Legislature overrode the budget veto.
Perdue said during her speech that King, who was born 83 years
ago Sunday, would have “spoken up loudly when our leaders decide
to take deep and unnecessary cuts to our public school system.”
King “would remind us that our schools, were on the front lines,
my friends, of 'separate and equal,’” Perdue said, referring to the
1954 Brown court case that began school desegregation. She added
that “the voice of opportunity will remain closed if we in this state
choose not to adequately fund education.”
Perdue also said King would ask elected leaders about unemploy
ment benefits. Republican lawmakers and Perdue were embroiled in
a political fight over extending unemployment benefits for long-term
jobless workers last year that affected 47,000 people. This week, Per
due issued a second executive order- the first order last May ended a
standoff- to allow the state to keep offering the federal benefits.
(Continued On Page 2)
He said the screening of the film by the president sends
a message. But he said it won’t be as effective in Hol
lywood as having millions of people turn out to see the
movie "and they look at the numbers and say, 'Wow, we
were wrong.’ ”
Online:
Red Tails: http://www.redtails2012.com
Tuskegee Airmen: http://www.tuskegeeairmen.org/
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greet Tuskegee Airmen prior to a movie screening
of “Red Tails” in the Family Theater of the White House, Jan. 13. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Durham citizens marching as part of the celebra
tion of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. See photos on page
4. (Photo by Lawson)
A Diverse U.S. Population Will
Not Guarantee Parity
By George E. Curry
NNPA Columnist
The United States’ population is growing increasingly diverse, but
the sharp demographic shift is unlikely to close the huge economic
gap between whites and people of color, according to an annual re
port issued by United For a Fair Economy, a nonpartisan think tank
that studies wealth and power in the U.S.
Each year the Boston-based organization issues its “State of the
Dream” report near Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.
Citing Census Bureau figures, the report notes that whites consti
tuted 80 percent of the U.S. population in 1980. By 2010, that figure
had slipped to 65 percent. And by 2042, whites will become a minor
ity for the first time since the Colonial days.
“If the trends in racial economic inequality continue at the rate
that they have since 1980, the changing demographics of the country
will produce a vast racialized underclass that will persist even after
the majority of the country is non-white,” the report concluded.
Examples of racial and ethnic inequality in the U.S. include:
* In 2010, the median family income of black and Latino fami
lies was 57 cents to every dollar of white median family income. By
2042, the median black family will earn approximately 61 cents for
every dollar of income earned by whites. Latino families are pro
jected to earn only 45 cents in 2042 on every dollar of white median
family income.
* The wealth gap is particularly disturbing. In 2007, at the height
of the housing bubble, the average white family net worth was five
times greater than the average black net worth and more than 3.5
(Continued On Page 2)