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Nevigjat aWfipe U.S. stamp to honor Little Rock Nine LITTLE ROCK (AP) - One of the tentative designs for the 37-cent commemorative postage stamps for 2005 will feature the 1957 Central High School desegregation crisis, a U.S. Postal Ser vice official says. The stamp will be part of a 10-stamp collection paying tribute to the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20th century. The col lection. titled "To Form A More Perfect Union," includes a stamp titled "1957-Little Rock Nine." It depicts nine children, accompa nied by two adults, standing in a line outside the school, accord ing to Cynthia Pettis-Puryear. a spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service Stamp Services Division. In 1957, nine black students were barred from the school even though the U.S. Supreme Court had ordered integration. The fol lowing year, legislation backed by Gov. Orval Faubus closed the public high schools for the year. They were reopened and inte grated in the 1959 school year. The 2005 stamps will be formally unveiled in November. Kerry to speak in New Orleans at National Baptist Convention today BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Democratic presidential candi date John Kerry will speak to the nation's largest organization of black Baptists at their annual convention in New Orleans today, spokespersons for the group said Friday. There was no official confirmation from the Kerry campaign. It would be the candi date's fourth trip to Louisiana this year. National Baptist Convention USA officials said Kerry had reached out to the group, asking to speak at their annual convention, and has been given a 4 p.m. speaking slot on Sept. 9. "I understand he has -expressed interest in coming, and as I understand it he initial ly wanted to come on a date that was already full, but was able and willing to Kerry rearrange his schedule," said Dr. Wendell Griffen of Little Rock, the National Baptists' parliamentarian. President Bush has not expressed similar interest, Griffen said, but would be welcome if he did. although the group, which has a membership of about 7.5 million, opposed the Iraq war and Bush's affirmative action policies. "There have beerr some areas in which we disagreed and_ dis agreed openly with this administration." Griffen said. "The con vention has not turned Mr. Bush away, but Mr. Bush has not con tacted us," he said. Kerry's visit would underscore what campaign officials say is the candidate's desire to keep in play one of the few Southern states where the Democratic ticket could be competitive. At the same time, it could serve to energize black voters, crit ical to the Democrat's prospects - and a group he has been criti cized for neglecting. Teens accused of cross-burning plead guilty in federal court COVINGTON. Ky. (AP) - Two teenagers accused of burn ing a cross in the front yard of a black family pleaded guilty Thurs day in federal court. Matthew Scudder. 18, of Hebron, and James Foster. 19. of Independence, pleaded guilty to violating the family's civil rights, intimidating the family and to aiding and abetting a juvenile involved in the crime. The two face up to 10 years in prison at sentencing, scheduled for Dec. 16. On July 2. the northern Kentucky family found a 3-foot-tall charred cross in its front yard in Burlington. The next morning, the windows were broken out of a family car. The family moved out of Boone County after the incident. Federal prosecutors said Scudder and Foster conspired to intimidate the family. They said Scudder and the juvenile burned the cross and tljrew bricks at the car's windows. The teens wore white hoods and shouted racial slur, as they targeted the family, the FBI said. The case was prosecuted in federal court because under Ken tucky law the teens would have faced misdemeanor charges and could have been sentenced to only one year in jail. NAACP state president apologizes to gubernatorial candidate for attack SEATTLE (AP) - The NAACPs state conference president has apologized to gubernatorial candidate Christine Gregoire's campaign manager, after the president of the Seattle NAACP branch implied thai Oregoire's participation in an all-white sorority 30 years ago was evidence of racism. "You shouldn't charge people with being racist without some scientific evidence," NAACP state leader Oscar Eason said. Eason wrote a letter of apology to Tim Zenk. Gregoire's campaign manager. He said the NAACP does not endorse candidates or get involved in partisan politics, "and we apologize for any statements that would sug gest otherwise." Gregoire tason cliunt mention Seattle branch NAACP president Carl Mack by name. But he. was responding to "inflammatory" comments made by Mack and others last week at a news conference organized by Mack. Eason said. Mack and other speakers criticized Gregoire for joining Kappa Delta at the University of Washington in the late l%(K. Gregoire has said she deplored the sorority's exclusionary policy and worked for change from within. In 1973. after graduating, she traveled to the sorority's national convention in Virginia and unsuccessfully lobbied to get Kappa Delta to include nonwhites. Some black leaders have come to Gregoire's defense, pointing out her record of fairness as attorney general. Her primary opponent. King County Executive Ron Sims, who is black, said last week he doesn't believe Gregoire is racist. The Chronicle (USPS 067-910) was established by. Ernest H. Pitt and Ndubisi Egemonye in 197*4 and is published every Thursday by Winston-Salem Chronicle Publishing Co. Inc., 617 N. Liberty Street, Winston-Salem, NC 27101. Peri odicals postage paid at Winston-Salem, N.C. Annual sub scription price is $30.72. