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I NATIONAL BRIEFS tVmbmciM Clinton agrees with reference to him as 'Mack' president WASHINGTON - President Bill Clinton agrees with author Toni Morrison: He is unofficially - the nations first black president. Clinton jokingly claimed that distinction for himself Saturday night at the Congressional Black Caucus" annual awards dinner. He said comedian Chris Tucker told him he'd like to see the Oval Office to prepare for an upcoming movie role as the nations first black president. "1 didn't have the heart to tell him that I've already taken the posi tion." Clinton said In an October 1998 essay in The New Yorker magazine. Morrison said black Americans tended to be sympathetic to Clinton because his impoverished childhood and personal struggles seemed to mirror many of their own experiences. "Years ago. in the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: w hite skin notw ithstanding, this is our first black pres ident." she wrote. "Blacker than any actual person who could ever be elected in our children's lifetime." Thousands of Mack men gather to pray for social change WASHINGTON - An estimated 30.000 men. most of them black, gathered here for a three-day spiritual conference aimed at reaching out to those in prison. W ith some 100.000 prisoners watching via satellite hookup, the men at the MCI Center sang, shouted and prayed on Thursday. "Tell those men they will never be the same again," Bishop TD. Jakes said of the prisoners. "There are some brothers out here praying for them." The conference, dubbed Manpower, is the brainchild of Jakes, a nationally known evangelist, who is pastor of the 22,000-member Pot ter's House Church in Dallas and is the author of several popular books and tapes. His CD. Woman Thou Art Loosed." was nominated for a Cirammy and a Dove Award last year. One Of the scheduled speakers was Surgeon General David Satcher. The conference had a special significance for black men. who have been plagued by incarceration and other social ills. The conference also comes at a time when more politicians - includ ing Vice President Al Gore. Democratic front-runner in the presidential race, and Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the leading Republican in the race have promoted faith-based institutions that address social ills. "Our focus will be on the principles that our nation s historical docu ments declare." Jakes said. "If we do not broaden our focus to embrace the contribution of faith-based entitites addressing society's ills, we will squander this climate ripe for real change." The conference was interactive with inmates in three men s maximum security prisons - the Hughes Unit at Gatesville. Texas; Northeast Ohio Correctional Unit in Youngstown. Ohio; and California Rehabilitation Center in Norco. Calif., while more than 100 other prisons broadcast the program live. States rewarded for reducing out-of-wedlock births WASHINGTON, D.C. - Earlier this month Health and Human Ser vices Secretary Donna E. Shalala announced that $100 million in new bonuses were awarded to four states and the District of Columbia for achieving the nation's largest decreases in out-of-wedlock births between 1994-1997, The recipients will receive $20 million each. The states to be honored are Washington, D C., Alabama, California, Massachusetts and Michigan. Under the 1996 welfare reform law. $100 million will be made available annually for the program. "The welfare reform law transformed the welfare system not only by requiring work and parental responsibility, but also by focusing on the reduction of out-of-wedlock and teen births." said Shalala. "This is an important way to help reduce the risk of welfare dependency, and we're pleased to be making this first award of bonuses to these states and the District of Columbia." The full list of states and the percentage change in out-of-wedlock bifth rates is posted at www.acf.dhhs.gov/news/oowstate.htm ' ,'rV . Howard medical school receives grant for AIDS center WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently announced that Howard University College of Medi^ cine will receive $1.85 million to establish a National Minority AIDS Education and Training Center. With funding from the Congressional , r Black Caucus, the center will provide clinical training and education for minority HIV care providers nationwide. ? "This center offers great benefits to minorities who are dispropor tionately affected by HIV and AIDS." said Dr. Claude Fox. director of the HHS Health Resources and Services Administration. "Increasing the pool of HIV care providers is a critical step forward in improving the lives of people most affected by this