Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / Feb. 4, 1993, edition 1 / Page 1
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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1993 ? ANGELOU, PIGGOTT, BOOKER RECEIVE AW Community Sports! More JV boys and girls and YBA cov erage than ever, only in the Chronicle. / Black History Don't miss special Kroger insert on African-American contributions. C SECTION Winston-Salem Chronicle 75 Cents .. -"Power concedes nothing without a struggle." ? Frederick Douglas VOL. XIX, No. 23 Officers Back On Job As McKellar Investigation Goes On A DA still studying SBI report on cause of death SHERIDAN HILL Chronicle Assistant Editor The five Winston-Salem police officers who arrestecla black woman who died in police custody are slowly being returned to their regular duties as the dis trict attorney's investigation continues. All five were assigned to desk duties after Sheila Ay\n McKellar stopped breathing in a holding cell in the Hall of Justice last summer. When McKellar was arrested July 18, officers handcuffed her hands behind h^r back, cuffed her ankles, and gagged her with gauze. A police report said she was resisting arrest and trying to bite the officers. Sgt. L. O. Saunders, the only supervisor involved, xesumed his normal duties within the last two weeks. Saunders is a black male. Ofc. T. J. Trentini, a white femalerhas also been returned to patrol duties. The other officers involved were D.A Jackson, a black male; K. A. Alridge, a white female; and S. B. Yoder, a white female. Police Chief George Sweat declined to comment on the personnehactiun; taurCapt. G.G. Comatzer saitf the officers were needed back on the^treet. Police'said they checked on McKeflar periodically during the 26 hours she was in the holding cell. She was taken to Baptist Hospital where she revived but never regained consciousness. She was pronounced dead July 20 at 1 :20 a.m. A medical examineF-said her death was caused by positional asphyxiation (the way she was handled) and that cocaine contributed to her death. Cornatzer said the police department would not make final personnel decisions regarding the arresting officers until District Attorney Tom Keith has made a decision on whether to press criminal charges. "As far as these officers are concerned, nobody's been found in violation of any rules, regulations, or laws," Cornatzer said. "The D.A.'s looking at it, tht; Justice Department's looking at it. and we can't do anything \et. I don't see anything changing for months." ? On Jan. 25. District Attorney Tom Keith received an investigative report or McKellar's death from the State Bureau of Investigation. He said he hopes to read the four-inch hook in the next two weeks. In determining the cause of McKellar's death, he said he will look closely at her medical records. "k it coincidental that she died of positional asphyxiation, or was that inevitable from the cocaine or some otner cause 7" he asked. "The amount of crack in her system is critical to that." Please see page A2 ON THE AVANT GARDE BY TANG NIVRI * Bringing the Negro into the mainstream of American life should be a State interest of the highest order. To fail to do so is to ensure that America will forever remain a divided sociaty...Z Thurgood Marshall, 1906*1993. s - - - ? ? f >?* Why is it that when a mu Mch it folks? air Why are swnge white folks so lefucta at lo acknowledge the contributions made by v blacks in helping to rid this nation Of fee Sbojfii age of evils that otherwise would surety.dtt&p us all? Why does it lake them so long? When black folks who have done this nation proud, stand to be recogniee, now or in ? the hereafter, white folks act Hke k is a black thang, and they wouldn't understand." They ignore it *? 3 Wasn't it a good idea that the notion of "separate hot equal" be challenged -- regardless of who tried the case? Regardless of the race of the plaintiff? ' Isn't it in the best interest of the long term future of America (despite our present prob lems) that our public schools are not separate on the basis of race, that little white boys and little white girls be able to play and learn with other little black boys and black girts as once dreamed by a black man? As Americans, are not we all proud of this nation's willingness to declare in 1954 that edu cational apartheid was no longer acceptable? ~ What are we ashamed of? | Shouldn't we have all stopped to acknowl edge the life and death of a man like Justice Marshall who took It upon himself (? rectify injustice when a great many while folks were just as content as cows to live quiet lives based on racial hypocrisy and brutality, aO the while threatening the ton^val of oor American nation? While folks should have taken great pride in the fact that Marshall, unlike other advocates of sociil change, (Malcolm X) chose the United State Constitution ? the greatest such living document since the Magna Carta ? as the vehicle to right legal wrongs ? * that the chose la use the system of the United States