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"The Twin City's Award-Winning Weekly"
VOL. XVII, No.35
By RUDY ANDERSON
. Chronicle Managing Editor
A bold new initiative in education planned for the
local school system this fall is getting mixed reviews
from a varied cross-section of parents who wonder if a
proposed downtown school is just another private
school for the rich.
Initial funding for a proposed workplace elemen
tary school was announced last week by the RJR
Nabisco Foundation, which awarded a three-year grant
of $750,000 for development of the school. '
But since that announcement, there has been a
wave of questions, and some say misunderstandings,
about what this proposed school will be, who it will be
for, and where it is to be located.
"This is nothing more than a private school for the
children of R.J. Reynolds management employees,"
said Jerome Adams, a white parent of two elementary
school-age children in the school system. "What about
something for the children of unemployed parents or
those making minimum w&ge?"
" Adams said he sees a problem devoting money to
special programs and special schools but overlooking
the great bulk of other kid/ who are left in classrooms
that are too large and witp programs that are without
imagination in regular schools.
"That wc even speak of 'special' schools and 'regu
lar' schools indicates a disadvantage for the latter,"
Adams said.
Lee Faye Mack of Concerned Mothers of Forsyth
County also sees the proposed school being set up as an
exclusive private entity. But as an outspoken advocate
of African- Americans getting their own schools to edu
cate African-American children, she has no problem
with what is being proposed.
"To tell you ihc truth, 1 don't see this school being
any different than what I've been saying Black people
need to be doing," Mack said. "They are just taking the
same concept and forming their own school for those
with upper incomes. They may have a few of our chil
dren in there, but they are basically doing what we
should be doing for our children. 1 can't knock that,
they are just able to do it because they got the money."
Not A Private School
But Susan Carson, program manager for public
information in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School
Sy|tenr^5trongly rejects the notion that what is being
Please see page A 1 1
Would somebody piease make them
mpl Stop
talking about the people who arc planning with such impunity is that by the time they
these Negro dinners! Stop! Please, before 1 finally do gel the nerve to stroll through
Photo by L.B. Speas
Local NAACP President, Rev. Joseph L. Nance
Jr., honors Sallle Mitchell with the organization's
President's Award.
Banquet lasts hours ? ,
NAACP honors
community pillars
By PATRIC?ASMfTH-DEER?NG
Community News Editor
By the time the Winston-Salem
branch of the NAACP got around to
its keynote speaker, the Honorable
Annie Brown Kennedy, member of
the North Carolina General Assem
bly and an attorney with the Win-?
ston-Salem law firm of Kennedy,
Kennedy, Kennedy, and Kennedy,
the hall was only half full of the ini
tial 1200 people who attended the
Annual Freedom Fund Banquet
Thursday, April 18, ai the M.C.
Benton Convention Center.
Unfortunately, many ot those
who came to hear what she had to
say left before getting the message
well into almost the third hour of
the banquet.
Recalling the past achieve
ments of the African-American
community in Winston-Salem, Rep.
Kennedy put the present and future
Please see page A 1 1
N*A*T *l*0*N#A*L
NEWS
Supreme Court asked for help
? ??
WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Bush administra
. tion, clashing with officials of Southern states,
urged the Supreme Court to apply key federal vot
ing rights protections for minorities to the election
of j udges. __
But an attorney for Louisiana said judges are not
elected to represent segments of the population.
Solicitor General Kenneth Starr, the administra
tion's top courtroom lawyer, said the federal. Vot
k tug Rights Act is designed to include judges as
... "representatives" covered by the law.
Death penalty survives test
WASHINGTON (AP) _ The military death
penalty has survived a legal challenge by a Marine
facing the first military execution in 30 years.
Lance CpL Ronnie Cuftis lost his appeal, which
said that murder defendants in military trials don't
have the same protections as civilians in state
courts. '*
But the U.S. Court of Military Appeals said^
Curtis has at least one appeal left before he could
be executed.
