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VOLUME 97 - NUMBER 51
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2018
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
State grants Enfield native
historical marker; Editor
and publisher Louis Austin
Members of St. Joseph AME Church Giri Scout Troop 711 on a float in this
year’s Durham Christmas Parade.
New voter ID law
immediately challenged
in North Carolina court
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - The North Carolina
law detailing a new voter photo identifica
tion requirement got challenged in court
Dec. 19 mere moments after the Republi
can-led General Assembly completed the
override of Democratic Gov. Roy Coo
per’s veto of the measure.
Six voters filed the lawsuit in Wake
County court less than 15 minutes after
the state House finished the override in a
mostly party-line 72-40 vote. The Senate
already voted to override Dec. 18.
The photo ID law implements a con
stitutional amendment approved in a ref
erendum last month that mandates photo
identification to vote in person, with ex
ceptions allowed. Still, the plaintiffs con
tend the law violates the state constitution
and should be blocked, saying it retains
requirements within a 2013 photo ID law
that federal judges struck down.
The- voters - five black residents and
one described as biracial - say the restric
tions will harm African-American and
American Indian residents disproportion
ately and unduly burden the right to vote.
It also creates a financial cost to voting in
the form of lost work times and the need to
secure transportation to obtain an ID, the
lawsuit said.
“The General Assembly has simply re
produced the court-identified racially dis
criminatory intent it manifested a mere
five years ago when it enacted a very simi
lar voter ID requirement,” according to the
plaintiffs’ lawyers. Some of the attorneys
work for an organization that helped chal
lenge the 2013 law. That litigation took
nearly four years to resolve.
Before and after the lawsuit was filed
Dec. 19, Republican lawmakers said the
implementing legislation carries out what
55 percent of voters who supported the
referendum in November wanted. GOP
legislators rejected Cooper’s veto mes
sage that the bill was a “sinister and cyni
cal” attempt to suppress the voting rights
of minorities, the poor and the elderly.
Rather, they said, it was designed to dis
courage voter fraud and increase the pub
lic’s confidence in elections.
“You have betrayed the majority of the
hard-working, honest people ofNorth Car
olina who put this provision into our con
stitution,” Rep. Jimmy Dixon, a Duplin
County Republican, referring to Cooper.
“You should hang your head in shame.”
The measure expands the number of
qualifying IDs that could be used when
voting compared to the 2013 law, includ
ing the creation of a new free voter photo
card produced by county elections board.
Student IDs for public and private col
leges and universities and community col
leges, as well as employee ID cards for
state and local governments, would now
qualify if they meet certain security thresh
olds. People having trouble obtaining an
ID could fill out forms at the polling site,
and their ballots likely would be counted,
too, supporters said. The law also directs
state election officials to determine how to
comply the ID rules to people seeking to
vote with mail-in absentee ballots.
House Democrats said the measure is
inherently unfair and responds to inci
dences of confirmed voter impersonation
that are few to non-existent.
“The only reason that you can give
(for the law) is to suppress the vote,” said
Rep. Mickey Michaux, a Durham County
Democrat and civil rights activist during
the 1950s and 1960s. The 88-year-old
Michaux is retiring from the House this
month after 40 years.
The law would largely take effect
when municipal elections occur next fall.
Wednesday’s (Dec. 19) lawsuit also asks
that a three-judge panel of state judges
prevent the law from being enforced dur
ing the litigation. Any appeals would go to
the state Supreme Court.
Anchor fired for race
comments gets new
. broadcasting job
PITTSBURGH (AP) - A Pittsburgh
newscaster who was previously fired for
comments deemed racially insensitive
about a shooting has a new job in broad
casting.
KDKA-AM News Radio 1020 an
nounced Dec. 20 that it hired former
WTAE-TV anchor Wendy Bell as part of
its on-air team for 2019. Bell will serve as a
mid-day host alongside Marty Griffin.
Bell said in a statement that she is look
ing forward to the job.
WTAE-TV fired Bell in 2016 after she
made comments on Facebook about a
shooting of five people in a Pittsburgh sub
urb, speculating the gunmen were black
men with multiple siblings and from mul
tiple fathers.
She later filed a lawsuit against the sta
tion, alleging the station violated her civil
rights by firing her. The lawsuit was settled
earlier this year, and terms were not dis
closed.
Austin used
newspaper to
fight in the long
Black freedom
struggle
North Carolina will help the
town of Enfield recognize one of
its native sons in the summer.
The late Louis Austin, who
served from 1927-1971 as ed
itor-in-chief and publisher of
the Durham-based publication,
Carolina Times, will be honored
in a historical marker ceremony
likely in May or June, according
to Ansley Wegner, the admin
istrator of the state’s Highway
Historical Marker Program.
“The marker will be ordered
around March and should be
delivered to DOT (Department
of Transportation) in June,” she
said in an e-mail.
Rodney D. Pierce, an Sth
grade Social Studies and Civics
& Economics teacher at William
R. Davie Middle STEM Acad
emy, applied for the marker in
November and was notified this
week that the application had
been approved.