Judiciary to help us as Americans see the error of our ways. He, with the help us others, helped us to see where we were wrong! >? Given how often we ertk about the need for a return to traditional Christian family val ues and with the decline in today's morals etc., white folks everywhere should have had some thing to say about this man's dedication to make America stronger - not weaker. This is a perfect example of public service that we would all hope our children and our children's children find both appealing and rewarding. Everybody in America knew what Jesse Jaokaon would say when Justice Marshall died. ; We all knew what Ben Hooks, past president of Phase see page A13 Shara Mitchell (top) and Christin Barrett spent some time outdoors in the sunny weather at Winston Lake YMCA day care earlier this week. Police Officer's Caring Life Ends Tragically a "A terrific , very outgoing man," said Sonja Jennings MARK R MOSS Chronicle Staff Writer _ From all accounts. Winston-Salem Police Officer Michael R. Jennings, whose life came to a tragic end on Jan. 29. led a life in which he cared about people. "H: was a lerntftc. \ery outgoing nmt..' said Sonja Jennings, the officei's widow. He loved his job, especially when he worked 1^ 'Mm JTttl \k ith juveniles." Nia. his vear-old daughter, was the love of his life. Sonja Jennings said, "But he also had a passion for basketball and sometimes I think he loved basketball as much as Nia," she said, managing to laugh in spite of her recent misfortune. he loved the community, and he' showed that by being s>o active in it," said Benjamin Piggott. the director of the William C. Sims Center in Happy Hill Gar dens. Piggott said that Jennings was one of the founders of the Keep Off the Street Basketball League which encourages youths to play organized basketball as a way of keeping them occupied. "He loved kids, and that was his thing." said Piggott, who was deeply touched by the officer's death. Captain Franklin Holman, of the Winston-Salem Police Depart ment's special operations division, said that Jennings. 30, and Office" Timothy Rayvon Wilson, 27, were traveling south at 6:41 p.m. last Fri day on Winston Lake Road when Jennings lost control of his patrol car at the crest of a hill where the Please see page A2 Glover Performs Hushes At WSSU ? A Review: The Reader Becomes the Actor Bv MARK R. MOSS Chronicle Staff Wnter HARLEM What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisftn in the sun? Or fester like a sore ? And then run? from "Lenox Avenue Mural" by Langston Hughes It was the applause of recognition that burst from the crowd when the actor Danny Glover read those lines at Winston-Salem State/University last Thursday night. Such applause came frequently - and not always because a poem's lines were recognizable - throughout the evening as Glover recited, no "performed", the poetry of Langston Hughes, the African-American poet whose writings captured the essence of black America during the first half this century. Glover, who was also in town to kiokoff R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company's campaign to reduce youth smoking, is better known for the "Lethal Weapon" tril ogy, the movies in which he plays an aging cop who is assigned a loose cannon, Mel Gibson, as a partner. During a brief interview the afternoon before the show at WSSU's Kenneth R. Williams Auditorium, Glover spoke proudly of the "Lethal Weapon movies, which have been tremendously successful at the box office. However, he is equally as proud of "To Sleep With Anger," a small budget, film with an all black cast that didn't catch on like his other movies. Felix Justice, a stage actor and close friend of Glover's, opened the night's featured performances with a recitation of a Martin Luther King. Jr. speecn. deli\ ered by civil rights leader the night before he was assas sinated. The speech, as eloquent and intellectual as any of King's writings, went into depth on the great leauer's views on violence and his thoughts on love" and its many connotations. It was also the speech in which King announced his opposition to the Vietnam War. It was not Justice's delivery that was disappointing as much as it was his lack of bringing to the perfor mance any thespian challenges. One got the feeling that anybody could have stood on that stage and recited a King speech. As for Glover? Well, Glover the reader metamor phosed into Glover the actor, who used his arms and his voice, to bring the nuances of Hughes poetr\ to life the more poems he read. There were times when it seemed Danny Glover as it" he were trying to fh oft' the stage, as when he read "Sylvester Dies in Bed.' a comical look at death through the eyes of a d\ mi: man. He treated T. Too " (1. too. sing America./ 1 am the darker brother. The\ send me to eat in the ?kitchen "When company comes. But I laugh,/And eat Please see page All TO SUBSCRIBE CALL 919-722-8624 ?
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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