BUSINESS FOCUS
Briefs
Prospective downtown business
operators invited to meeting
The Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership will hold
a seminar called "Downtown 101" on Tuesday, May 22,
in its offices at 500 West Fourth Street in the Loewy
Building. It will begin at 8 ajn. and end at 11 ajn.
Downtown 101 is for anyone interested in opening a
business in downtown Winston- Salem or knowing more
about the downtown market Presenters include represen
tatives of the Inspections Division and Development
Office of the City of Winston-Salem; the Forsyth County
Health Department; Fire Marshall's Office; a real estate
professional and a general contractor. There is no charge
to attend the seminar which is held bi-monthly. To regis
ter or receive more information, call 336. 354-1500 or e
mail admin@dwsp.otg.
Judge grants class status
to truckers suing Wal-Mart
LITTLE ROCK (AP) - A judge has granted class
status in a federal lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
in which the company is accused of discriminating
against black applicants for jobs driving Wal-Mart
tracks.
In his ruling in Little Rock, U.S. District Judge
William R. Wilson Jr. said drivers at Wal-Mart were
recruited largely through word-of-mouth and applicants
would be screened by a committee of drivers. Tlie judge
noted none of the committees at Wal-Mart's various hir
ing sites had a majority of African Americans and some
had no blacks, despite a company rule that the panels be
50 percent diverse.
The ruling opens the class to all black applicants in
the continental U.S. who were turned down for Wal
Mart trucking jobs since Sept. 22, 2001, and all blacks
who contend they were prevented from applying due to
Wal-Mart practices .
Any plaintiffs seeking punitive damages would have
to do so in a separate law suit after the class action is
tried, the ruling Mid.
Wal-Mart spokesman John Simley said the company
may fight Wilson's ruling and says the allegation of dis
crimination is wrong.
Bentonville-based Wal-Mart has about 8,000 over
the-road truck drivers.
According to Wilson's ruling, the American
Trucking Association found that 15 percent of truckers
were black from Jan. 1 , 2000, through Sept. 29, 2005. In
the same period, 4 percent to 6 percent of Wal-Mart
trackers were black.
TCQ food, beverage director hired
Noble Investment Grouphas announced that Glenn A.
Roemer has been named Director of Food and Beverage
for the Twin City Quarter (TCQ.) The TCQ consists of the
^ Embassy Suites and Marriott Hotels
and the Benton Convention Center.
With 20 years experience in
hotel, restaurant, banquet and con
vention services, Roemer most
recently held the position of director
of food and beverage for the Omni
Charlottesville Hotel in
Charlottesville, Virginia. Prior to
that, he held management positions
"" " in North Carolina at Longhom
Steakhouse and Bennigan's Grille
and Tavem where he was an area
director. He also has food and beverage experience work
ing at upscale Florida resorts such as Grosvenor Resort at
Walt Disney World and Orlando Marriott International in
Orlando.
"Glenn brings a great deal of experience to the Twin
City Quarter. ' said Ron Stephens, director of marketing.
Twin City Quarter. "His diverse background in restaurants
and upscale hotels will be an asset as we continue provid
ing a high level of service and expertise to our Winston
Saiem guests."
Horn & Stronach wins awards
Horn & Stronach Advertising in Winston-Salem has
received five national awards for excellence in the Health
Care Marketing Report's 2007 National Advertising
Competition. The annual competition is the oldest and
most recognized awards program for the- health care
industry. This is the 17th consecutive year Horn &
Stronach has received awards in this competition. A
record 4300 entries were received in this year's compe
tition. making the awards the largest healthcare advertis
ing competition in the nation.
This year Horn & Stronach won a Gold Award for
its Forsyth Medical Center Life Directions Health pro
motion program; a Gold Award/or its total public rela
tions program for Forsyth Medical Center Kernersville; a
Gold Award for its Forsyth Medical Center Sara Lee
Center for Women's Health newsletter; a Silver Award
for its Forsyth Medical Center Kernersville Web site; and
a Bronze Award for its Forsyth Medical Center Whitaker
Rehabilitation Center newspaper insert
Healthcare Marketing Report is the healthcare indus
try's. leading marketing publication and covers the latest
news on market strategies, concepts and trends in the
healthcare industry.
