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75 cents WINSTON-SALEM GREENSBORO HlGH POINT VII No. 48
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FOf&ynffc ^-st-lot *-0022 77rf Choice for African-American News.
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Photos by Bruce Chapman
Actor and burgeoning poet Malcolm JamaI Warner gives the
crowd a sample of his work at a news conference.
Legendary actress Cicely Tyson evokes the spirit of Jane Pittman
as she recites the words to a Langston Hughes poem.
" ' a ? 1
'Holy Ground'
2001 National Black Theatre Festival off and running
BV T. KEVIN WALKER
THE CHRONICLE
After months of hype, twists
and turns, the National Black The
atre Festival began its biennial
week-long stay in Winston-Salem
Monday.
The celebrities, the dozens of
shows and the excitement of it all
has transformed the city into
something that many local folks
do not recognize.
"I can't believe this is Win
ston-Salem," a woman said as she
left the Stevens Center in the wee
hours of Tuesday morning.
The area around the Adam's
Mark Winston Plaza, which is
again serving as ground zero for
the festival, has been transformed
into something much more cos
mopolitan than natives are used to.
Local restaurants are staying
open late to accommodate the
thousands expected to descend on
Winston-Salem this week. Bur
geoning entrepreneurs have also
gotten into the mix. setting up
shop outdoors in heavily traveled
areas to sell everything from trin
kets to fried fish and chicken.
"We want to take advantage of
this situation with all these people
in town." said one hawker when
asked about his roadside setup
Theater lovers from as far
away as Michigan and Ohio have
come to the festival.
SheFry Roulettte-Mosley and
her friend Kim Ford came from
Chicago. Ford is longtime
attendee; she has attended several
festivals. Roulettte-Mosley stayed
behind in the past, but she said she
wanted to see what all the fuss was
about.
"I have wanted "fo come for
years but this is the first time I'm
able to do so," she said.
They arrived late on Tuesday
and quickly snatched up tickets
for a few plays. But even after
only a few hours. Roulettte
Mosley said she was experiencing
something unique, a good, warm
feeling that some call the festival
magic.
"I love the feel of the city. I
love the feel of everything that is
going at the Adam's Mark," she
said. "You can tell there is lot a
bonding that everyone is experi
encing, It's unspoken, but it's
there."
The national furor over the
Adam's Mark has not seemingly
put a damper on the festival. The
festival's producer and creator.
. Larry Leon Hamlin, addressed the
S, NBTF on A6
Oss/e Davis, left, and George Faison pose for the camera before Monday's Opening Night Gala. Fai
son was honored during the event for his directorial work.
Steele, new face of
Republican Party,
wants more talk
Maryland Republican chair says party is
silent on issues that it shouldn't he
BY T. KEVIN WALKER
THE CHRONICLE
GREENSBOkO - The first and
only black man to head a state
Republican Party told a roomful of
the party faithfuls that Republicans
are not doing enough talking,
resulting in verbal TKOs by
Democrats in the fight to gain the
upper hand in the court of public
opinion.
"This is our form of communi
cation." Michael Steele said, hoist
ing a piece of paper. "Tear up the
paper and roll up your sleeves and
tell your neighbor I have a party I
\iant to take you to. and you are
gtaing to have a damn good time.'"
Steele, chairman of the Mary
land Republican Party, was in
Greensboro last weekend to
keynote an awards dinner held by
the Guilford County New Majority
Republican Council, a wing of the
county's Republican Party made up
of African-American Republicans
Steele told a crowd of about 100
people at the Greensboro Cultural
Arts Center that silence on behalf of
his party has stifled Republicans in
their recruiting efforts. As an exam
ple, he cited the NAACP's contro
versial 2000
election ad
that featured
the daughter
of dragging
death victim
James Byrd
talking about
George W.
Bush's lack
of support for
hate crimes
legislation.
Steele
v:iiil hpp'inco
the Republican Party did not furi
ously argue against the ad, man^
blacks were "scared to the polls"' to
cast ballots for Bush's opponent. A1
Gore.
A corporate attorney, Steele has
become somewhat of a posterboy
for the new Republican Party - a
party for the new millennium that is
Si < Steele on A3
Steele
Liberian boy gets
desperately needed
medical care in city
BY T. KEVIN WALKER
THE CHRONIC LE
f
Stanley McGill is like any other
2-year-old.
His attention switches from a
coloring book to a toy truck and
then back again several times with
in a minute. He has big. bright eyes
that grow brighter when he smiles
or when he is embraced by his
mother; and he possesses the kind
of energy that makes older people
tired just by looking at him at play.
But Stanley's smiles quickly
turn into agonizing frowns. His
youthful exuberance has changed
to complete helplessness and pain
many times during his short life.
His playtime and development
have .been tamed by an obscure, but
common, medical problem that
does not allow him to pass stool.
Stanley was born with an
imperforate anus, a condition in
See Stanley ?'//A4
Little Stanley draws a picture as
his mother looks on.
Many blacks in the City of Brotherly Love don't love bank
Bogle
BY SHERIDAN HII.L
TtffiCHRONICU
Tomorrow at 10:30 a.m.,
Wachovia shareholders w ill till Ben
ton Convention Center to vote on the
proposed merger with First Union, if
they have not already done so by
proxy.
Since April, there have been
heavy rounds of lix.al and national
advertising, urging shareholders and
the financial community to support
the merger. Both banks, as well as
SunTrust, which has made an unso
licited bid for Wachovia, have bought
full-page ads in newspapers across
the Southeast, in The Wall Street
Journal and The New York Times.
Nevertheless, some folks find it
impossible to overlook First Union's
bumbles in its 1999 acquisition of
CoreStates Financial Corp. and its
involvement in subprime lending.
During a luncheon here on July
10. First Union President Ken
Thompson promised that First Union
had'learned from its mistakes in the
CoreStates merger, a $16.6 billion
deal that earned widespread criticism.
"First Union's acquisition of
CoreStates was one of the worst-con-.
ceived and worst-executed bank
mergers in the last two decades," said
Matthew Lee. director of InnerCity
Press, a merger watchdog group in
Washington. D.C.
"First Union closed so many
branches and so dramatically reduced
services that, even by its own
account, it lost the deposits and cus
tomers that had been the business
rationale for the acquisition."
At the time of the merger.
Philadelphia's African-American
community raised concerns about
losing its good relationship with
CoreStates. In response. First Union
sent its then-senior vice president,
John Georgius. to visit Robert Bogle.
Sti First Union on A4
A whiter Wachovia? Some fear
merger will not help diversity
BY SHARON BROOKS HODGE
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
"The things that really matter
won't change." That is the last line
of a television advertisement
pitching the merger of Wachovia
and First Union, two of the
nation's largest banks.
That idiom may be comforting
to the souls of the dead white men
whose photos line the wall outside
the board room on the 28th floor
of the Wachovia Center. But it
could be cause for concern among
the diminishing number of African
Americans who work for and do
business
with the N.C.
financial
institution
that is on the
verge of
becoming
the fourth
largest hank
in America.
Friday/
Wachovia
stockholders
will vote on whether to merge
with First Union. If the deal is
rejected, a marriage with Atlanta
based SunTrust could follow.
Although thousands of African
Americans in the Carolinas and
across the Eastern Seaboard will
be impacted by the outcome,
many wonder which partnership
would be most advantageous for
people of color.
"Together our companies are
better." Wachovia CEO Bud Baker
said in a May news release pur
ported to announce the "commu
nity commitment for the new
Wachovia." The release went on to
laud the two banks' generosity to
lower-income families by plcdg
Sre Wachovia on A3
McEachern
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