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DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 2019
TELEPHONE 919-682-2913
VOLUME 98 - NUMBER 22
PRICE 50 CENTS
LONNIE BUNCH - Credit
Michael Barnes, Smithsonian Institution Archives
Lonnie Bunch to become
new Smithsonian
After hours of testimony before the House Finance Committee’s Subcommittee on Housing, Community
Development and Insurance, witnesses raise their hands in response to a question on whether homeowner
ship discrimination against Blacks continues today. Seated left to right are: Alanna McCargo, vice president
for Housing Finance Policy, Urban Institute; Nikitra Bailey, executive vice president, Center for Responsible
Lending; Joseph Nery, president, National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals; Jeff Hicks, presi-
dent/CEO; National Association of Black Real Estate Brokers (NAREB); Carmen Castro, managing housing
counselor, Housing Initiative Partnership; Joanne Poole, liaison for the National Association of Realtors; and
Joel Griffith, research fellow, Financial Regulations, The Heritage Foundation. See dtory on page 9. PHOTO:
Hazel Trice Edney
Institution leader
By Jesse J. Holland
WASHINGTON (AP) - When Lonnie Bunch started
working on the Smithsonian’s first black museum, he had
no collection, no building and one employee.
The Smithsonian Institution rewarded the founding
director of the wildly popular museum on May 28 by
putting him in charge of all 19 of its museums, making
Bunch the 14th secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
Bunch, in an interview with The Associated Press, said
his time leading the Smithsonian National Museum of Af
rican American History and Culture will serve him well.
“The Smithsonian is the most amazing place, and some
times it forgets to act like it. I want it to act like the best
institution in the world,” he said.
Bunch replaces David Skorton, who will become presi
dent and CEO of the Association of American Medical
Colleges. Bunch will be the first African American to be
Smithsonian secretary.
His success with the Smithsonian’s black museum
helped his candidacy.
Ground for the $540 million museum was broken in
2012 on a 5-acre (2-hectare) tract near the Washington
Monument. Construction was completed in 2016. Mil
lions of donors contributed $315 million in private funds
ahead of the opening.
People still wait in line to get into the museum during
peak vacation days. More than 3.5 million have visited it
to see exhibits ranging from the glass-topped casket used
to bury lynching victim Emmett Till to the “Mothership”
used by Parliament Funkadelic and a slave cabin from
Edisto Island, South Carolina.
“What I’ve learned is about the power of inspiration,
the power of a good idea, the power of getting people ex
cited about a story, so I hope to share that and bring that
to the other museums,” he said.
Chief Justice John Roberts, who is also the Smithson
ian chancellor, said Bunch guided “the premier museum
celebrating African American achievements.”
“I look forward to working with him as we approach
the Smithsonian’s 175th anniversary, to increase its rel
evance and role as a beloved American institution and
public trust,” Roberts said.
Letting go of the Smithsonian’s black museum will be
difficult, Bunch said. “This has been the job of my career,
the best thing I’ve ever done,” he said.
As Smithsonian secretary, he will hire his eventual replacement.
Spencer Crew will serve as interim director until then, Bunch said.
Bunch doesn't plan to meddle, but there are some things he won’t
let be watered down in his former museum.
The museum “should never lose the fact that it’s using African
American culture as a lens to understanding what it means to be an
American,” he said. “That notion of reveling in your African Amer-
icanness but then celebrating your Americanness is really special.
That, I don’t want it to lose.”
Founded in 1846, the Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest
museum, education and research complex, with 19 museums and the
National Zoological Park.
Bunch expects to lead a more active Smithsonian that gets in
volved in weighty, issues outside ofjust history.
“My whole career has been about expanding the canon, making
sure that African American issues, that Latino issues, that issues of
gender are at the forefront,” Bunch said. “And what I’m proudest of
is that the Smithsonian will take the lead in grappling with these is
sues. ... No matter what happens, the Smithsonian will always be that
place to help us understand a diverse America.”
amendment restoring three
legal support positions as
signed to new Supreme
Court Chief Justice Cheri
Beasley that Senate budget-
writers planned to abolish.
