.
75 CENTS
HOMEBUYERS GUIDE INSIDE
S WEEK
Practicing Medicine
Bowman Gray graduate is on his way to
fulfilling a dream.
PAGE A4
Hot Legs
Tina Turner kicks off new U.S. tour and
film debut.
PAGE B11
Winston-Salem Chronicle
THURSDAY, MAY 20/1993
VOL. XIX, No. 38
Infant Caught in Middle of Custody Battle
A Woman tells story of baby loved, then lost; says
~ system failed by returning baby to natural mom
By MARK R. MOSS
Chronicle Staff Writer
Carolyn Gordon gets emotional when she
talks about how she lost the baby she had cared
for the past seven months.
How am I supposed to feel? It was like F
was pregnant for nine months and someone
comes along and snatches the baby right out of
my arms," she said.
The baby's natural mother, Melva J. Davis,
gets emotional, too, when she talks about the
sleepless nights she's had since giving away the
child last fall.
N*a*t*i?o*n?a?l
NEWS
Coretta King Loses Leg;
rmi'.rrnr
BOSTON - Coretta Scott King recently lost *
six-year legal battle for 83,00b personal papers her
husband ? Slain civil rights leader Martin Luther
King, Jr.-? deposited at Boston University in the
mid- 1 960's. The papers, chronicle $$ early years of j
the Civil Rights Movement
argued that the papers hfed only btal fi
university for "temr"?*' ^ *
University att
intended the papers as
received his doctorate in divinity
1955. King was assassinated IA\
King ? who wanted the pa|
Luther King, Jr. Center in
plans to appeal the jury decision.
'
New Trouble ill South
~ : 'W&i
? - JOHANNESBURG , Sou
breakthrough toward political deitaOCft
in white-ruled South Africa recently.
of 26 political groups signed a declaration Of
to sc hedule multi-racial elections "no later than
1994." Virtually all observers expect those elections
to lead to a mostly black government dominated by
Nelson Mandela's African National Congress
( ANC). Currently, under the system of apartheid,
blacks arc not allowed to vote in So^ith Africa even
though they make-up better than 70 percent of the
population. However, shortly after the agreement for
elections was rcached, a group of conservative
whiter declared its intent not to accept black role by
establishing a separate "whites only" nation. That
group is known as the Afrikaner People's Front.
There may also be political trouble fmm the IftkattUU
Frecdom Party ? a conservative black group based
among the Zulu tribe.
vStevie Wonder to Aid Black Farmers
LITTLE ROCK, ? Stevie Wonder, Sinbad and
Arrested Development will perform at a recently
announced concert designed to aid black farmers.
The Black Farm Aid concert is scheduled for June 5
in Little Rock, Ark. While virtually all the nation's
fanners are facing major problems, black farmers are
reportedly losing their lands at a record pace.
Conference Seeks Papers and Venders
Savannah ? The second annuaJ North American
Pan-African Congress is seeking position papers and
vendors for its October conference in Atlanta. Inter
ested persons can write FAMUSA, P.O. Box 3687,
Savannah , Georgia, 31414, or call 912-356-2208.
WHERE TO FIND IT
Business BIO
Classifieds " BI4
Community News ...A3
Editorials A 10
Entertainment Bl 1
Obituaries B 1 3
Religion ? B12
Sports Bl
This Week In 6lack Histoky
On May 19, 1965. Patricia R Harris was named ambassador
Luxembourg. She was the first Mack woman ambassador
n
to !i
"It was Mrs. Gordon s fault for getting so
attached," said Davis, rocking the nine-month
old baby in her arms.
Theirs are stories about accusations of drug
usage, promises unfulfilled and of an infant who
has been removed from a home of licensed foster
parents and returned to a natural mother who,
according to medical records, was on cocaine in
August when she gave birth to the child, a
mother, according to some accounts, who may
Please see page A13
Luchia Ashe of Jacksonville models at " Puttin * on the Ritz" fashion show Sunday in
Winston-Salem. Three quarters of the proceeds went to the Best Choice Center Inc.
Special Program
Grooms Blacks to
Serve on Boards
By DAVID L. DILLARD
Chronicle Staff Writer
The number of Forsyth County African Ameri
cans eligible to serve on boards and committees of
non-pr^t organizations significantly increased this
week a* 18 professionals graduated Tuesday from a
special training program.
Project Blueprint, a program sponsored by the
United Way of Forsyth County, was started to ensure
Please see page A3
Project Blueprint graduates are certified to serve on boards and committees.
? Carolyn Gordon shows off the clothes she bought for baby "Precious".
Knight Gets Life,
Jurors Outraged?
A No white man ever
sentenced to die in N7C.
for killing a black man
By RICHARD L. WILLIAMS
Chronicle Managing Editor
Yesterday would have been ft
historic day m North Carolina.
But it remains that a white man
has never been sentenced to die for
the killing of a black man in this
state.
Rickey Eugene Knight, the man
who mercilessly stabbed Car|os_
Colon Stoner to death and castrated
him a year ago, was sentenced to
life in prison yesterday, narrowly
escaping becoming the sixth person
executed in this state since the death
penalty was reinstated in 1977.
Knight smiled broadly at his
family after thel 2-member jury,
which had deliberated for two days.
announced to Superior Court Judge *
F. Fetzer Mills at 1:45 p.m. that it
was hopelessly deadlocked.
Eleven jurors favored the death
penalty; one juror stood in opposi
tion. Since the death penalty can be
imposed only when it is unani
mously recommended by the jury.
Knight could be eligible for parole
in the year 2013.
? The 9- woman. 3 -man-panel was ?
emotional when it returned to the
fifth-floor courtroom, many of them
uncontrollably crying.
"What happened in 1992 to
Carlos Stoner was a lynching." said
juror Toni Dalton. "It embarrassed
me to be on this jury. In this day and
Please see page A13
Retailer Pulls Ads from Chronicle over Oprah flap
? ? -
Norman Stockton pulled ad because of Chronicle story.
A Norman Stockton clothing
upset over Winfrey story
IK Rl( H AKD I.. W 11.1 I. WIS
?( .lin 'iiii If M.in.ictng l;ililor
A local clothing retailer and an intermit
tent advertiser in the Chroniclc has temporar
ily suspended its advertising in the newspaper
because it disagreed with a story that was
recently published.
Hill Stockton, of Norman Stockton Inc..
at 24c) S. Stratford Road, said he would
reconsider continuing doing business with the
newspaper.
"We just disagree with some of the
things that have been in the paper, on whether
or not it's news." Stockton id in an inter
view.
Teri Say lor. executive director of the
N.C. Press Association. said it's nothing new
for an advertiser to stop advertising when
they disagree with a story.
"Yours is not an isolated incident." Sav
ior said. "It's something that newspapers have
to deal with quite often. I don't think newspa
pers hold back or compromise their editorial
policy and philosophy because an advertiser
doesn't agree w ith it."
However, she said, most of the times the
article is about the particular business.
Please see pa^e 4.?
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