Witness gives Mandela alibi
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) _ A key
defense witness testified Tuesday that Winnie
Mandela was doing social work with her in anoth
er town when four young men allegedly were kid
napped and assaulted.
Nora Moahloli, a school teacher, confirmed Mrs.
Mandela's alibi that she was hundreds of miles
away when the four blacks allegedly were
attacked at Mrs. Mandela's home in the black
township of Soweto outside Johannesburg.
"She was at my place," Mrs. Moahloli told the
court.
Sheriff's promises do not match actions
Minorities question
promotion policies
By RUDY ANDERSON
Chronicle Managing Editor
Sheriff Ron Barker
African-American deputies in the Forsyth County
Sheriffs Department, who thought the election of Ron
Barker as Sheriff would
mean greater upward
mobility for them in the
department say they have
not seet^that happen so
far.
Ron Barker defeated
Preston Oldham for the
office of Sheriff in the
November general elec
tion, making Barker the
19th man to become the
county's highest ranking
law enforcement official
in the county since Isaac
Church was appointed by
the governor to be Sheriff in 1849.
Since Barker took over in December, the Depart
ment has seen some major renovations and restructur
ing, but the result has been that as of right now there arc
no African-Americans on the Sheriffs top administra
tive staff and very few at the supervisory level.
Some African-American deputies, who asked not
to be identified, wonder privately if the Sheriffs inat
tentiveness to this situation is intentional or if he just
has not had the time to make good on some of the cam
paign promises he made about promoting. African
Americans.
During an interview last week, Barker said the
focus of hisl4-hour days for the most part has centered
on making improvements at the jail and working the
cases the department is involved in. He said he has an
open-door policy and that if anyone has a problem, they
can come in to see him.
Barker is particularly proud of the turnaround at
the jail since he's been in office. But when questioned
about status of African- Americans in his department,
his answers are not as quick.
During his campaign to be elected Sheriff, Barker
publicly expressed his concerns about where African
Americans were placed in the department and their
apparent lack of upward mobility. But lour months alter
Photo by L.B. Speas Jr.
The majority of the Sheriff's department's
minority employees work at the jail.
taking over, the numbers don't reflect the kind of
changes Barker said he wanted to make.
There arc no African- Americans on the Sheriffs
administrative command staff, although there are six
African-Americans who arc supervisors. To dale, the
Sheriff has made only one promotion of an African
Amcrican and that was to the rank of corporal. The bulk
of the departments African-American personnel arc at
the jail.
There arc a total of 88 people employed at the jail,
according to department administrative assistant Robert
Joyce. Of that number 31 arc A frican- American. There
arc six white supervisors and six j\frican-Amcrican
supervisors, according to Joycc. They arc a captain, two
sergeants, and three corporals.
Captain Garland Wallace, the highest ranking
African-American in the department, assists a ncwly
hircd major at the jail who is now the department's
Please see page A9
Improvements at
County Jail made
By RUDY ANDERSON
Chronicle Managing Editor
People who have business at the Forsyth County Jail
will find ii a much different place today than it was just
four months ago, thanks to some innovative programs
initiated through the Sheriffs department to make
improvements.
The Forsyth County jail had been the focus of harsh
criticism by county officialsrformer inmates, and the
media, for its unsanitary and overcrowded conditions.
The jail is still overcrowded. It was designed to hold
262 prisoners; but as of presstime holds 2U2. However,"
the jail today is anything but unsanitary, and the morale
of corrections officers and the prisoners appears to have
taken a turn for the better.
"Remember how smelly the jail used to be," asked
Sheriff Ron Barker during an interview last week, "how
belligerent and mean-spirited the prisoners were?
"Its not like that around there anymore because of
the changes we've implemented in the last few months
and the new programs we've undertaken. There is a dif
ferent atmosphere here, and people are beginning to
notice."
Corrections officers now have radios that keep them
in constant contact with each other, to let cach other
Please see page A9
mora oy L B Speas JF
Capt. Garland Wallace likes what he sees hap
penlng at the county jail.