THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1992
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32 PAGES THIS WEEK
Winston-Salem Chronicle
.75 cents
"The Twin City's Award-Winning Weekly'
VOL. XVIII. No. 24
Republican candidate
'Public schools have failed low-income kids!
Hu gtfl UIMAM llll I
Chronicle Staff Writer
Shaking hands and preaching politics at
a weekly lunch meeting with local Republi
cans, Vernon Robinson seems quite pleased
with himself. A man who loves an audience,
he takes advantage of the crowd of 60 that
has corn^ tc hear former Charlotte mayor
Sue Myrick announce her platform for U.S.
Senator. Robinson happily manipulates the
room, proudly handing out an article about
him that appeared in a newspaper in the east
em part of the state.
"1 haven't announced my candidacy for
the state superintendent of education," he
tells this reporter. "I'm just going through the
state discussing education issues."
At times, it is hard to tell if Robinson,
the state's 1991 Young Republican Man of
the Year, is politicking for education or
against Democrats, whom he refers to as "the
left, losers, hypocrites," and "those who
make money off the poor."
Li a comer of iiie room, someone com
ments that Robinson's plans for educational
reform are innovative and important, "but
he's so abrasive, so pushy."
"That's his weakness," sighs a fellow
Republican.
Please see page A 1 1
Housing chair
action-oriented
By YVETTE N. FREEMAN
Community Newt Edtor
Denisc D. "D.D." Adams is not
like most community leaders. She
doesn't own her own business, and
her job doesn't allow for her to "do
lunch." As a line manager for Stroh
Brewery, her workday begins at 7
a.m., and usually doesn't end until
late afternoon. She's a regular work
ing class citizen, just like the people
she tries to help through her numer
ous community activities. But
somehow, after sometimes working
12-hour shifts, she still finds the
energy to be one of the community's
most well-known and respected
leaders.
She is a member of the Win
ston-Salem Urban League's Board
of Commissioners, as well as the
boards of STEP ONE and the East
Winston Community Development
Corporation. Since 1990, she has
been on the Board of Directors of
the Winston-Salem Housing
Authority, serving also as its vice
chairman. Just recently, she was
named chairman of the Board foi
k>wif)g Ruben Burr's resignation.
: "It's a Challenge because all my
life I've just wanted to serve, to do
something for other people," Adams
said during a recent interview. She
also stated that it is her "action-ari
ented" attitude that makes her a pos
itive force for the residents of pub
lic housing.
"I don't like when people meet
and meet to death all the time, and
there's nothing getting accom
plished. I don't like that To each his
Own, but I just find that non -produc
tive, " she explained. "When I'm
meeting, I want something to be
happening. I'm action-oriented. And
Please see page A2
Claudette Jarrette, elementary school generallst, serves on a com
mfttee studying ways to bring African-American history Into ever)
classroom in the county.
Black History inches
into local classrooms
New teaching tools used
By SHERIDAN HILL
Chrontcfo Staff Writer
Name two European artists
who were influenced by African art.
Which black physician performed
the first successful heart operation?
What is a freedom ride?
For the most part, neither black
nor white school children have had
an opportunity to learn about impois
umt leuumpluliments uf African -
Americans, but black history is
inching its way into localcclass
rooms.
McDonald's and RJR Tobacco
provided African- American curricu
lum guides for teachers and admin
istrators this year, and an African
American curriculum committee is
now structuring a program that
would allow African-American his
tory to be included in every class
room. Associate superintendents
Palmer Friende and Dr. Fred Adams
oversee the committee, staffed by
Janet Atkinson, high school gener
alise Nancy Sherrill, middle school
generalise and Claudette Jarrette,
elementary school generalise
Jarrette says she has supplied
three different books on African
American history to elementary
schools, and encourages curriculum
coordinators to help teachers inte
grate African-American history all
year long, not just during Black
History Month.
In the past few weeks, a hand
some, 130-page African- American
teaching guide was supplied by Wfc
Tbbacco to each pfirttipaM, incity* ? "
coordinator and curriculum coordi
nator of elementary, middle and
high schools in the county. Last
year an activity booklet on the lives
of famous African-Americans was
furnished to each second and third
grade teacher through a grant from
RJR Tobacco.
Vivian Turner, contribution
program manager for RJR, says the
main focus of the tobacco compa
ny's contributions is on primary and
secondary education. "It fit with
what we were trying to do."
The guide is called "From Vic- _
tory to Freedom: the African- Amer
Please see page A11
ON THE
AVANT-GARDE
By I ANG NIVRI
<? 1
Alex Haley, author of Roots , dies
Found his own roots in North Carolina
ii
BURLINGTON, N.C. (AP) ? The influence of
Alex Haley, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning book on his
ancestors features their lives on a North Carolina plan
tation, will be long-lasting, say friends and colleagues.
The light that he brought to an aspect of American
history that had been so neglected will never be
dimmed because Alex stirred a whole generation of
people," said Duke University Professor C. Eric Lin
coln, a longtime friend.
Haley, who wrote Roots: The Saga of an American
Family , died of cardiac arrest early Monday at Swedish
Hospital in Seattle. He was 70.
Lincoln said Haley's most important legacy is that
he continues to motivate ordinary folks ? domestics,
Dr. H. Rambart Malloy recently cleared the air
?bout tha cJrumstancaa surrounding the death of
Dr. Chart** Draw.
gas station attendants, social workers ? to search out
their family ancestry.
David Dennard, a professor of history at East Car
olina University, said Haley "suggested more clearly
than anybody that it was possible to trace their ancestry
back to Africa, and that gave us a sense of continuity,
connectedness that had been damaged.
"I can draw upon his work when 1 talk about the
African underpinnings of American history," he told
The News & Observer of Raleigh.
Roots ? made into a highly successful television
miniseries in 1977 ? traced Haley's ancestry back to
Please see page A3
Alex Haley
Drew: Unraveling the mystery
Program addresses
Charles Drew's death
By YVETTE N. FREEMAN
Community News Editor
For over 40 years, the truth surrounding the death
of one of the greatest pioneers of medicine has been
hidden behind a myth of racial inequality and inhuman
ity.
,On April 1, 1950, here in North Carolina, Dr.
Charles R. Drew, the Africa- American doctor respon
sible for discovering how to. store blood supplies for
more than 24 hours, was killed due to injuries sustained
in a car accident just two miles south of the Haw River.
For years since his death, the myth that he tiled to death
because the Alamance General Hospital refused to
admit him because he was black has persisted, although
the three men who were in the car with Drew at the
time, and others, say otherwise.
One of those individuals daring to shatter the myth
is Dr. H. Rembert Mai toy, a Winston-Salem native and
resident, who not only trained under Drew, but also had
the opportunity to work with him.
Malloy spoke about Drew's life and the myth sur
rounding his death Monday night at the East Winston
Branch Public Library during a program in celebration
of Black History Month. He stated that the rumor that
Drew died because of lack of treatment at the Alamance
Genera] Hospital was first started by an African- Ameri
Please see page A6
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