I
Winston-Salem Chronicle
Vol. IV No. I
Saturday September 3, 1977
Suite 603 Pepper Bldg. Winston-Salem, N.C.
* 20 Cents
Black Hiring
.j
lhanges Slowly
Sale Questioned
Jan. 1 to June 30th. The
Even though North Dept. of Commerce,
irolina has a black which was formerly only
rector of the State 12% black, hired 320 new
irsonnel Commission, employees of which 75, or
ere has been little 23%, were black. This is a
lange in the old, racist very slight increase, since
■items of employment, the figure also includes
^As of January 1, 1977, summer workers and
of blacks employed some CETA employees,
state government Harold Webb, the
imed less than $10,000. state’s first black director
ccording to a study of the State Personnel
nducted by the North Commission, was appoin-
irolina Black Democratic ted by Governor James
sadership Caucus, larger Hunt last January. Since
ambers of blacks were that time Webb has
i
i
is
Urban Renewal Is Negro Removal
By Sharyn Bratcher
-.r-VV- •
a,
I
■* •
In the fall of 1975, a piece of land known as Parcel 129-C, located behind
Winston-Mutual and the Burger King on Claremont Ave., was offered for sale to
the highest bidder by the Redevelopment Commission.
Three bids were submitted: the two highest bids came from black developers,
and the third and lowest bid was subm itted by a white firm. Now, nearly two years
later, the white firm is developing the land.
In This Issue:
in Emerging
'Hack Woman
New National
Black Monitor
red in low-paying,
iskilled jobs: as the skill
vel and pay increased,
e number of blacks
icreased.
Even tiie p.re3ence of
acks in high levels of
ivemment does not
em to affect the
fi-sided hiring picture,
ily 4% of the employees
Howard Lee’s depart-
ent are black. Lee is
cretary of the Depart-
snt of Natural Resources
d Community Develop-
snt.
The state hired 901
inority applicants be-
een January and June
this year, 22% of the
;al number hired, but
is figure includes Asian-
nericans, Indians, and
anish-sumamed per
ns in the ‘minority
begory. ’
Women got a boost in
iployment, winning
% of the jobs, with
iployment hikes ran-
ig from 34% in the
pt. of 'Transportation to
% in the Dept, of
venue. Howard Lee
lid not be reached for
nment on the fact that
quietly worked to get
established rules adopted,
requiring state agencies to
recruit, train, hire and
promote minority employ
ees.
Webb stated recently
that minority hiring has not look muddy
increased in “upper pay
grades.' ’
“Minority employment
is not what it ought to
be,’’ he said, “But we are
working on it.’’
Almost unnoticed, the
State Personnel Commis
sion met recently and
passed an altered “Affir
mative Action Policy’ ’
which requires by Novem
ber 1, 1977 each depart
ment to develop a
This IS Pmcel 129-C, located on Claremont Avenue, behind the Burger King,
and offered for sale by the Redevelopment Commission. Although the land does
not loot developers have found it “mighty sUppery to hold on to ”
Did Fountain Rubber
Stamp For Edmisten?
Wilmington 10 Attorney ral’s office. The Wihning-
James Ferguson II has ton 10 post-conviction
to
filed motions here
receive a copy of
proposed order prepared
for Judge George Foun-
workforce analysis “to tain following the May
hearing was held in
Burgaw. Ferguson’s mo
tion read; “It is necessary
that petitioners (Wilming
ton 10) have available a
usj vcLUl me iviaj' wii ±yji nave avaUaDie a
examine the number and post conviction hearing by copy of the proposed order
See Hiring, Page 2 the N.C. Attorney-Gene- so that they may deter
mine whether the judge
acted independently or
merely rubber-stamped
the submissions of oppos
ing counsel.’’ Ferguson
also motioned forFoun-
tain, who was appointed
to the case as a special
See Fountain, Page 3
department hired only
! black women and 34%
ite women.
Statistics do show.
C.C. Ross, chairman, WSSU Board of Trustees administers the oath of office to seven new board
members. Uft to right: Dalton B. Ruffin, Nan M. Coffee, James Van Hecke, Jr., John D. Clark, Laura F.
Sawyer, James Stewart, Cecil Hilliard and C.C. Ross.
Seven Join WSSU Board
The high bidder, Dr. J.
Raymond Oliver, Jr.
would like an explanation
of this turn of events, and
he is considering appeal
ing to HUD to get it.
It happened like this:
Dr. Oliver, with a bid of
$16,100 outbid the other
two developers, Cumber
land Development Cor
poration, a black firm
based in Greensboro, and
Wilson-Covington Const
ruction Company, a local
white business, who bid
$12,164.85 and $10,813,
respectively.
Dr. Oliver, after several
months of trying to
comply with these requi
rements, was finally
forced to withdraw his
bid, which meant that the
land had to go up for sale
again.
It was offered for sale in
December of 1976, says
James K. Haley, execut
ive director of the
Redevelopment Commis
sion of Winston-Salem.
Haley says that the sale
was advestised in the
Journal & Sentinel on
Dec. 13 and Dec. 20, but
that only one bid was
received for the land:
$10,813, from Wilson-Co
vington Construction Co.
“Advertising is the
least effective way to
reach developers,’’ said
Haley. HUD re^altions
do not require that land
sales be advertised publi
cly. It only says that more
than one person should be
notified of the sale, but it
does not specify a method
for notification.
