-
Getting out the Vote
Photo by Kevin Walker
ija sidewalk on Cherry Street. Alderman
by believes that sights like this will be
j'lfh initiatives that would come from the
ns item up for voter approval.
ker: I feel
when people
bt at ease
IVLKER
Ie
liughter could be heard throughout
|all last week as lawyer and newspa
per publisher Peter Grear
began his keynote address
with this audience advisory:
“I’m a nonconformist. Wher
ever I go, I cause trouble....!
do it on purpose. I feel good
when people are not at ease.”
, With that, Grear wasted
little time before laying into
African Americans for letting
politicians take their votes for
granted and for sitting by idly
as the forces of racism and
discrimination wreak havoc.
Ics .should not feel comfortable con-
[we face on a day-to-day basis,” he
larks came at the local NAACP’s
[mond Life Membership Dinner last
Adam’s Mark Hotel. A Wilmington
las gained national attention for his
lling a strong black economic base
ICarolina. He served as chairman of
Leadership Caucus from 1986 to
lup serves as an umbrella organiza-
immunity empowerment groups
state.
|jrear became the co-publisher of
Challenger Newspaper, a paper that
' of black economic development.
Grear was at the forefront of
IN.C. Black Chamber of Commerce
p organization to a statewide one.
risingly, economics and African
Is the subject of much of Grear’s
Jnked the perils that many African
|d themselves in today to the nearly
J'ld doctrine of exclusion, which set
|ir called an everlasting system in
|>re locked out.
Jto black economic empowerment
fjitics, Grear said.
talk about economic development
See NAACP on A9
Officials trying to educate
community about bond items
BYT.KEVIN WALKER
THE CHRONICLE
Alderman Nelson Malloy sees Cherry Street
free of vacant lots, condemned properties and
trash and litter. It’s a place that Malloy can only
visualize now. f’
Currently much of Cherry, in his Northeast
Ward, is in desperate need of- a facelift. The area
is also regularly frequented by police, who are
trying to crack down on drug and prostitution
activity. With the proposed city bond package
that city voters are being asked to consider, Mal
loy sees better tomorrows for Cherry Street and
many other communities through the city.
“When you have substandard housing, it
(lends) itself to high crime, but when people feel
better about where they live you don’t (have) all
See Officials on A4
Students boost numbers at
WSSU early voting site,
but numbers low there
BYT. KEVIN WALKER
THE CHRONICLE
East Winston residents have not been taking
advantage of the one-stop, no-excuse voting as
much as suburban residents, according to recent
figures from the Board of Elections.
As of last Friday, 324 people had voted at the
one-stop voting site at the Anderson Center on
the campus of Winston-Salem State University.
The numbers were a little higher, 351, at the Carv
er School Road Branch Library.
By contrast, 1,188 voters had taken advantage
of early voting at the Clemmons Library, and 974
people had already cast ballots at the Kernersville
Library.
See Students on A4
Tools
for
Life
Photo by Kevin Walker
Dairl Scott works with one
of the interactive stations in
the exhibit "Face to Face."
The exhibit will be at the
YWCA for the next couple of
months.
Red-hot exhibit helps kids deal with prejudice and discrimination
BY T. KEVIN WALKER
THE CHRONICLE
The story being played out before
his eyes on a video monitor really hit
home for Dairl Scott, a sixth-grade
student in the city-county school sys
tem. The video was about a rite of
passage for many people Dairl’s age -
finding a friendly face to sit beside on
the school bus.
In the video, young children were
denied access to certain seats for myr
iad reasons - too fat, too weird, too
black. Dairl shook his head in disbe
lief as the scenarios were played out.
“I would let them sit with me, no
matter what other people might say,”
he said confidently in response to the
treatment some of the students
received.
The children on the video were act
ing out various situations, but Dairl
said teasing and playing favorites on
the bus is real life for many his age.
Dairl was one of many young peo
ple and parents who came to experi
ence “Face to Face: Dealing with Prej
udice and Discrimination.” The
nationally renowned, interactive, mul
timedia traveling exhibit premiered at
the YWCA on Sunday.
Since being created by the Chicago
Children’s Museum, the exhibit has
been much-requested by organizations
throughout the country for its simple
methods of giving children - mainly
those between the ages of 7 and 10 -
tools to respond to a wide range of
forms of discrimination.
