MC
599-00131
0^17'^k^
VOLUME 99 - NUMBER 6
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2020
TELEPHONE 919-682-2913 PRICE 50
UNC-CH SERIALS DEPORTMENT^ ILL
DAVIS LIBRARY CB# 3930
P O BOX 0090
CHAPEL HILL
‘Serious discussions’
about DNC changes,
top Democrat says
By Lisa Mascaro
WASHINGTON (AP) - A top Democrat in Congress said Feb.
7 the party’s future under Tom Perez is under scrutiny amid fallout
from the Iowa caucuses and the winnowing of the presidential pri
mary field to the exclusion of candidates of color.
Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the third-ranking House
Democrat, stopped short of saying Perez must go as leader of the
Democratic National Committee.
“That’s a decision for him,” he said.
But the highest-ranking African American lawmaker in the House
said during an interview with C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” that Iowa
shouldn’t play such an outsize role as an early vote state and that
debate rules left “very raw feelings” within the Congressional Black
Caucus after the exit of black presidential hopefuls Kamala Harris
and Cory Booker.
“There are some serious discussions taking place here on Capitol
Hill as to what ought to happen at the DNC,” Clyburn said in the
interview.
“Towa should be in the mix, but we shouldn’t launch the entire
campaign with such a small sampling with what the country’s all
about,” he said.
(Continued On Page 3)
North Carolina A&T
makes move to Big South
Conference
GREENSBORO (AP) - North Carolina A&T is mov
ing out of the conference of historically black colleges
that it formed nearly 50 years ago to the Big South Con
ference, school officials announced Friday.
The school’s 13 trustees voted toTeave the Mid-East
ern Athletic Conference on June 30, 2021, and move to
the Big South the next day.
University leaders said A&T is making the move pri
marily to help student-athletes by significantly reducing
time spent traveling to games. While the Big South’s
three football-only schools are in Alabama, Georgia and
New Jersey, the conference’s 11 current full-time mem
bers are all located in the Carolinas and Virginia.
“We have been looking carefully at our opportunities
in athletics for five years and more intensively over the
past year,” A&T Chancellor Harold Martin said in a state
ment released by the Big South Conference.
“We’re pleased to have brought that process to frui
tion and excited to be ushering in a new alliance with the
Big South,” Martin said. “This move makes great sense
for our student-athletes, for our fans and for our bottom
line. We will always have a place in our hearts for the
MEAC, and we look forward to what the new conference
will make possible for the Aggies.”
The vote was not unanimous. The lone no vote came
from retired judge and A&T graduate Paul Jones, who
said he was concerned that alumni might not support the
school’s teams because the school will no longer share a
conference with its traditional rivals.
A&T leaders said they plan to continue playing tradi
tional rivals - N.C. Central and other historically black
colleges and universities - in football and other sports.
W. Taylor Reveley IV, president of Longwood Univer
sity and the Big South Conference, called A&T “a perfect
fit for the Big South” because of “its location, its proud
history and academic reputation, its loyal base of alumni
and other supporters, and its commitment to excellence.”
A&T is the second school to leave the MEAC for the
Big South. Hampton University in Virginia joined the
Big South in 2018.
Police in North Carolina seek
man they say set woman on fire
KINSTON (AP) - An unknown man approached a woman
in her car, doused her with gasoline and set her on fire, police
said Feb. 3.
An officer flagged down by a passerby found a 24-year-old
woman on a sidewalk who was suffering severe burns to her
upper body, Kinston police said in a Facebook post.
According to investigators, the woman was driving a car
which had stopped when she was approached by an unknown
person who doused the victim with a flammable liquid and set
her on fire. The suspect in this case has been described as a
black male of 20-30 years.
Emergency personnel responded to the victim, who was
taken to a local hospital before she was flown to North Caro
lina Jaycee Burn Center in Chapel Hill. Her condition wasn’t
known on Feb. 3.
Annual “Mass Moral March” draws
thousands in North Carolina
RALEIGH (AP) - Thousands of people took to the streets Feb. 8 in an annual march and rally designed to call for action on social
and economic justice issues in North Carolina.
The 14th annual “Mass Moral March on Raleigh” drew support from the state NAACP, over 200 other organizations and their sup
porters.
Participants marched to the old Capitol building for a 14-point “People’s Agenda” that includes laws that expand health care cover
age, create livable wages, redress racial wrongs and grant collective bargaining for government employees.
The event began in 2007 with the leadership of then-state NAACP president the Rev. William Barber of Goldsboro, who is now
president of the national organization Repairers of the Breach.
From the dozens of signs and banners people carried during the march, a clear message emerged: Change starts at the ballot box.
“I’m tired of crying. I’m tired of mourning, and I’m going to fight with love,” Barber told the crowd. “I’m going to fight with truth.
I’m going to fight with marching. I’m going to fight at the ballot box.... It’s time to vote. It’s time to intensify and embolden your agita
tion.”
The statewide kickoff to Black History Month at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh wa held
January 25. See scenes from the celebration on page 8. (Photo by Artije Photography/Ronald Parker.
Woman’s lawsuit seeks at least
$15M from NAACP, former boss
By Martha Waggoner
RALEIGH (AP) - A woman who repeatedly told the national NAACP that her supervisor in the North Carolina
conference had sexually harassed her is suing the national group and her former boss
Jazmyne Childs is seeking at least $15 million for her emotional and mental distress that she says civil rights orga
nization condoned through its inaction.
In the lawsuit filed Feb. 3 in Durham County court, attorneys for Childs said she was sexually harassed by the Rev.
Curtis Gatewood when she was youth and college field secretary for the state conference in 2017. She suffers from
depression, anxiety, nervousness and insomnia, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit seeks more than $5 million in compensatory damages and more than $25,000 in punitive damages on
each of three claims: battery, assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
NAACP officials and Gatewood did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
The national NAACP knew about the harassment when it received a report from an outside investigator in October
2017 that concluded that Gatewood harassed Childs, yet took no action, the lawsuit says.
The NAACP “is liable for the misconduct for Gatewood because the National NAACP ratified Gatewood’s con
duct,” it says.
Gatewood, who was interim field director and managed the state conference NAACP staff, “suddenly resigned” in
June 2017, the lawsuit said. However, he continued to show up at events attended by Childs, even after receiving a
cease-and-desist letter in December 2017, the lawsuit said, leading to her resignation.
Childs, who was hired in January 2017, resigned in August 2018 because she feared Gatewood “would continue to
stalk and intimidate her,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit says that Childs, now 27, first became fearful of the now 60-year-old Gatewood on Feb. 6, 2017, when
he closed an office door as they met to discuss a rally. “While talking to her, he kept looking her up and down in a
sexual and intimidating manner,” the lawsuit says. “Ms. Childs was afraid.”
Similar harassment continued over the next few months, the lawsuit says.
On May 2, 2017, Childs was in a conference room with the lights off as she prepared for a co-worker’s farewell
party, it says. “Suddenly, she felt someone’s breath on the back of her neck and then felt someone press his penis up
against her buttocks,” the lawsuit said, adding that Gatewood was behind her.
“Why are you hovering over me. That’s gross. Move,” Childs yelled, according to the lawsuit. Gatewood said he
was looking for a receipt and left the room, it says.
Childs described the harassment at a news conference in September after she had written several letters to NAACP
President Derrick Johnson. She wrote him in June and twice in September and sought a disciplinary hearing for Gate
wood in her second letter. The NAACP responded to none of the letters, she said.
Johnson suspended Gatewood from membership the day after Childs’ news conference, pending a hearing on her
allegations.
(Continued On Page 3)
8 60002 71800
2