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Chronicle, P.O. Box 1636 Winston-Salem, NC 27102-1636 Credit can affect jobs, buying insurance, renting apartments BY EILEEN ALT POWELL THE ASSOCIATED PRESS r____ NEW YORK - Brenda Matthews thought she had a new job lined up at Johnson & Johnson headquarters in New Jersey. After applying online for a position as a patent specialist, she was called in for interviews that seemed to go well. "I met with the office manager, the supervisor I would have worked with," said Matthews, 27, a single mother who lives in Newark. N.J. "They loved me." And, in fact, she was offered the job. But then Johnson & Johnson ran additional background checks and came up with information on her cred it report the company found unsatisfactory. "Just a few hours later, they wanted to take the offer back," Matthews said. "I told them, I've already told my employer 1 was leaving. I felt they were playing with my life." Credit reports have long been used to deter mine whether consumers can get credit cards and mortgages, and the rate they'll have to pay on them. But these reports - and credit scores gener ated from them - are increasingly being applied to other things, from setting the price on auto insurance to analyzing prospective tenants and screening job applicants. Consumer activists argue that the system isr unfair to many Americans, especially those with little credit experience or with blemished credit records. And some people have begun fighting back in the courts. "The reality is there are many permissible rea sons for organizations to pull your credit report." said Evan Hendricks, a privacy expert who authored "Credit Scores & Credit Reports: How the System Really Works, What You Can Do." "At the same time, it's confusing, shrouded in mystery and constantly changing - and that works against consumers." Credit reports are the records kept by credit See Credit on A9 KRT Photo Experts say people need to be especially careful w/f/i their credit these days because credit reports are now used for many reasons. Black Republicans remain anomalies BY HAZEL TRICE EDNEY NNPA CORRESPONDENT WASHINGTON - No one can ever accuse Clarence Sailor and his wife. Rev. Deanna M. Petit-Sailor, of fitting the typical stereotype. A staunch Republican and for mer president ol the Republican Women's Forum of Detroit, Petit Sailor is-an avid supporter of affir mative i action. Her husband, a retired union man of 30 years from the Ford Motor Co. and faithful Democrat, argues against affirmative action. The Detroit couple are not a pairing one finds every day. "I was a little perturbed with President Bush because of affir mative action." Petit-Sailor said of Bush, who announced his opposi tion to affirmative action in the University of Michigan cases last year on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. "I just feel that each American should be able to sit in a position that they're qualified for." Sailor, a Bush supporter and pastor of the Christ United Methodist Church in lnkster, Mich., says though she sides with the Republican party on certain free enterprise issues and supports Bush on his faith-based initiatives, it is her personal experience as a black woman in America that keeps her in support of affirmative action. "Being in the work system since I was 16 years old. I do know that there have been times that I felt that 1 was qualified for a position and 1 did not receive that position. And 1 knew in my heart and 1 knew by the mannerism of the supervision that it wasn t based on my qualifications. It was based on race," she said. "Affir mative action will help qualified African- Americans to get posi tions where they should be. One of her staunchest detrac tors is her husband. "Affirmative action is like you feel like someone is giving you _^y)mething^-h? said. "Wejilways v-orked artu we never w anted any one to give us apything. We endured kind of like making our own way." Nevertheless, Sailor says he supports the campaign of Sen. John Kerry - a strong supporter of affirmative action ? because he agrees with his opposition to war. "1 hate it." said Sailor, who served in the U.S. Army for three years in the early 1960s. "I believe he would be the right man because 1 INDEX OPINION A6 SPORTS B1 RELIGION B5 CLASSIFIEDS B8 HEALTH. C3 ENTERTAINMENT... .C7 CALENDAR C9 don't believe in war." The Sailors say they don't fre quently aigue over pol IIICS. "I think the only thing that we kind of butted heads on was affirmative action," she explained. And when that happens, they agree to disagree. In 2(XX), 90 percent of black voters support ed the Democratic tick At Ipot'i n rt ilvuit V rv?r. cent to support the Republican ticket and 2 percent who voted for Watts other candidates. Therefore, black Republicans - even within the context of their own tamines - onen una themselves a minority within a minority. Bill Thomas, who calls himself a "Gold water Republican" - a reference to Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona, the archcon servative 1964 presi dential nominee - T"H/> "1 1 1 . spats with his "'die-hard Democ rat" mother. "When I got my daughter into helping me with Republican activ ities, she would customarily threaten my daughter with not tak ing her to Disneyland." chuckled Thomas, director of governmental relations at Hampton University, a historically black University in Virginia. Even though his wife is a Democrat, Thomas says his two college-age sons, and his daugh ter, now 17, are leaning more towards the GOP. "They're more interested in what the government can get out See Republicans on All I Bank where service is something you can actually put your finger on. ?I You hear a lot of banks talk about service. But at Southern Community, we believe service should be something you can see and feel instead of something you only hear about. Which is why we do things like waiting a few hours longer than most banks for your deposit, offering free financial check-ups and answering your calls with a friendly receptionist instead of a computerized system. So while Southern Community continues to grow, we're still small enough to be at your service in more ways than ever. At Your Service ^Southern Community BANK AND TRUST www. smal I e n o ugh tocare. CO m 768-8500 Winston -Sal em*/ Clemmons / High Point / Kernersville / Yadkinville ? "Member FDIC.* Equal Housing Lender tjil
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