G-8 calls for African support
WERDER-HAVEL, Germany (AP) - The
Group of Eight called Saturday for more aid,
increased debt relief and responsible lending to
Africa, vowing the world's wealthy nations would
not forget their pledgei'to the poverty-strickcn conti
nent
Wrapping up two days of talks by finance offi
cials under tight security at a resort on Lake
Schwielowsee, officials from Germany, Italy,
Britain. Japan. Canada. Russia, the United States and
France called for improved financial oversight and
said Africa would be a central point of next month's
wider G-8 summit in Heiligendamm.
Babcock School looks
to attract more minorities
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
Wake Forest University's
Babcock Graduate School of
Management announced last
week that it is serious about
answering a challenge that faces
graduate business schools across
the country - increasing minori
ty enrollment.
"Minority recruitment is not
just a minority issue," says
Associate Director of
Admissions Kellie Sauls. "It's a
business issue."
The Babcock School hosted
a Management Leadership for
Tomorrow MBA Prep Lab May
10-11. The seminar was the lat
est of several strategic initiatives
the school has undertaken to
encourage individuals from
under-represented populations to
pursue graduate business educa
tion.
Sauls was also a catalyst for
the recent start-up of a National
Black MBA Collegiate Chapter
on campus. She works closely
with Assistant Dean Nat Irvin,
who leads the initiative for It's
All About Business which is a
two-week program that teaches
college students from under-rep
resented groups business funda
mentals, including accounting,
finance, statistical skills, market
ing, economics and organiza
tional behavior.
Kellie Sauls
"These initiatives demon
strate that the Babcock School
doesn't just give lip service to
diversifying our student body,"
adds Sauls, a minority herself
with a special interest in recruit
ing men and women from under
represented groups. "In addition
to these programs, we have class
leaders who refuse to marginal
ize themselves when it comes to
minority recruitment. We'll need
all of these components to suc
ceed."
Nationally, blacks and
Hispanics account for approxi
mately 23 percent of undergrad
uate enrollment. However, at the
top MBA schools, blacks and
Hispanics represent only seven
percent of the student body. The
Babcock School hopes to
increase its minority enrollment
to 20 percent by 2010.
During the MLT seminar, the
school hosted a wine tasting and
dinner at Childress Vineyards to
expose the participants to the
North Carolina business culture.
Participants learned how the
state's agricultural environment
is transitioning from tobacco
fields to vineyards. The follow
ing day, participants attended
workshops to help them under
stand the MBA application
process, present a strong resume
and define their motivation. Irvin
worked with the participants.
"You're talking about change
agents? every last one of them,"
says Irvin, founder of Future
Focus 2020, a nonprofit organi
zation that examines social,
political, economic, technologi
cal and environmental issues
expected to have the greatest
effects on urban communities by
the year 2020. "These young
people are not only going to
shape the business world of
tomorrow but the world of
tomorrow. They asked tough and
engaging questions. Many of
them had read the "Arrival of the
Thrivals" and identified with the
concept. Every MBA school in
the country will be after these
kids."
Lawrence leaves behind many business milestones
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
Winston-Salem
based Segmented
Marketing Services, Inc.
(SMSi) lost its executive
vice president, Joseph
Rodney Lawrence, last
week.
Lawrence, who also
served as associate pub
lisher of UrbamCall, a
publication put out by
SMSi, died May 10 after
a brief illness at his home
"Tn Kemersville. He was
Lawremce
59.
"For the past 30 years Joseph
Rodney Lawrence
and I worked as a
team, in the entrepre
neurial and corporate
sectors, and his busi
ness acumen and nat
ural ability to work
with others was
invaluable" noted
Lafayette Jones,
president of
Segmented
Marketing Services,
Inc. (SMSi) and the
publisher of Urban Call.
Lawrence, a native of
Chicago, became a partner in
SMSi in 1990. ?
"Joseph, was a beloved busi
ness partner and company leader, a
kind, thoughtful and gentle soul, a
friend to all. We will miss him
greatly," said Sandra Miller Jones
the founding chair of the company.
