THURSDAY NOVEMBER 29, 1990
NEWS HOTLINE 723-8448
30 PAGES THIS WEEK
Winston-Salem Chronicle
50 cents
The Twin City's Award-Winning Weekly"
VOL. XVII, NO. 14
N.A-T-I.O-N.A'L
NEWS
Country Club disclosure urged
(1AKY, I ml. (AP) _ Country clubs m Indiana
would have to disclose how many black and His
panic gollcrs apply lor membership and how
many are accepted, under a bill a Gary legislator
is drafting.
The bill would put teeth into a new law that
in July Avill deny liquor licenses to clubs, fraternal
groups or labor organizations that exclude minori
ty applicants from membership.
"There is currently no tracking mecha
nism/' said state Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary.
"At this point it's hit or miss."
Attack on children investigated
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) _
Police today investigated reports that white men
with whips attacked a group of black children on a
Sunday school trip who tried to used a public
park.
Meanwhile, police and news reports today
said 19 people were killed in clashes in various
parts of the country over the weekend. Most of
them died in lighting between rival black groups.
A police statement gave few details.
Among the incidents, the state-run South
African Broadcasting Corp. reported on Monday
that nine blacks were killed late Friday.
District is issue in South Carolina
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Creating a black
majority district probably will be the hottest issue
for the South Carolina Legislature when it redraws
congressional district lines in 1991.
The process of drawing the boundaries got
the General Assembly so tied up last time that it
took a three-judge panel in 1982 to do the job.
"Frankly, there were too many individuals
m the LegtsJatwe looking to create a congression
al district that would be suited to their individual
interests," said Rep. Robin Tallon, D-S.C. ?
Blacks winning in Shreveport
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) _ Twelve years ago
it might have been considered unthinkable.
But today, black candidates are running for
local office without the blessing of the minority
community's powerful political base- and they're
winning.
Shreveport City Council members-elect
Roy Cary and Cedric Glover and incumbent
Councilman Joe Shync arc among the 1990 group
of winners who arc considered unbcholdcn to the
powers- that- be.
Search for mother in Liberia
f
NORCROSS, Ga. (AP) _ Tina has spent
months trying to find her mother, who was left
behind in Liberia- a country ravaged by 1 1 months
of civil war.
Tina, 22, who declined to give her last name
for fear of reprisal, and Hawa Trinity, 33, both left
Liberia years ago and arc now trying to get their
families out of Liberia.
Tina said she has no way of finding out
whether her mother made it to neighboring Sierra
Leone - where U.S. Marines used helicopters to
transport evacuees.
Legend seeks hostage release
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) _ Boxing legend
Muhammad Ali, on a visit to Baghdad on Sunday,
pressed for the release of some of the hundreds of
Americans held in Iraq.
The visit came as more than 100 freed Ger
man captives arrived home after nearly four
months of captivity and Iraqi officials said about
70 Italians were to be released Tuesday.
Urban League board split over firing
f
league in
violation of
charter
By RUDY ANOERSON
Chronicle Managing Editor
The Winsion-Salcm Urban League may
be violating its terms of affiliation with the
National Urban^ League and may be jcopar- ?
dizing its association with its major funding
source, the United Way, because of the way it
is structured. The Chronicle has learned that
under the national terms of affiliation the
Urban League board is violating the league's
charter.
That revelation comes on the heels of the
board's firing last Wednesday of Dclores
Smith as the league's executive director, and
calls into question the board's legal authority
to act.
Please see page A 1 1
Smith Dickson Branch Spainhour Bass
Directors:
9 in favor,
5 against,
3 abstain
By RUDY ANDERSON
Chronicle Managing Editor
Last week's firing of former
Urban League executive director
and sparked major in-fighting
between board members who
favored and opposed her dismissal.
TJie Chronicle has learned
that nine board members voted for
her dismissal, five opposed it, and
three members abstained from vot
ing. Two other board members did
not attend the meeting.
Those who voted Smith out
Please see page A12
Smith trying to pull it together
By RUDY ANDERSON Smith was tired by the Urban
Chronicle Managing Editor League's board of directors during its
regularly scheduled meeting VVednes
Delorcs Smith, who until last n0v. 21. Though no official
Wednesday was the Urban League s word has come from any board mem
c *ccu t ivcTdl rector , is jpend ing hex bcr about ihe action-Sm i th says she
time these days trying to copc with was j0ld that reasons given her were
the sobering fact that she is without a irreconcilable differences between
job. This has never happened to me ancj board and that her direc
bcforc. I vc never been without job, torship was no longer satisfactory.
and I m still trying to understand why Smith said she wanted the public
I lost this one," she said. , ?
