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Vol. XIII, No. 20
NAACP plans
an active year
By CHERYL WILLIAMS
Chronicle Staff Writer
The local NAACP had a
progressive year in 1986, but
the organization's president
says there's still much work to
be done in 1987.
Reviewing the past year,
NAACP President Walter
^ Marshall said the local branch
played an active role in educaby
ncouraging black
patents to become niore in?volvfcd
in their children's learning
experiences. -The
organization, he said, also
black children are able to con
tinue to progress academical y
"What we are trying to do is
establish awareness and let the
parents know they should be
involved in the education of
their children/" said Marshall,
who has just completed his
first year as head of the local
branch of the NAACP.
"They need atlso to know
that black kids are behind ?
they're running a face and
they're behind. The first official
thing I did when I took
over was to communicate witlv
the superintendent to deal with
the widening gap between
black and" white students on
the CAT (California Achieve
gent Test)/' he said.
Due in part to encouragement
from the local NAACP,
Zane E. Eargle, city/county
school superintendent, last fall
appointed a task force to study
the problem of underachieving
West parent
By CHERYL WILLIAMS
Chronicle Staff Writer
A Parents/Teachers Association
is being formed at West Forsyth
High School, three months
after several black parents complained
about the rfeed for such
an organization at the school.
; Velma Hopkins, a spokesman
for a group of black parents and
.students who came before the
^city-countv school boarc' in October,
and John E. Moore, a
'parent,*expressed concern then
that the school didn't have a
PTA. The parents and students
also charged that West Forsyth
discriminated against its black
Local man
\ By CHERYL WILLIAMS
' Chronicle Staff Writer
; Larry D/Watson of 525-B
' Claremont Ave. threw away
[ more than $2,000 in October.
At least that's how he said
L he feels now, after purchasing
O / ? o " frnm n ln<<ol <\r
f a wai I I will a iwvai vai
r salesman, paying cash and
* never receiving a title to the
t car.
"My money's gone down
I the drain/' said Watson, a
; waiter at the Black Velvet
? Lounge. MI don't, have any
: kind of registratipn'papers. I
havePit insured, That's it.
I
: r
insto
'
U.S.P.S. No. 067910
-Pg?
?
Walter Marshall, presidenl
progressive as he begins i
students in the school system
The concern about blac
students' performance in th
system led the NAACP Educs
tion Committee to fori
tutorial fc*r?ttng center*
which began operation- i
September. ,
Before the learning center
were started, the committe
sponsored an education cor
ference that featured Dr
Beverly 'Cole, the organiza
tinfl's natinnal
* ??hvivmh? imiikftuuj
director.
Marshall, a critic of th
local school system, said tha
he is pleased with the work o
? the learning centers, but hi
fesjsjh^y are doing work tha
(T
ts get PTA
4'There seemed to be a desire
form a PTA, and our whole o
jective is to have the type
organization that fits the coi
munity," said West Forsy
Assistant Principal Norma Ha
bin.
A steering committee of i
parents and teachers, eight
them black, is working to for
the PTA, said Miss Harbin.
"In o**tfir?o tV?P frtr
All gvuill^ HIV JWVl 1115 vv/i
mittee, we tried to have a go<
representation of males ai
females, blacks and whites," si
said. "The parents have been
great group to work with."
Parents from all four gra<
levels at the school a
Please see page A2
claims foul t
"Actually, the Qnly thir
Pm doing is driving a car wit
insurance in my name and taj
on it," he said.
In an interview last Frida;
Watson said he had bought
1981 four-door Caprice fc
$2,652 from James "Babe
Johnson jn October. At th
time, John son'.was a
employee of Camel Cit
Motors.
"1 had seen it several tim<
-at the Camel City lot, and
had seen Babe drive
around," he said. "He tol
me it was for sale and that it
a good-running car. And th
<
sUme*"9* *1
r
n-Sale
The Twin City's Award
Winston-Salem, N.C._ '
' -fy'
t of the local NAACP chapter, plans to rr
Hs second year at the organization's hell
i. the school system should be th
k doing.
le ./'It shows that the system is hi
i- not working to our m
n advantage/' he said. 44We tY
hope ?n MitUr liw school system T
n will take this up." la
Concerned by the dccreas- D
s ing number of black t Y
e educators, Marshall said the di
i- local NAACP will continue to
monitor the number of black ih
i- teachers in the school system. bl
D "We're trying to do what oi
a we can to get adequate black ai
e teachers to serve as role sa
t models," he said. 44We have a cs
f dual problem of them employ- b<
r fng blacks and 4 finding sy
t educators who are sensitive to
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people. It Is the remnant
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It the Holocaust." 24
re PAGE A4. P'?
th<
play in recent a
ig car is in good shape. The thing
ft is, I don't have any legal
is claims to it.
"I paid Babe cash in full for
y, the car," Watson said. "He
a gave me a bill of sale and told
>r me that he would give me the
other papers later."
le But Watson said he has
n never received the naoers and
y that the only thing he has to
. show that he bought the car is
:s the sales receipt signed by
1 Watson and Johnson,
it The way Ke insured the car,
d Watson saicf. is by switching
's the insurance from another car
ie he owned.