epidermic." Working closely with other historically black colleges and universities schools of medicine, the center will offer clinical consultation to minori ty providers and give them access to information and resources that will standardize the treatment of HIV-positive individuals. The National Minority AIDS Education and Training Center is a part of a national network of AETCs that will operate in designated geo graphic locations. For information, call (301) 443-3376 or www. h rsa. gov/new sroom. r r7rr~7~3 i I W V B A OPINION . A6 SPORTS ?1 RELIGION ?7 CLASSIFIEDS ?? HEALTH CJ ENTERTAINMENT C7 CALENDAR CI 1 This Week In Black History... Sept. 23,1926-North Carolina native John CoUrane it bom in Hamlet. Coltrane will become a brillant eaMophtmiot and the father of avant-garde joe*. Sept. 24,1967 - President Dwight Kieenhmcer mend* 1J9O0 I/A paratrooper* to Little Rock, Ark, to di mgrrgmtr echooto. The troopo will eecort nine children to Central High School in the firet federally nupported effort to integrate pmbUc mchool*. Sept. 26, 1962 - Sonny Lioton topple* Floyd Patterwon in the firet round to become world. i | White supremacist guilty in Byrd murder trial BYC BUY SON HULL THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 9 BRYAN, Texas- A second white supremacist was convicted Monday in the dragging death of a black man whose gruesome end shocked the nation. Lawrence Russell Brewer, 32, could get the death penalty for mur dering James Byrd Jr. in the town of Jasper last year. The jury of 11 whites and one Hispanic took just four hours to reach a verdict. Standing with his lawyers. Brewer showed no reaction. The judge had admonished specta tors against any show of emotion. There was none. The jury returned immediately to begin hearing testimony on whether Brewer should be sen tenced to life in prison or death. His former prison buddy John William King, 24, has been on death row since his February con viction in Byrd's slaying. A third man. Shawn Allen Berry, also 24, is awaiting trial next month. Prosecutors said they believe the three men killed Byrd to promote their fledgling white supremacist organization - the Confederate Knights of America - and initiate Berry into the group. The slaying was one of the gris liest racial crimes since the civil rights era. Unlike the first trial, the case against Brewer was moved out of Jasper. 150 miles away, after the defense argued that the people of Jasper would be inclined to convict to redeem their small town in the eyes of the nation. Brewer, sometimes sobbing, tes m ? tified last week that he was with King and Berry when Byrd. 49, was chained by the ankles to the bumper of Berry's pickup and dragged for three miles along a rutted logging road and a bumpy asphalt route. According to Brewer, he climbed inside the truck cab, smoked a cigarette and didn't real ize Berry had chained Byrd to the back of the truck until they began driving. Brewer said he was con vinced Byrd had died when Berry slashed his throat with a knife. ? -a But a pathologist testified there was no evidence of a knife wound and no knife was found. Byrd was alive until his head was torn off when it slammed into a culvert, the pathologist said. And DNA evi dence showed Byrd's blood on the shoes of all three men. "Gearly there is a pattern of deceit," Jasper County District Attorney Guy James Gray said in his closing argument Monday. "Russell Brewer crafted his defense to stay just short of a capital ?* M offense. He's not afraid of the peni tentiary." In order to find Brewer guilty of capital murder, the jury was required to decide that Brewer helped kidnap Byrd as well as mur der him. Brewer's attorney. Doug Barlow, had told the jury: "If you think Rus sell was up here trying to concoct a story, don't you think he would have concocted a story that would have made him much less culpable?" ? Ajaocutcd Pre** photo by Dsnd J Phillip Mary Verrett, canter, sister of Jamas lyrd Jr., toMcs to reporters as members of the Byrd family stand bahind bar outside tha Brazos County Courthouse Monday in Bryan, Texas. Lawrence Busseii Brewer, the second of three white men charged with capital murder for the dragging death of James Byrd Jr., a black man, was convicted of capital murder Monday. Brewer could get the death penalty for his crime. | Progressive president calls tor boycott ot jails During annual conference, Daniels calls for effort to keep black youths out of prison BY DEN1SE ROLARK BARNES THE WASHINGTON INFORMER The Progressive National Bap tist Convention closed its last con vention of the century in Washing ton, D.C. recently with a news con ference held outside a Washington, DC. jail Flanked by ministers from across the nation, convention Pres