It's crunch time
Rams eagerly anticipate
Saturday's season opener
V. “7
f ^ . I
Transit Travelling
Lively conversation, people
found along city bus routes
16 Pages This Week
Thursday, September 1,1988
Winston-Salem Chronicle
"The Twin City's Award-Winning Weekly"
X
VOL. XV, No. 1
Chamber to help fund consultant for E. Winston study
ly VALERIE ROBACK GREGG
‘hrenicle Staff Writer
The city ChambCT of Commerce will help fimd an economic development
tudy of East Winston wi± a $5,000 donation and staff support. Chamber Pres-
dent Fred W. Nordenholtz said Tuesday.
The city Board of Aldermen approved up to $75,000 for the study in June
.1 the request of the East Winston Development Task Force, but instructed task
brce members to look for other funding sources.
The study will provide the task force with information necessary to pro
note and develop East Winston and will generate information about market
capabilities, consumer demand and good locations for businesses for develop
ers interested in the area.
This study will be the third economic development survey conducted wi±
chamber involvement this year, Nordenholtz said. The community-wide Bat-
telle study will be completed sometime in September, he said. The chamber
contributed $27,500 for that study, with the Mary Babcock Reynolds Founda
tion funding the rest with a matching granL
Nordenholtz said the chamber wants a copy of the report generated by the
consultant’s study to help guide its efforts. "It's important for us to learn the
results of a study done in East Winston, to be sure we are headed in the right
direction," he said. "We hope to work closely with the East Winston Task
Force to be sure we're in sync with them."
Nordenholtz has been executive director of the chamber for 10 months,
and said the chamber is trying to gather basic econonic development informa
tion from which to begin working. The chamber has spent $37,500 so far this
year on economic studies of the city, he said. "We are a nonprofit organiza
tion," he said. "Any money we invest in East Winston is symbolic of our con
cern."
The task force will conclude interviews with four consultants Friday and
will then decide who to recommend to the Board of Aldermen to ctmduct the
study.
Please see page A10
Man dies in
drug-reiated
shootout
ly VALERIE ROBACK GREGG
ihronicl* Staff Writer
Six men, four from Fayetteville
nd two from New York, were arrested
lunday in connection with what
iuthorities are calling a drug-related
nurder of an East Winston man that
Homing.
They allegedly traveled to Win-
ton-Salem from Fayetteville in a Jeep
ast wedcend, rrated a hotel room and
ssembled their wares to sell on the
treet, according to city police.
Two hrothas, Wallace R. Danner
nd Donnell Tirell Danner, both of
■916 Dancy St. in Fayetteville, have
leen charged with shooting Gerald
Maurice Lewis of 1044 E. 15th St. at
bout 9:15 a.m. Sunday. Lewis was
hot that morning when the Danners
fr)ve past his car on the 1100 block of
last 18th Street and turned around to
base him, city Police Capt. E.L.
ifoieau said Monday.
Lewis, 29, was fatally shot in the
ead and died in Baptist Hospital Mon-
"y. Both Danners were charged with
pL Please see page A8
Photo by Mike Cunningham
Three-year-old cousins Derrick Fair, left, and Devon Gamble enjoy one of the many color
ful events that highlighted the fair at Miller Park for youngsters who were intensive care
patients at Baptist Hospital.
Wake Forest professor
named to head state
civil rights committee
By ANGELA WRIGHT
Chronicle Managing Editor
"Affirmative action is the selec
tion of some
group called a
minority, which is
then favored at
the expense of
standards." David
Broyles, the
newly appointed
chair of the N. C.
Advisory Com
mittee to the U. S.
Commission on
Civil Rights,
plans to get the
stale advisory
committee to take
at look at the issue
of reverse dis
crimination.
"Quotas do a lot
more harm than
good. I don’t think
you do anybody any good by putting
them in a position that they are not
qualified to hold. It’s very important
Dr. David Broyles
that people start where they are."
The way Broyles sees iL the U.
S. Constitution is a sufficient guaran
tor of civil rights. He says he believes
"in the original
intent of the con
stitution." He says
that, as chairman
of the state com
mittee, he hopes to
get people focused
on fundamental
constitutional
rights.
Broyles, a
Wake Forest Uni
versity politics
professor, will
chair the commit
tee until the end of
his term in July
1990. The com
mittee is the com
mission's state arm
and evaluates state
and municipal leg
islation and policy.
Please see page A8
Minority, smaii businesses not active in Chamber of Commerce
ly VALERIE ROBACK GREGG
Ihronlele Staff Writer
The local Afro-American busi-
tess community has increased its
nvolvement with the Winston-Salem
IhambCT of Commerce in the last five
ears, but the vast majority of minority
>usinesses are still not m^bers. Only
■.6 percent of the chamber's members
re Afro-Americans.
Approximately 75 businesses
iwned by Afro-Americans were cham-
tcr members as of September, 1987,
ccording to TVacy Meroney, chamber
oanager of membo'ship services.
