At 70, beauty queen has philosophy of life sewed up
f j JERI YOUNG
THE CHRONICLE
You only live once - so Sarah
- Wpoks figures you "might as well
n^ke it count."
f ? Vhe 70-year-old Winston
S^em resident was recently
rov\ ned Ms. Senior North Caroli
na. Winning the title earlier this
mf>nth means that Brooks will
h^k'd to Biloxi, Miss, in August to
compete against 45 other seniors
fofr the Ms. Senior America crown.
?
Not bad for a self-proclaimed
"ttrtnboy" who never dreamed of
doing a pageant and spent her
childhood playing with a group of
nine rough and tumble boys.
"My mother, bless her heart,
tried to make me a little lady,"
Brooks said with a chuckle. "I
went to charm school and walked
around with a book on my head. I
had manners, but 1 would much
rather have been out climbing
trees,..I guess my mother is in her
grave smiling because 1 Anally did
something truly lady-like."
Brooks' road to the top began
earlier this year when a friend sug
gested she enter the pageant.
Brooks refused. The only time she
had ever participated in one was
when her daughter made it to the
semi-finals of the Ms Black New
York pageant.
Then there was her other prob
lem. The active senior, who cuts
her (grass once a weefc ami is a
member of a number of local
groups, just didn't think she had
the time.
"1 didn't call her back." Brooks
said. "1 just didn't feel like it. I did
n't really want to do it. I had never
done a pageant. I just wasn't inter
ested."
After months of listening to
her friends extol the virtues of
pageant life. Brooks finally relent
ed. And the rest, she says, is histo
ry
"Two weeks before the pageant
I finally decided to do it," she said.
"1 guess at that point, I realized I
wanted to do it."
Brooks competed. apawjjA five
otb"3- North jLarolina seniors! "
Contestants were judged on their
philosophy of life and a brief
interview with judges The five also
modeled evening wear and show
cased their talents
She says her talent - a tap
dance routine to the Mills Broth
ers' classic "Opus 1," sealed her
victory. She began tapping again
after a 60 year hiatus when she
joined The Snappy Tappers, a
group of local seniors who per
form at events across the city.
"The people were so talented."
she said. "One lady sang 'I
Believe.' Another woman did a
Minnie Pearl skit. I was really sur
prised that I won...The only thing
we didn't do was model swimsuils.
My daughter said I could have
handled that with no nrohl.-m
-** , , | ?. v??- _ ?? ? z
Since winning the title. Brooks
has performed "The Star Spangled
Banner" at the opening of a nurs
ing home in Durham, attended a
couple of ribbon cuttings and was
guest of honor at a local senior
bingo tournament.
But the real test comes next
month when she heads to Biloxi
for the national pageant. Already
she's begun a lundraising drive to
help raise the $2,000 she needs for
her weeklong stay. And she's
worked out a new talent - a tap
routine of course.
- ??
"I'm going to do a new dance -
a Charleston," she said, jumping
up to show a fancy two-step and
high kick. "I'm going to dress like
^L?flsflanriex-Mdth beads and every
.. I 3 1 ' ^ t ^ ^
.,!??>!?/a
f) "
?T #C?*X
SCLL does away with women's issues group
'a ??
King III
By CARYLE MURPHY
THE WASHINGTON POST
The Southern Christian Lead
ership Conference, which recently
named Martin Luther King III its
fourth president, has stunned
many of its followers by deciding
to sever ties to one of its most
active components, the women's
division.
The move, taken during a
board meeting in Atlanta in April
but not made widely known, has
created tensions within SCLC just
before its annual convention in
Washington. The convention is to
jkkt off July 25 with King's formal
fiqgtallation at Jericho City of
>P(Bise in Landover, a huge congre
igfluon with many female members,
wfiose pastor is the Rev. Betty P.
Pfeebles.
iThe SCLC board's 10 to 9 vote
does not mean the women's divi
sion, which is incorporated as a
separate entity under Georgia law,
will disappear. But the board's
move to end SCLC's relationship
j?vith it has shocked and puzzled
many longtime SCLC supporters.
"I'm gravely concerned and
would like answers" said Melanie
Hill, a longtime member and resi
dent of Prince George's County
who is executive director of a Dis
trict-based nonprofit group. "I was
upset. I'm just concerned that what
happens with women [is] we get
marginalized."
"I've had women all over the
country call to say they are con
cerned and can't understand it,"
said Evelyn G. Lowery, of Atlanta,
founder and head of the women's
group. "It was hurtful to us."
Former D.C. Council member
Wilhelmina Rolark, who serves on
the SCLC board, declined to dis
cuss the board's decision and
referred questions to King. So did
the Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy of
New Bethel Baptist Church,
another board member, who said
he did not attend the April board
meeting.
SCLC spokesman David
Stokes in Atlanta said on three
occasions that he would pass along
a reporter's request to speak with
>' "
King about the board's action, but
the SCLC president did not return
any of the calls.
Peebles, one of the area's most
prominent female members of the
clergy, declined to comment. "Not
having been aware of [the decision]
and since I don't know all the ram
ifications of it, I don't have a com
ment on it," Peebles said. "I don't
know what the reasons were" for it.
The SCLC was founded in
1957 by. a group of ministers
including Martin Luther King Jr.,
who made the organization into a
major forc? in the civil rights
movement of the 1960s. But in
recent years, the SCLC has had
trouble defining its mission and
raising money. King's son, who is
40, was named president last
November.
SCLC/W.O.M.E.N., which
stands for Women's Organizational
Movement for Equality Now Inc.,
was founded in 1979 by Lowery, a
veteran of the civil rights struggle
and wife of Joseph E. Lowery, who
stepped down as SCLC president
last fall.
After the board's vote in April,
Evelyn Lowery urged her division's
members not to complain publicly.
But contacted last week by The
Post, Lowery said the move came
without warning or prior discus
sion with King. "The reason given
was that we were competing with
them ... for money, I guess," Low
ery said.
According to a June 9 letter
sent by Lowery and others to sup
porters of the women's division,
"the new president felt that the
women's group was 'competitive'
and that he had difficulty raising
funds because of the women.
Mind you, the new president had
ignored our written requests to
meet with him so he could under
stand our work."
The letter goes on to say:
"Never did we dream that we
would be targets of abusive and
oppressive assaults from some
members of the board of SCLC
and the president To add insult
to injury ... we have not been
invited to engage in any discus
sions about the 1998 convention.
We have been totally ignored."
0.
The letter also says that on
June 5, King informed the
women's group's administrative
assistant, LaSean Lane, that her
salary would no longer be paid by
SCLC's national office. "This was
the only link SCLC financially had
with SCLC/W.O.M.E.N.," Low
ery's letter states.
She said the women's organiza
tion runs programs in about eight
cities but works mainly in Atlanta,
where it has a mentoring program
for low-income women and has
given out S300.000 in scholarships
in recent years. The group also
raised money to buy a building it
uses for its programs but has deed
ed to the SCLC.
"We didn't want to be a cookie
eating, tea-sipping group," Lowery
said. "We wanted to be involved
helping the least of these, and
that's what we've been doing."
"SCLC/W.O.M.E.N, thank
God, is incorporated, so men can
not just come together and decide
to eliminate a women's entity," said
Felicia Davis-Gilmore, a Miami
consultant and former Howard
University student who is another
longtime SCLC activist. "1 find
[the SCLC action] personally
offensive," Davis-Gilmore added.
"We've all struggled too hard to let
it be done the way it was."
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