Pierce learned about Aus
tin while leading a group of the
Halifax County Schools Dis
trict’s secondary history teach
ers in creating a curriculum cen
tered around the Tillery History
House. During a professional de
velopment session, he met Will
Goldsmith, a Ph.D. candidate
at Duke University and former
Teach for America instructor
at Northwest Halifax, who had
Austin’s biography, Louis Aus
tin and the Carolina Times, sit
ting on a table spread out with
other books.
“During the course of person
al research I’ve done on Black
history in the county, particular
ly around what we call the long
Black freedom struggle or the
long civil rights movement, the
Carolina Times had been an in
valuable resource,” said Pierce.
“So it immediately caught my
eye. While discussing the book
with Will, he told me Mr. Austin
was from Enfield. I was blown
away. . '
“When I started researching
Austin, I learned that in 2017 the
city of Durham, where he really
made his mark with the newspa
per, dedicated a history grove to
him that’s located in Solite Park.
I found out last week that he has
his own exhibit at the Museum
of Durham History. If I didn’t
know who Louis Austin was, I
was sure my students didn’t, and
there’s nothing here in the county
recognizing him and his achieve
ments. I wanted to change that.”
Born in 1898, Austin came of
age at the nadir of the Jim. Crow
era and became a transformative
leader ofthe long Black freedom
struggle in the state. His father
William, who ran a farm and
barbershop in Enfield where he
cut the hair of White customers,
taught him at an early age to stand
up for his rights. Austin finished
high school at the historic Joseph
K. Brick School just outside of
the town and completed college
at N.C. Central University (then
the National Training School).
He purchased the then Stan
dard Advertiser in 1927 and
changed the name to The Caroli
na Times. From that year to Aus
tin’s death in 1971, he operated
what became the preeminent
Black newspaper in the state, us
ing the power of
EDITOR PUBLISHER LOUIS E/ AUSTIN
the press to voice the anger of
Black Carolinians, and to turn
that anger into action. His career
as a journalist and activist dur
ing the Great Depression, World
War 11, and the postwar civil
rights movement helped pioneer
radical tactics including anti-
segregation lawsuits, boycotts
of segregated movie theaters
and White-owned stores that re
fused to hire Black workers, and
African-American voting rights
campaigns based on political
participation in the Democratic
Party. While lobbying for inte
gration of public schools, he also
used his platform to advocate for
equal pay for Black teachers and
equal funding of Black schools,
denounced police brutality, de
manded equal employment op
portunity for African Americans
and legal action as a recourse for
equity in education. Austin was
elected a justice of the peace in
1934 in Durham and co-founded
the Durham Committee on Ne
gro Affairs (today the Durham
Committee on the Affairs of
Black People).
In May, Pierce contacted Dr.
Jerry Getshenhom, the author of
Austin’s biography and a history
professor at Austin’s alma mater,
N.C. Central University, for as
sistance. Gershenhorn put him
in touch with Austin’s grand
son, Kenneth Edmonds, who
still publishes the paper today, to
get the blessing of the family to
pursue the marker. The Carolina
Times is the only Black-owned
and operated newspaper in Dur
ham.
Edmonds wrote Pierce a let
ter supporting the effort, and he
used it to secure resolutions and
letters of support from the Hali
fax County Commissioners, En
field Town Commissioners and
Halifax County state legislators
Milton “Toby” Fitch (Senate)
and Michael Wray (House of
Representatives) to accompany
the application. Gershenhorn
also provided two academic pa
pers he wrote on Austin.
“(Pierce) provided excellent
resources and justification for
both his historical significance
and for placing the marker in
Enfield, rather than Durham,”
said Wegner. “The committee of
10 history professors, 8 of whom
were present, voted unanimously
to approve the marker. Austin
was recognized for his impor
tance as a journalist and advo
cate of social justice and civil
rights. (His) marker will be the
48th North Carolina Highway
Historical Marker in Halifax
County.”
The approved inscription will
read: LOUIS AUSTIN 1898-
1971 African American edi
tor. Published Durham-based
Carolina Times, 1927-71. An ad
vocate of social justice and civil
rights. Was born in Enfield.
Interim chancellor
made permanent at
Elizabeth City State
ELIZABETH CITY (AP) -
The interim leader credited with
improvements at a historically
black campus that’s part of the
University of North Carolina
system has been named perma
nent chancellor.
The News & Observer reports
the UNC Board of Governors on
Dec. 14 elected Karrie Dixon
from a slate of three finalists for
the Elizabeth City State Univer
sityjob.
She’s held the interim chan
cellorjob since April.
. In 2016, UNC President
Margaret Spellings established
a working group to address en
rollment declines and budget
cuts. ECSU is now one of three
universities designated as an NC
Promise school, with in-state an
nual tuition at $1,000. The pro
gram’s launch this fall led to a
19 percent enrollment increase.
The university also received a
$20 million U.S. Department of
Agriculture loan to revamp resi
dence halls and restructure debt.
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