Minister Farraknan talks of a
'new beginning' for Nation of Islam
CHICAGO (AP) - Nation of Islam Minister Louis
Farrakhan stressed unity among religions, while still preaching
a message of black empowerment, at a
rare public event Sunday deemed "a
new beginning" for the Chicago-based
movement.
In the nearly two-hour speech,
Farrakhan covered topics including
immigration, public schools, violence
and morality. He vaguely referred to the
presidential election but did not specifi
cally mention any candidates.
"We are all in a journey to become
complete human beings," the 75-year
old Farrakhan told the crowd of thou
sands gathered inside Mosque Maryam
and in white tents outside.
Farrakhan
Farrakhan renewed a call for many to get back to the basic
tenants of Islam, while still encouraging black pride.
"Black people must stop seeing themselves as inferior, and
whites must stop seeing themselves as superior," he said,
adding that black Muslims "have to keep going our own way."
Though other religious leaders and non-Muslims >vere
invited to the public event, most of those in attendance were
Nation of Islam followers.
Farrakhan did not lay out any specific plans for the "new
beginning," but he offered his opinion on many topics and
made a plea for understanding with immigrants south of U.S.
borders.
"Our brothers and sisters from South America are not trying
to take your jobs. They are trying to survive," Farrakhan said.
He noted the theme of "change" in the presidential election
and said change must also come through religious communi
ties.
World prize goes to Cape Town mayor
(GIN/NNPA) - Helen Zille, mayor of Cape Town, South
Africa, has won the 2008 World Mayor prize by City Mayors,
an international urban affairs think tank.
Once a political journalist with the
liberal Rand Daily Mail. Helen Zille
was a leading anti-apartheid critic,
famously exposing the circumstances
behind Steve Biko's death in police cus
tody in 1977.
At the height of apartheid, she
joined the Black Sash White women's
resistance movement and was a peace
activist in her adopted city of Cape
Town. She currently leads the
Democratic Alliance party, South
Africa's official opposition.
The City Mayors group commended
Zille for dedicating her professional life to improving the well
being of South Africans.
The think tank aims to raise the profile of mayors as well as
to honor those who have made "long-lasting contributions to
their communities and are committed to the well being of their
cities nationally and internationally."
SCLC: Candidates ignoring the poor
DAYTON, Ohio ( AP) - Leaders of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference say they fear that the presidential can
didates aren't giving much thought to the poor.
Charles Steele Jr. is president of the Atlanta-based civil
rights organization. During a conference in Dayton on Sunday,
Steele said all the talk during the presidential campaign has
been about the wealthy and middle class, but nobody is dis
cussing the needs of the poor.
Meanwhile, Martin Luther King III cautioned the group that
racism will not disappear even if Democratic nominee Barack
Obama is elected the first black U.S. president.
King says Obama's election would be a monumental step.
But he says while America may embrace Obama in the elec
tion, it doesn't mean the country has chosen to embrace blacks.
Rudy Ray Moore dies
AKRON, Ohio ( AP) - Rudy Ray Moore, a raunchy 1970s
comedian who played the title role of a flashy pimp in the
movie "Dolemite" and influenced a generation of rappers, has
died. He was 81 ,
Moore died Sunday evening at an
Akron nursing home from complica
tions of diabetes, said his brother,
Gerald Moore.
Rudy Ray Moore was part of the
heyday of black "party records." His
stage personality featured blunt sex rou
tines but, unlike contemporaries Redd
Foxx and Richard Pryor, he never
crossed over to mainstream white audi
ences.
The Washington Post said in a 1992
profile that Moore was an astounding
Moore
Tenderer of 'toasts,' - elaborately boastful, profane and scato
logical tales of life in the old-style urban subculture of pimps,
prostitutes, gamblers and badmen. His husky, down-home
voice is ideal for it."
Moore said he developed the style, later a feature of rap
music, by listening to men sitting outside joints "drinking beer
and lying and talking (expletive)."
