THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1991
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28 PAGES THIS WEEK
"The Twin City's Award-Winning Weekly"
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VOL. XVII, NO. 38
Black Theatre Festival returns
City prepares for Star invasion
By RUDY ANDERSON
. Chronicle Managing Editor ,
? .* ?' ' ir
- "We are planning for a marvtastic feuival/1 said Larry Leon
Hamlin, the artistic director and foundeqjpf the North Carolina
Black Repertory Company, of the second coming of his brain
. child, The National Black Theatre Festival, scheduled to be held
in Winston-Salem August 5-10.
Hamlin said more than 50 performances have been sched
uled in 12 performance cites across the city during the week-long
event by twenty of the country's best African-American theatre
companies. That compares to 17 theatre companies and 31 per
formances during the first year of the festival held in 1989. How
ever, some 250 African- American theatres are expected to attend
the six day festival this year.
There will also be celebrity performances by some of the
more than 30 stars expected for the mega-event Those perfor
mances include Avery Brooks in "Paul Robeson", Esther Rolle in
"Mary McLeod Bethune" and Phyllis Stickney in "Live in
Chocolate."
Please see page A10
R.J.R. CEO, James John
ston (loft) and N.C. Black
Repertory Company found
er, Larry Leon Hamlin shake
hands on collaborative
opening-night effort. Acade
my Award winner Denzel
Washington will be the
guest of honor for the gala
which will mark the begin
ning of a six-day theatre
extravaganza.
Consultants have tour corridor options to bs considered. They favor Corridor D because of Its
slrport linkage.
N*A*T ?l<*0*N*A*L
NEWS
jPoor health care for minorities
: WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) ? Long-stand
ing racial discrimination is one reason blacks and
Hispanic* are slipping through ever-widening
cracks of the U.S. Jieaith care system , the editor ql
a prestigious medical journal said today.
In a hold editorial ill this week's Journal of
the American Medical Association, Dr. George
Lundberg said it is no coincidence that the United
States and South Africa are the only developed
<iogmries that do not have a national health policy
thai ensues access to basic care for aU.
Freedom rider Hm IW regrets
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) ? Ninety -one
year-old Walter Bergman still has vivMpemories
of his role as a Freedom Rider paving tp way for
desegregation of the Sotfth. He's reminded of it
every di$
Tve been riding in a wheelchair for the last
M) years on account oi liuu, he say*.
Bergman was one of six whiles and seven
blacks in the first band of Freedom Riders who
ware determined to integrate Southern bus routes
where rigid segregation was not just a
way of life ? it was the law.
Quiet protest greets President
HAMPTON, Va. (AP) ? President Bush
: spoke only briefly about civil rights in his com
mtneement address at Hampton University, but
the issue was uppermost on die minds of many of
the graduating seniors in the audience, j
This administration will fight discrimina
tion vigorously," Bush said Sunday asj.023 stu
dents received their degrees at the predominantly
- black school. : ' ? X. ^ ?% '
5
\atmtul
Auftutt v
Photo by LB. Speas J*
Northeast Bypass possible ,
key to future development
By RUDY ANDERSON
Chronicle Managing Editor
s.
? -iC?
The major benefits to the African-American com
munity in East Winston from a planned northeast corri
dor connecting three major road projects to the Region
al Airport are economic development, less traffic con
gestion, and the least environmental impact according
to Brent McKinney, the city's senior traffic engineer
and point man on the*Northeast Bypass project.
The Bypass would be part of a larger northern belt
way around the county adopted in the 1987 Thorough
fare Plan by the Transportation Advisory Committee
(TAC). The purpose of the beltway would be to allevi
ate traffic congestion on 1-40 and U.S. 52.
"If you talk to people about this city's future they'll
tell you the city's future is in the east/' McKinney said.
"A major transportation corridor in that area means we
are water and sewered and that land is available for
industrial and commercial development."
"Everybody has got to have a job, and job opportu
nities are going to develop to the east"
John Turner, president of Forsyth Partners, a major
commercial developer agrees. "I think East Winston
could become the overwhelming recipient of the eco
nomic vitality created by this construction in housing,
shopping, employment centers, and recreation centers."
