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I Volume 10, No. 24 U
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Iv 1
SfttolMade History 0
Actress Dorothy Dandridge, who mov
eluding the legendary Cotton Club,
Bess," "Island in the Sun" and "Carnr
her death at age 43. Her star was re
Hollywood Boulevard.
Board tables pj
firms breathe si
By AUDREY WILLIAMS
Chronicle Staff Writer
The Board of Aldermen returned to the
city's staff Monday night a proposal for a
new dowftown parking deck that would
displace 11 businesses. Seven of the eight
board members said they feel other alternatives
should be considered before a
final decision is made.
"We just cannot move people out of
their businesses and move others in," said
Alderman Vivian Burke.
As part of the bond package approved
by-voters last November, the city plans to
build a 650-space parking deck on the northern
section of Cherry, Trade and
Present and (
By ROBIN ADAMS
Chronicle Staff Writer
A Ku Klux Klan leader testified in feden
day that the Klansmen and Nazis who atte
to the Klan Rally in Greensboro on Nov.
there with the intention of creating a distui
Christopher Dean Benson, 29, of Besser
he and Klan leader Virgil Griffin had disci
roily; onH tkot r?iokt Uo f r\r c* Yy o ort H
iiiv i anj uiiu iiiuif uiv ui^iii uv i v^i vf iiv uiiu
Klansmen and their families met at Griff
pinpoint which Communist Workers Party
wanted to beat up once they arrived at the
Benson had become an informant for th
Nine Klansmen and Nazis are on trial heri
the civil rights of demonstrators killed and i
the anti-Klan rally sponsored by the
predominantly black housing project,
members were killed during a gunfire exhai
ly.
Other Klansmen also testified about the
Greensboro shootout.
Mark J. Sherer of Cramerton, who testifi
witness, said he and Griffin discussed two o
t jf
I DA
Tinston
.S.P.S. No. 067910
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'ii 11iv 9wroon
ed from vaudeville and nightclubs, In- I
to the screen, starred in "Porgy and I
ten Jones," among other films before I
cently implanted on the sidewalk of I
irking deck,
igh of relief
Sixth streets. The deck would primarily
serve the Benton Convention Center.
But after realizing that small downtown
businesses would have to be relocated, all
of the aldermen, with the exception of
Robert Northington Jr., agreed that the
present parking deck site would not be in
the best interest of the businessmen.
''They continue to tell us we need more
parking spaces downtown," said Burke,
"but I think the city manager will be the
first one to admit that we have dronnerl
the ball and to realize that we must move
in a direction that will be fair and consistent
with what the board has done in the
- past.
Please see page A3
>x-Klansmen t
plan to kill another Klan mei
any of the Klansmen and
Greensboro shootout.
i\ court Tues- Sherer had first agreed to i
nded a Death munity from government pr
3, 1979, went played in the shootout, but tw
rbance. not want to testify,
ner City, said Chief Prosecutor Daniel L.
issed going to Sherer to prove that the Klans
several other gressors at the CWP rally, pui
in's house to During his testimony, Sher
members they from the one he had given to a
rally. and seemed puzzled by some
e FBI. tions. Sherer told the grand jui
e for violating shot, but during his court tes
njured during but thought he heard a shot
CWP at a where the CWP demonstrator
Five CWP Carl Nappier, a former K1
nge at the ral- Texas, testified last week bef
the Klansmen voted at a
ir roles in the Greensboro rally but were tol
Nappier said he rode in the
ed as a hostile caravan and that the Klansme
r three times a Please see
WN MAGAZINE I*
Salem
The Twin City's Award-Winning We
Winston-Salem, N.C. F
Former YIN
pair of disci
By ROBIN ADAMS
Chronicle Staff Writer
A former secretary-receptionist with the
Gfade Street YWCA has filed a discrimination
suit against the Y because she was denied a promotion
she felt she deserved.
