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Winston-Salem Chronicle
75 cents
'The Twin City's Award-Winning Weekly'
VOL. XVIII, NO. 39
Were they guilty or entrapped?
... dt '
Opinions differ on
fairness of trial
By SHERIDAN HILL 1 'consultant Rodney Sumler guilty on
Chronicle Assistant Editor 20 counts of political corruption,
and muttered, "Only in America."
Former alderman Patrick Hairston's not the only one who
Hairston emerged from a federal thinks he didn't get a fair trial. Emo
courthouse last Thursday after a tions are running high in the com
jury of five whites, six blacks and mumtyt some see the investigation,
one Asian-American found him and Please see page A6
Sumler
Hair st on Mack
Mack, Sumler
await verdict
By SHERIDAN HILL Lee F*ye Mack began to weep as
Chronicle Assistant Editor her daughter-in-law, Belita Martin
Mack, answered questions from
A heavy thunderstorm raged prosecutor Doug Cannon.
outside the federal courthouse in F?r d* P?81 seven weeks. Rev.
Greensboro Monday and the Rev. Please see paoe A2
Feds investigating
lending institutions
A More than 266 banks nationwide tar
geted for evidence of discrimination in
mortgage loan applications
WASHINGTON (AP) ? More
than a dozen banks, including some
in Texas, have acknowledged feder
al regulators are scrutinizing their
lending records for evidence of dis
crimination against minorities, The
Wall Street Journal reported today.
The Treasury Department's
Office of the Comptroller of the
Currency, the regulator of national
ly-chartered banks, confirmed last
week that it had targeted 266 banks
for investigation based on data
showing they turned down mort
gage loan applications from blacks
and other minorities far more often
than applications from whites.
Spokeswoman Ellen Stockdale
said today it is the policy of the
comptroller's office not to identify
banks under investigation.
Banks acknowledging to the
Journalgthey have been asked to
explain their rejection rates are:
? First City Bancorp of Texas
Inc.
? First Interstate Bank of Texas.
? Banc One Texas and Banc
One Mortgage Co. in Texas, Bank
One Lexington (Ky.), and Bank One
Cleveland, all subsidiaries of Banc
One Corp. of Columbus, Ohio.
? Hibemia National Bank, New
Orleans, which has branches in
Texas.
Using a computer to scan 1990
mortgage loan data, released last
October by the Federal Reserve, the
Journal identified 105 banks with
widely disparate rejection rates for
whites and minorities. Fifteen of
them, responding to a Journal sur
vey, confirmed their lending poli
cies are under investigation.
However, some of the 15 dis
puted the data and others attributed
the disparity to an aggressive effort
to solicit applications from minori
ties.
Please see page A3
Two-year-old Joel Coel enjoys a bird's-eye view on the shoul
ders of Chrts Coleman at the Fun/FamNy Awards program.
'Keep our centers
open' residents
urge committee
? Alderman Larry Womble and resi
dents pleaded with city's Finance
Committee to reconsider budget cuts
By SAMANTHA McKENZiE
Chronicle Staff Writer
Alderman Larry Womble and
South ward residents made a plea to
the city aldermen's Finance Com
mittee Tuesday night not to close
Morningside Recreation Center.
Four recreation centers ? all
located in the black community ?
face reductions in budget and ser
vices in the city's proposed 1992-93
budget. A public hearing was held
at the committee's Tuesday meeting.
The four centers include: Morning
side, Kingston Green, North Hills,
and Northampton. The next meeting
will be held next Tuesday, May 26,
when a final decision will be made
on the budget
"We're going to fight this," said
Womble. "It seems like this is
already in concrete} but *erfe here
tonight t<nfy^ to keep the cement
from hard*
ening.
"There
is a clear
need for
these cen
ters. I am a
product of a
recreation
center. It
kept me off
the streets,"
he said,
adding that
the shut-down of the centers may
force the children to hang out on the
streets.
"Whenever there is a decision
Please see page A2
Jackie Teal
ON THE
AVANT-GARDE
IV IANG NIVRI
to be said
We had just told our five-year-okl son and his
three-year-old canafa to slop playing doggie when
all of a sudden we heard this very load crash.
Something tragic must have happened.
* We rushed into the bedroom and found large
pieces ofglaaa qxayedas over the floor, this bad
the look of a verjj^fcerioiis sccidcnt In the midst of
this near-tragedy were the two little boys both
of whom knew that something had gone terribly
wrong.
Apparently, "Mister Dog's" leg, the three
year-old cousin, had been tied to the bubble gum
machine in order to keep him aill for a while. But
Mister Dog didn't want to rest. He didn't warn to
be still He warned to go aoond die house baririog
enough to untie himself from the bubble gum
machine.
The boys weren't hurt, thank God, but now,
unless one of them could find the appropriate
: Please see page A6 \
Word on the street ...
A Alderman Larry Womble found innocent . . . Patrick Hairston and Rodney
Sumler convicted . . . Here's what people say about the verdict
Li 111 i ill ?
i I thought everyone would
get off. I donl think the
(innocent) verdict on Womble
will damage his credibility in
the black community, even
though they tried to use those
tactics to do just that. It's hard
to argue that it was an unfair
verdict, just by the makeup of
the jury. They made a sound
decision based on the given
facts. (But) this type of lobby
ing happens all the time in
Washington. 9
f
- Bobby Brown, 41
( I feel like they were all set
up. The (white) guy who
already showed prejudice
should not have been trust
ed. Womble obviously pre
sented his case better than
the other two. I definitely
believe that if they were white
there would have been a dif
ferent verdict. There seems
to be two sets of laws, a writ
ten law and an unwritten law,
and the unwritten law mostly
applies to blacks. ;
- Beatrice Weaver, 60
C Nationwide black officials,
I feel, are being targeted.
We basically still live in the
good or boy system, where
(whites) can do whatever
they want to do and get
away with it. I actually know
Womble and I feel he was
innocent all along. I didn't
know the others personally. I
donl know their integrity. It
was left up to the hands of
the court system and justice
was served. j
- Robert Lane, 36
TO SUBSCRIBE, CALL 722-8624, JUST DO IT!
i I don't even understand
how and why Womble got
off free. Honestly speaking I
thought they were all guilty.
They were on trial because
they did something wrong ?
black, white, yellow, purple
? I don't care what color you
are if you did it. I don't think
(Mack) will get off either. If
they had to go through it all
over again, and serve the
public, they should do it the
right way. 9
- Wanda Frazlar, 30
C It was satisfying to see
one black walk away. If
you're crazy enough to get
caught up in It, then you got
what you paid for. You cant
set a man up who isn't doing
anything wrong. Obviously
they were doing something
they shouldn't have been
doing. But they'll probably
just get probation. There are
enough people in jail. They
just wanted them to know,
we're watching you. j
- Jay Johneon, 32