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Winston-Salem Greensboro High Point
Vol. XXVI No. 34
3-DIGIT 275
:0i
department
DAVIS LIBRARY
EL HILL
ILL NC 27514-8890
igwill
LIFT
for now
/ has won a major battle. The war,
be fought.
Wood last week denied the state of
request to dissolve a temporary
restraining order that was put
into effect after the school
announced plans to fight in court
a decision to revoke its charter.
If the judge had decided to
dissolve the order, the state could
have moved forward with plans to
revoke the school’s charter, essen
tially shutting down the school.
Wood’s decision means that
the school will stay open at least
until the end of the school year,
by which time a trial date should
5 decision. Wood expressed concern
he school’s students and staff He
i in their best interest if the school
down in the middle of the school
See LIFT on A9
l1 charge
[ig taken
seriously'
The Choice for African American News
THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2
■Salem man and his bride decided to
It the Adam’s Mark Hotel in Char
ley expected was to be slapped in the
)mments.
eek after the Adam’s Mark and its
BE Corp., settled a discrimination
ACP and the U.S. Department of
gation of discrimination looms on
ind his wife spent two days at the
ark. While they were in the hotel, a
I the hotel extended them the cour-
stay.
mnd out their check card was over-
anal check bounced.
about them overcharging my card
anager (Scott Cornwall) said to me,
think you’re supposed to get some-
lite said. “I was very offended by
:orge Allison, executive director of
'or an Adam’s Mark employee to
:h as that after the settlement proves
the lawsuit.
e personnel in the Adam’s Mark
lesson,” he said. “That company
See Adam's Mark on A4
Photos by Kevin Walker
Winston-Salem Urban League president Delores Smith, second from left, shares a laugh with a few
of the people on hand last wepl^^ff^hi^,closing ceremony for Rites of Passage Mentor Training.
Speaker says blacks
should embrace Africa
BYT. KEVIN WALKER
THE CHRONICLE
For an eager crowd at the
Urban League last week, Moriba
Kelsey shared the great history and
traditions of Africa. He talked
about the first people on Earth
who lived on the continent; he said
that its proud people were inven
tors, kings and queens and that
Africa prided itself on the village
concept, where every child
belonged to every family and ever
man and woman were brothers
and sisters.
Kelsey juxtaposed his remarks
about Aftica with a commentary
on the state of African Americans.
The difference between the Africa
that “enslaved” blacks left and the
one their descendants live in today
is as vast as the ocean that sepa
rates the two lands, he said.
But Kelsey told the crowd that
it wasn’t too late for blacks in this
country to embrace their history
and African culture.
“Cultures are very interesting
things. It takes thousands of years
for a culture to develop,” he said.
“(We have only) been here 400
years. We have not even begun to
wipe out (African) culture yet.”
Kelsey, the clinical director of
the Afrocentric Personal Develop
ment Shop in Columbus, Ohio,
was in town to give the keynote
speech at a ceremony celebrating
the latest batch of adults who com
pleted the Rites of Passage Mentor
Training.
The Winston-Salem Urban
League has offered the national
training program since 1993. Rites
of Passage matches adult mentors
with young men or women.
Seven years ago, Kelsey taught
employees of the local Urban
League how to administer the
training during a certification
workshop at Howard University.
Kelsey is also a professor emeritus
at Ohio State University.
Before Kelsey began his
speech, he asked permission from
the oldest person in the room,
which at 74 turned out to himself
Asking the eldest elder is an
African tradition that instills
respect in youngsters.
It’s a tradition that we could
use in this country, Kelsey said.
Today, he continued, it is often
hard to distinguish who are the
parents and who are the children.
“If a person is one day older,
you have to give them respect,”
Kelsey said, as many in the crowd
showed their agreement with
applause.
Kelsey went on to say that
See Mentors on A4
Moriba Kelsey talks about
Africa's rich history.
Delores Smith welcomes the
crowd to the Urban League.
Rev. Shaw
NBC head
calls for
reform
BY SHARON BROOKS
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
BURLINGTON - For the past
six months, the Rev. William J.
Shaw has been trying to bridge
internal divisions and restore the
tarnished image of the nation’s
largest black church group.
In September, Shaw was elect
ed to the most powerful position in
the National Baptist Convention.
Recently, he visited the Triad and brought a message to
NBC members and supporters.
“I want us to be a convention that is fully accountable
to God, to the public and to ourselves,” said Shaw, presi
dent of the National Baptist Convention. In an interview
with The Chronicle before speaking to a full sanctuary at
New Birth Baptist Church in Burlington, Shaw said that
he is committed to “working towards a cultural change
within the life of the convention.”
Shaw’s election last fall to the presidency of the
National Baptist Convention followed the conviction of
the Rev. Henry -Lyons, who was sentenced to 5 1/2 years
in prison. Lyons resigned after being found guilty of
swindling $4 million from organizations and businesses
and using the money to live in luxury.
Shaw, who defeated 10 others seeking the NBC pres
idency in September, campaigned on a platform of
reform. He pledged to restructure the organization’s
management and increase financial accountability. His
“VISA” campaign promised to focus the NBC’s energy
toward “vision, integrity, structure and accountability.”
Steps already are being taken to bring about the
promised changes, said Shaw.
“We’ve done two or three things. We have attempted
to set the tone for a period of self-emptying, so that there
See Shaw on A4
Gilley may get
WSSUjob
permanently
BYT. KEVIN WALKER
THE CHRONICLE
Phil Gilley wasn’t exactly welcomed to Winston-
Salem State University with open arms last summer. The
longtime state auditor was handpicked by University of
North Carolina President Molly Broad to help the uni
versity straighten out its finances.
To some of the school’s most vocal alumni, Gilley
was the ultimate outsider - a white clean-up man sent to
a historically black university to save it from financial
ruin.
They also objected to the fact that Gilley reported
directly to Broad, not Alvin Schexnider, WSSU’s chan
cellor at the time.
At the time of his arrival. Broad said that Gilley
See Gilley on AS
Festival promotes beauty of diversity
BY PAUL COLLINS
THE CHRONICLE
Photos
f Otesha Creative Arts
>nal African dance.
by Paul Collins
Ensemble
Tina Yarborough, a dance instructor
for Otesha Creative Arts Ensemble, found
a receptive group of college-age students
- white, black and Oriental - when she
began teaching an African dance work
shop Friday as part of the International
Festival Series at Wake Forest University.
As two drummers from Otesha Cre
ative Arts Ensemble played, Yarborough
led the students through warmups and
stretches as she began to demonstrate a
variety of dance moves. The students imi
tated her moves, slowly at first, and then
picked up speed. Yarborough occasional
ly shouted to the beats as she danced
across a wide area of the floor. She put
the students at ease - calling them by
their first names, moments after first
meeting them. She had an easy laugh.
At one point, she told the students to
imagine themselves as an African village,
sticking closely together as the danced
across the length of the large floor in the
Benson University Center.
During a break, one of the drummers
- Hashim Saleh, director of Otesha Cre
ative Arts Ensemble - said the group was
founded in 1972 and currently has seven
dancers and five musicians. “We travel
around the country, colleges, churches,”
he said. “Eive of us are going to West
Africa tomorrow (April 1).” The group
members will be in Gambia and Senegal
for two weeks.
“We’re going to study, live with the
people, different villages,” Saleh said.
“It’s more educational than anything.”
“It’s going to be like a spiritual con
nection,” he said.
He said group members will do
research on their ancestry while in West
Africa and even plan to visit the same vil-
See Festival on AS
Women try out a few African dance steps
International Festival Series last week.
during Wake Forest's
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