Jimmie Wilson, a black woman who had
been employed for five years and eight months
with the YWCA, filed a discrimination suit
Jan. 18 after a white employee at the YWCA,
who has less than six months experience there,
received a promotion Wilson had applied for.
After the YWCA learned of Wilson's
discrimination suit, she was fired. Wilson thenfiled
another suit against the charging that
she lost her job because of the first suit she filed.
Patricia B. McNeil, the YWCA's executive
director, said in a prepared statement, "YWCA
personnel decisions are always made with proper
regard to the individuals involved and the
well-being of the organization. Because of the
confidential nature of them, it would be inappropriate
to elaborate."
Donna Oldham, the Y's public relations
Mechanics am
By ROBIN ADAMS 1
Chronicle-Staff Writer _i _
sfiupr y^4>r.w?i?ii,and city executive
of Mechanics ancf Farmers Bank, has
resigned from that position effective Feb. 29,
Mrs. Julia W. Taylor, president and chief ex
eeutive officer of the bank, announced in a
prepared statement recently.
White, who hWheld his position since 1981,.
Bg n
Our Black Olympiai
A Special Se
Begins On Pagi
estify op?i
nber if he testified against
I Nazis involved in the Qt H seems thai
right lane on Fi
testify in exchange for im- ting mail m the ]
osecution for the part he Office. Since 11
o weeks ago decided he didr advantage to be
if it ties up trafl
Bell II, who was relying on
men and Nazis were the agf
him nn lh*? ctanH omuDOM
k iikii VII IIIV JIUIIU ai i j VT aj .
er often changed his story A: The mail bo;
i federal grand jury last fall Trade Street in f
of the prosecution's ques- customer convei
ry that he had fired the first Claims And ItKJi
timony said he could have fice on Fifth Str
that came from the area The box on Fi
s were standing. Other in W
ansman who now lives in suggests that H
ore the all-white jury thatv ;r. traffic departmc
meeting to attend the indicate that the
d not to take weapons. If and that cars stc
: fourth car of the nine-car | box.
;rt and Nazis were attacked
page A3
V
cle
30 Pages This Week
yee files
uits
(SIDE
Chrom
ekly
ebruary 9, 1984 35 cents
1CA emplo;
rimination s
director, said that the suit is a "very sticky" si
matter and that no official comments regarding
the Wilson case will be made "until we know N*
what's going on." m
un uec. A Wilson and a white employee who si
also was a secretary, applied for the position of tc
business manager. After both women were interviewed
for the job, Wilson received a memo th
Dec. 15 indicating that the white applicant had di
been named the new business manager. w
"After 1 heard that," Wilson said, 4iI went b;
to talk with Herman Aldridge at the Human fi
Relations Council on Dec. 18. He ^Aldridge)
then told me to go to EEOC (Equal Ehiploy- b<
ment Opportunity Commission) and talk with Y
them."
Because of their confidential nature, e<
Aldridge would not comment on his conversa- se
tions with Wilson, or the advice he gave her. ti
From the latter part of December to Jan. 24, a
Wilson said, she was placed on probation by fr
her superiors. "They said I was put on proba- at
tion because I didn't have the right attitude and w
said I wasn't smiling," Wilson said. "I wasn't di
smiling because I was upset about what had
happened, but my job performance had not
1 F armers' Whi
-York?-'During Nter- White's?tenure with th<? K?
bank," Taylor said in her statement, "he has rr
been instrumental in developing a substantial . V
core of deposits from the Winston-Salem com- R
munity." N
Charles McLean, chairman of the bank's
local bpatd of directors, said he regrets White's cii
leaving and wishes him the best.
McL.ean also said he wants to dispel rymors
9 Vietnam War I
Hp was troubled, i
From Staff Reports
Medal of Honor winner Lawrence Joel,
I JBL a Vietnam war hero who was found dead
MHI Saturday of a diabetic coma, stopped tak^9
'ng his insu''n because he was denied
disability benefits, familv members told
the Winston-Salem Journal Tuesday.
