Race identification on checks no longer reauire?
A Lowe's successfully
lobbies to change
check passing policies
'? By BILL TURNER
Special to The Chroncile
Until last week, the North
Wilkesboro, N.C.-based Lowe's
Home Improvement Centers were
like all other retailers, large and
small, when it came to the prac
II -
*
tice of recording the race and I
gender of customers on their I
checks. I
This practice has long been I
required of retailers by county
magistrates, supposedly making it
easier to identify people who pass
bad checks. But, many people ?
those with no record or intent to
pass a bad check ? reasoned that
the ordinance had the same dis
criminating effect as segregated
lunch counters and drinking
Gov. Jim
Hunt signs
HK BUI
790.
changing a
law that
roquirod
rotoilors to
rotord tha
roc* and
tax of cus
tomers on
thair
fountains.
Last year "Lowe's took a real
beating," according to Don
Williams, Lowe's director of
diversity programs. The
Chronicle ? and then papers
statewide ? ran a story about
Evon Crooks, a black man, who
found the practice "insulting."
After protesting in writing to the
company and returning his
Lowe's charge card, Crooks, a
X
senior research chemist at
Winston Salem-based R.J.
Reynolds Tobacco Company,
sent an E-mail message asking
fellow employees to return their
Lowe's charg&cards.
Almost immediately, Lowe's,
through Cliff Oxford, senior vice
president of corporate affairs and
human resources development,
began working to deal with
See Checks on A2
;? '* <**??? Winston-Salem Greensboro High Point Vol. xxm No. *i
The Chronicle
?; N c room 01 " ? cm 12 hie Choicefyr African-American News and Information
forsyth cnty pub lib
WINSTON SALEM NC 27101-2766
Digging in the dirt:
Youth getting a jump
on recreation bonds
By BRIDGET EVARTS
The Chronicle Staff Writer
"Colors."
"Trees."
"How it all flows together."
The seven teenagers incorporated those
favorite aspects of Winston Lake Park in a
design project they hope will attract visitors
to the complex.
The budding landscapers, architects and
artists were brought together in April to work
on the Winston Lake Park landscape project.
A collaboration between the Southeastern
Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA), the
Winston Lake YMCA and the city of
Winston-Salem, the project teaches teens the
elements of design while beautifying the
Winston Lake Park area.
Best yet, the youth will have an opportuni
ty to work with artist/architect Maya Lin. As
a 21-year-old Yale under grad, Lin designed
the U.S. Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The
stark, black granite walls bearing the names
of the 57,661 Americans who died in Vietnam
is hailed as one of the most influential memo
rials in the country.
Cammron Russell points out common elements in the thro* Winston Lake Park Complox
signs.
Lin, who will be exhibiting at SECCA
early next year, will work with the teenagers
on the latter part of their project, said
SECCA public relations coordinator Ginny
Rutter.
This project hinges in part on the recre
ation bond up for vote in the June 24 referen
dum. SECCA donated resources for the first
part of the project: trees, shrubs and flowers,
and volunteers to help the teenagers plant
them. The second and third phases of the
project depend on a portion of the bond
money slated for Winston Lake Park.
The park would receive $800,000 out of
the total $4 million recreation bond package.
In addition to the landscaping improvements,
the funds would be used to pave existing
parking lots, build a new picnic shelter and
tennis courts, and provide ball field lighting.
Included in the bond is $350,000 for land
scaping, renovations, playground equipment
and the construction of new picnic shelters,
pathways and entrances at Washington Park.
The city would use $600,000 to design a park
facility master plan and initial developments
See Recreation on A2
Decision pending on Social
Services board replacements
By BRIDGET EVARTS
The Chronicle Staff Writer
GUILFORD COUNTY ? A
superior court decision is still
pending on the status of two
Social Services board members
removed by the Republican
majority of the Guilford County
commissioners.
