Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / Dec. 25, 1997, edition 1 / Page 2
Part of Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
NAACP leadership light CHICAGO (AP) ? Tlje NAACP national hoard voted Saturday to remove longtime civil Rights activist Hazel Dukes from the board after she admitted pilfering more than $13,000 from a leukemia-stricken associate who trust ed Dukes with her finances. Moments after the closed-door vote was recorded, hoard members said the removal signaled a new day for the nation's largest and oldest civil rights group in which inter nal squabbles hopefully will take a back seat to public advocacy. The battle over Dukes, an influential board member from New York, threatened to plunge the NAACP back into a full-scaled leadership crisis like the one in 1994 when then-executive director Benjamin Chavis was fired after a sexual harassment scandal and a S4 million organizational debt. But some, like NAACP Board Chair Myrlie Evers Williams, said Dukes' ouster could signal a new spirit of cooperation at the top ranks of the NAACP. (AP Photo/Collin Reid) Patterson's victory in Jamaica Jamaica's Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, center, and lamaica's Minister of Industry and Commerce Paul Robertson, right, each make a three-finger gesture at an election victory rally in Kingston, Jamaica. Thursday, Dec. 18. Jamaicans went to the polls Thursday and reelected Patterson to a second term, giving his ruling People's National Party a record third consecutive term in govern ment FMmm of CIA report LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Rep. Maxine Waters called for the release of two federal reports into allegations that the CIA was indirectly involved in the flow of crack cocaine into South Central Los Angeles after the Justice Department had the studies withheld. "The Justice Department is making the sad mistake of attempting to manage what information gets out to the public and what information is delayed," Waters said. "'It is clear that the Justice Department has put a hold on all investigative findings. The San Jose Mercury News sparked the inquiries when it concluded that a San Francisco Bay area drug ring sold cocaine in South Central Los Angeles and funneled profits to the Contras for the better part of a decade. It traced the drugs to dealers who were also leaders of a CIA-run guer rilla army in Nicaragua. |AP Photo/DMI, Dove Alloccal tost actor nomination Djimon Hounsou, who plays Cinque in the DreamWorks picture Amistad, celebrates his Golden Globe nomination for best actor Thursday, Dec. 18. in New York. King murdor investigation MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) ? A grand jury panel refused Thursday to open a new investigation into the 1968 murder of Martin Luthei King Jr. The request was made by a former lawyer for James Earl Ray, King's confessed killer. The three-member panel, headed by grand jury fore man Herbert W. Robinson, heard last week from lawyer Jack McNeil of Memphis, who contends King was killed by someone other than Ray. The panel refused to call for an investigation by the full Shelby County Grand Jury. * * SANTA ' from page A1 tion to specialized care. They offer job placement services, and clinics for general checkups for adolescents and adults. Soulful Santa congratulated the children on their hard work, and each of them received candy and school supplies. For Soulful, working with children is natural. He and his wife, Vaughnetta Carr, have a son, Wendell Carr Jr., who is 28, from their mar riage of 28 years. After being married to Soulful Santa for 28 years, Mrs. Carr is often called Mrs. Claus. Even when people call to speak with her on the job, they ask for Mrs. Claus. Regardless of what season, regardless of what Soulful wears, adults who meet him stare and smile, bi\t the children want to hug this jolly dude. "I have to realize that I do resemble the old guy. Just my beard makes you want to look at me twice," he said. Although he is only 53, he started graying early, and he decided to keep his beard. Even when he drove a float truck in the Dudley High School parade, where he gradu ated in 1962 and was dressed in blue and gold, the students yelled from the sidelines, "What's up, Santa?" Soulful has served throughout the Greensboro community at places such as the UJAMAA Market, Bennett College Daycare, Young Minds Daycare, Jack and Jill of America Inc.. private parties, church es. and many other community func tions. What is more, he has also appeared as Soulful Santa in West Africa in the country of Sierra Leone, when he went with the Rev. Leon Sullivan from Philadelphia. Because of his degree in automotive technolo gy from A&T ('65) and his expertise, he went with the minister to Africa to start vocational training centers through the Opportunity Industrialization Centers International (OIC) program. This was a USAID funded program. He was an Aggie when Jesse Jackson was also a student at A&T, and they both participated in the civil rights demon strations. Soulful is a man with many tal ents. He is a photographer who also videos weddings. He likes to position himself so that he can get the facial expressions of the bride and groom that the audience cannot see. One wedding he videotaped was aboard the Spirit of Washington, a ship in Washington, D.C. He also owns