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NORTH CAROLINA ROOM
FORSYTH CTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
660 W 5TH ST
WINSTON SALEM NC 27101-2755
::ONICLF
Vol.XXXIlNo.49 THURSDAY, August 17, 2006
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Big Dane
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Photo by Kevin Walker
The Gospel
Celebration 'N The
Park was a smashing
success. Hundreds
came out to enjoy
Saturday's daylong
event, which was held
at Rupert Bell Park.
The Chronicle put on
the event, which fea
tured choirs from sev
eral local churches.
The croWd enjoyed not
only the music, but
good food and fellow
ship as well. To see
more images from the
event, see BI2.
Just Praisin'
Photo by Sandra I*lej
Jahmela Biggs, center, with friends and fellow instructors Toccarra Cash
left, and Kaliswa Brewster. ?
Biggs comes home
o
to teach art of dance
BY SANDRA ISLfY
THE CHRONICLE
Young dancers entertained a crowd of dozens last week during a fun
filled recital at Atkins Academic and Technology High School.
The performers hail from various city recreation centers. They per
formed to popular songs ana aid skits witn
zeal. There, watching over all of it was
Jahmela Biggs, the brainchild behind the
event, which was called. Generation 2006:
The Future and the Power!
She has taught dance to kids at city rec
centers during the past few summers. A
city native who attended Salem Academy,
Biggs is currently studying at the American
Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.
She returned home this summer with
two friends, T?ccarra Cash and Kaliswa
Brewster, to once again teach local chil
dren. Their mission has been to inspire the
young people through the arts and show
them that they can do or be, anything that
they want.
"I found from working with the City so*?"" Peoples dressed as
long that the reward is far greater than a princess for the show. t
payment, because we do work with a lot of.
kids who normally would not have the opportunity to be exposed to the
arts in the way that we are exposing them." said Biggs, who is the daugh
ter of former N.C. Court of Appeals Judge Loretta Biggs and realtor
Larry Biggs. "We also couple the arts with certain themes like daring to
?
See Dancer on A9
Professors
*
probe
Southern
segregation
Study finds poverty and other
evils in Alabama, Mississippi
BY TODD LUCK
THE CHRONICLE '
Two Wake Forest University sociology
professors say that poverty and inequality are
still alive and well in the deep South.
Angela Hattery and Earl Smith have just
Smith
there. /
completed a study,
Social Stratification in
the New/Old South,
that looks at U.S.
Census data from
counties in Mississippi
and Alahama. They
examined how poverty
and other measures of
well-being differ
between counties
depending on the race
of the people who live
The study was inspired by a course that
Hattery and Smith teach together that takes
students from local universities on a tour of
Southern states. The tour goes through major
historical civil rights sites while letting the
professors and students see what modern life
is like in the deep South.
Through the tout, the professors and stu
dents found extreme poverty and racial preju
dice. Smith and
Hattery decided to do
the study to see if what
they personally experi
enced matched the big
ger reality. The answer,
they said, was a dis
turbing "yes."
"Fifty years after
Brown vs. the Board,
40 years after the civil
rights movement, not
only does segregation
Hattery
continue to exist but it significantly shapes
peoples' lives." said Hattery.
The study's introduction describes
Mississippi and Alabama as being so different
from the rest of the United States that they 're
perceived as "nations onto themselves," and
the findings make it easy to see why.
The study found that most counties in
those states are still segregated with popula
tions that are either 75 percent black or 95
percent white. People living in these states are
twice as ljkely to live below the poverty line
and race can increase that likelihood even
more. In predominately black counties.
African-Americans are seven or eight times
more likely to live in poverty than those in
integrated counties. In the predominately
black Mississippi Delta, four out of every 10
Sec Stud> on A9
Portrait of trailblazer Mazie Woodruff placed in library branch
BY SANDRA ISLEY
THE CHRONICLE
? There was a packed house Saturday for
a ceremony to unveil the portrait of a local
heroine.
Many of those at the Carver School
Road Branch for the event knew and loved
the late Ma/ie Woodruff, a former Forsyth
County Commissioner and community
activist who died in 1997.
The portrait of Woodruff, done by local
artist Leo Rucker. will hang in the entrance
way of the library, which is adjacent to the
Ma/ie Woodruff Center, a satellite campus
of Forsyth Technical Community College.
Before, she died. Woodruff had lobbied for
a library to be built in the city's Northeast
ward.
Woodruff spun a successful political
career for herself, while laying a foundation
for others to follow. She served her 'first
term as a commissioner in 1967. She was
elected back onto the"board in 1982 and
then three more terms after that.
Among those who were influenced by
Woodruff are State Rep. Earline Parmon
and County Commissioner Walter Marshall,
wty filled Woodruff's seat on the Board of
Commissioners after she passed away.
Marshall said that because Woodruff
had spent much of her time campaigning for
him while in office, his victory as her
replacement was pretty much assured.
According to Marshall, it was the interest
that Woodruff took in him at a young age
that led him to delve into politics after a
career in education
"She (Woodruff) was the person that
really influenced me to go into elected poli
tics." he said. "I had no real desire to be an
elected official, but she saw something in
me that I didn't see in myself."
Marshall and Parmon both spoke at the
unveiling. Other speakers included State
Sen. Peter Bninstetter. who served as chair
person of the Forsyth County Board of
County Commissioners during Woodruff's
See Woodruff on A9
Ptx*<>". cranny of the Fnr*vth County Uknry
Stale Sen. Pele Brunstetter and Slate Rep. Earline Parmnn admire
the portrait of Mazie Woodruff.
rateful Memory of Our
Founders,
lorrie S. Russell and
Carl H. Russell, Sr..
"Growing and Still Dedicated to Serve You Belief'
ffittgseU ffiuttgral ffitome
Wishes to Thank Everyone For Their Support
822 Carl Russell Ave.
(at Martin Luther King Dr.)
Winston-Salem. NC" 27101
(336) 722-3459
Fax (336) 631-8268
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