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DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2015
JLUME 94 - NUMBER 45
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
Missouri Just Latest Campus
Where Athletes Prompting
By Ralph D. Russo
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -
Hege athletes are learning the
iver ofteamwork goes beyond
iring touchdowns and win
ner conference titles.
The Missouri football team
ided together to add some
h-profile heft to a campus
test that resulted in Monday’s
Change
resignation of Tim Wolfe, the
president of the state university
system. Wolfe was under scru
tiny for how he handled com
plaints about racism and other
student-welfare issues, and he
was out of a job just two days af
ter the football players indicated
they wouldn’t practice or play
unless changes were made.
creative citizenship
JOLDSBORO (AP) - The president of the North
rolina chapter of the NAACP will receive an an
al $100,000 prize for creative citizenship.
The Nation Institute said Nov. 10 the Rev. William
rber will receive the annual Puffin/Nation Prize,
lich honors people who challenge the status quo.
we prize is intended to encourage recipients to con-
hue their work and to inspire others.
Barber is the minister at Greenleaf Christian
lurch in Goldsboro, and he built the Forward To-
ether Moral Monday movement that supports issues
th as voting, immigrant and labor rights.
He will write an annual report for The Nation mag-
tine, with the first essay appearing in January. The
igazine published similar essays by Dr. Martin Lu-
er King, Jr. from 1961 to 1966.
The award will be presented Dec. 8 in New York
Police investigating 3
weekend shootings in
Durham
■AP) - Police are investigating two fatal shootings in
Durham and a third in which a 14-year-old girl was struck
■gunfire.
Investigators told local media outlets they don’t think
shootings are related and have not made any arrests.
Police say a driver called 911 Sunday morning to report
ead man inside a car. His name has not been released.
Early Saturday morning, officers responding to a call
nd evidence of a shooting but no victim. They later
rued that 33-year-old Santonio Rodriguez Rochelle of
rham had died at a hospital.
Later that day, police found the teen. She had been shot
he leg, and her injuries didn’t appear to be life threat-
ng.
That plan included skipping
Saturday’s game against BYU
in Kansas City, which would
have cost the school more than
$1 million.
It was an extraordinary dec
laration of solidarity coming
at a time when the leaders of
college sports are adjusting to
more empowered and outspo
ken athletes than they’ve seen
in years, emboldened by court
victories against the NCAA -
and now with the ability to vote
on NCAA legislation - and more
vocal than ever thanks to social
media.
“These black football players
understood that they have the
power,” said Shaun Harper, ex
ecutive director for the Study of
Race and Equity in Education at
the University of Pennsylvania.
“That is so rare. I don’t know
another class of black people on
a university campus that has as
much power as these guys, who
generate millions of dollars for
their institutions and billions of
dollars for their athletic confer
ences. Not in our modern history
have we seen black students col
lectively flex their muscle in this
way.”
Harper authored a 2013 study
on black male athletes and racial
inequities in Division I sports.
According to the study, blacks
make up 63 percent of Mis
souri’s football and men’s bas
ketball players, but less than 3
percent of the total undergradu
ate population.
Because they are often shel
tered and controlled within ath
letic departments, black student-
athletes aren’t always aware of
their power, Harper said.
“Hopefully, this situation
raises their consciousness about
their authority,” he said. “If
black men on these teams and
at other places that are like Miz
zou do what these guys just did,
it could be a form of activism
that procures lots of benefits for
them as well as for the black stu
dent collective they represent.”
The rise of the empowered
college athletes goes beyond
race but there is no denying
black athletes have been leading
figures in some of the most sig
nificant recent examples.
Two seasons ago at Gram-
bling, a historically black
school, players refused to play a
game against Jackson State be
cause they were upset about the
firing of a coach, long bus trips
to games and poor facilities. The
university then committed more
than $30,000 to make improve
ments to the. weight room.
Last year, football players at
Northwestern, led by quarter-
back Kain Colter, who is black,
tried to unionize team mem
bers. Colter’s efforts ultimately
failed, but many of the benefits
the movement sought - guaran
teed four-year scholarships and
athletic scholarships that cover
the full cost of attendance - are
now a reality across wide swaths
of Division I.
In March, Oklahoma’s foot
ball team refused to practice
for a week after members of the
local Sigma Alpha Epsilon fra
ternity chapter were caught on
video singing a song that used a
derogatory term for black peo
ple and referenced lynching.
Sooners linebacker Eric
Striker, who is black, responded
with an angry call for change
and became a de facto spokes
man for the team. Striker’s team-
mate, center Ty Darlington, said
he’s not sure what would have
happened if the SAE incident
had occurred during the season,
like Missouri’s situation.
THREE GENERATIONS WAITING ON THE NCCU HOMECOMING PA
RADE are Ms. Malori I. Hughes, Utumn Reynolds, Hughes, Ms. Rebecca Hughes
Gregory and standing Gregory I. Monroe. See pictures of the Homecoming Parade
on pages 8 and 9.
The Durham Civil Rights Mural was dedicated Oct. 17. On hand were veterans
from Durham Civil Rights Movement. From left to right are: Miss Virginia Wil
liams , one of the “Royal 7” - Royal Ice Cream Sin-In in 1957; Ms. Vivian McCoy,
H.M. “Mickey” Michaux, Jr. and Floyd McKissick, Jr.
Georgia officials OK merger of
historically black university
By KATHLEEN FOODY
Associated Press
ATLANTA (AP) _ Faced with declining enrollment, Georgia officials are combining a his
torically black state university with a two-year state college that also has a high minority student
body, creating what they expect will be a stronger institution that retains its black majority and
avoids the criticism that has met similar proposals in other Southern states.
Some advocates for historically black colleges and universities are even hailing the move.
Albany State University’s 3,500 students will join with Darton State College’s 5,500 students
under the plan approved Tuesday by the state Board of Regents.
Staunch opposition to mergers in Mississippi and Louisiana in recent years may have pro
vided a free lesson to Georgia officials as they considered Albany State, experts said this week.
Albany State University’s name, majority-black status and its interim president all will re
main in place as the two institutions merge.
Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., president & CEO of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund that raises
money for the institutions including Albany State, said HBCU supporters should consider Geor
gia’s approach a gift.
"I want to make sure the HBCU community is not always positioned as negative, that you
can never please us,” Taylor said "That hurts us. If we go in and focus on the negative, the rest
of Georgia is going to say: ’We can’t win.’”
Albany State University’s enrollment has dropped 25 percent since its peak in 2011.
Darton State’s student body this fall was 44.7 percent black, 48.5 percent white and 3.3 per
cent Hispanic or Latino. Its enrollment also has dropped in recent years, down 14 percent since
2012.
Based on this fall’s combined enrollment, 62 percent of students at both schools identified as
black. Georgia officials said Albany State is a top choice for Darton State students who go on
to four-year college.