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VOLUME 91 - NUMBERS DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2012 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE:
Term ‘states’ rights’ heard anew in election cycle
By Allen G. Breed
RALEIGH (AP) - Pop singer
■ Kelly Clarkson wasn’t expecting
■ such a harsh response when she
■ tweeted her' endorsement in the
Republican presidential race.
“I love Ron Paul,” she wrote
■ late last month. Later, in a radio
J interview, she elaborated, “He
■ believes in states having their
■ rights, and I think that that’s very
■ important.”
Clarkson received hundreds
■ of replies, some lambasting Paul
I and at least one suggesting that
Raising Renee, Acclaimed
Documentary, to be Shown at NCCU
i “Raising Renee,” an award-winning documentary film by Jeanne Jordan and Steven
, Ascher, will be screened at North Carolina Central University on Feb. 9 at 6 p.m. in the
' H.M. Michaux Jr. School of Education Auditorium.
The film chronicles the struggle of artist Beverly McIver, now the SunTrust Endowed
Professor of Art at NCCU, to provide care for her mentally disabled sister Renee after
i their mother died.
Jordan and Ascher met McIver in 2003 when. McIver, then a professor at Arizona
State University, was at Harvard University on a fellowship. The initial plan was for
a film about a rising star, an artist whose years of hard work were starting to pay off.
i But then McIver’s mother, Ethel, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The disease
progressed quickly and Ethel McIver died in March 2004 — and the filmmakers had a
I very different story to tell.
Years before, McIver had casually promised her mother that she would take care of
Renee when Ethel died — an event that seemed far off and unlikely to intrude on her
life and career. “Raising Renee” is the story of a family’s remarkable response to an
. unexpected crisis, exploring themes of family, race, class and disability through the
' interplay of painting, cinema and everyday life.
McIver, a 1987 graduate of NCCU, returned to the university as a full professor in
12008. The SunTrust endowment, designed for working artists, allows McIver to teach
just one semester a year, leaving time for her to devote to her career as an artist. Her
paintings are now in a major exhibition, “Reflections: Portraits by Beverly McIver,” at
the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, which runs through June.
Seating for the screening of “Raising Renee” is limited. Reservations should be made
by Feb. 3, either online at nttptMtawileftlW^ or by phone at 530-6151.
the “American Idol” winner
choose her words more carefully.
In particular, two words:
“states” and “rights” - which for
some stir memories, even when
unintended, of an era of racial
injustice.
As the Republican presiden
tial campaign has turned south,
into the region that seceded from
the Union 150 years ago, old
debates about state and federal
authority echo anew in phrases
used by candidates, their sup
porters and the news media.
Artwork by Beverly McIver
Even before the Civil War,
“states’ rights” had become a by
word for the protection of black
slavery. And since the late Sen.
Strom Thurmond ran for presi
dent in 1948 as a States’ Rights
Democrat, or “Dixiecrat,” the
phrase has sometimes been la
beled a “dog whistle” for racist
elements in the electorate.
None of that was on Clark
son’s mind. After a barrage of
responses to her Dec. 29 tweet,
the 29-year-old Texan told fans,
“My eyes have been opened to
so much hate.” And she empha
sized, “I do not support racism.”
Sociologist and author John
, Shelton Reed, a professor emeri
tus at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, was not
surprised that someone of Clark
son’s youth would fail to recog
nize the “baggage that ’states’
rights’ carries.”
NCgov’s exit shakes up vote
on gay marriage ban
By Tom Breen
RALEIGH (AP) - Something
unexpected happened on the way
to North Carolina’s vote on a gay
marriage ban this May: Demo
cratic Gov. Beverly Perdue de
cided not to run for re-election,
meaning more voters who op
pose the ban could turn out at the
polls.
Before the Jan. 26 develop
ment, mostly Republican vot
ers were expected to show up to
pick their nominees for governor
and president, and likely make
North Carolina the last state in
the Southeast to block same-sex
marriage.
Now gay rights supporters
hope they have a better chance of
shooting down the constitutional
amendment with more Demo
crats showing up May 8 to pick
a candidate for governor at the
same time. Gay marriage oppo
nents believe they have the votes
sewn up anyway and it won’t
make much of a difference.
“I’m sure that supporters of
the amendment thought that,
strategically, putting the ques
tion on the May ballot was their
best chance,” said Michael Bitz
er, a professor of politics and his
tory at Catawba College. “That
strategy just got blown out of the
water.”
