Vol. XXXIV No. 7 THURSDAY, October 25, 2007
Sibling
golfers are
making
heads turn
-See Page BJ
Jena 6 case
is subject
on local
discussion
- Se* Page A3
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?TH CAROLINA ROOI
?SYTH CTy PUBLIC
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Photos by Layla Firmer
Father LeBron Taylor speaks.
Bond
projects
being
watched
School Board Member
Motsinger defends
colleague's absense
BY LAYLA FARMER
THE CHRONICLE
Since its inception in 2002,
the CHANGE (Communities
Helping All Neighbors Gain
Empowerment) organization has
lived up to its word, weighing in
on a vari
ety of
important
issues
and
bringing
about,
well,
change in
several
key are
n a s .
However,
there is
Motsinger
still more work to be done.
More than 200 CHANGE
delegates met at St. Paul's United
Methodist Church last Thursday
evening to talk about what the
organization has been able to
accomplish and what's next on
the agenda.
One of CHANGES crowning
achievements over the past year
was helping pass the 2006 $250
million school bond, which will
be used for the construction of
new schools and the renovation
of old ones. A Bond Oversight
Committee was then formed to
monitor the school system's
progress.
See CHANGE on A14
Halloween 'hanging' set-up shows
heightened sensitivity over noose
Jena case has put
historical symbol of
racial intimidation in
the spotlight
BY LAYLA FARMER
THE CHRONICLE
A noose found hanging
from a tree in Jena, La., has
seemingly sparked a rash of
copy cat incidents around the
nation and heightened sensi
tivities over what is considered
one of the ugliest symbols of
racial intimidation. In short -~
black people don't want to see
anything hanging from the
trees these days.
Katherine Lyth learned
that recently.
The controversial decora
tion is seen here in a photo
snapped by a resident.
Lyth and her husband,
Frank Lyth, are the parents of
five children. The family, who
are white, moved to the most
ly black City View neighbor
hood recently from Los
Angeles. The Lyths co-existed
peacefully with their neigh
bors until they decorated their
front yard for Halloween.
Among the mock gravestones
and casket was a dummy sus
pended from a tree limb. It
was that decoration that stirred
a hornet's nest, sparking a con
troversy that has yet to be
resolved.
"We've always decorated
- my kids love Halloween, and
we do too - we've always dec
orated scary, had haunted
houses . . . We've had zombies
See Noose on AI2
Photo by Kevin Walker
Harry Andrews looks down Old Greensboro Road.
Back
to Her
Ram
Roots
Fox 8's Ferguson
teaches future
reporters at
her alma mater
BY TODD LUCK
THE CHRONICLE
Nicole Ferguson entered
Winston-Salem State University
to learn; now that she's a Fox 8
WGHP reporter, she has
returned to her alma mater to
serve - as a professor.
Once a week she returns to
the school's campus to teach a
mass communication class to
about a dozen students who are
only a few years younger than
24-year-old Ferguson.
"They're very respectful,"
said Ferguson, a 2004 WSSU
grad. "They call me 'Ms
Ferguson,' they don't call me
'Nicole.' We keep it at 'Ms.
Ferguson.' And they know I
mean business, and I expect a
lot out of them. It's gone really
well."
Photo by It
Nicole Ferguson helps one of her students, Jamal Richmond, as he prepares to read a news script.
Ferguson believes that stu
dents learning from someone
who is currently a broadcast
reporter, like herself, can be a
very powerful experience. She
learned that first hand as a mass
communication student at
WSSU when she took a one
hour credit course taught by for
mer WXII 12 reporter Tolly
Carr, who is also a WSSU grad
uate. Carr was a huge inspira
tion, she said. His class was the
first time she thought about get
ting into the television news
business.
"When 1 sat in his class I
thought 'Wow I'd love to do this
one day!' He provided a differ
ent perspective for us, being in
the business, versus some of our
other classes, our other profes
sors. That's the first time I real
ly thought about it when I was in
his class," Ferguson said.
She was sadden when Carr's
burgeoning career came to a halt
earlier this year after he hit and
lulled a pedestrian while driving
drunk. The former newsman
was sentenced in August to 25 to
39 months in prison.
Ferguson headed North after
earning her degree from WSSU.
She studied at the prestigious
See Ferguson on All
Guinier: Future of affirmative action is fuzzy
Harvard Law
professor talks about
need for changes
BYTttDD LUCK
THE CHRONICLE
Lani Guinier. a civil rights
attorney best know for her failed
nomination for an assistant U.S.
Attorney General post in the
1990s, spoke on race and social
change at Winston-Salem State
University last week. Her
remarks touched on issues from
the past, present and challenges
that she says await us all in the
future.
"People ask 'Why do we
have to talk about slavery, that
Lani Guiltier lectures last week at WSSU.
was so long ago?' and my
answer is 'Well, why do you
have to talk about the American
Revolution? That was a long
time ago as well."' said Guinier.
"In many ways, slavery defined
our democracy to the same
extent that the American
Revolution defined our
Declaration of Independence."
She said that slavery deeply
affected all three branches of
government. She cited the fact
that presidents and Supreme
Court justices and members of
Congress owned slaves and that
the South gained many seats in
the House of Representatives by
counting their slaves as three
fifths of a person. The issues of
race are hardwired into our
democracy, said Guinier,
Harvard Law School's first
black woman tenured professor.
Guinier was nominated in
1993 by President Bill Clinton to
head the Civil Rights Division of
Set Guinier on A12
Loud and Clear
T
NCCUFtao
N.C. Central University Chancellor Charlie Nelms gets a
hearing test recently at the school's Department of
Communications Disorders. Each member of the universi
ty's faculty and staff were invited to get his or her hearing
checked, since officials at the department believe that
hearing impacts instruction as well as the workplace effi
ciency. Nelms hearing, by the way, was "spot-on."
In Grateful Memory of Our
Founders,
Florae S. Russell and
CariH. Russell, Sr.
'Growing and Still Dedicated to Serve You Better "
y&mztll fflmtrrai jSimtg
Wishes to Thank Everyone For Their Support
4
822 Carl Russell Ave.
( ?*t Martin Luther King Or.)
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