Moore played the fast-talking pimp and title character in the
1975 film "Dolemite." In later years Moore collaborated with
2 Live Crew, Big Daddy Kane and Snoop Dogg.
Moore's other acting credits during the "Blaxploitation" era
of black action films included "The Human Tornado" in 1976
and "Disco Godfather" in 1979.
The Chronicle (USPS 067-910) was established by Ernest H.
Pitt and Ndubisi Egemonye in 1974 and is published every
Thursday by Winston-Salem Chronicle Publishing Co. Inc., 61 7
N. Liberty Street, Winston-Salem, N.C. 27101. Periodicals
id at Winston-Salem, N.C. Annual subscription price
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:
The Chronicle, P.O. Box 1636
Winston-Salem, NC 27102-1636
o
Dallas officials clash over naming
street for famed Hispanic activist
BY PAUL J WEBER
IDE ASSOC IATED PRESS
DALLAS - Some Hispanics in the
nation's ninth-Iarg&t city are suspicious
of why efforts for a "Cesar Chavez
Avenue" in Dallas have stumbled.
The name of the famed labor leader
and civil rights activist won handily when
the city asked residents to come up with a
new name for Industrial Boulevard, a dull
strip lined with liquor stores and bail bond
offices.
"Cesar Chavez Avenue" beat such
names as "Riverfront" and "Trinity
Lakes," but Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert
said the survey wasn't binding.
Cesar Chavez Task Force leader
Alberto Ruiz believes the city would have
accepted the choice had it been someone
other than the late Cesar Chavez.
"If the results would have come back
for Stevie Ray Vaughan. it would have
gone through," Ruiz said of the white
Texas guitar legend, whose name was not
on the survey.
Some question whether Chavez, who
rallied fieldhands over low wages and
exploitation, is relevant to Dallas history.
Others say his name doesn't fit the mar
keting plan behind the surrounding $2 bil
lion Trinity River sector revitalization.
Developers envision Industrial, a grit
ty three-mile strip, becoming a destination
of condominiums and upscale shopping.
"We were trying to create a marketing
scheme for that entire street given its loca
tion to the Trinity," Leppert said. "That
still makes sense."
Leppert said he wants to find another
street to honor Chavez. Latino leaders say
they won't compromise.
Ruiz and his supporters accuse Dallas
leaders of brushing off the results of the
survey, which cost the city $20,000 and
came back with Chavez as the 2-to-l
favorite. A key city planning commission
Cesar Chavez
vote on the renaming is expected in mid
November.
Ruiz, who calls the Chavez campaign
a symbolic community battle in a city that
is 43 percent Hispanic, now has his group
going door-to-door on Industrial trying to
shore up support ahead of the vote.
Ruiz said the resistance to Chavez for
Industrial and another prominent Dallas
street. Ross Avenue, has "a bit of a senti
ment that it does have to do with race."
Opponents say it's simply about finding
the appropriate road.
But Ruiz said renaming Ross Avenue
after Chavez would have made perfect
sense if Industrial wasn't possible: It's
where nearly a half-million marched in
2006 in support of citizenship for illegal
immigrants, and the street faces a school
that's already named for Chavez.
Leppert, a first-term mayor and former^
CEO of construction giant Turner Corp.,
said the city will find a street to honor
Chavez. Just not Industrial, where the top
destinations now are mostly auto Krap
yards and the county criminal courthouse
Industrial's rough reputation is sup
posed to soften under the Trinity River
Corridor Project, the largest public works
project in Dallas history. Areas of blight
and neglect are
planned (o become
lush parks and
urban trails, and
the street - whatev
er its name - will
be a key gateway.
Leppert said
the survey was
intended only as
one piece of input
to help the city
brainstorm street
names.
Ltppert
Michael Phillips, who wrote about the
city's racial roots in "White Metropolis:
Race, Ethnicity and Religion in Dallas,
1841-2001," said the renaming fight is
important to minorities in a city where a
busy downtown freeway is named after
R.L. Thornton, a former Dallas mayor and
Klansman.
