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75 cents Winston-Salem Gkeensboro High Point Vol. XXVII No. 41
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?* CHRONIC - - - -1
The Choice for African-American News from thi? iit>r?rv
Morbid
afternoon
aims to
end crime
BY PAUL COLLINS
THE CHRONICLE
The Funeral Directors and
Morticians Association of North
Carolina Inc. will hold an End
the Violence Campaign Friday,
June 15. The campaign, co-spon
sored by the Center for Communi
ty Safety in Winston-Salem, will
include a motorcade of about 20
hearses that will go through
"high-crime areas in Winston
Salem," according to a news
release from the FD and MA of
NC. Caskets will be placed on the
corners of some locations.
Bernardeane H. Morton, pub
lic relations director for FD and
MA of NC, said, "We're going to
bury you eventually ...but we don't
want to do it until it is time."
Allen Jones - a member of
FD and MA of NC and owner of
Superior Mortuary Services in
Durham said, "The Bible
promises three score and 10 years.
We're trying to promote life, not
death."
He encourages the public to
attend the End the Violence event.
"We need the public there. We
need support." And if somebody
"who is headed down the wrong
path" attends the event, "there
will be somebody there to talk to
(him or her)."
Jones said this is the second
time the FD and MA of NC has
sponsored a motorcade of hears
es. "We did it in Durham a couple
of years ago. (Ironically, it was the
same day that the Columbine
shootings happened in Colorado.)
We ended up with 23 hearses
going throughout our neighbor
hood. The slogan was 'Rise, revi
talize or ride." We had a very posi
tive reaction. We had a lot of peo
ple who came out to the rally. We
had it at the armory. We had sup
port from ministers who gave the
food."
A news release about Friday's
eVent says: "The FD and MA of
NC wants to send a message to
area youth to 'end the violence to
help preserve our future.' We ask
that everyone assemble at
Reynolds Park Shelter 1 at I
p.m. to line up for the motorcade
(which will start at 2 p.m.). The
Center for Community Safety, the
Recreation and Parks Depart
ment, the Winston-Salem Police
Department, area funeral direc
tors. the Ministerial Alliance of
Winston-Salem, area churches,
community organizations and
(Tiends will be in attendance to
witness the motorcade and help
send the message to end the vio
lence."
Sharee Fowler, facilitator of
the Domestic Violence Coordinat
ing Council, is one of the local
officials who will be on hand for
the End the Violence event.
The route for the motorcade:
left on Reynolds Park Road, right
on Waughtown Street, right on
Vargrave Street, left on Mock
Street, right on Nowlin Street, left
on Free Street (stop here rally),
left on Howie Street, left on Mock
Street, left on Vargrave Street,
right on Diggs Boulevard, left on
Martin Luther King Jr. Drive,
right on New Walkertown Road,
left on Bowen Boulevard, left on
25th Street, right on Dunleith
Street, left on 26th Street, right
on Claremont Avenue, left on 29th
Street to Piedmont Circle, back to
Virgilina Avenue, left on 30th
Street, left on Liberty Street (stop
here rally), left on 28th Street
Set Motorcade on A10
Photo by Kevin Walker
Larry Leon Hamlin, center, discusses the film festival that will coincide
with the National Black Theatre Festival. Charles McClennahan, left,
and Ron Stacker Thompson are helping to organize the festival.
I
Best festival yet is promised
Hamlin said show will go on despite need for money
BYT. KEVIN WALKER
llll CHR0N1CI I
For more than a decade, Win
ston-Salem has been the tempo
rary home for the famous and the
talented during the National Black
Theatre Festival, a biennial 24
hour party that draws thousands
to the city and pumps millions into
the local economy.
At a noon, outdoor news con
ference Monday, the founder and
artistic director of the festival,
Larry Leon Hamlin, told the
dozens of theater lovers on hand
that they have not seen nothing
yet.
"This is going to be the hottest
festival ever." promised Hamlin
after a group of entertainers and
corporate sponsors spent nearly an
hour praising him and the festival
for creating new avenues for artists
while putting the city's name on
the entertainment A-list.
The seventh festival will kick
off July 30 with a star-studded gala
at the Benton Convention Center,
where more than two dozen enter
tainers will come together to salute
legendary stage and screen actress
Cicely Tyson with the 2001 Sidney
Poitier Lifelong Achievement
Award.
Others expected to be in town
for the six-day event are Charles
Dutton, Paul Winfield, Malcolm
Jamal Warner and Sheryl Lee
Ralph. Many of the performers are
best known for their big- and
small-screen work, but a co-chair
of the 2001 festival said they all
have theater roots that run deep.