“Often we call develop
ers who have expressed
an interest in buying land,
or we send out notices in
the mail,’’ said Haley.
Dr. Oliver and a
spokesman for Cumber
land Development Cor
poration say that they
were not notified when the
land was resold.
Why was Dr. Oliver
unable to complete his
contract in the first place?
He explains that one of
See Selling, Page 2
Integon Suit
Still Pending
The discrimination
charge against the Inte
gon Insurance Corpora
tion has not yet been
resolved. Herman Ste
phens, the attorney for the
six black women in the
case, explained that class
action suits are notorious
ly slow to be resolved.
“So far,’’ he said, “We
have been notified that
Integon received notice of
the suit on August 23rd.
They have twenty days to
respond, so we don’t
expect much to develop
until around September
13th.’’
The company could
settle out of court or, as
Stephens expects, file an
answer with the court.
The class action suit
filed by the women, which
accuses Integon of discri
mination against minority
employees in hiring,
training, promotions,
terminations, sick leave,
and performance evalua
tion, asks for $600,000 in
punitive damages and the
cost of the legal fees in
bringing the suit.
In response to these
charges, Integon has
issued a statement which
says in part: “We can say
that Integon has worked
hard to provide equal
opportunities for aU of our
employees through a
voluntary but formal
affirmative action pro
gram which we initiated
on our own several years
ago.’’
In the statement, Vice
President of Corporate
Services Clyde Benedict
went on to state that: “If
served with the suit, we
intend to present our point
of view in the courts.”
Beware Of Long
Distance Selling
1110 Better Business
Bureau strongly urges
business firms, churches,
schools, and other non
profit organizations to
beware of operators sell
ing office supplies via long
distance telephone calls.
Questionable office and
stationery supply firms
selling merchandise on
the pretense of distress
circumstances have been
the source of numerous
complaints and inquiries
to BBBs across the nation
for some time now and
have contacted several
organizations in the Win
ston Salem area in the
past week.
The list of schemes or
sales approaches used by
the promoters of such
firms to unload supplies-
like a broken record—goes
on and on. Recently,
however, a new wrinkle
has developed. Reports to
the BBB indicate that a
number of operators are
now using the name of
good old “Uncle Sam” to
sell their wares. In some
instances, these operators
claim to be a representa
tive of legitimate Federal
Agency such as HUD or
The Department of Com
merce. However, when
contacted by the Bureau,
these agencies have
verified that the offer did
not enamate from their
office.
See Beware, Page 2
vever, that the number
blacks hired in many ^ recent meeting of versity. Board Chairman
te agencies increased Board of Trustees of C.C. Ross administered
nng the period from ^bnston-Salem State Uni- the oath of office to seven
- - ■' '.liltMI 1^
pcunw ACTION: Hazel Covington, Nancy Adams, and Luci Vaughn,
ers of the Executive Committee of La Terre XXI brave the hot sun to conduct
rummage sale, a fund-raising effort to help the Patterson Avenue “Y.”
new members. Joining the
Board for four-year terms
are Winston-Salem resi
dents John D. Clark,,
manager. Sears, Roebuck,
and Co.; and Dalton B.
Ruffin, senior vice-presi
dent and regional direct
or, Wachovia Bank and
Trust Company. Winston-
Salem attorney Laura F.
Sawyer was seated for her
second consecutive four-
year term.
Other newly appointed
four-year members are
Nan M. Coffee, a former
teacher from Thomasville;
Laurinburg resident
James Stewart, personnel
supervisor, L-O-F Glass,
Inc.; and Greensboro
resident James VanHeck,
Jr., regional sales mana
ger, Union-Camp Co.
Cecil Hilliard, president
of the Student Govern
ment Association, will
See Seven, Page 2
Last of a Two-Part Series
Teen-Age Pregnancies Abound
[Editor’s Note; This is
the second of two articles
on teen-age pregnancies.
Last year in North
Carolina more than half of
the 13,042 babies born
out-of-wedlock were born
to young women between
the ages of 12 and 19
years old. The future of
these young lives is
crucially affected by the
decision of the teen-age
mothers on whether to
keep her baby or release
him for adoption.]
Adolescent childbear
ing has educational and
economic consequences
for the mother and child.
According to the publica
tion by Planned Parent
hood Federation of Amer
ica “11 Million Teena
gers,” about 80 percent of
mothers age 17 and under
never complete high
school. In one New York
study, 91 percent of
mothers aged 15 to 17
were unemployed when
their baby was 19 months
old.
A six-year study headed
by University of Penn
sylvania sociologist Frank
Furstenberg, Jr., compar
ing the life adjustment of
404 Baltimore girls who
became mothers at 17 or
younger to 301 classmates
who postponed childbear
ing until later, shows that
young mothers are far
more likely to:
•Drop out of school,
even though they wanted
more education.
•Suffer unemployment,
poverty, and welfare
dependency.
•Have further pregnan
cies in their teens.
•Endure breakup of
their marriages because of
economic pressures.
Questions of far-reach
ing significance confront
an adolescent who has
given birth to a baby
out-of-wedlock. Can she
earn enough money to
feed, clothe and provide
the necessities for a child
throughout his growing-
See Teenage, Page 7