People on both sides of the
question see the referendum here
as having significant national
implications: Gay marriage
will either be banned in a clean
sweep of the South, or there will
be a stunning Dixie rejection.
“Given the fact that this
amendment won’t be decided
by such a narrow slice of vot
ers as it would have been previ
ously, it increases the optimism
from our side,” said Michael
Cole-Schwartz, spokesman for
the Human Rights Campaign, a
national gay rights group. “It’s
something we have to consider
carefully in light of all the other
Judge suspends
Durham DA prior to
removal hearing
(AP) - A, Franklin County
judge has suspended Durham
County’s top prosecutor in ad
vance of a hearing to determine
whether she should be perma
nently removed from office.
Judge Robert Hobgood issued
his order Jan. 27, suspending
District Attorney Tracey Cline
pending the outcome of the Feb.
13 hearing.
Defense attorney Kerry Sut
ton is seeking Cline’s removal,
saying her battles with Judge Or
lando Hudson have damaged the
reputation of the Durham courts.
Cline has unsuccessfully
sought to have Hudson removed
from criminal cases, claiming
he’s been retaliating against her
for refusing to dismiss a murder
case in 2010.
She was elected in 2008 to.
replace Mike Nifong, who re
signed in disgrace after pros
ecuting three Duke University
lacrosse players falsely accused
of rape.
Still, he says, hearing the term
employed by people like Paul -
and also by Texas Gov. Rick Per
ry before he quit the race - “it’s
clear that we’ve turned some
kind ofpage.”
Paul, Perry and others re
ferred to the Constitution’s 10th
Amendment, which states, “The
powers not delegated to the
issues in other states around the
country this year.”
If Perdue’s departure hurts
the ban’s chances, it would be
ironic, given that her objections
to its appearance on the Novem
ber ballot helped convince law
makers to move it back to spring.
Perdue opposes the amend
ment and said she didn’t want
to see it on any ballot, but she
worried that Republicans want
ed it in November to help their
chances in the general election.
Turnout for primary elections is
historically lower than in No
vember, and without a contested
Democratic primary in either
the gubernatorial or presidential
races, there Was little reason for
Democratic voters to turn out in
large numbers this spring.
Mrs. Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans
Farewell to Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans
Duke University News Service
Duke University said goodbye Monday to a woman described as
its “heart and soul,” a historic figure whose “extravagant love” trans
formed the university and its city.
In a Duke Chapel service filled with music and pageantry, Mary
Duke Biddle Trent Semans - who served as a living link between
the university’s founders and its modern accomplishments r was re
membered for her many contributions to Duke, Durham and North
Carolina, and for what Duke President Richard Brodhead called her
“embodiment of unconditional love.”
“She saw more good in others than any of us are used to seeing
in ourselves, and she made you want to be the person she believed
in,” Brodhead told an audience that filled the chapel well before the
2 p.m. service began. “She made this city, this university and this
region better in actuality by the way she believed in their possibility.”
Semans, the great-granddaughter of industrialist-philanthropist
Washington Duke, for whom Duke University is named, died on
Jan. 25 at the age of 91. Her grandfather was Benjamin N. Duke, the
brother of James B. Duke, who endowed the university.
She inspired people across the city and state to be “all that they can
be and should be and must be,” said former Gov. James B. Hunt Jr.,
who joined current Gov. Bev Perdue and other state and local leaders
at the service along with family members and admirers from across
the university, the city and beyond. Hunt praised her as a champion
of progressive causes whose support could bolster political leaders
when they were being criticized, and who also could “fix our eyes
(Continued On Page 15)
United States by the Constitu
tion, nor prohibited by it to the
States, are reserved to the States
respectively, or to the people.”
The shorthand “states’ rights”
came later.
“Any time I hear it, I get this
sort of little twitch, because I as
sociate it with Ross Barnett or
(Continued On Page 15)
“Democrats didn’t want it on
the November ballot because
they feared it would be bad for
them in the presidential and gu
bernatorial races,” said John Di-
nan, a professor at Wake Forest
University. “Nobody could have
predicted at that point that the
May primaries would be much
more contested. Nobody planned
it this way.”
A Democratic primary could
bring out voters more likely to
oppose bans on gay marriage,
said Richard Matland, a profes
sor at Loyola University Chica
go who co-authored a paper last
year that analyzed every single
state referendum on gay mar
riage.
(Continued On Page 15)