"Some of us have made it big in
the movies, some of us have made
it big in television, but we all cut
our teeth on the stage," said Andre
DeShields, a veteran Broadway
actor who is currently appearing in
the smash "The Full Monty."
DeShields joined "Fresh Prince
of Bel Air" actress Janet Hubert at
Monday's news conference to tout
the significance of the festival.
Hubert first came to the festival
two years ago. She said she was
pleasantly surprised to see all the
works that were staged.
"I could not believe there was
this much black theater going on in
See NBTF on A10
Hard Knocks
Students get up
close and personal
look at county jail
BYT. KEVIN WALKER
THE CHRONICLE
Several dozen middle school students had
a field trip like none they ever had before last
week.
They got a glimpse into the hard-knock
life of those who live behind bars from sunup
to sundown and are told what to do and when
to do it.
About 50 Hanes Middle School students
toured the Forsyth County Detention Center
as part of special summer enrichment pro
gram started by the school's resource officer,
Cpl. Charles Crosby.
Crosby, a member of the Sheriff's Depart
ment, which runs the jail, will spend much of
this month taking the students on similar-type
adventures. The group is expected to visit the
airport soon.
"It's just a way of exposing them to a
whole lot of different things," said Crosby,
who started the program a year ago.
But Crosby said he hoped last week's trip
not only served as an educational outing but a
wake-up call. Some of the students in Cros
by's program have not been exactly angels in
the classroom. He started the program, in
part, because some teachers complained that
students were driving them up the wall.
Crosby says his kids are good kids, but he
said if the tour could keep just one of them
from making a bad decision, the effort would
be well worth that.
If the youngsters were expecting the pret
ty, condensed version of jail, their expecta
tions were not met by jail officials.
See Jail on A4
Photo by Kevin Walker
Sgt. B.G. Geiger shows students what a jail meal looks like.
New school
leader senses
great potential
BY MELDE RUTLBDGE
THE l HRON1CLE
Shelia P. Jackson believes in healthy competition.
It's good that she does because the thousands of
parents who live in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth
County Schools' zone five have the choice of
enrolling their children in one of five schools.
Each school in the zone
(Kimberley Park, Jefferson,
Sherwood Forest, Speas and
Vienna) teaches the required
N.C. standard course of study,
but also provides its own special
theme that is designed to moti
vate students by tapping into
their interests and preferred
learning styles.
"We have some healthy com
petition," said Jackson, who
signed on as the new principal of
Kimberley Park Elementary ear
Jackson
lier this month. "That's a good thing, but the down
side to that is if you don't get the children in your
school, then your attendance drops and becomes
somewhat of a problem to really operate a school,"
such as receiving school funds.
Enrollment at the school has been down since the
system implemented its redistncting plan several
years ago. The school also lost students when it was
stripped of its gifted program last year. When the pre
vious principal, Richard Watts, was assigned to the
new Gibson Elementary School, which will open this
fall, enrollment at Kimberley Park suffered again,
Jackson said.
"We have to work on getting our enrollment back,
and you do that with family-quality programming,"
she said.
Located at 1700 N. Cherry Street, Kimberley
Park is the only year-round elementary, school in
S<r Kimberley Park on A4
Troubled charter school climbing back
East Winston Primary has already begun
recruiting students for coming year
BYT. KEVIN WALKER
THE CHRONICLE '
East Winston Primary School made
a big to-do over its graduation for pre
kindergarten pupils last week. The 15
graduates were marched proudly into a
roomful of their parents and other fam
ily members. The grads performed musi
cal numbers and led the crowd in the
Pledge of Allegiance before donning
their gold caps and gowns and receiving
their tiny certificates of achievement.
The event marked not only a gradua
tion for the students into bigger and bet
ter things, but also for the school, which
is forging ahead with its vision to provide
top-notch schooling to youngsters who
have not been able to find it elsewhere.
Several months after its financial
lapses made headlines. East Winston Pri
mary has begun to advertise for new stu
dents for the upcoming school year.
"East Winston Primary School is still
going forth, regardless of what the
rumors may be," Jimmie Bonham. one
of the school's board members, told the
audience at the graduation.
East Winston Primary joined a long
list of financially challenged charter
schools this year when the school ran out
of money in the midst of a school year.
Many teachers reportedly worked during
the ordeal without being compensated.
It's clear that the school wants to be
given a clean slate. Bonham says the
future is what is most important at this
point for the school.
He believes that bad press will not
thwart the school's current recruitment
efforts.
Sir EWPS 1 A10
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Photo by Kc\in Walker
Pre-K students at East Winston Primary line up to show off their certificates.
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