ITORIALS
SPORTSWEEK
SPECIAL SECTION
its oil
local NAACP
III, No. 51
new job
ir Ruffin
OHN HINTON
licle Staff Writer
PAGE A4.
Lash: More than
meets the eye
PAGE B1.
Chadwick: Flying
with the Angels
PAGE B3.
Fall, fashi^
and scho
itDE.
Winston-Salem Chronic
The Twin City’s Award-Winning Weekly
U.S.P.S.No. 067910
Winston-Salem, N.C.
Thursday, August 14,1986
50 cents
s Week
ijamin S. Ruffin has
d from politics to big
ess.
ffin, 44, once a special
ant for minority affairs
tner Gov. James B. Hunt
oined RJR Nabisco Inc.
y as director of public af-
he company is suppor-
i lot of things that I will
volved in,” Ruffin said
reek. “I will be working
national black organiza-
around the country. I am
excited about my job
ffin most recently was
president and special
ant to the president of
li Carolina Mutual Life
ance Co. in Durham. He
manage RJR Nabisco’s
)rity Enterprise Program,
le program aims to bring
irities and women into the
omic mainstream, said
Cousart, a senior public
ions representative at
iffin will oversee the par
ing, banking, insurance
advertising aspects of the
ram. He also will serve as
ompany’s liaison with na
il minority organizations
as the NAACP and the
ed Negro College Fund
luffin, a director of
chanics and Farmers Bank
Durham, will deal as well
ood grades
Former civil rights activist Ben Ruffin has joined the corporate world and will work closely with
national minority organizations (photo by James Parker).
with governmental affairs for
RJR, Ms. Cousart said.
Ruffin said his job requires
him to travel extensively in the
States and abroad. “I will be
very busy,” he said. But he
and his family find their new
home base appealing, he said.
“It will be an easy transition
for us to move from Durham
to Winston-Salem,” Ruffin
said. “I know a lot of people
here.
“This is a very proud com
munity,” he said. “My kids
will go to a quality school.
People in Winston-Salem want
the very best.”
Ruffin is married to the
former Avon Long; they have
two daughters, April and
Benita.
Ruffin comes to Winston-
Salem with an impressive
record of civil rights activism
and political involvement.
He served as co-developer
of United Durham Inc., depu
ty director of UDI Community
Development Corp., coor
dinator of adult education
with Operation Breakthrough
and director of the North
Carolina Human Relations
Council.
Ruffin, a lifetime member
of the NAACP, is a former
chairman of the Durham
Housing Authority and
former first vice chairman of
the Durham Committee on the
Affairs of Black People.
Ruffin gained statewide
publicity when he was a special
assistant to Hunt from 1978 to
1984. Among other duties,
Ruffin advised Hunt on ap
pointments to boards and
commissions.
Ruffin, a Democrat, also
worked on Hunt’s two guber
natorial campaigns as well as
his 1984 U.S. Senate bid. “I
have been through three cam
paigns, and I have enjoyed
them all,” he said.
“He could have been a great
senator,” Ruffin said of
Hunt, who lost to Republican
incumbent Jesse Helms in the
most bitter, expensive
senatorial campaign in U.S.
history. “He just could not
overcome Ronald Reagan’s
strength.”
Drayton complains
that he was badgered
Allegations made in court affidavit
By JOHN HINTON
Chronicle Staff Writer
Attorneys for Merritt W.
Drayton filed an affidavit in For
syth County Superior Court
Monday alleging that police
harassed him to get information
about the murder of Deborah B.
Sykes and guaranteed him lenien
cy if he cooperated.
Drayton, 28, says in his af
fidavit that he told police about
another murder, the unsolved
beating death of Arthur Wilson
three years ago, because they
didn’t believe him when he said
he didn’t know anything about
Mrs. Sykes’ 1984 death.
Wilson, a 57-year-old black
man, was found dead outside a li
quor house in the 1700 block of
Claremont Avenue on Sept. 17,
1983. Drayton and two other men
- Darryl Eugene Hunt, who was
convicted last summer of Mrs.
Sykes’ murder, and Hunt’s best
friend, Sammy Lee Mitchell, who
had been a suspect in the Sykes
case but was neither arrested nor
convicted - are charged with the
murder of Wilson, who lived at
3054 N. Patterson Ave.
Drayton’s attorneys also filed a
motion requesting that the
evidence Drayton gave to police
be barred from his trial. That
evidence includes statements
Drayton gave to police on April
11 and April 16.
Drayton maintains in the af
fidavit that officers made pro
mises to him and threatened him
City-county schools boast one oflo west dropout rates
IHERYL WILLIAMS
licle Staff Writer
e city/county school system is do-
retty well when it comes to keep-
iudents in school,
has one of the lowest dropout
in the state.
lerate for the 1985-86 school year
3.7 percent. Interestingly, the
out rate for blacks in the system is
same as that for whites. In
nsboro, two out of three dropouts
Mack, amd some residents have
lened to keep their children home
otest when school begins,
iring the 1984-85 school year, the
was even lower for blacks in the
tounty schools, 4 percent as op-
Jto 5 percent for whites, said Dr.