Accwding to a 1982 U.S. Census
Jureau Economic Survey, 513 busi-
i«ses in the city arc owned by Afro-
Americans. They are predominantly
"mom and pop" q)erations, however,
because only 92 of them, about 18 per-
CCTt, have paid employees, according
to the survey.
But Meroney said the chamber is
pushing to include small businesses.
"We try to recruit everybody, especial
ly small businesses," she said. "We
have absolutely no idea (exactly how
many chamber members are owned by
minorities). We don't ask that. It's not
relative to their membership. It’s a
voluntary organization, and we don't
target certain groups."
Michael Grace, a local attorney
and member of the chamber board of
directors, said that chamber member
ship can be beneficial to all mincrity
businesses. "We need minorities,"
Grace,said. "We need everybody."
Grace said chamber membership
can help smaller businesses just by
allowing them to rub elbows with larg
er, better established canpanies. "Net
working is a major advantage," he
said. "They’re the movers and the
groovers and the shakers. We get to
know them, and we learn what they
do."
Chamber membership has a num
ber of benefits, Meroney said. The
chamber insurance plan, for exairqile,
is avaUable for all member businesses
with 25 or fewer employees. Chamber
membership also offers opportunities
to make new business contacts and
share expertise including chamber
committees and after hours networking
sessions to all chamber members held
every six weeks.
Executive Dialogue Groups allow
business managers to confidentially
discuss different approaches to prob
lems and innovative management tech
niques, she said. Each group includes
members of noncorapeting businesses.
Meroney said minority members
of the chamber get extra publicity
because their names, addresses and
phone numbers are published twice in
the chamber directory. The list of
minority- and women-owned business
es in the chamber directory is incom
plete, however, because it was com
pleted by a direct mailing, and several
minority and women chamber mem
bers failed to respond, Meroney said.
"Wth mailing, we never get 100 pw-
cent response," she said. "Several told
me they didn't respond or didn’t send
them in on time."
The retired executive volunteer
group (REVS) also off^s expertise to
new businesses through the chamber.
REVS conducts one-on-one counsel
ing services to start-up and existing
businesses, as well as sponsoring
workshops in conjunction with Win
ston-Salem State University and
Forsyth Technical College.
The chamber currently has five
Afro-Americans on their 24-member
Board of Directors including Grace,
Walter S. Tucker of Mechanics and
Farmers Bank, Lloyd J. Leonard of
Twin Cities Chrysto-Plymouth, Alvin
Spain of Jerry Watkins Cadillac-GMC
Trucks, Inc., and Cleon F. Thonqison
Jr., chancellor of Winstcm-Salem State
University.
Grace, a local attorney, became a
member of the board of directors this
year. "Historically minorities haven’t
been involved in the chamber, because
of the country club atmosphere," he
said. "Things are changing though. In
ordCT for black businesses to survive,
we'U have to become a bi-racial busi
ness community here. We can't keep
looking at ourselves as differenL We'll
have to think of ourselves not as a
mincdty, but just as a businessman.
"The chamber must be respcmsive
Please see page AlO
. Picking Up The Gavei
Erwin appointed chief district court judge
By ROBIN BARKSDALE
Chronicl* Staff Writer
Cunningham
Whoi he was just a little boy, his father took him to
court so that he could get an idea of what happened to
peqile that strayed on the wrong side of the law. Now,
he has the responsibility of imposing sentences on those
people.
Judge Richard C. Erwin, recerttly appointed as chief
U.S. District Court judge, has been fascinated by the
legal profession ever since the daj^ he sat in court as a
youngster and watched lawyere in action.
"My father used to take us to court on the thinking
that, if we could see what happened to criminal defen
dants, it would be something of an inspiration not to
become so involved," said Erwin, sitting in his spacious
office in the Federal Building and recalling that youthful
experience that would set the course for the rest of his
life. "We’d go to Superior Court in June and the part that
intrigued me was watching lawyers argue their case and
give their closing arguments and everytme had to listen,
I was intrigued and I liked the way they selected the
jury."
His father's plan apparently was successful: Erwin
went into law. His brother became a minister. From the
point of his young days in court on, Erwin said he
geared his life toward booming a lawyer and never seri
ously ctMisidered the possibility of any other career.
"I always wanted to be a lawyer. As long as I can
remember that's what Fve wanted to be," he said. "I went
to college with that inienL"
After serving three years in the U.S. Army, he
enrolled at Johnswi C. Smith University. In 1951, he
received his law degree from Howard University.
Although it was years ago, Erwin ranembers his first
case as if it were only yesterday.
"It was a drunk driving case and I defended the
driver," he said, "I entoed a plea of not guilty and it
turned out that the police in the incident had found alco
hol in the driver's car but they couldn't prove that he was
the one in the car. I wm my first case. It was a real sur
prise to me that I won my first case."
During his years on the bench, Erwin said he has
observed that some young lawyers arguing their first
cases make the mist^e of asking too many questions
and of asking questions that they don't know the answer
to.
From 1978 until October 1980, Erwin served as a
judge with the N. C. Court of Appeals. He was the first
Afro-American peretxi in the histwy of the state to win a
Please see page All