Please see page A 1 1
- ? - - *
Smith caught in a whirlwind
Group asks to meet with board
By RUDY ANDERSON
Chronicle Managing Editor
A group calling itself the Forsyth
County Voters Coalition has written
to Urban League Board chair Joseph
Dickson requesting a meeting with
the full Urban League board concern
ing its activities.
The request comcs as the latest
development in what has been a
ground swell of controversy over the
"board's firing of Delores Smith, who
until Nov. 21 had been the league s
executive director.
"We want some straight answers
from these people about what has
been going on at the Urban League,"
said coalition chair Marie Roscboro.
She said the coalition wants the board
to attend a public forum Dec. 6 at 7
p.m. at First Baptist Church on High
land Avenue.
The letter to Dickson notes in
part that the recent firing of the exec
utive director, the composition of the
Please see page A 12
League begun
to stave off
racial unrest _
By RUDY ANDERSON
Chronicle Managing Editor
The Winston-Salem Urban League was born
out a race relations study commissioned by city
leaders following a strike by African-American fac
tory workers against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Com
pany for better working conditions and benefits.
The details of the strike, the successful organi
zation of local 22 of the United Tobacco Workers
Union, and how that union successfully negotiated
contracts with Reynolds management are chroni
cled in a book by Akosua Barthwell called Trade
Unionism in North Carolina, the Strike Against
Reynolds Tobacco Company. It was first published
in 1977. Library officials say one copy of that book
remains in the library system, the others have mys
teriously disappeared.
Velma Hopkins, who for years ran the
Reynolds Health Center Cafeteria, was one of the
Please see page A 12
NAACP committee
won't make nominations
- *
By PATRICIA SMITH-DEERING
Chronicle Staff Writer
The committcc designated to select a slate of candi
dates for the upcoming election of officers for the Win
ston-Salem chapter of the NAACP tossed a bombshell
into the laps of its members with the announcement that
the committee could not agree on a slate. The committee
proposed that the nomination process be open to the gen
eral membership.
/ /Some o( the problem may have had to do with bomb
hjnrcats that thV committee had received as recently as the
flight of the Tacsday, Nov. 27, meeting held at the Win^
- st^n Lake YMCA. At least one member of the nominat
ing\^>mmittcc expressed grave concern over the threats,
as wcll"fo a potential slate of candidates that had heavy
overtones of "cronyinsm" but was blocked during com
mittee deliberations.
At Tuesday night's meeting, Howard Ward, chair
man of the nominating committcc ami also a member of
the local chapter's Executive Boa^d, read the list of those
who had returned signed consent forms to the committcc,
indicating their interest in being nominated for board and
chapter offices. The list includcdStiuliiplc candidates for
the officcs of president and second vicc president. When
Please see page A13
Paul Stoney is achievers driving force.
Black Achievers
get $35,000 grant
Winston-Salem foundation
awards start-up funding
By TRACY L PROSSER
Chronicle Staff Writer
A local program designed to help African
American youlh learn to succeed in school and in
careers has just received notice it has been awarded
a grant which will fund its first year.
Please see page A 7
Mack to protest
board decision
By RUDY ANDERSON
Chronicle Managing Editor
A former employee of the Winston-Salem Urban
League is leading an effort to picket the businesses of
key members of the league's board of directors over the
firing of executive director, Delorcs Smith.
Minister Lee Faye Mack, who resigned from the
Urban League two weeks ago because of what she
called a lack of support for the league's Black Family
Focus program and attempts to silence Ms. Smith, says
she'll lead a group of Ms. Smith's supporters to the
picket lines Monday at the North Carolina School of
the Arts and Wachovia Bank.
The Urban League's chairman of the board, Joseph
Dickson, was recently named vice chancellor of
finance at the arts school. Sterling Spainhour is a cor
porate vice president for Wachovia. Both men were
among nine members of the Urban League board to
vote in favor of Smith's dismissal last Wednesday.
The Concerned Citizens for Dee Smith say if she
can't cat, then the big boys these corporations put on
ihcsc boards can't cat either," Mack said. "If these
businesses and corporations don't want to see our faces
Please see page A12