Sakran, coordinator of student
ces for the city/county school
le overall dropout rate for that
Was 4.6, Sakran said,
f the 4,016 blacks enrolled - in
ndary schools, 149 dropped out
ichool year, while 309 of the 8,286
5s enrolled dropped out.
It is very low and we are pleased,”
tin said of the rate,
kran said that a series of efforts
contributed to the county’s low
out rate.
fhere is care and concern for the
c of public education,” he said,
'c superintendent is always ready to
c up with viable alternatives, and
■ is a greater commitment on the
of families of students as well as
students themselves to help main -
Boycott threatened
in Greensboro
By The Associated Press
GREENSBORO ~ Leaders of
a public housing tenants associa
tion say they may keep an
estimated 2,000 black children
home from school for two weeks
to protest school policies they say
result in lower black students’
scores and higher dropout rates.
“Our kids are dying, and it’s
just not fair,” said Ervin
Brisbon, president of the Con
federation of Greensboro
Please see page A16
J
tain education and stay with it.
“We hope those who drop out will
work their way back into the school
system or to Forsyth Tech,” he said.
“We don’t like for any student to drop
out, and the system makes every effort
to reduce it as much as possible.”
This effort, Sakran said, includes
staff development for teachers and ad
ministrators, a continued effort to
make the curriculum relevant to the
learning needs of the students, special
instructional programs such as those
offered by the Optional Education
Center, and an array of support ser
vices such as social workers,
psychologists and guidance counselors.
Another special effort to prevent
dropouts is an in-school suspension
program that operates in the middle
and high schools, Sakran said.
A frequent critic of the schools,
NAACP President Walter Marshall,
said he is pleased with the system’s
high retention rate.
“Dropout here is not as bad as in
other places,” Marshall said.
Marshall agreed with Sakran that the
in-school suspension program has
helped keep students in school.
“I’m not going to argue with the
figures,” Marshall said. “Individual
attendance is better than ever. There is
emphasis on staying in school and not
dropping out.
“Our problem is what’s happening
with the kids while they are in school,”
Marshall said. “You have all these kids
in school, but are you reaching all the
students at all levels?”
The system’s dropout rate also falls
below the state average.
Dr. Oliver C. Johnson, a program
consultant for dropout prevention with
the state Department of Public Instruc
tion, said that the state dropout rate is
approximately 7 percent.
The school system in the state with
the lowest dropout rate is Chapel
Hill/Carrboro, with 3.1 percent.
Durham City Schools have the highest
dropout rate in the state, with 12.6 per
cent, Johnson said.
The national dropout rate is 30 per
cent, said Dr. Donna Rhodes, ex
ecutive director of the Washington-
based National Foundation for the Im
provement of Education.
She said the dropout rate for blacks
Please see page A16
•A.fi '■
DEDRIC miller hams it up as he
celebrates some welcome rain Monday
afternoon (photo by James Parker).
to get the information.
District Attorney Donald K.
Tisdale, who was criticized by
black leaders for his handling of
the Sykes murder investigation,
denied the allegation in
Drayton’s affidavit.
“That is simply not true,”
Tisdale told the Winston-Salem
Journal. “I am satisfied that no
one promised him anything.”
But supporters of Hunt, who
say he was convicted unfairly of
Mrs. Sykes’ murder, say Drayton
has been a pawn all along in an
“Tisdale and the police
department have used
this boy, Drayton. They
have been pressuring
this boy all along.
Now, they are going
to flush this boy down
the toilet.”
—Larry d. Little
attempt to hurt Hunt’s efforts for
a new trial.
“Tisdale and the police depart
ment have used this boy,
Drayton,” said Larry D. Little,
founder of the Darryl Hunt
Defense Committee. “They have
been pressuring this boy all
along. Now, they are going to
flush this boy down the toilet.”
The Rev. Carlton A.G.
Eversley, a member of the Darryl
Hunt Defense Committee, said
Please see page A2
Drug program
focuses on youth
By CHERYL WILLIAMS
Chronicle Staff Writer
Not many things can make a
child trade the outdoors on a hot
summer day for a seat on a
church pew for an hour.
But every Thursday since July
24, 20 or more youngsters have
been gathering at the education
building of True Temple Holiness
Church in Happy Hill Gardens
for something that they can’t find
on any street corner - an educa
tion on drug abuse.
The seats are hard and the
children are restless, but they do
listen. And what they have heard
for the past four weeks is the
message that drugs are bad.
The program was begun by
True Temple Holiness Church
and is now being held in conjunc
tion with congressional candidate
Stu Epperson’s newly created 5th
District Drug Abuse Task Force.
Epperson has started what he
calls a war on drug abuse with the
formation of the nine-member
task force.
“We are all working to make
this pilot program a success,”
Epperson said in a news release
announcing the task force’s in
volvement in the drug education
program. “If the results are as
promising as we expect, we will
begin to expand to other areas of
the district.”
Albert Bingham, a member of
the church and Epperson’s assis-
Piease see page A2