Winston-Salem Chronicle
n c room ? n
forsyth cnty pub lib oice for African-American News and Information
660 w 5th st * 4
winston-salem nc 27101-2755 THURSDAY, February 13,1997
A group led by Ghali Hasan, of Stars Employment Agency, gathers
outside the new Winston-Salem Transit Authority building to protest
hiring practices of Lyons Construction Company Monday.
Marshall says sports
can help school kids
By SAM DAVIS
Chronicle Sports Editor
The middle school sports pro
County School system, as it stands
now, is not adequate to meet the
needs of the community - particu
larly the African-American commu
nity, according to Walter Marshall, a
member of the county's board of
education.
Marshall says a proposal to
bring back middle school football,
which he submitted to the school
board more than two years ago,
needs serious consideration and now
is the time for it to be re-introduced
and brought to fruition.
"I think this issue is important to
the community because I see this as
an avenue to reach young black
males and help keep them out of
trouble," Marshall says.
Marshall says the school board
should give serious consideration to
bringing back interscholastic foot
ball to the middle schools for a num
ber of reasons. But the most impor
tant is to use it as a means of
motivating students to excel academ
ically.
Please see page 5
Group protests contractor's hiring practices
By COURTNEY DANIEL
Chronicle Intern
A protest to bring attention to the
alleged unfair hiring practices of Lyons
Construction Company brought a group of
15 men and women together Monday.
The group, of varied ethnic back
grounds, stood huddled together against
the cold and the falling snow at the future
site of the Winston-Salem Transit Author
ity building and bus depot on Liberty
Street,
Each of the individuals present was
gathered by Stars Employment Agency.
Their presence was both a protest of what
they believed to be unfair hiring practices
of Lyons Construction Company and a
rebuttal to ?tlftf,profeet>1?3nager's alleged
statement that-hr could not find any
minorities or women to hire.
Attempts by the Chronicle to verify
that statement were unsuccessful at press
time.
But Ghali Hasan, through the Stars
Employment Agency, is hoping to refer
qualified minorities and women to jobs on
federal contracts. In the process he plans
to ensure that contractors retained by the
federal government comply with the fed
eral regulations that require minimum per
centages of both women and minority
groups in their work force.
Stars performs a thorough reference
check, drug test, and criminal reference
check, and, according to Hasan, only
refers qualified applicants.
It was in this capacity that he said he
discovered that Lyons, operating under a
federal contract to construct the new Win
ston-Salem Transit Authority building, had
failed to meet the minimum requirement of
minority men in positions other than
unskilled labor. It also failed to employ
any African-American wotntfn.
The Department of Labor, as stated in
the Federal Register, Vol. 43, No. 68,
expresses, in specific terms, the minimum
percentages of minority and women partic
ipation in each trade.
For the cover area of Forsyth County
that percentage of participation is 16.4 per
cent minorities in each trade and 6.9 per
cent of women in each trade.
Lyons Construction filed an Equal
Opportunity Employer Status Report Form
on Dec. 16, 1996, and at that time they
employed eight minority men and two
women (none of the women were African
American) of a total 43 employees. All
eight men were unskilled laborers, and the
two women were listed as clerical staff. No
women or minorities were listed as offi
cials and managers, professionals, techni
cians, sales workers, skilled craftsman,
service workers, or trainees and appren
tices.
Hasan contends that the federal partiei
Please see page 11
1 :
First Year
Expenses Total:
$301 ,270.35
SECURITY $3,360 (1.1%) - OFFICIALS & BOOKING
TRANSPORT $2,400 (.8%) . | / $4,920 (1.6%)
/SCORE
? TRAINERS
$8,627.70
New RHC Must
Mean Continued TLC
By BILL TURNER
Special to the Chronicle __
. Richard Janeway, executive vice president for
health affairs of Wake Forest University, is to be
trusted and believed when he says that "a new and
relocated Reynolds Health Center will enhance and
improve health care dramatically for (East Winston)."
Dr. Janeway is not only a renowned medical doctor,
but he is just as well-known for his personal integrity.
Also, he is peerless in his profession, having been one
of the main drivers of Bowman Gray/Baptist Hospital
Medical Center's journey to its distinguished place
among the top-ranked health education and care cen
ters in the nation.
When William "Bill" Tatum. president of Forsyth
county NAACP, expresses his reservations about the
"new state of the art" RHC facility, he speaks elo
quently for a community that knows first-hand that
change is not always progress. And. rightly so, for
Please see page 3
"If !A','
Mayor names two
to HAWS board
Mayor Martha S. Wood appointed William
G. Benton and Ellen B. Hazzard to positions on
the Winston-Salem Housing Authority. Mr. Ben
ton will fill an unexpired term which ends in July
of 1999; Ms. Hazzard will fill an unexpired term
With ends luly 1997.
Mr. Benton is the CEO of Taylor House
Enterprises, specializing in residential housing
development and management. With more than
twenty years experience in ownership and man
agement of tow ami moderate income housing
tfiiroughout die southeast. Mr. Benton has estab
Please see page 3
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1
A Gathering of Good Men
? J.C. Bess: Expert in Shoe Shine and Dye
By FELECIA P. MCMILLAN
Special to the Chronicle
He can dye a shoe any color imaginable:
yellow, orange, purple ? even metallic gold.
J.C. Bess, owner of Harding'txpert Shine Par
lor, on Patterson Avenue, bdgan shining shoes
at the age of 10. He named the business after
Elmore Harding, who willed the shop to him
after Harding's death in 1960.
Bess was the manager of the store, and
Harding often told his customers that Bess was
his son. "He just thought that much of me,"
Bess said.
There were seven "shine boys" in the shop,
but Bess was hired to do the dye work.
He taught himself how to polish and dye
shoes. He tried the process out on different
shoes and had great success. He often went to
the Greyhound Bus Station to perfect his craft.
It only took him five minutes to give his
customers an "expert shine," and he got 5 cents
for it. With 5 cents he could buy a Baby Ruth
candy bar. He could buy a pound of fatback
meat. He could even have a suit pressed for 5
cents in those days. He would go to the Morgan
Please see page 3
J.C. Bess began shinning shoes at the age of 10.