“These booths just pull you right
in....I can only imagine, from a child’s
viewpoint, what is going through their
mind, because as an adult...I feel like
it’s such (a rewarding) experience,”
said Carletha Ward, president of the
YWCA board of directors.
More than a dozen stations make
up the exhibit. Each of them gives
children insight into some form of
prejudice. At one station, for example,
children can write hurtful names they
have been called on scraps of paper.
They then slide the paper in a shred-
der-like machine, implicitly killing the
effects the word can have on them in
the future.
Many of the stations are high tech
and require youngsters to play along
by answering questions or role play
ing. Others, however, are quite simple.
One station, for instance, merely con
sists of a binder filled with a collec
tion of handwritten stories about dis
crimination from children across the
country.
But each exhibit is perfectly geared
to reach young people at their level,
said Susan Elster, who ushered her 5-
year-old son and 8-year-old daughter
around the exhibit during the pre
miere.
“It’s designed where children can
really relate to it,” she said. “I think 7-
to 10-year-olds are so open and they
may be have not developed the stereo
types that older children have. They
See Race on A9
Photo by Kevin Walker
Bill Tatum wears his NAACP Voter Drive shirt at a
rally at Winston-Salem State last week.
Jury selection is
ongoing in Rae
Carruth trial
BY JOHN MINTER
CONSOLIDATED MEDIA GROUP
CHARLOTTE - Forget what
may be explosive, intensely person
al testimony in the Rae Carruth
death penalty trial.
Forget that three men may
claim Carruth paid them to kill his
, pregnant girlfriend, Cherica
Adams.
Forget that Adam’s hand-
scrawled note - written from her
hospital bed - seems to implicate
the former Carolina Panthers wide
receiver.
Forget the horrid autopsy
results showing the wounds which
claimed the life of a mother whose;
child - Carruth’s son - was taken
from her body as she lay dying.
The most important part of the
Carruth trial - already a national
spectacle and media circus as it
ends it first week - is happening
right now.
That’s picking the 12-member
jury which will hear the case,
according to Ken Rose, director of
the Center for Death Penalty Liti
gation. The Raleigh-based non
profit center, using some govern
ment funds, trains attorneys to
handle death penalty cases.
Rose said the automatic, dis
qualification of potential jurors '
who oppose the death penalty cre
ates juries which are “predisposed”
to convict the defendant. A num
ber of potential jurors have been
dismissed in the Carruth trial for
that reason. Only those willing to
order death can sit on a capital
murder trial jury.
Much of the questioning
before jurors can be seated for the
trial centers on the question of
support for or opposition to the
death penalty.
“That’s the disadvantage in a
capital case,” Rose said. “You are
See Carruth on A10
Project Pumpkin a treat for 1,200 kids
BY PAUL COLLINS
THE CHRONICLE
Photo by Paul Collins
I is a scary sight when he shows his vampire teeth at Project Pumpkin
lot Wake Forest University. He was escorted by Whitney Roach, right.
If William Perry’s rainbow wig and big
red nose didn’t catch kids’ attention, his skill
at making balloon animals did.
A boy wearing a blue balloon hat
tapped Perry on the shoulder as he was
making an orange balloon animal. Perry
played with the boy and they both had a
good laugh.
Perry, a freshman at Wake Forest Uni
versity, was one of the clowns for Project
Pumpkin, an annual event sponsored by the
Wake Forest Volunteer Service Corps,
which, last Thursday, brought nearly 1,200
disadvantaged children to campus for an
afternoon of Halloween fun.
Costumed student volunteers escorted
children through residence halls for trick-
or-treating. Student organizations spon
sored carnival booths, face-painting, haunt
ed houses and other entertainment, includ
ing storytime. Several campus singing
groups performed.
Most of the events took place on the
Quad, between Wait Chapel and Reynolda
Hall.
Kelsie Thomas, 5, said she liked the
candy and balloons best.
And the carnival, 7-year-old Yolanda
Baldwin added.
Another girl said she liked the “scare
house.”
Little Brandon Ford seemed to be
enjoying himself as he walked around the
Quad dressed up as Superman.
Kevon Spikes was a fright when he
bared his vampire teeth.
One boy got into a make-believe sword
fight with his escort.
A group of students from St. Phillips
Day Care Center, many of them wearing
balloon hats and enjoying their candy, also
seemed to be having a blast.
More than 1,500 Wake Forest students
helped with the 12th annual Project Pump
kin.
In the past, more than 35 social service
See Pumpkin on A10
il
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