'TrORIALS
)arryl Hunt’s
ew arrest.
PAGE A4.
PEOPLE
SPORTSWEEK
*«caab m
TU prof discusses
Baseball
gets a facelift.
black dancing.
fundamentalists.
PAGE M.
PAGE A7.
PAGE B1.
.^n-Salem Chronicle
The Twin City’s Award-Winning Weekly
No. 38
U.S.P.S. No. 067910
Winston-Salem, N.C.
Thursday, May 15,1986
50 cents
32 Pages This Week
'1 was never a teammate of John Holleman.
at would have been stupid of me to team up
with my opponent. Oldham was not even
In the commissioners’ race. If I was going
to be used as a sacrificial lamb, why didn’t
anyone tell me?”
- Mazie Woodruff
imary’s aftermath:
id coalition hurt?
HN HINTON
cle Staff Writer
1NE LOSERS
CUMBENT Mazie S.
uff, the lone black county
issioner, did not expect to
ilyzing a primary loss this
■
Woodruff, whom some
redicted to be the front-
failed to win one of the
lemocratic nominations in
ommissioners’ race last
ay.
Woodruff, the second
and only black to serve as
ty commissioner, finished
with 10,968 votes, behind
, Holleman Jr., who led
ket with 12,397 votes, and
G. Willard, who totaled
votes.
Mrs. Woodruff said in an inter
view Monday. “If we had a bet
ter turnout, I think I could have
done better.”
Mrs. Woodruff, who is a
retired medical-supply salesman,
had said last Tuesday night that
the low voter turnout, especially
in predominantly black precincts,
hurt her campaign. “If people
don’t vote, they have no reason
to gripe,” she said.
Black farmer:
A legacy ends
By JOHN D. HOFHEIMER
Pine Bluff Commercial
HOOKER, Ark. (AP) -
Leonard Nelson, a 64-year-old
black farmer from Hooker, lean
ed forward in his bentwood
rocker and confided that he had
tried to get his youngest son to
“study agriculture.”
“But you just said you didn’t
want your son to go into
farming,” said a confused
visitor.
“I wanted him to go into
agriculture, not into farming,”
Nelson said, explaining that his
son could have gotten a job with
the cooperative extension service
or some similar governmental
outfit.
‘No Future In It’
‘Playing Both Ends’
itterness
m not bitter at anyone,”
Mrs. Woodruff said Holleman
received 2,000 black votes from
the East Winston precincts, but
that she didn’t get similar results
in the predominantly white coun
ty precincts.
Deposed incumbent Mazie Woodruff: By politically embracing Sheriff Preston Oldham and fellow
commissioner candidate John Holleman, did she hurt her chances? (photo by James Parker)
“He was playing both ends,”
Mrs. Woodruff said of
Holleman. “He was campaigning
in the black community and the
:white community. ’ ’
Holleman and E. Preston
Oldham campaigned together.
‘A Sacrificial Lamb’
Mrs. Woodruff denied reports
that she and white candidates
Oldham, an incumbent, won
the korsyth County sheriff’s race
against two Democratic op
ponents. He polled 3,588 votes in
black precincts.
“I was never a teammate of
JohaHolleman. That would have
bem stapid of me to team up
with my opponent,” Mrs.
Woodruff said. “Oldham was
Please see page A2
iley: His key is broad support
■ IHE WINNERS
HN HINTON
lie Staff Writer
ifort 0. Bailey topped the
igain in the Democratic
fy for school board,
iy, the only black can-
ever to be elected to the
led a crowded field of 14
Tuesday’s primary, receiv-
Port from both black and
oters.
iut it mildly, Bailey routed
PPosition, beating his
challenger, fellow incum-
incy L. Wooten, by nearly
otes..
sve tried to run my cam-
[ith an open mind,” said
* totaled 11,320 votes
Wooten’s 10,352. “Peo-
1* 1 have worked hard to
hive with all my decisions
|ool board member.”
T’ 52, led the ticket in
"'cll. He ran strong in
several county precincts and
throughout Winston-Salem.
“He (Bailey) is a very credible
public official,” said R. Michael
Wells, chairman of the Forsyth
County Democratic Party. “He
is recognized as a capable and
good person.”
The five Democratic school
board candidates should work as
a team to defeat the five
Republicans in November, Bailey
said.
