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WILS 06/20/95
WILSON LIBRARY
N C COLLECTION -
P O BOX 0890
CHAPEL HILL
LING-CH
OLUME 94 - NUMBER 50 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2015 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
NC Black Press, NCNAACP &
NN PA Partnerin Vo terEffort
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Tl NCNAACP, NNPA and African-American
w apers associated with the NC Black Publishers
Relation (NCBPA) have now joined forces for the
ost massive nonpartisan voter registration, education,
obilization and ballot protection movement in North
arolina’s history for the 2016 elections.
Representatives of the NCNAACP met with NCBPA
ublishers Dec. 11 in Durham, along with black publishers
fom two South Carolina publications, and Dr. Benjamin
tavis, president/CEO of the National Newspaper
iblishers Association. All participants agreed that the
icoming 2016 presidential, congressional, legislative
id gubernatorial elections are too critical to the African-
merican community across the Carolinas, and the nation,
rthe Black Press not to be involved in working with the
CNAACP, and also the South Carolina NAACP, in this
ajor effort.
NCCU December 2015 graduates. Related pictures on page 2. (Photo by NCCU Public Relations)
Rev. William Barber
NC NAACP
Groups
Join to
Fight for
Voting
Rights
Mrs. Mary Alice Thatch
President N.C. Black
Publishers
Rev. Benjamin Chavis
CEO, NNPA
‘Don’t Just Live, Lead’ UNC President Tells
North Carolina Central University Graduates
North Carolina Central University (NCCU) awarded 560 diplomas Saturday, Dec. 12, 2015, during the university’s 126 th annual
Commencement Exercises.
Tom Ross, president of the University of North Carolina (UNC) delivered the Commencement address.
His address to NCCU graduates is his final major address to a university audience as president of the UNC system.
“NCCU is a very special place to give my last Commencement speech,” said Ross.
Ross gave graduates advice on how to be a great leader. “To be a effective leader: know yourself; communicate well; care for yourself;
clarify your values; embrace differences; involve others with talent; and take risks,” said Ross.
“We need leaders now more than ever. Each of you can be a strong effective leader,” he told the audience.
Ross concluded his address by advising graduates to seize the opportunity to make a difference by leading for the common good.-
NCCU presented Ross with a formal commendation recognizing his achievements as a proponent for public higher education in North
Carolina.
During the ceremony, NCCU Chancellor Debra Saunders-White recognized Department of Public Health Education graduate Salima
Taylor.
Taylor is a native of Durham, whose been a student leader at NCCU and played a pivotal role in establishing the university’s community
garden in 2013. She conducted a summer internship in Gaborone, Botswana. Taylor will continue her research studies at Brandeis University’s
Heller School for Social Policy and Management before applying to medical school.
Saunders-White closed with words of encouragement to graduates by saying, “I charge you to eradicate the world of fear, because in fear
we will never succeed. Soar and be great, for it is not enough to be leaders but also be change agents. Stand and dare others to do the right
thing everyday ofyour life.”
To view a rebroadcast of the 126 th Commencement Exercises for NCCU, go to www.nccu.edu/live and to view the Commencement photo
album, go to http://on.fb.me/llWB3og.
“The Carolinas is one of the largest regions for reaching
frican-Americans,” Dr. Chavis, who called the Black
ess “...the trusted print voice” in the black community,
Id those gathered. “North Carolina and South Carolina
e key for a massive voter outcome. A partnership
etween the Black Press and the NAACP is critical.”
(Continued On Page 3)
Traffic stop of black legislator
prompts recriminations
By Jonathan Drew
RALEIGH (AP) - The North Carolina Troopers Asso-
ation is criticizing a state representative who said race
layed a role in a traffic stop that resulted in a seat-belt
itation.
Rep. Cecil Brockman, who is black, says in an inter-
ew that the traffic stop on Nov. 30 by multiple troopers
s a pattern of minorities treated with inordinate suspi-
pn.
The stop is captured on dashboard video obtained by
harlotte television station WBTV.
Brockman is heard on the video telling two troopers
at he was angry and suggesting he wouldn’t have been
led if he were a white lawmaker.
The president of the Troopers Association, Sgt. Danny
nkins, . accused Brockman of trying to use his position
bully troopers and avoid a citation. The association
ked its supporters to demand Brockman’s resignation.
Scalia draws rebukes for comments about black students
By Sam Hananel
WASHINGTON (AP) - Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, famous for his blustery rhetoric from the bench and beyond, finds himself
in controversy again after suggesting that some black students might belong at “slower-track” universities.
His remarks Dec. 11 during court arguments over an affirmative action program at the University ofTexas have drawn rebukes from civil
rights leaders, top Democrats and even the White House. And they returned a familiar spotlight to the feisty justice who doesn’t shy away
from calling it as he sees it on issues like race and gay marriage.
Scalia has a long history of making remarks in blunt terms without seeming to care about offending those in his sights, reflecting the sen
sibilities of a staunch conservative born in the 1930s who came of age as the civil rights movement was beginning.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid denounced Scalia on Dec. 12 for uttering what he called “racist ideas” from the bench.
“The idea that African-American students are somehow inherently intellectually inferior from other students is despicable,” Reid said on
the Senate floor. “It’s a throwback ... to a time that America left behind a half a century ago.”
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the comments stand in “quite stark contrast” to the priorities and values President Barack
Obama has advocated through his career. Civil rights activist Al Sharpton, who attended the arguments, said he didn’t know “if I was in the
courtroom at the United States Supreme Court or at a Donald Trump rally.”
Wednesday’s arguments were about whether the University of Texas has compelling reasons to consider race among other factors when it
evaluates applicants for about a quarter of its freshman class.
Gregory Garre, the university’s lawyer, told Scalia that minority students admitted through the affirmative action program fared better over
time than those admitted from the top 10 percent of all schools.
Scalia prefaced his comments by noting that one of the briefs in the case “pointed out that most of the black scientists in this country don’t
come from schools like the University ofTexas.”
“They come from lesser schools where they do not feel that they’re being pushed ahead in classes that are too fast for them,” Scalia said.
“I’m just not impressed by the fact that the University ofTexas may have fewer. Maybe it ought to have fewer. And maybe some - you know,
when you take more, the number of blacks, really competent blacks, admitted to lesser schools, turns out to be less.”
In his comments Scalia was referring to a legal brief from affirmative action opponents on research showing that minority students admit
ted to competitive universities through affirmative action can often struggle to succeed if they don’t have top academic abilities. This “mis
match” theory holds that minorities would be better off at less academically rigorous schools.
The theory has been around for more than a decade and Scalia is not alone in embracing it. Justice Clarence Thomas, who is black, shared
similar views in a 2003 case in which he said minority students admitted to the University of Michigan were unprepared for the work they
faced.
“I just think he’s a pull-no-punches kind of guy,” said Paul Cassell, a University of Utah law professor and former Scalia clerk who also
served as a federal judge.
“He’s also got a very sharp mind and he has less patience with arguments that don’t quite come to grips with the tough issues,” Cassell
said. “Political correctness can obscure correct answers in legal cases and block discussion of the hard questions.”