He studied business administra
tion at the University of Illinois's
Chicago Circle campus and
Philander Smith College in Little
Rock, Ark. Before joining SMSi;
See Lawrence on A5
Jobless
black
youths
plentiful
BY ARIA WHITE
NNPA CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON - The
unemployment rate for young
African- Americans age 16-19
is more than double that of
, Whites
t h e
same
age and
appears
to be
increas
ing as
sum
mer
nears ,
Spriggs accord
ing to
the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"Because the labor force
participation for African
Americans is low, the unem
ployment rate is a difficult
number to interpret," says Dr.
Bill Spriggs, chair of econom
ics at Howard University.
According to the BLS,
African- Americans 16-19
have an unemployment rate of
30.6 percent, the highest it has
been in the past 9 months. The
rate for Whites 16-19 is 13.3
percent.
"A big problem is that the
labor market is a lot of word
of-mouth and job networking,
and Black teenagers tend to
have very ineffective job net
works," Spriggs says.
The overall unemploy
ment rate for African
Americans also remains twice
that of White Americans. The
rate for African-Americans is
8.2 percent, while the White
rate is 3.9 percent.
The highest unemploy
ment rate is for African
American men, at 8.4 percent.
The rate for African- American
men 20 years and older is 2.4
percent higher than that of
African-American women 20
years and older at 6.0 percent.
Unemployment rates for
White males and females 20
years and older are equal at
3.5 percent and the same for
White women in the same age
group.
According to a U.S.
Congress Joint Economic
Committee report, in 2006,
one out of every three Black
males was not in the work
force.
Black men with less edu
cation have by far the highest
unemployment rates.
"The percentage of this
group that was either unem
ployed or not in the labor
force reached 72 percent in
2004, up from 65 percent from
just four years earlier,"
according to the report.
The report also said, "a
Black male in his late twenties
without a high school diploma
is more likely to be in jail than
to be working ."
Ted Shaw to step down at NAACP LDp
BY HAZEL TRICE EDNEY
NNPA CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON - Four years ago,
Ted Shaw, president and director-counsel
of the NAACP Legal Defense and
Educational Fund, was on top of his game
He was standing before the U. S.
Supreme Court, applauding the reaffirma
tion of affirmative action and preparing to
lead the LDF that helped to champion the
case.
Last week, in an NNPA interview, he
was still the same determined civil rights
warrior. But. he appeared pensive, almost
solemn as he fiddled with the empty wrap
per from the crackers he'd just crumbled
over his clam chowder. It was a moment
indicative of a man reflecting on the last 25
years of his life.
"I'm not saying I'm old, but I'm saying
I've been at the Legal Defense Fund for a
long time. That's a long time in any institu
tion." he told the NNPA News Service in
an exclusive interview. "And the reason
that I think that it's important - at least for
me - and I think it's important for people
not to stay in these positions for too long is
that change is growth for individuals and
institutions."
With that explanation and the fact that
he has a family, including ? wife, a 14
year-old daughter and 20-year-old son that
needs more of his focus, time and attention,
Ted Shaw, 53, has told NNPA that he has
resigned from the LDF, effective Feb. 1,
2008.
The decision has been a long time
coming. In a May 15 resignation letter sub
mitted to the NAACP LDF, he writes, "I
have served in various capacities at the
institution since 1982. during all but three
of the last twenty-five years . . . Compelled
by professional and personal reasons, I
have concluded that it is time for me to
make this change."
Shaw took the helm of the LDF only
three years ago, succeeding Elaine Jones,
who had served for 32 years. He serves as
LDF'? fifth head, having risen from the
position of staff attorney in 1982 to associ
ate director-counsel before being selected
to lead the organization formed in 1940 by
then lawyer Thurgood Marshall to legally
challenge racist civil rights laws.
Shaw's legacy -r still in the making -
has been his vigorous battle against oppo
nents of affirmative action. He represented
African-American and Latino students in
the University of Michigan cases in which
the Supreme court upheld limited use of
race in college admissions. The June 23,
2003, ruling in that case was deemed the
See Shaw on A9
y ' ? ? I
NNPA Photo by Hazel Trice Edney
Ted Shaw speaks.