THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 1992
MAKE TRACKS I TO COLISEUM FRIDAY. SEE PAGE AS
34 PAGES THIS WEEK
Winston-Salem Chronicle
75 cents _ _ . ? ? "The Twin City's Award-Winning Weekly"
VOL. XVIII, No. 32
-Case builds slowly against Winston-Salem Four
Th? Good, th?
Bad, the Ugly
After eigTffdays of hearing evidence,
there is no smoking gun ? the govern
ment's case is built on statements and ,
actions which, taken alone seem innocent,
but strung together may imply guilt for
some of the defendants
By SHERIDAN HILL vfith political corruption. None of
Ctvonkto Assistant Editor ^ssaes ^onc clearly spell out
guilt: there is no smoking gun;
Brick by brick, the United rather, there are a number of guns
States government is building its in a hazy room, and the jury will
case in the on-going trial of four
Winston-Salem leaders charged Please see page A3
Smith suffers on
witness stand ?
A Defense attorneys for the Winston- ?
Salem Four work toward discrediting the
government's key witness
By SHERIDAN HILL
Chronic* Assistant Editor
The four defense lawyers, John
A. Dusenbury Jr., James E. Fergu
son II, David Freedman, and Gre
gory Davis, have spent much of the
past eight days skillfully chipping
away at the credibility of the gov
ernment's key witness, William
Smith.
Smith is a balding, dogged
looking building contractor sporting
a deep browh tan. According to
what he told Rodney Sumler in
taped conversations, he holds a
Master's degree in business admin
istration and a Ph.D. in Clinical
Psychology. He also curses like a
sailor.
Please see page A2
NAACP delays
taking stand
on school plan
? The political action and edu
cation committees plan to
make a recommendation to the
executive board I
By SAMANTHA McKENZIE
Chronide Staff Writer
The local NAACP president said the organization
has not yet decided whether or not it will take action on
the school system regarding the newly proposed redis
ricting plans but is leaning towards the "recommenda
tion to postpone the redisricting plans" until African
American representation is present on the board.
Joseph Nance said the education and political
action committees are scheduled to meet before the
executive board meeting in three weeks at which time a
recommendation will be made.
"We requested a plan from the school board but
haven't received it yet So the committees are in the
process right now of getting those plans. Then they'll
meet and come up with a recommendation of whether
Please see page A3
ON THE
AVANT-GARDE
By TANG NIVRI
m
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luiuys nxKucr jbiq- oiHGJBcr
court worn oot tehta* off the bill ATI
the Jastmimifc* No! got I
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Boys f?tMuKiaBra . Ssl *??E5S
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my bttO ON tbebtsketbali court-my madman.;
- But that's whei|^ya^yhe<p^o?iid?|o |
real life, I look
For
Mkhigm Avenue, or onto 4owntowii I
U.SA. where the rest of nt live, he |
\
Artist John Blggars (1st right) told WSSU ChanosHor Ctaon Thompson (Is ft) and Vivian Wsavsr (2nd Isft)
and Sslsah Wycka (osntsr) that hs hopss ths two murals, "Origins'* and "Aaoansion," oompiatad by hlmaalf
and assistant moralist, Jamas Biggs rs (far right), will Inaplra ths studsnts of ths unlvsrslty.
Sas Btory on Pag* A9
? -
St. Peter's puts
pressure on
LIFT/Best Choice
H I, ?? I I I I B I . ?? ? ?' I. ? ? 1 Jl
* - - * - - n r, ? N ? ? ?
A Two local groups will have to
come up with money to finance
their present facilities or relocate
By SAMANTHA McKENZIE
Chronicle Staff Writer
Two community-based organizations that special
ize in helping at-risk African-American children, are in
danger of losing their facilities within the next few
months and are making last minute attempts to negoti
ate contracts and raise funds.
LIFT (Learning Is Fun Too), an alternative school
for youngsters who have been kicked out of the public
school system, received a notice of a 64% increase
under a new lease from Shilohian St. Peter's Corpora
tion, effective July 1. ?
The increase will jump from $1,752 per month to
$2,736, but LIFT Director Earline Parmon says they do
not have the money to pay such an increase.
"This is going to force us to move. We're now in a
situation of having to find another place, because there
is no way we would be able to afford such an increase,"
Please see page A6
12th Congressional District faces first test in primary
V
CHARLOTTE (AP) ? Residents at one end of the
Mack-majority 12th Congressional District who think
they have little in common with people at the other end
are wrong, a political scientist says.
Think about it," said Samuel Moseley, a political
scientist at North Carolina A&T State University in
Greensboro and a voter in the district "Black voters are
concerned about education, crime, drug abuse, home
lessness and a lack of jobs. These are the things that
pull together these black communities along 1-85. They
form an urban agenda.
The district snakes along Interstates 77 and 85 and
U.S. 70, snatching up large pockets of predominantly
black neighborhoods in 10 counties from Gastonia to
Durham.
It resembles a chain of lakes as it widens and nar
row! to split Iredell, Forsyth, Guilford, Mecklenburg
and Rowan counties into three districts and Gaston,
Davidson, Alamance, Orange and Durham counties
into two.
Unlike Atlanta and Chicago, North Carolina lacks
concentrations of blacks. So when the U.S. Justice
Department told the state it needed two black-majority
districts, lawmakers used 1-85 and 1-77 to link large
clusters of inner-city blacks.
"You can't overplay the symbolism," Moseley told
The Charlotte Observer in an interview published Sun
day. "For blacks to have recovered from the disenfran
chisement of the post-Reconstruction will be signifi
cant This is a good opportunity to make inroads."
But even though the May 5 primary is little more
than a month from now, some voters are unsure if they
live in the new district
Waitress Gaynell Lineberger, 53, believes shell be
voting in the 12th.
Please see page A2
Child disfigured by drain cleaner awarded $8 million
. . GREENSBORO (AP) ? An $8 million settlement
to a Greensboro boy disfigured by drain cleaner can't
repair the physical and psychological damage he and
his family suffered, an attorney says.
"The family would give $10 million not to have
had the child injured like he is/ said Joseph Williams,
a Greensboro lawyer.
Monte Carson, now 4, was disfigured on July 14,
1989, when a drain cleaner called Clobber spilled on
him. The acid ate away the skin on his face and virtual
ly destroyed his nose, an ear and an eyelid. Monte's
eyesight was saved and his nose and ear were rebuilt
after the incident
Williams and co-counsel Kenneth Johnson of
Greensboro won a hefty settlement in February with
Hercules Chemical Co. of Delaware, makers of Clob
ber.
The case of Monte Carson was featured in a front
page article in last week's North Carolina Lawyers
Weekly, because of its size and the different theories of
liability applied. **
A maintenance man at Sherry Carson's apartment
had left on the edge of a washing machine a 34 -ounce
uncapped container of the milky-looking drain cleaner
made mostly of sulfuric acid.
When his mother arrived, Monte, Ms. Carson's
then 18-month-old grandson, ran into the kitchen.
Apparently thinking the plastic container was milk, the
toddler reached for it and it spilled.
Hearing screams, his mother and grandmother
rushed to the kitchen. After reading directions on the
container, the adults applied water to the child's face,
but that intensifed the burning. An amublance arrived
and rushed him to Moses Cone Memorial Hospital
Please see page A10
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