ident Rev. C. Mackey Daniels announced the convention's initia The Revs. Major Jemison, T. DeWitt Smith, Fred Lofton, Tyrone Pitts, Hycel Taylor, Otis Moss, Wallace Charles Smith, Morris Shearin and Trina Winfrey joined Daniels at the news confer ence. ;1 They were urged to go back to their respective churches and implement the Training Starter Manual, a PNBC pamphlet designed to assist churches in launching the boycott. "We must march in order to bring (government spending and priorities) back in balance and make sense out of no sense," Daniels said. Justice Department statistics show that the number of prisoners in America has tripled over the last decade from 500,000 to , 1.8 million with minority communities repre senting 70 percent of all new admissions. According to a report released this year by the Justice Policy Insti tute, a project of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, in 1996 there were 193 white Ameri can prison inmates for every 100,000 whites; 688 Hispanic prison inmates per 100,000 His panics and 1,571 African Ameri can prispn inmates per 100,000 African Americans. "This means that blacks are now imprisoned at eigljt times the rate of whites and Latinos are imprisoned at three and one-half times the rate of whites," the report stated. It also noted that no state gov See Boycott on A9 tive to stop the incarceration and killing of black youths. "We cannot afford to enter into the new millennium worrying about our sons and our daugh ters," Daniels said. "Today, we are concerned about our children not being educated but rather being incarcerated. There is a mean police force that cares nothing about African American boys and girls ... (a police force) that will shoot us down in the street even before they question us." Daniels called upon PNBCs 2.5 million members, representing more than 2,000 churches around the world, to plan marches on local city halls, county govern ments and state legislatures to demand an end to a government policy, that invests "$45 million to incarcerate (black youths) but (is) not willing to pay $5,000 a year to educate one." He also called upon representa tives of other religious denomina tions, fraternities and sororities to join the campaign. *MT WOW ??>0? I.M ' * 1501 MAKES MALL BLVD STADIUM SEATING IN THESE AUDITORIUMS ?uawTTCHnojiniii liwwtiM T7? HAlMMC 1FG-U1 1*4* MM KWrnta iTCBl : 1*114 5*7* *45 P?renO? GADGET ffGi 1*3*M MM OOUfVCIWIiIi 1*4* 7**44 lN\l?U.SMi)Oi?l MM ao*m?\ ruxt fG-n _u M DOC W? ill 1*MM7*M MISTHAKlfCUi 1:15 3:155:15 7:15*15 JAKM Tiff UAIiti 1:15415715*41 Ml W0H) III 1*4* 7**15 I1MM HUDC <Ki UMMU >A40 PfvNOEDA AO MSI *m?m III M 4*7**45 K sniOf HUOESili 1*4*715*41 UK Six? SEWfG-IS HNWM 40MTTNGTlfG-L)i 1*1*5*7**45 TEACHW. MIS. TlNGli ifC-Ll 1:15115 5:15 7:15 *15 LTOMMdBOIitl MM MCHYIUXEYfSlTG-Di 1*4* XnCMATtft) 1*1)5 7**45 IWa Tiff. IMA 1:15415715*41 DrMUffOMOYli 1 Jl 4* 7**15 AKWY ?il STO.Ui iKll 1*3*5*7*** 5SmO?ECHOISi?i 1*4*715*45 DOTAUSAiIi l*M7*M MDCifCi 1*4*7*M [7 TOO DOMi 1**157:15*41 ST*,M?t ?i l*4*7*M Sometimes A Meeting Can Be More Questions Than Answers. Let Jennifer Take The Questions Out Of Planning Your Next Meeting. "Events, places to visit and when I think of Winston-Salem, I think of hospitality. It's a good place to come socialize and meet people." Donald Brown. British Sculptor, National Black Theatre Festival Celebrity , "I would strongly encourage any group of professionals looking for the ideal place to meet to choose Winston-Salem." John Amos. International Screen and Stage Actor ? ? _ 1 /? ft She's Jennifer Norwood, Manager of Convention Sales for the Winston-Salem Convention & Visitors Bureau and a member of the National Coalition of Black Meeting Planners. And she could be the key to making your next f meeting your best ever. What specifically can Jennifer do? Expertly assess your requirements. Take you on a tour of the city to see hotels, venues and attractions. Contact hotels on your behalf. Provide a list of reliable suppliers. Put you in touch with other i members of our staff who can help with services, media relations and hospitality. And much, much more. As the home of the National Black Theatre Festival and many African-American exhibitions, Winston-Salem has facilities and services to accommodate every thing from a small conference to a large convention. So call 800.331.7018 now to discuss your next meeting, lust ask for (ennifer. Winston-Salem . Sort/ Garo/iha Convention & Visitors Bureau Winston-Salem Convention & Visitors Bureau ? P .0. Box 1409, Winston-Salem, nc 27102 336.728.4209/800.331.7018 ? Fax 336.728.4220 - . ?WSCVB 1999 '* %
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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