“Politics is a funny game,”
said Bailey, the director of the
media center at Winston-Salem
State University. “Things can
change dramatically between now
and November.”
The proposed redrawing of
school attendance lines and the
racial imbalance at some schools
will be campaign issues, Bailey
said. “I don’t want them to
become racial issues,” he said.
“Race should not figure into the
picture.”
Bailey said he favors a review
of school attendance lines
throughout the system.
The other black Board of
Education candidate to survive
the primary, Evelyn A. Terry,
placed fifth in the Democratic
primary with 7,194 votes. “1 am
pleased with the vote of con
fidence that I received,” she said.
Mrs. Terry said she received
support from black and white
voters. “My support was broad-
based,” she said. “Many people
know I am a qualified and viable
candidate.”
Mrs. Terry, director of institu
tional research at WSSU, said she
is going to “work like crazy to in
sure victory in November.”
Please see page A2
In a note of finality and with
massive forearms crossed over his
barrel chest. Nelson said of farm
ing, “It’s no future in it.”
It’s a moot point anyway, since
Eric DeWayne Nelson, 20, the
last of Nelson’s four sons, is stu
dying computer science at the
University of Arkansas at Pine
Bluff.
Nelson and Andrew Walker
Sr., a 78-year-old black farmer
from Gethsemane, think they
may make their last full crop this
year.
Large farm surpluses, shrink
ing foreign markets, low prices
and supports, falling land values
and declining credit opportunities
have left many American farmers
in a jam.
During some recent years,
black farmers were four times as
likely as white farmers to leave
the land. Many black farmers
have small, marginal operations
and are thus, some say, in a
group hardest hit by hard
economic times.
Moving On
Above, front-runners Bailey and Burke; below, Tatum, left, and
campaign chairman Earline Parmon, far right, lament his loss
(photos by James Parker).
Nelson and Walker have stayed
on to work the land as nearly all
their many brothers, sisters, sons
and daughters have left the farm.
“Most young people in the last
20 years went to college and mov
ed on to better jobs,” Nelson
said.
Why does he farm? “I like to
turn the soil and see crops grow,”
he said.
Please see page A15
cus on illiteracy
I session to address national problem
BARKSDALE
^itaffWriter
thousands of North
® adults rely on their
“ read to cross the street.
have guys walking
, ttt three-piece suits
■^n’t read. People
^od road signs, and
f*'* i shop for their
oceries. ”
Velma Jackson
'series for their families.
^mselves
I
to and from
perform other everyday
for
"early 40,000 Forsyth
County residents, simple tasks
become major challenges because
they can’t read.
The problem of adult illiteracy
has escalated both nationwide
and in the state. The 1980 Census
Bureau report shows that more
than 1.5 million adults in North
Carolina never completed high
school and that 835,620 of those
residents lack basic reading and
writing skills.
Dr. Velma Jackson, a
counselor at Forsyth Technical
College and an active member of
the campaign against adult il
literacy, teaches reading classes
for adults who want to learn to
read. Illiteracy, she says, cuts
across social, economic and
Please see page A3
‘She was the League’
By CHERYL WILLIAMS
Chronicle Staff Writer
Dr. Velma Jackson on illiteracy: It knows no class or racial
distinctions (photo by Jatnes Parker).
When Hazel E. Brown came to
the Winston-Salem Urban
League in 1961, she was fresh out
of business school and ready to
work. Twenty-five years later,
with two more degrees under her
belt, she’s still eager and working
at the Urban League.
On May 1 Ms. Brown marked
her 25th year with the local Ur
ban League. She boasts the most
seniority of any employee there.
“She was the Urban League
when I came to town,” Urban
League President Thomas J. Eli
jah Jr. said. “She really is an in
stitution.”
During those 25 years, Ms.
Brown, an Eden native, has worn
many hats.
Her positions have ranged
from secretary-bookkeeper to ad
ministrative assistant to person
nel assistant to intake assessment
specialist to her present post as
Older Worker Program coor
dinator.
She said that she even assumed
the responsibilities of the ex
ecutive director during the in
terim in the ’70s when the league
was searching for former Direc
tor Sam Harvey’s replacement.
“I’ve had a little bit of ex
perience doing just about
everything,” she said.
The years have brought
numerous changes for both the
Urban League and Ms. Brown.
When Ms. Brown started at the
league, it consisted of only two
offices and was located in the
Hanes Community Center. She
Please see page A3
■5
t;