WVH Carr Enterprises, an automo tive repair service, and he has his hand in real estate. Soulful Santa is a busy fellow. But the children of SCDAP were glad he took the time to visit them. Iestfia McCord, a second-grader from Hampton Elementary, asked Soulful for a magic stroller baby . Jerel Bellins, a second-grader from Wiley Elementary School, asked for a wrestling ring with wrestlers. Tutor Clara Bowser asked for a house, a car, and a million dollars. Soulful Santa does not guarantee material things, but he does his part to give all who meet him a tickle in the soul. SLAVES from page AI carefully transcribe a group of eight to 10 recordings of ex-slaves done by the Archive of Folk Song in the Library of Congress. She has also been transcribing some recordings done by the late John Henry Faulk, who interviewed former slaves, their descendants and several elderly white people during the late 1930s and 1940s. Faulk's recordings were done during his younger years, before he became a CBS radio humorist and was later blacklisted in 1957 during the McCarthy era. While on research leave from UNCG in 1995, Brewer discovered the recordings among the Faulk archives at the University of Texas. She, in fact, had done a series of interviews with Faulk in 1979. Brewer, an associate professor in the Department of English, has been working for several years with mater ial from the Federal Writers Project. She published a biWiography of writ ings produced by the project in 1994. Two of her recent articles focused on the discourse of ex-slave interviews recorded in the 1930s and 1940s.. The radio series is expected to be released through Public Radio International and will be broadcast in September 1998. It has received approximately $200,00 in funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Southern Humanities Media Fund. Though the ex-slave interviews provide a detailed look at slave life, the interview project took place some 60 years ago during the 1930s. Brewer is part of a team of historians and linguists who are working to provide the historical context for the material, which was collected by interviewers who are mostly young, urban and white. The scholars are transcribing and interpreting the material to help select the most important pieces. She was asked to lend her expertise by project director Kathie Farnell, who is media projects development direc tor with the Institute of Language and Culture. "The lfiere existence of voice recordings of people born under slav ery is almost a miracle," said Farnell. "These recorded and written inter views provide a unique witness to his tory. One of the ex-slaves, Fountain Hughes, talks about his grandfather who belonged to Thomas Jefferson. This radio documentary will give a national audience the opportunity to experience living history." Brewer is joined in the project by Dr. Robert McElvaine of Millsaps College, Dr. Guy Bailey of the University of Texas at San Antonio, Dr. Alwyn Barr of Texas Tech University, Dr. Richard Bailey of Maxwell Air Force Base, Dr. Horate Huntley of the Birmingham (Ata.| Oral history project, and. Dr. Ira Berlin and Steven Miller of thft University of Maryland at College Park. Many of the recordings if.* Brewer is transcribing were originaHy done on acetate disks which wfcit used in popular music records in tb$ 1930s, 1940s and 1950s before the widespread use of vinyl disks. She ha* converted some of the recordings to digital audio tape and also used 4 process called super bit mapping U) eliminate much of the background scratchiness and the hiss that often occurs in old recordings. One of the most interesting things to emerge from the recordings. Brewer said, was how the ex-slave* controlled the interviews. 5 "They made sure that the part of the story that was important to them was told," said Brewer. "One of the ex-slaves. Fountain Hughes, didn't like to talk much about slavery, but he did tell the interviewer and people today how painful his experience was. Hughes was also determined to say 'You shouldn't go into debt.' These ex-slaves had a message that they wanted to deliver, and they kept com ing back to it. This was their way of controlling an interview." Dr. Joutonne lr*w*r of tho University of North Carolina at Oroontbaro has boon working on a project that will soon havo tho actual vaicos of ox-slaves tolling their stories of life in bandage to a national radio audience. Tentatively titled "Slaves No Mare," tho pro feet is being under taken by Badio Smithsonian, a branch of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. In her office in UNCO's Mchrer Building, Brewer (above) works on a transcribing machine with earphones to carefully set down the actual words of the ex-slaves on her machine. FARMERS from page AI "Many of the cases are old. It takes time to find out what the facts are," said Michael Sitcov, a Justice Department attorney. "We're committed to doing that." But lawyers for the black farmers say it will take years to examine each case. With President Clinton taking a personal interest in the situation after a White House meeting with farmers Wednesday, they said that eventually the govern ment would propose a blanket settlement because the cases are so similar. "We are prepared to go to mediation and just see," said J.L. Chestnut, an attorney from Selma, Ala., who represents one group of