The commissioners voted in
April to replace the board mem
bers, Democratic commissioner
Warren Dorsett and Dr. Isaac
Barnett, with Republican com
missioner Mary Rakestraw and
LaVonne Napper. The two oust
ed members filed for a restraining
order one week ld'ter. Judge
Judson DeRamus granted
Dorsett and Barnett a reprieve
and told the commissioners they
must prove just cause for the
removal.
Both sides presented their
cases to Superior Court Judge
Donald Stephens last week, who
said a final verdict would be
reached in two to three weeks.
Warren Dorsett
"I guess we just have to sit
back and wait," said Barnett.
Greensboro attorney Walter
Johnson represents Barnett and
Dorsett. The commissioners
hired Winston-Salem firm
Womble Carlyle Sandridge &
Rice.
Guilford County has contract
ed with outside firms in the past,
said commissioner Steve Arnold.
"It wasn't an individual per
sonal request on the part of any
commissioner," said Arnold.
County attorney Jonathan
See Guilford o\ A2
C.
Tianja Bean (center), instructor of the Rafekhi African Dancers, helped two of her students conduct a
rites of passage performance of an African wedding.
Ujamaa Merchants United Inc. to present
Juneteenth Festival on Father's Day
By FELECLA P. MCMILLAN
*? -Special to The Chronicle
I June 19 in most states is just
I another day, but for more than
250,000 slaves in Texas in the year
1865, it marked the beginning of
freedom. Juneteenth is the oldest
holiday observance of African
American emancipation. It is the
holiday observed by African
Americans to celebrate when all
Africans in the United States
legally gained their freedom. It is
often referred to by many names,
such as "Emancipation Day,"
"Freedom Day," "Emancipation
Celebration," "Black
Independence Day," and "Jun
Jun." Ujamaa Merchants United
Inc. will present their second
annual Juneteenth Festival on
Sunday, June 15, at Barber Park in
Greensboro from noon until 7
p.m.
This year some of the perform
ers will be the Rafekhi African
Dancers, Free Expression Jazz and
R&B Band, Kuk Sool Won
Martial Arts, Herbalist Art
Hinson, and The New Joshuas
children's dramatic group will pre
sent a play called "The Rainbow
Conspiracy."
More than 300 people from
around the Triad attended the fes
tival last year, and Jackie Sanders,
co-founder of Ujamaa Merchants 1
See Ujamaa on A2 I ,
Steps taken for economic development?
By BRIDGET EVARTS
The Chronicu? Staff Writer
The East Winston Development Task Force voted
Tuesday to create a development corporation that
would be at once a private entity and an arm of the city.
The East Winston Development Corporation would
be modeled after the Downtown Development
Corporation, which was created several years ago to
facilitate public-private development in that targeted
area.
The decision may be the spark to light East Winston
development. For some time, the task force has been
stymied by a lack of direction.
"A task force is task oriented," said English
Bradshaw, chairman of the strategic planning sub-com
mittee'that studied the feasibility of incorporation. "If
you stay 50 years on a task force, you haven't finished
your task."
Former mayor Wayne Corpening created the East
Winston Development Task Force almost 10 years ago
as a compliment to a study of East Winston develop
ment conducted by consultant group Hammer, Siler.
George. The task force's main duty is to identify and
recommend economic development projects to the
board of aldermen.
Ski Economic o\ M
Brian Payne, program dirttw of the Carl Chavit
YMCA, takes a break in the state-of-the-art fitness
cantor.
Carl Chavis YMCA
gears up for summer
HIGH POINT ? Though the new home of the
Carl Chavis YMCA is just a few blocks from its old
Fourth Street facility, the July 1996 move into
William Penn High School marked a new era With
programs for all age groups, from preschoolers to
seniors, the YMCA has breathed new life into
William Penn, a venerable institution which educat
ed African Americans under segregation.
No two High Point names resonate more history
and pride than Carl Chavis and William Penn
Named for the first black man from High Point to
sacrifice his life in World War II, the Carl Chavis
YMCA opened its doors in 1946 and moved to its
See YMCA on A1
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