The state’s judicial branch,
which Beasley leads, said
the move would have cut in
half Beasley’s six-person
staff. She’s a Democrat and
the first African American
woman at the post.
That raised suspicions
of Democrats that elimi
nating the positions was
politically motivated. Coo
per appointed Beasley as
chief justice and not the
most veteran justice on the
court, who is a Republican.
A Democratic amendment
offered on May 30 to re
store the positions had been
blocked.
Sen. Danny Britt, a
Robeson County Repub
lican who offered Fri
day’s (May 31) successful
amendment, said budget-
writers had been told re
cently the positions were
vacant, so $267,000 asso
ciated with them could be
used elsewhere. But the
court system has now told
Republicans they are filled.
“This absolutely had
nothing to do with party or
anything else,” Britt said
before his amendment re
ceived unanimous support.
Some bad feelings from
Thursday’s (May 30) de
bate extended into May 31.
Democratic Sen. Don
Davis of Greene County
kept blasting a budget
provision that would es
sentially reduce Medicaid
payments by $35 million
to Vidant Medical Center
in Greenville, which is in
a governance fight with the
University of North
Senate budget gets final approval,
negotiations with House next
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - Ne
gotiations between Repub
lican legislative budget-
writers will now begin in
earnest after the Senate
completed voting May 31
for its version of a two-year
spending plan for North
Carolina government.
The chamber voted
30-16 for the legislation,
which would spend $23.9
billion in the next fiscal
year starting July 1 - just
like a version written by
House Republicans and
approved four weeks ago.
But the two chambers must
settle dozens of details on
where to spend and how,
such as teachers and state
employee raises, construc
tion projects and savings
reserves.
The two chambers will
now fashion a consensus
plan to present to Demo
cratic Gov. Roy Cooper:
What role Cooper will
have in the ultimate out
come is uncertain. He’s
now equipped with a more
potent veto stamp given his
party’s recent legislative
gains.
The governor already
has criticized both plans,
particularly for another
round of corporate tax cuts
when he says education
needs remain great. Neither
proposal would expand
Medicaid under the 2010
federal health overhaul law.
Still, three Democrats
joined all the GOP sena
tors present in voting for
the proposal May 31 after
less than an hour of debate.
Senators held four hours of
debate May 30 before giv
ing preliminary approval.
The Senate did agree
May 31 to a Republican
Carolina Board of Governors. He also jumped on the
word that Republicans are considering whether it makes
sense to build a new hospital to serve as East Carolina
University’s teaching hospital, replacing Vidant.
“I said yesterday that this was petty politics,” Davis
told colleagues May 31, adding, “I believe that this is ac
tually downright evil.” Senate Republicans told Davis in
debate that they are involved in making peace with Vi
dant.
On May 30, Berger cut off Sen. Terry Van Duyn’s'
microphone. Republicans said the Democrat from Bun
combe County was cut off because Berger hadn’t formal
ly recognized her to speak, which Senate rules require,
but she continued to interrupt.
Van Duyn, who is running for lieutenant governor, told
supporters in a fundraising email it happened because
GOP members didn’t want to debate her amendment to
expand Medicaid, which ultimately was ruled out of or
der.
Judge, killer in
tears during
hearing for
teen’s death
GREENSBORO (AP) - A sentencing hearing for a
North Carolina man who pleaded guilty in the death of
a 16-year-old girl made both the judge and the killer cry.
The News & Record of Greensboro reports Superior
Court Judge Lora Cubbage grew teary eyed as she sen
tenced 21-year-old Hajji DeQuan Johnson to at least 16
years in prison for second-degree murder.
Cubbage referred to both Johnson and his victim, Sate-
ria Zoe Fleming, as “our babies.” She said one is buried
and one she must “put in a cage.”
Both Cubbage and Johnson are black.
A defense attorney said a woman told Johnson to shoot
two teens who tried to steal marijuana. Fleming was killed
in March 2018.
Johnson promised he would be a better man when he
left prison. His tears drowned out the rest of his words.
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