' + 0, 4
% , A
R rtthra
m Ci
-Winning Weekly
Thursday, January 8,191
rwTm^ i nrn I
fSIRp
i
I
lake the branch even more ^
ti (photo by James Parker).
le needs of black students."
Politically, the NAACP
apes to pave the way for
iore black representation on
le board of commissioners.
h? local WJfhcH 'rtlea a
wsuit in October in U.S.
istrict Court, claiming that
le county's at-laige elections
iscriminate against blacks.
"The at-large system dilutes
le black vote and places the
ack community at the hands
f the white community for
ly political gains," Marshall
iid. "There's no way anyone
in say that a district system is
gtter than an at-large
stem."
Please see page A12
ioch, black
/ GARY LANGER
soclated Press Writer
NEW YORK - Lawyers for
o blacks who were attacked by
gang of whites say they won't
their clients testify in the death
a third black man because
cism is "official policy" in
jw York.
4tIt is very clear now that in
cial bias cases no elected ofrtat
in this city is prepared to do
stice," lawyer Alton Maddox
id last Wedii?sday.
Later, a City Hall summit beten
Mayor Edward I. Koch and
- black leaders produced a
?dge to combat racism, which
: participants said is pervasive
uto deal
He said that repeated calls
to Johnson have failedto get
him the title.
"I've been talking to Babe
since October," he said. "He
told me he couldn't catch up
w ith the man who has the title.
I have been cettine one sham .
story to the next."
The last time -he talked to
Johnson was about a week
before Christmas, Watson
said. "He told me he was going
to come over to my house
and straighten -everything out.
We told me to give him 'til
Tuesday Tuesday came and
Please see page A3
. . - >
gins wpr Woods
rule and to
I rill-- i
4 '
hronic
? ? .
? A
87 50 cents
"If# humane and If* a quic
the situation and tak* contr
- Sheriff K. Preston Oldham
City nixes si
others debal
. . /
By CHERYL WILLIAMS ... , M
Chronicle Statf Writer thei
-Sv-' ? thai
Stun guns prowle a safe, use,
humane means subduing
rowdy and potential^ dangerous ^
people, say law enforcement of- stui
(Wife;?vmo
But*; others question whether
shooting thousands of volts of W~~
electricity into a person's body
isn't realty^igh-tech torture?
Stun* guns came under attack
nationally last year in New Yo^k
City when five police officers
were indicted on charges of torturing
black suspects with such a_J?
weapon. If
In Winston-Salem, the local
NAACP has criticized the use of
the stun guns by the Forsyth
County Sheriff's Department.
On Aug. 30, Thomas Lee
Douthit died in the county jail of
a cocaine overdose, say local and
_?tate medical examiners. But tfte
NAACP questions the circumstances
surrounding
. Douthit's death, which was
preceded by a struggle with mguards
armed with stun guns. ^
NAACP President Walter
Marshatfsaid the case is being in- cess
vestigated and that he prefers not ^
to talk about it. But the NAACP ^
does wonder if the Sheriff's maj
Department may have abused the ^ee
stun gun in this case, he said. g
TJie NAACP also has taken a saic
stand against the general use of ed
the guns, Marshall said. "My
leaders to com
in the city. Maddox boycotted the fen
meeting. poli
'The meeting was prompted by \
racial tension stirred by the Dec. ficii
20 death of Michael Griffith, a said
23-year-old black man who had sure
been hounded and beaten in the on
Queens neighborhood of Howard poir
Beach by whites wielding sticks Q
and baseball bats. J. 5
Murder charges against three side
white youths accused in Griffith's ovei
death were dropped last Monday pros
after another victim, Cedric San- accc
diford, refused to testify. * Yeai
"No white person can ever be Yofi
in fear of being convicted of Si
murdering a btack person in this_ easit
city," Maddox, Sandiford's yout
lawyer, said at a news con
\i^r
uHHH^
Larry D, Watson: "It was a raw, dirt'
Parker).
V
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:le
32 Pages This Week
A
k method to sofzo
of of ft."
tun gun;
te merits
lings are very negative about
tn," he said. "My feelings are
t they should be outlawed or
d with a lot of care."
Marshall said further use of
n guns should be halted .until
re tests are conducted to deter
k
? '
*
E. Preston Oldham
"' /*- &* ?&*' < ?Xv-' 'W "v
,+v- \,:-$:C:-;' ' ' .r ^ $"...*' V. I
c their safety. Both the local . -> / t
I national levels of the
ACP have always opposed exiive
force by law enforcement
ccrs, he said. \ui
the Sheriff's Department ;
ntains that the guns have not
n abused.
heriff E. Preston Oldham
hthat stun guns have been us
in his department for the last
Please see page A3
ibat racism
ence. "That is official
icy/'
laddox lambasted city ofils
and prosecutors who have
I he has stymied efforts to en!
justice, and he again called
Gov. Mario Cuomo to ap-y'p
it a special prosecutor.
ueeiijTDistrict Attorney John
iantucci, meanwhile, is conring
turning Griffith's death
' to federal authorities for
iectttlonas;* civrfrights case,
>rding to a report in the New
editions of The:New
k Times.
Ki a - r .4 4. g m
jch a move would make it
?r to prosecute the white
hs, who face reduced chargesPlease
see page A2
y deal" (photo by Jam?s
t *
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