HURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 1993
READ MAYA ANGELOU'S POEM PAGE A4
Sharing The Joy
African-Americans are needed to
visit first-time mothers.
PAGE A10
Lethal Weapon
v
Stage and screen actor Danny Glover
performs at WSSU on Jan. 28. v
PAGE A6
Winston-Salem Chronicle
75 cents 'The Twin City's Award-Winning Weekly" VOL. XIX, No. 21
Bethania Landowners Won't Talk Now
By SHERlDfcN^ILL
Chronicle AtsisUnt Editor
A Dec. 3 Chronicle article about a black' family in Bethania has
incited conversations and arguments across town, and prompted an article
in the daily paper ? but the landowners themselves don't want to talk
abou| if now. ? ? ? : ?
In November, Bfetty Conrad Byers and her son. Ali Shabazz, told the
Chronicle thai a white landowner was forcing them to.abandon the land
they and their ancestors have lived on for 127 years.
Winifred Speaks, the white woman, said she was just trying to sell
the land she rightfully owned. **
After the Dec. 3 article was published, Speaks' attorney, K. Clay
Dawson, said he feltjh s^Chrenicle had misrepresented the true story
about the land.
Byers, 71, will not allow her attorney, Keith Tart ot Womble Carlvle
Sandridge & Rice, to speak with the Chronicle. Instead, she gave him per-,
mission to speak with the Winston-Salem Journal. Byer^ and her son then
refused to speak with the Chronicle.
Speaks' attorney maintains that Speaks has a clear deed to the four
wooded lots that Byers says have always been used by her family. Both
attorneys agree that Byers' father, William Conrad, left his heirs a clear
title to a .67 acre triangular lot.
The Forsyth County Register of Deeds lists a 1900 deedjto William
Conrad for "2 acres, more or less." The description of the land makes its
boundaries difficult to locate. There is also a 1907 deed to William Con
rad for the small triangle-shaped lot on which he built a house and raised
a family.
Dawson says Speaks has never claimed the land on which Byers
lives, nor has $he tried to use it. She is trying to sell her four lots, through
which Byers has built a driveway. Dawson says Speaks is having diffi
culty selling her land because of Byers' driveway and the family's attitude
toward prospective buyers who venture out to the property.
According to Dawson, the Byers family history is intertwined with
Please see page \2
Byers and her son, Ali Shabazz, refuse to speak with the Chronicle.
ON THE
TTTant^garde
BY TANG NIVRI
A Main For The Ages
They said he was 81 years old, but nt>body
thought he was. They said He was pastor emer
itus of Ml Zion Baptist Church where he had
served for some 31 years, and still pastors at a
little ol country church in Davie County.
Kelly O.P. Goodwin stood up* like he'd
done thousands of tirpes, before a huge crowd
gathered for the 13th annual WAAA celebra
tion honoring the memory of Dr. Martin
Lirther JCing Jr. The theme was Strategies for
Survival.
I sat back with my three young children,
watching, listening, pondering as this grand
old man stood and opened his mind's heart,
opened his life's treasures and shared them
with us.
Wrapped in a beautiful kente cloth- head
encircled by locks of beautiful gray hair, look
ing down over his glasses, he spoke of the
poWer of the mind and of slavery: what it was
and what it wasn't
He is a preacher, but his delivery was not
like that of so many others who search for
clever words that strain to rhyme. His message
didnt stir people to run from the isles declar
ing, "What must I do to be saved?"
His was not the kind of message that
makes people jump and shout and moan. But,
in my mind, I shouted, for it way a message
that only men who have live4,-rang lives of
righteousness can deliver. /
Ever so gently, he reminded us to seek the
truth of our being. To know ourselves. He
reminded us of who we are. of the need to feed
our souls and to nourish and replenish the
spirit.
He admonished us to never forget the
wisdom of who made us, to never lose sight of
the ultimate plan for our lives, whatever it
might be.
For a brief moment, it looked like the old
man almost "got happy," swinging his arms
back and forth, rocking irt his place on the
podium, smiling broadly. He was among
friends.
This grand old man stood smiling before
us, as one who had dedicated his life in service
to others, and who knew that there was still
work to be dope in the' fight for justice, peace
and truth.
I envied him that he could stand and look
out on a crowd so large, and not have to won
der if life is worth living.
It must be wonderful to walk with the
grace and dignity and style of one who knows
that God is certain, who is sure of himself
because he knows who he is.
Perhaps his message was not so much i
what he said about life as in what he did with
his own life.
"Just be yourself," he said. "You some
thing, ain't you?"
Mortgage Lending:
How Banks Try
To Insure Fairness
? NationsBank " actively
looking" for branch
site in East Winston
%*Q9WW
John Hopper joined in the celebration of his ancestors and beat on an African drum. Hopper is-c fifth-grader
at Moore Alternative Elementary School. I ??
African Market Intrigues Students
By SHERIDAN HILL Gallery at Winston-Salem State dishes at an African market spread
O ir,"-u_u Aslant Editor University. Students froni^oore out in the auditorium of Moore
and Latham were j*Trmt*rsed in Alternative Elementary School.
The spirit of Africa came to African culture: touching sculpture,
town la>t week, courtesy of Diggs trying on robes^and eating African Please seepage A3
By MARK R. MOSS
Chronicle Stiff Writer
Just what are two of North Carolina's lMgest
banks doing to insure that all mortgage applicajRs are
being treated fairly?
The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, which
became law in 1975, was strengthened by Congress in
1989. It requires mortgage banks to report in detail
information about the mortgage loan applications they
receive.
That information includes the number of applica
tions from African Americans, aijd the number that
were accepted and rejected. Thanks to the HN4DA law,
the public now has some idea of who gets mortgage
loans. Because of that information, which was reported
by The Wall Sireet Journal, the Chronicle was able to
ascertain how banks were serving their minority cus
Related Editorial Page A4
tomers. The figures for Wachovia of North Carolina
and NationsBank reflect room for improvement. Both
banks claim that's exactly what they're doing.
Herbert Wayne, a Wachovia senior vice president
and head of the mortgage unit's statewide operations,
said the bank has started a neighborhood revitalization
program that is targeted for low-income mortgage
applicants. The bank provides a 30-year fixed rate
mortgage and will finance 97 percent of the value of
Please see page A3
JThey Came Out To Honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
? "You don't have to reject King to ? j
embrace Malcolm," said Judge.
i
I Imiji; ' .f~> r I'lJ?.-... ?-**
b>\urkrmoss ?
c > 1c Staff Writer
They marched, hundreds strong,
:roro Mt. Zion Baptist Church on Martin
Luther King Blvd. to the. Benton Con
vention Center Monday morning to com
memorate the legacy of a man who.
aroused the conscience of not only his
ovmi race, but of all Americans.
They gathered at the convention
centcr to pray and cele)>rate. and to hear
the thoughts of others on what has been
done, and what needs to be done, in
memory of this man who ended up giv
ing his life because he raised the nation's
conscience.
They went their separate ways an
hour or so later, somewhat satiated by
the spirit and camaraderie that enveloped
the huge room because of this man who
refused to let America gojitinue to turn
;tf ? ck on its racial problems.
That man was Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. and the "they" were the people
of Winston-Salem, whose very presence
on the chilly streets and in the warm hall
of the center was a statement of solidar
ity for what the civil rights leader left
behind.
?"~We are here to remember a man
who helped change the thinking of a
whole generation." said Mutter Evans,
owner and general manager of WAAA.
"He preached universal love and brother
hood."
Please see page A 2
On Jan. IS marchers walked along Fifth Street in honor oj Martin Luther King's
birthday. \
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