fAtnid turmoil, opponents of vote debate next step
'' ?)r KEVIN WALKEK B
f RprTMEpawcyL
! r Laat Monday's Board of Aldermen
meeting had all the dements of aa
intriguing novel.
The piot centered around Mayor lack
( dvanagh's controversial proposal to cut
the city's Housing Authority Board of
t Conmuadoners by four members. The
conflict arose when residents opposed to
the mesaprr came armed with picket
dpn. chants m?d passionate
. stations. And the evening's dunax came
?a flie eight board members finally cast
their votes.
But for thoee resi
dents hoping to keep the
housing authority board
intact, a happy ending
was sandy missing.
The measure passed
with a 5-3 vote The once
nine-member housing
authority board had its
membership dwindled to
five members
Cavanagh's proposal
originally called for a
i..
public housing resident
to sit on the board as a
non-voting member.
Amid the controversy,
he altered his plan,
vowing to appoint a
public bousing resident
as a voting member as
tongas he is mayor.
The demonstration
staged by public hous
ing residents and other
opponents of the pro
posal at the Board of
Aldermen meeting capped off a nearly
month-long campaign by protester* to
halt the measure.
In the past weeks, opponents carried
picket signs and sang "We Shall Over
come" in front of die office of The
Chronicle.
This, after The Chronicle publisher
Ernie Pitt and former bousing commis
sion chairman William Andrews were
appointed by Cavanagh to fill homing
authority botud seats once held by rest
dents.
St* lawd m At 1
-
Burkm
73 ?wn? Winston-Salem Greensboro High Point Vol. xxiv No. 4t
Chronicle
<> FORSYTH CNTY PUB LIB
; 660 w 5TH ST t 2 The Choice for African American News and Information e-mail address: wscHronOnetuniimited.net
WINSTON SALEM NC 27101-2755
??? ?
Summer Fun
a -t
Hot woofhor has
one* again ra- >
turnad to tho Triad.
A young girl koop*
cool by splashing in
i m ? m ?' IstlftMft
nw waivr or oenvon
Shimming baaI.
Far mora tip* on
kaaping cool In bat
vraathar, ?aa pago
C3.
Photo by Braea
Chapman.
Thousands pay tribute to slain officers
By GABRIEL ESCOBAR AND HELEN DEWAR
THE WASHINGTON FOgf
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Capitol
Police Officer Jacob J. Chestnut and Detective
John M. Gibson, their coffins draped with flags
flown over the imposing building they died pro
tecting, were venerated Tuesday by the words of
Hie nation's leaders and by the silence of thou
sands of people who marched slowly and
somberly into the Great Rotunda.
Cf The daylong tribute at the august central
hall of the U.S. Capitol was attended by Presi
dent Clinton, Vice President Gore, members of
the House and Senate and many other digni
taries. The Rotunda ceremony was a remark
able distinction for two officers who now join a
select fraternity that includes nine presidents,
among them Abraham Lincoln, Dwight D.
Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B.
Johnson.
The bodies of Chestnut and Gibson arrived
at the Capitol at 7:05 a.m., 87 hours after the
officers were mortally wounded by a gunman
who shot his way into the building Friday after
noon. Throughout the day, a slow procession
that at times stretched the equivalent of four
city blocks filed into the Capitol, evidence of
how profoundly people have been moved by the
deaths of two men whose job was to protect the
"People's House."
The mourning was, fittingly, democratic in
its size and diversity. The coffins, placed on a
north-south axis on either side of the geo
graphic center of the Capitol, drew police
cadets and police chiefs, congressional pages
and members of Congress, and the Capitol cus
todial staff and the president, vice president
and members of the Cabinet.
Tourists in T-shirts and sneakers walked
with officers in full ceremonial uniform. A cook
wearing an apron stood and paid his respects
on the same spot later occupied by the two
most influential men in the House, Speaker
Newt Gingrich and Minority Leader Richard ,
A. Gephardt.
"The story of what they did Friday is
already a legend," Clinton said at the official
tribute, held at midafternoon and attended by
the families of the slain officers and scores of
other dignitaries who crowded into the Rotun
da. Clinton said the nation is "profoundly
grateful that, in doing their duty, they saved
lives, they consecrated this house.
