Paul Quinn fighting for survival
DALLAS (API - The president of Paul Quimi College says
I it's too early to write ott the oldest historically- black college in
| Texas.
Michael J. Sorrell said last Friday
he is* confident the Dallas liberal arts
college's leadership will win an appeal
of a decision to strip Paul Quinn's
accreditation. Colleges fan't award
diplomas without accreditation in
Texas. - ,
The Commission on. Colleges of
the Southern Association of Colleges
and Schools told the school of its deci
sion Thursday. The commission said
the decision was based on lack of
funding, planning, assessment and stu
dent teaming -outcomes.
Sorrell
Paul Quinn was put on probation by the commission two
years- ago. The commission said there was progress, but not
enough. Paul Quinn enrolls about 440 students.
Army honors Buffalo Soldier
W ' ? ?
with a street re-naming
FORT I.KAN KN WORTH, Kan. (AP) - Army officials
have presented a special honor at Fort Leavenworth for a for
mer Buffalo Soldier.
A street in a new housing area on the post's west side has
been named for the late Chief Warrant Officer Harry Hollowell.
His widow was on hand for the recent dedication.
Hollowell spent nearly 30 years, in service at Fort
Leavenworth He enlisted in 1936 as a private in the 10th
Cavalry -and seryed in World War II in the China-Burma-India
region . ? . ?/ 4 ?' \ ;? ? .< '*?; ?? .' " ?? ~ -fT/T.t ' _ ? ? ;?
Hollowell attended Army rriusic school and graduated as a
band leader in 1942. He retired from the Army in 1964. then
spent 22 years as music director at the U.S. Disciplinary
Barracks.
Attorney general wants review
of crack vs. cocaine sentences
WASHINGTON <AP) - Attorney General Eric Holder
sought support last week for erasing the gap in prison sentences
For crack and powder cocaine crimes, a disparity that hits black
defendants the hardest.
The effort to change federal sentencing laws for cocaine has
broad support but may still unravel amid disagreements about
how equal the sentences should be. and whether the whole sen
tencing system needs to be
changed.
"One thing is very clear: We
must review our federal cocaine
sentencing policy," Holder said at
a legal discussion sponsored by
the Congressional Black Caucus.
Under current law, it takes
100 times more powdered
Cocaine than crack cocaine to trig
ger the same harsh < mandatory
minimum sentences.
"This administration firmly
believes that the disparity in crack
and powdered cocaine sentences
is unwarranted," Holder said. "It
must be eliminated."
The law was passed in the
Justice Stephen Hreyer
1980s during the spread of crack
in American cities, which officials blamed for a rise in violence.
Yet in the years since, worries about crack have declined.
The most recent government figures show that 82 percent of
crack offenders are African-American, while just 9 percent of
them are white.
In remarks at the Congressional Black Caucus event.
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who helped craft the
sentencing guidelines that now are the subject of so much crit
icism and debate, urged Congress to focus first on the laws cre
ating mandatory minimums for certain crimes.
"My goodness, those mandatory minimums drive (sentenc
ing) guidelines in l(K) different ways," Breyer said.
The justice acknowledged that curtailing mandatory mini
mums. is not politically popular, or easy. "It's very, very hard to
explain to people." he said.
MLK's papers to be
basis of civil rights course
ATLANTA (AP) - The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s vast
personal collection of papers will be used for the first time to
teach a college course on civil
rights this fall. K 1
Morehouse College in
Atlanta said last week it will
use the library of about 10,000
documents, books and other
papers that have been housed
at the sehtxil since 2(X)6.
The course called "Martin
Luther King Jr. and the Modern
Freedom Struggle" will be
taught by Clay borne Carson,
who was named executive
director of the collection in
January.*
King graduated from his
torically black Morehouse with
Martin Luther King Jr.
u degree in sociology in 1948.
Morehouse owns the collection, which was bought from the
King estate for $32 million in June 2(X)6.
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., 617
N. Liberty Street. Winston-Salem. N.C. 27101. Periodicals
postage paid at Winston-Salem. N.C. Annual subscription price
is $30.72.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:
The Chronicle, P.O. Box 1636
Winston-Salem, NC 27102-1636
, <i
? *" / -
A
4 Do The Right Thing' still asks
burning questions 20 years later
BY JLSSi: WASHINGTON
THfeASSOCUTEP PRESS
NKVV YORK -.Twenty
years later, the trash cat") is still
crashing through America's
window.
