Col/
C^^
94 - NUMBER 51
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2015
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
Christmas and ^Gappp &Cew Q^ar/
’s Racist View of Black
Students Based on Myth’
nominee to Supreme Court
By George E. Curry
Editor-in-Chief
George Curry Media
WASHINGTON - Supreme
irt Justice Antonin Scalia’s
w that students of color are
ter matched at “a less ad-
iced ...slower track” schools
n at the nation’s top-tier uni-
sities is a myth that has been
roughly debunked.
Scalia touched off a firestorm
: Wednesday as the Supreme
iirt heard oral arguments in
her v. University of Texas-
stin, a case brought by a re
ted White student challeng-
the university’s affirmative
ion program.
NEWS ANALYSIS
The university selects 75 per-
it of its freshmen class (some
irs it has been as much as 92
xent) through a process that
arantees admission to the top
percent of each high school
kduating class. The remaining
Wents are chosen through an
lividualized affirmative action
gram that considers such fac-
j as demonstrated leadership
ilities, extracurricular activi-
honors and awards, essays,
rk experience, community
vice, and special
circumstances such as appli
cant’s socioeconomic status,
family composition, special
family responsibilities, socio-
economic status of applicant’s
high school and race.
Even though to points are as
signed to any category, Abigail
Fisher decided to sue on the ba
sis of race, saying the consider
ation of race violated the Equal
(Continued On Page 2)
JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA
.eonard, who created
Harvard affirmative-
action policy, dies
WASHINGTON (AP) - Walter Leonard, an attorney
d university administrator who designed an admissions
ocess at Harvard University that led to more minority
jdents being admitted, has died. He was 86.
Leonard died Dec. 8 in Kensington, Maryland, of com-
ications from Alzheimer’s disease, said his wife, Betty
pnard. The couple lived in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
In 1971, Leonard was named as a special assistant
Harvard president Derek Bok. Leonard had already
orked as an assistant dean and assistant director of ad-
ssions at Harvard Law School, where he was credited
th increasing the number of black, Latino and female
The admissions formula he created for the entire uni-
tsity included race or ethnicity as one of many factors
at could weigh in a prospective student’s favor. The
firmative-action policy was emulated by other universi-
s and has survived four decades of constitutional scru-
ly. However, similar policies at the University of Texas
e currently under review by the Supreme Court.
At the time Leonard crafted the policy at Harvard, the
liversity was in danger of not meeting federal standards
r admission of minorities. Bok told Harvard Law Today
at Leonard helped the university become more diverse
sth in its student body and on its faculty.
“The Harvard model provides a standard,” Ronald
workin of the New York University School of Law
rote in an essay for the 2002 book “The Affirmative Ac-
>n Debate.” “If the admissions officers of other univer-
ies are satisfied that their plan is like the Harvard plan
all pertinent respects, they can proceed in confidence.”
From 1976 to 1983, Leonard served as president of
storically black Fisk University in Nashville, Tennes-
e, where he raised S12 million to help rescue the school
)m financial difficulties.
Leonard was born in Alma, Georgia, in 1929. At age
she enlisted in the Coast Guard during World War II.
He attended several historically black universities and
tried a law degree-from Howard University in his mid
is. He worked as a waiter in Washington to earn money
f tuition.
In 2011, Leonard and Bok were awarded Harvard Law
bool’s highest honor, the medal of freedom.
Related story on page 2.
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama dance with a storm-
rooper and R2-D2 from Star Wars in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White
House, Dec. 18. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
Walter J. Leonard, left, in 2011 with Derek C. Bok, a former dean of Harvard
Law School and president of Harvard University. (Credit: Martha Stewart Har
vard Law Today)
Henderson
resident shot,
killed in
Durham
(AP) - Durham police
have identified a man
who was shot and killed
in the city.
Police spokesman Wil
Glenn says that 21-year-
old Jamel Small of Hen
derson, North Carolina,
was found dead in a ve
hicle from a gunshot
wound.
Police responded
around 9 p.m. on Thurs.,
Dec. 18 to a report of a
shooting.
North Carolina redistricting upheld again by state justices
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - North Carolina’s highest court on Dec. 18 again upheld maps drawn by Republicans for General Assembly and con
gressional districts, months after the U.S. Supreme Court told state judges to review boundaries through the lens of its Alabama redistricting
decision. /
A majority on the state Supreme Court reaffirmed its December 2014 decision upholding the boundaries, finding that they still withstood
the scrutiny of federal and state constitutional and redistricting guidelines.
This latest legal inspection also included the U.S. Supreme Court’s majority opinion in March that Alabama lawmakers had relied too
much on “mechanical” numerical percentages while drawing legislative districts in which blacks comprised a majority of the population. The
federal justices threw out the first North Carolina Supreme Court ruling and told the state court to try again.
Friday’s ruling still keeps in place the boundaries approved by the GOP-led legislature in 2011 and used in the 2012 and 2014 elections.
They have helped Republicans expand and sustain their majorities in the state House and Senate and hold 10 of the 13 seats in North Caro
lina’s congressional delegation.
The ruling also makes it more likely that 2016 primary elections set for March 15 will be held under the same boundaries. Two other
redistricting lawsuits are pending in federal courts.
The ruling “once again makes clear the General Assembly protected the rights of voters and established voting boundaries that are fair and
legal,” redistricting leaders Rep. David Lewis, R-Harnett, and Sen. Bob Rucho, R-Mecklenburg. said in a news release.
Democrat Margaret Dickson of Fayetteville, a former lawmaker and a lead plaintiff in the case, said a petition will be filed quickly with
the U.S. Supreme Court to rehear the case. Friday’s ruling reflects “continued misunderstanding of the facts in this case and the law,” Dickson
said.
Dickson is one of dozens of Democratic voters who, along with election reform and civil rights groups, challenged North Carolina’s
maps. They said the Alabama decision affirmed their arguments that GOP mapmakers created too many unnecessary and irregularly shaped
majority-black districts that amounted to racial gerrymandering. They say surrounding districts became more white and Republican.
Looking again at the 2013 ruling of a panel of three North Carolina trial court judges who held a trial on about 30 of the districts and
upheld the maps, Associate Justice Paul Newby wrote the lines still didn’t violate the rights of those who sued.
(Continued On Page 3)