"They remind us that what makes our
democracy strong is not only what Congress
may enact or a president may achieve," Clinton
said, referring to the two dead officers and the
See Slain on A11
After lengthy trial
and verdict, Bridges
finally calls it quits
By DAMON FORD -? J
THE CHRONICLE
James Bridges is disappointed and mad.
"I got screwed twice and didn't like either one of them," he said.
Bridges alleged racial discrimination drove him to step down as
the county's assistant human resources director in January 1996.
Friday, after more than a year of legal wrangling, a judge ruled
that race was not a factor in Bridges' decision to step down.
Guilford County Commissioner Warren Dorsett came to Bridges'
aid. He said the decision wasn't surprising.
"When I got back I found out," he said, "(bridges) was not going
to get any consideration going to court. If you're not down here, you
won't see (discriminatory acts) and so it seems so farfetched. He was
telling the truth about not having access to the office. He wasn't being
given duties in the office."
At the time of his hiring in 1994, Bridges was the only black man
working in the department. He said constant criticism came with the
J?b- u
"I was the person hired but I wasn't the first choice of the direc
tor," Bridges said.
He also testified that he was not given a computer and was given
an office the size of a closet and was not allowed to supervise subor
dinate employees. Bridges says he Wasn't given keys to the department
or access to personnel records either.
Ed Pons, the deputy county attorney who represented Guilford
County in the dispute, said Bridges' position was new and that's why
"no office was set up for him" in the beginning. He added that "no
one down there had a good office."
Pons argued that Bridges' problems were not racial but personali
ty conflicts. According to Pons, Bridges, who spent several years in the
military, may have come off as harsh to employees.
"He apparently got off on a rocky start with his co-workers and
then the subject of race came in," Pons said. "There was some fault on
both sides in getting along but it had nothing to do with race."
Pons also said a little bragging on Bridges' part didn't help things
either.
"He talked about his two masters degrees and how his department
head only had a bachelors," Pons said. "That may have contributed to
his problems also."
Bridges was fired in 1995 and then reinstated a few days later after
Dorsett and others complained.
Dorsett then asked the county manager to investigate why Bridges
had been fired.
Bridges said reinstatement did not solve his problems.
"After I was reinstated it seemed like everything was 10 times
worse," he said. "I was blasted in public meetings ... I saw it was a 'no
win' situation."
4/ "
During the trial, Dorsett took the stand as a witness for Bridges.1
"There was discussion about why (Bridges) was treated in the man
ner he was being treated when he was supposed to be assistant direc
tor of the department," he said in testimony.
Bridges said for him the case is over. He doesn't have the money to
appeal and he's already lost more than S20,000 fighting his "voluntary
dismissal."
"I can't understand for the life of me that eight'jurors would not
think that any reasonable person would not have been compelled to
resign under these conditions," he said. " v'
Liberians fight to stay i, US.
By JEW YOUNG
THE CHRONICLE
James Hunder spent Sunday at Goler AME Zion
Church teaching more than 500 kente cloth clad
African Americans about his homeland Liberia.
Garbed in an elaborate purple and gold robe,
Hunder shared the history of Liberia moving easily
between his native dialect and English. He spoke of
his country's roots in America and of its increasingly
bright futujt:
He also worked to dispel some myths about the
nation which wa&jounded by American abolitionists
as an African homeland for freed slaves.
"Some people are bitter," he said; "I hear some
times 'your people sold our people so'why should we
be one.' 'If you love us so much how come you sold
us.' That's a good question, f don't have an answer to
that question. It was something that happened. At
that time, we simply didn't have control over slavery.
It was not an enjoyable thing. They were forced."
The throng gathered at Goler for a celebration of
the African nation's 150th birthday. And while stories
and plates of spicy jollof rice flowed freely, the event
was bittersweet for the members of The Liberian
Organization of the Piedmont.
After 20 fears of civil unrest, their nation is once
again free oRmartial law apd guerrilla warfare. But
now Liberians in American face another challenge.
With the end of the vicious civil war, U.S. Attor
ney General Janet Reno has decided not to renew
Liberian refugees' temporary protected status, which
allows them to remain in the United States until calm
returns at home.
Photo by Jort *9*o?
Sue Liberia on A10 Jo 100$ Huitdfr loot/ worship sorvfc# Sondopi
- :,lf
tfkkkm?? 1nhm ? for subscription* call osai trr-sat* ? mastercard, and amsrican ixmi# accipriim|p|