"That's just like a thumb in the eyes of
blacks and Latinos if they're getting
turned down with the proposal to name a
major thoroughfare after Cesar Chavez,"
Phillips said.
Other Chavez backers have suffered
similar defeat. A push in Portland, Ore., to
name a street after Chavez fell apart last
year after being met with fierce communi
ty opposition.
At Fuel City, a gas station on
Industrial, owner John Benda doesn't
want to see Industrial renamed for
Chavez, or anyone for that matter.
"It's a lifetime situation, the name,"
Benda said. "'It's bigger than any one per
son."
Survivors of infamous
riot see film tell their tale
There are only 66 survivors of the 1921 tragedy
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TULSA, Okla.
Twenty-five of the 66 known
living survivors of the Tulsa
Race Riot were honored here
at a premiere of the docu
mentary film, "Before They
Die," which reflects on the
1921 riot and. the survivors'
struggle
for repa
rations.
The
documen
tary will
be shown
in New
York
City,
Chicago,
Los
Taylor
Angeles and several other
cities to raise awareness and
money for the survivors.
The Greenwood area was
home to between 8,000 and
12,000 blacks when rioters
destroyed much of it on the
night of May 31 and the
morning of June 1, 1921.
Dozens were killed, hun
dreds were injured, and
thousands were left home
less.
The topic became espe
cially urgent for the film
maker, Reggie Turner, as
there were 151 known living
survivors when he began
work on the film in February
2003.
"I felt something had to
be done to right the wrong
done to these survivors,"
Turner said.
Mayor Kathy Taylor
declared Sunday to be
"Journey to Healing Day"
and said she had a response
to a person at a recent riot
event who asked why
"nobody ever apologized."
"Let me as mayor say to
the survivors of the 1921
race riot, we are sorry,"
Taylor said.
Alfre Woodard, an
actress from Tulsa, said she
admired the mayor's apolo
gy
"It was such a bold and
visionary statement that
costs nothing, but is invalu
able," she said. "It frees us
all in this city and it free us
all to move forward."
The oldest known living
survivor - 105-year-old Otis
Clark of Seattle -said he
hoped the film would remind
everyone of what happened
so people can learn from it.
"It's wonderful we've
had nice changes and 1 think
we put away a lot of the
prejudices," he said.
Alfre Woodard
J5L (H) BlueCross BlueShield
of North Carolina
Your plan for better health".
Blue Medicare HMO~ Blue Medicare PPO
?
Medicare Advantage plans offered by PARTNERS National Health Plans of
North Carolina, Inc. (PARTNERS) and administered by its parent company,
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC)
NEW! $0 monthly premium plan available
with prescription drug coverage1
Attend an upcoming Medicare Advantage meeting in your area!
An authorized sales representative will be present with
information and applications. There is no obligation to enroll.
For accommodations for persons with special needs at sales
meetings, call the number below.
Call today! 1-800-328-960S
Monday - Sunday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
For the hearing and speech impaired (TTY/TDD): 1-888-451-9957
Presentations designed for potential NEW members
Mon., Oct. 27, 2:00 p.m.
Winston-Salem Hampton Inn
1990 Hampton Inn Court
Winston Salem
Annual Enrollment Period starts November 15th and ends December 31st.
Other products offered for Medicare beneficiaries include Blue
SM /
Medicare Supplement^ and Blue Medicare Rx
Benefits, formulary, pharmacy, network premium and/or copayments/coinsurance
may change on January 1, 2010. Please contact BCBSNC for details. PARTNERS is a
Medicare Advantage organization with a Medicare contract to provide HMO and PPO
plans. 1 You must continue to pay your Part B premium. 2 BCBSNC is a prescription
drug plan sponsor with a Medicare contract. BCBSNC and PARTNERS are independent
licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.
U4S70, 9/08 H3449_4143, 9/11/08, H3404, 4143, 9/11/08