Black Teachers,
Principals Decline
Winston-Salem
"Serving the Winston-Salem Community
Community Since 19 74"
VOL. VII NO. 1
U.S.P.S. NO. ()67y|()
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.
Saturday, August 30, 1980
"20^
22 Pages This Week
' ' '' ' ' w,
From RHC Board
County Ousts Booker
By Donna Oldham
Staff Writer
C. P. Booker, the black
chairman of the Reynolds
Health Center Advisory
Committee was ousted
Monday night in a surprise
vote by the Forsyth County
Board of Commissioners.
Booker, an insurance exe
cutive, had served as
chairman of the board for
the past four years and was
nominated by Commission
er Mazie S. Woodruff, who
cast the only vote in his
favor Monday night.
The commissioners chose
instead to replace Booker
with Betsy I. Sawyer, a
former member of the Win
ston-Salem Forsyth County
Board of Education.
Mrs. Sawyer, who was
nominated by Dr. James N.
Ziglar, Jr., vice chairman of
the commissioners received
all the commissioners votes
except Woodruffs.
Booker
former RHC advisory com
mittee chairman expressed
shock when, Booker was
rejected by the other board
rejected by the other com
missioners in the secret
balloting. However, the
commissioners re-ap
pointed the other board
members whose terms had
expired, Andrew L. Yar
borough, Mary C. Williams
and John W. Duncan, all
black.
Mrs. Woodruff, herself a Fred D. Hauser, chairman
of the board of commissio
ners said of Booker’s un
popularity with the board
“those things happen
sometimes.’’ Hauser
would not comment, how
ever on the rumor that
Booker had been ousted
because of his sometimes
highly critical statements of
the county manager’s of
fice, most often voiced dur
ing the time when Reynolds
See Page 20
Photo by Blue
Two Heads Better Than One
New Books and old friends come together on the first day of school. These two
Kimberly Park 5th graders thumb through new reader.
Crash Kills One,
Injures 3 Others
The number of black
sachers and black prin-
ipals in North Carolina has
eclined by 25 percent and.
3 percent respectively since
170, according to the
Ssociate executive
SCretary of the North
•arolina Association for
ducators. Dr. E. B.
?Jmer, Sr.
Palmer participated in a
hnposium of delegates
'om 17 states of formerly
Ual school systems on
Minority Teacher
isplacement,” held two
aeks ago at the NEA head-
liarters in Washington,
.C.
The two-day conference
icused on problems sur-
mnding the employment
atus of blacks and other
linorities in formerly
igregated school systems,
aw desegregated.
The over all generaliza-
pn of the conference was
tat black teachers and
rincipals are retrogressing
I their employment condi-
ans in the 17 states that
ere represented at the con-
Tence including Alabama,
rkansas, Delaware,
Florida, Georgia,. Ken
tucky, Louisiana,
Maryland, Mississippi,
Missouri, North Carolina,
Oklahoma, South Carolina,
By Donna Oldham
Staff Writer
As several mourners left the wake of a 15-year-old boy
handed himself last week while a prisoner in the Forsyth
County Jail, they witnessed another horror, when the
boy’s step-father apparently slammed his car into a
crowd of people killing an elderly woman and injuring
three small children.
'Pender Cowan Cates Sr., 3*. of 1530 Marbie St., has
been charged with second degree murder and four counts
of hit and run with personal injury and failure to render
aid. He is being held in Forsyth County Jail in lieu of
Poag
Rites Held
For Poag
Funeral services were
conducted Aug. 20 at 4
p.m. at First Baptist
Church for Thomas Foy
Poag, a retired Winston-
Salem educator, and the
city’s first black scout
master.
See Page 2
Tennessee, Texas, Virginia
and West Virginia.
Alabama reported the
loss of 3,519 black teachers
between the period of 1970
and 1976. Tennessee
reported the loss of 1,672
black teachers during the
same time period.
The statistics that Dr.
Palmer submitted to the
conference reveal that from
1964-65, there were 44,823
teachers in North Carolina.
32,265 were white and
12,558 were black. The
white teachers were 72 per
cent of the total work force,
while 28 percent were black.
In 1979-80, there were
59,971 teachers in North
Carolina. 46,647 were white
and 12,664 were black.
The white teachers
represented 77.8 percent of
the teaching force and
blacks represented 21.2 per
cent.
Palmer said that the con
clusion reached was that
while there were 106 more
black teachers in the North
Carolina teaching force in
1979-80, than in 1964-65, the Jackson, Michelle Jackson, program coordinator Anita Wells, and Stephanie
$100,000 bond.
Witnesses told police that Cates had tried to force his
way into Hooper Funeral Home at 1417 E. 14th St.,
where the wake for his step-son, Ervin Lester Lewis Jr.,
was being held.
According to witnesses, Cates was forcibly kept
from attending the wake because of alledged bad blood
between his family and the Lewis family and because he
was heavily intoxicated at the time.