He said a road project linking Smith Reynolds Air*
port and the Regional Airport would go a long way
toward promoting the regional concept for the area. He
said historically the road network, east of U.S.52 in the
quadrant known as East Winston, has only been
designed for residential traffic and small trafTic volume.
He said that may be fine for small retail applications
but for major employers (those with a 100 or more
employees) the road structure was not adequate.
"Employers want to be able to get their people to and
from the job site efficiently," he said.
Please see page A 1 1
Women's group works to prevent future wars
By YVETTE N. FREEMAN
Chronicle Staff Writer
A local group of women and men are helping to
educate the public on the alternatives to war, through
forums, meetings and protests to the Persian Gulf War.
The group is known as "Women Against War" and
was founded in December of 1990 by Susan Wolff to
try to prevent the United States from going to war with
Iraq, after Saddam Hussein's army invaded Kuwait.
"It was formed initially to prevent a military inter
vention, and to encourage a peaceful resolution to the
conflict in the Gulf," says founder and president Susan
Wolff.
Now that the war in the Gulf is over, the group's
mission isn't over, according to Wolff. She says the
group must now work to prevent another war from hap
pening anywhere else in the world by being "an educa
tional organization that educates the public as well as
our leaders to peaceful solutions, the possibility for
"...if you have peace
in your heart, then
that peace will ema
nate to others..."
f'j*
- Valjean Griggs
peaceful solutions, and the importance of peaceful solu
tions. We look upon ourselves as educational as well as
political, and of course the political side of it is working
toward influencing members of Congress or senators,
into voting certain ways. We tried very hard to influ
ence them to vote against supporting this war, which we
narrowly lost." ?
In an effort to influence Congress and local politi
cians, Wolff says "it's very important to build our num
bers and build our strength, so that the next time any
thing like this will happen, we'll be aware and we'll be
organized so that we can do something about it."
Valjean Griggs, a member of the founding board of c
directors of "Women Against War", and the only
African-American member agrees with Wolff, and the
group's purpose.
We are here "mainly to let people know that there's
a viable alternative to physical violence, and we're try
's" ? ' ~~~ ?
Please see page A 1 1
City's homeless keep vigil
to protest new shelter site
By RUDY ANDERSON
Chronicle Managing Editor
Some of this city's homeless have made it clear that
they don't want a new home built for them by the Salva
tion Army in, the city's north ward.
A group of more than 20 vocal homeless people
staged a march from city hall to the proposed site of the
new shelter on city-owned land on Trade Street . They
claim the area is already saturated with service
providers for the poor, displaced, and hopeless.
Members of a group called "Homeless but not
Helpless'1 have said they are concerned not only about
the saturation of these programs in the same area but
also that the new shelter would be located in an area
where there is drug trafficking. They said they feared
for the safety of the women and children that might be
in the facility.
"They need to keep the Salvation Army shelter
either where it is on South' Marshall Street or on the
southside of the city where it is needed or near Ogburn
Avenue," said Kay Vives, a member of the group.
"I just think they want to keep us on one side of
town so they won't have to look at us," she said.
Some of the city's homeless have literally camped
out on the steps of city hall to drive their message home
to the Winston-Salem Board of Aldermen.
Last month a deadlocked vote of the board was
broken by Mayor Martha Wood that tabled a decision
by the board to grant three acres of land on North Trade
Street to the Salvation Army for use in expanding ser
vices to the homeless.
In addition to hearing from the homeless, the board
heard objections from residents of the Kimberley Park
public housing community, part of which is located in
the area of Northwest Boulevard, near the proposed site.
The Salvation Army had originally asked the city's
permission to expand their present facility on South
Marshall Street. The organization was approached by
developer David Shannon with an offer to build a new
$1.2 million facility i^txehange for their existing site,
an additional piece of property, and approximately
Please see page A10
Photo by LB. Speas Jr.;
Staked out at City Hall
Some homeless people heve made the steps of
City Hall their home, as well as staged march
es and rallies to keep a new Salvation Army
Shelter off Trade Street.