Reginald Mclntyre, Joel's nephew,
found his uncle dead at his home on New
HWalkertown Road. An autopsy revealed
that Joel's death resulted from either not
taking insulin at all or not taking enough.
Mclntyre said Joel, a Winston-Salem
ns native, had quit taking insulin eight days
tries before his death because his employer, the
> B3 Veterans Administration, had denied his
requests for disability as a civil service
_J employee. He was receiving military
i Line
i every morning I get stuck in the Ap0ttttl
tun afreet oenma someDoay put*
mail box in front of the main Post Qt | opet
laveto turn at the tight, it's to my recently i
in that lane. Why is that box there city. Muc
Re? '% days tog*
N*A. me more
going tot
since the i
* on Fifth Street and the box on not ht ti
ront of the Chronkk are there for posted. V
ticnce, says Don Tennant in the
airy Division at the Main Post Of- %
eet. A: The p
ifth Street collects more mad than a rare oc<
inston-Salem, says Tennant. He Winston*
may be a good idea if the dry's When i
nt could place wanting signs dun ting syste
t tight laps is a slow-moving lane thought I
>p frequently there to use the mail in one i
K: * " v $* t- v
iffered."
After the probationary period was over,
Wilson said, she asked the new business
tanager, who was then Wilson's immediate
ipervisor, if she was off probation, and was
>ld yes.
"That afternoon, when the mail came in,
ley received a letter that I had filed a
iscrimination suit," Wilson saujL"! was out
ith the flu for a few days, ancFwhen I came
ack on Jan. 30, I was told that 1 was being
red for poor work-performance."
ll/!l * J - * * #
wnson saia mis was not tne tirst time she had
sen treated poorly by the administration at the
WCA.
"In February 1983, I was demoted from ex:utive
secretary back to
rcretary-receptionist," Wilson said. "At the
me, I was going through a divorce and having
hard time in my personal life. Doug Ashby,
om United Way, called the executive director
id said that he had friends in town and could
e find a job for the wife of his friend. They
emoted me and gave her my old job.
"Even though I was having personal pro- "
Please see page A3
ite resigns
A
iat-Whrte-was^ asked by the board to leaver
ecause of the stance he took against the $35
lillion, Nov. 8 city-county bond referendum,
i/hite, along , with fellow Black Leadership
oundtable Coalition members and the
AACP, fought the bonds, charging they
ould do little to help address the plight of the
ty's poor.
"I was as much against the bonds as anybody
Please see page A3
hero Joel
m ! A
relatives say
retirement benefits of $1,300 a month.
Joel's mother, Mary Ellen Joel of 955
Mount Zion Place, told the Journal: 44He
just quit taking the insulin. It broke his
heart when they wouldn't give him his
(disability benefits).... He told me last
week he didn't want to put up with it
anymore. He was tired of it all. He was
ready for Jesus."
Joel filed for disability in August after
*" taking a leave of absence from his job as a
benefits counselor for the VA's regional
office in Winston-Salem. He began work
for the VA in Connecticut in 1973 after 23
years in the Army. He moved back to
?Winston-Salem in 1982.
The decorated Army veteran left his job
because his vision was failing, said Mike
Please see page A12
. -?i
r Postal Question
ate a business in Winston-Salem, and 1
nailed a letter to another business in the
h to my surprise, it took the letter eight
?t across town, and this has happened to
and more since Winston's mail is now
be bulk mail center in Greensboro. Also,
new system started, the mail is sometimes
te post office boxes by 8:30 a.m., as
that's the problem?
EJP.
roblem you experienced with the letter is
sprrence, according to John School field,
Salem's postmaster.
lie Postal Service put its automated sorm
into effect at the end of the year, it
t best to concentrate the new technology
trea. Therefore, the bulk mail leaves
Pleaaa aoo page A12