Cates allegedly, when denied entrance, went to his
1979 brown Chevrolet and w'aited for the wake to end.
As mourners began leaving the funeral home, Cates,
according to eye-witnesses, gunned the car and slammed
See Page 2
Winner
Minnie Ervin holds a
trophy she received during
the beautician’s national
nxension two weeks ago
in Louisiana. Details on
page 10.
' Photo by Blue
Heavy Readers
14 Blacks
Hold Top
City Posts
By John W. Templeton
Staff Writer
Recent appointments and a reclassification study have
pushed the number of blacks holding top city jobs to 14,
according to assistant city manager Alexander R. Beaty;
Four blacks now head departments and three others hold
thesecond-leveljob in their departments. In total, 14blacks
hold jobs in paygradeSOorabovewhichhaveasalaryof
$20,000 or more. They are 14 per cent of the total of 98 city
officials in those grades.
Beaty said further steps are being taken to meet the ci
ty’s goal of 19 per cent minority representation among all
personnel levels. Noting that none of the positions fell
Jackson share booklet about Cape Hatteras at East Winston Library. See story page 10. within the Public Works Department, Beaty said, “W'e’re
See Page 2
ounty’s EEO Blasted As‘Mockery’
By Donna Oldham
City Editor
Members of the local branch of the National Associa-
>n for the Advancement of Colored People stole the
under from officials of the Forsyth County Personnel
Spartment by calling minority statistics that were
«ented to the Forsyth County Board of Commis-
hiers last week “a big fat nothing.”
The statistics were meant to show the commissioners
d others who attended the board’s weekly briefing ses-
m how well the city was doing in the hiring of
norities and women. Instead, NAACP president
ttrick Hairston, and the Rev. Warner Durnell called the
Itistics “a mockery.”
“Look at this,” said Hairston as he held up several dif-
Cnt charts and graphs that had been passed out by
inty personnel dTector Reginald Luper.
How .could anyone take this seriously when it is writ-
on lined paper, not typed and run off on a duplicating
Chine. It looks like they prepared it out in the hall just
ore they passed it out,” said Hairston, who added,
;ur country dollars pay for all these secretaries, yet they
pass out some handwritten stuff like this. This lets you
know how important or unimportant this is to them,” he
said.
“You can report in bold letters that it is not acceptable
to the Winston-Salem Branch of the NAACP. It never
said a damn thing about affirmative action,” Hairston
said.
Although Luper passed out the information in a large
quantity, eight pieces to each commissioner, members of
the press and other county officials and seemed ready to
explain the county’s progress. Commissioners Mazie
Woodruff and Grady Swisher said that they would need
time to digest all the information. Both questioned
whether eight separate handouts were really necessary.
“It’s not really that complex. It’s just being fair. We
don’t need all this paper,” Woodruff said.
Even before receiving all his handouts, Swisher said
“I’ve seen enough. All this paper is a waste of the tax
payer’s money.”
Woodruff, who appeared outwardly agitated by the
shabby manner in which the data was presented asked
Luper “are you satisfied with the promotions of
minorities and women?”
Luper replied by saying “I feel significant progress has
been made in the program. To say I’m satisfied, no
ma’am, I can’t say I’m satisfied with the first four years
of results.”
The report was an update of the county’s progress after
four years of equal opportunity^hiring, which was started
in 1976, and given five years or until 1981 to complete.
See Page 10
i Closed Labor Day
I
The Chronicle
will be closed Mon
day, September 1, in
observance of the
Labor Day holiday.
Please have your
lews and photo re
quests in to us no
later than Friday,
August 29, at 5 p.m.
We will reopen Tues
day, September 2, at
our usual time; 8:30
a.m.
1
doing some work identifying vacant positions and
developing some strategies for insuring minority par
ticipation in them.
“The end result will be a new affirmative action plan,”
he added.
Rev. Warner Durnell, spokesman for the NAACP’s ef
fort to promote affirmative action in city government,
said the city has made a good start with the appointment
of Lester Ervin as fire chief and William McGee as con-
vention/coliseum director.
“The city would be hard pressed to admit that it was a
response to the demands of community based organiza
tions,” added Durnell, “but it’s safe to say that our ef
forts certainly didn’t hurt.”
Durnell said discussions were held last week between
City Manager Bill Stuart, Beaty and human relations
director, Herman Aldridge to discuss the upcoming affir
mative action plan.
“Right now, I think they need to concentrate on the
middle level and assistant manager positions to insure
that there are people ready to move up,” said Durnell.
Beaty said that, in technical areas such as civil
engineering, the city may have to train its own top level
minorities. “Most civil engineers are employed in private
industry and are being sought by everybody and our pay
ranges don’t interest them at all.”
“The strategy would be to bring people in at smaller
levels and provide them with on-the-job training so that
they would be in place to be considered for promotion,'
he added. 5^^ Page 2