farmers. "I'm not optimistic but I'm willing to try." One other obstacle is that the statute of limi tations has run on most of the cases. For that rea son, Sitcov said, the government may not be able to pay any damages to many farmers but instead will offer to forgive debt and make sure they get top priority for new loans. The main attorney in the lawsuit, Alexander Pires, predicted the government will discover that its attempt to prevent some farmers from collect ing damages over the statute of limitations will . fail because the Agriculture Department either tossed aside their original complaints or refused to act on them. "They are not going to go back and tell the country they couldn't do it," Pires said. "These people were lied to and humiliated and tricked." Meanwhile. Friedman said the Agriculture Department's own internal efforts to address its backlog of hundreds of discrimination com plaints can continue and that farmers could choose either that process or enter the court ordered mediation framework to get their case settled. s? Meeting with reporters. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said the administration is "com mitted to hse any legal means necessary to do this fairly and quickly." Jam** Myart Jr. (right) count*! to tho Notional Hock formort Attociation focot roportort outtido tho . Whit* Hout*. Principal files lawsuit against state Department of Education WINSTON-SALEM (AP>? A Forsyth County elementary school principal has filed a feder al civil-rights complaint against a new state accountability test, say ing the test discriminates against the students, teachers and staff at his school. Larry D. Fields of Latham Elementary filed the complaint against the city-county school board, the state Department of Public Instruction, the state legis lature and the state Board of Education. Fields said he filed the com plaint last week with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights in Washington. "The state knows the formula is bad," Fields said. "They admit ted to it, but nobody has done anything to correct it." Fields said he felt a moral obligation to speak out against the state ABCs of Public Education, which rewards schools where students greatly exceed their expected performance and penalizes schools that fall short. Fields said there are flaws in ? the state formula used to set goals for schools' improvement, and those flaws disproportionately hurt schools with high numbers of disadvantaged students. This year ? the first year of testing ? 123 elementary and middle schools were rated *as "low-performing" under the ABCs Plan. The state Board of Education assigned assistance teams to the 15 worst schools. In any school assigned a team, the principal automatically is sus pended with pay for 60 days and gets a hearing before a state board committee. If the committee does not reinstate the principal, he can appeal to the full board. The state , board recently approved a competency test teachers at low-performing schools will be required to take. The test measures general read ing. math and writing skills. Rodger Murphey, ar* spokesman with the Office of Civil Rights, said his agency would not release information about the complaint until mid January. Nominees sought for s advisory committee The Forsyth County Board of Health has been asked for nomina tions of individuals to serve on a new Community Health Advisory Committee, which North Carolina Baptist Hospital plans to establish in early 1998. The membership of this Advisory Committee will "include representatives of appropriate com munity institutions and groups and shall represent the patient population at the Community Health Center" (formerly Reynolds Health Center). Initially, this committee will consist of 15 members, eight of whom shall be appointed by NCBH, and seven of whom will be selected by NCBH from * _ / > e ? list of persons nominated by the Forsyth County Board of Health. Anyone interested in being consid ered by NCBH for an appointment to the Advisory Conpnittee, from the list of persons nominated by the Forsyth County Board of Health, should call Ms. Joyce Bailey, Forsyth County Department of Public Health, at 727 2434 for additional information. Note: All completed applications and accompanying documentation must be received in this office no later than Friday, Jan. 9 at 3 p.m. to be included in the review process. For additional information, please contact Ma Joyce Bailey, 727-2434. .1 Or. Alfredo AkCovltjr (loft), the coordi nator ol Ac SCOAf tutorial profram, and Clara lowcor, o tatar, Invited Soulful Santa ta Ac Chrirtma* party to honor Ac hard work Ac rhIUron occonepMchod dur ing Ac school year. ??^^^Meoo?? ' ?! What the SCDAP wants for I Christmas this year is a ; I source of funding I for next year. The tutorial. I program is a must, I since the students are ill very I often." I ? Dr. Alfreda McCauley.coordintor I of SCDAP tutorial program I I (Abovt): tvon Or. AHroda McCaulmy, coordinator of tho SCDAP tutorial program, grootod Soulful Santa. (Loft): Soulful Santa (Wondoll Carr Sr.), a. statoly gontioman with a charming par- * tonality, marchod with Josso Jackson . during tho 1960s whon ho was a studon( at NC AAT Stato Univorsity. ? ?> i
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Dec. 25, 1997, edition 1
2
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75