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)

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