At the climax of Spike
Lee's 19X9 drama "Do The
Right Thing," the eternal battle
between love and hate teeters
on -a razor's edge. The young
black man Radio Raheem has
been choked to death by white
police officers after a fight
with a Brooklyn pizzeria
owner. A seething crowd gath
ers in front of the shop.
Lee's character. Mookie, a
black piZza deliveryman,
stands between the crowd and
the shop. He's shoulder-to
shoulder with Sal. the shop's
Italian owner. They exchange
looks of confusion, betrayal
and regie*.
The crowd stares at
Mookie. He!s on the wrong
side. Mookie moves over to
his brothers, rubs his face,
wrestling with the weight of
the moment. Then he decides.
"Hate!", screams Mookie
as he hurls the metal cat)
through the pizzeria's plate
glass w indow . The dam bursts. -
The mob destroys the shop in a
frenzy that was both inevitable
and completely avoidable;
Much has changed since
"Do The Right Thing"
announced -Lee's special gifts
to the world . The pol ice choke
hold that killed Radio Raheem
"4 fictional ization oT the reaLr
death of Michael Stewart in
New . York Cily ? 1 has long
been outlawed. Life on the
ravaged Brooklyn block where
Lee filmed the movie has
improved. Ronald Reagan has
given way to Barack Obama.
But for every measure of
undeniable progress, "Do The
Right Thing" also points to the
divides that remain.
? *,'? ' PRNewiFcHo
Director Spike Lee wrote, directed and starred in the clas
sic film.
In May, u black New York
,Cit> undercover cop w ho. was
running after a suspect with
his gun drawn was shot to
death by a white officer.
Boarded-up buildings, broken
windows and jobless young
men still populate that
Brooklyn block. And Lee, who
wrote, produced and directed
the film, insists the racial dis
connect at its heart still exists.
"White people still ask me
why: Mookie threw the can
through the w indow." Leo said
ill an interview. "Twentv years
later, they're still asking me
that.
"No black person ever, in
20 years, no person of color
has ever asked me why."
That question is what made
"Do The Right Thing" so
explosive. Some writers spec
ulated. erroneously, that, it
would incite riots.
"People were tearful of the
backlash*' said Rosie Perez,
who played Moo tie's Puerto
Riean girlfriend. Tina. "A lot
of things happening in the
movie were happening 111 real
life. People were afraid when
the truth, although a little
? exaggerated, was put up on the
screen for everyone to see"
Meanwhile, Lee got . rave
review s from many influential
critics Roger Lbett cried after
watching it at the Cannes Film
Festival, where it lost to "Sex.
Lies and Videotape."
Audiences definitely were
not prepared. * -
Most serious films about
race. Tike "In the Heat of the
Night" "To Kill A
Mockingbird" and "The
Defiant Ones." ended with
understanding or even hrother
hood. And for every ambitious
movie like "Watermelon Man"
or "Black Like Me." there
were a half-dozen violent,
sexy ghetto, shoot-em-ups ?
"blaxplyhation" (Ticks.
Lee had something new to
-.."say. x ?? ???? ' /' !-?'
"In just three feature
films," critic Gene Siskel
wrote then, "Spike Lee has
given us more genuine and
varied images of black people
than in the last .20 years of
American movies put togeth
er." .
Today, Ebert says,"Do The
Right Thing" should have won
the Oscar for best picture. *
"It wasio honest about the
way people really fed " he'
said via e-mail. "No hypocrisy.
It generated grief and left us
with a central question of
American society."
The best picture of 1989,
according to the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences: "Driving Miss
Daisy," about the friendship
See Lee on A 10
6 Jena 6' case
ends with plea
BY MARY FOSTER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JENA, La. (AP) - The
Jena Six case, which once
prompted a massive civil
rights demonstration and drew
international attention, saw the
final chapter played out quiet
ly
Five neatly dressed young
men answered "Yes Sir," on
Friday, as state District Judge
Tom Yeager asked them if they
accepted the terms
and donated money so they
could afford good attorneys.
That made the difference."
The plea deal gave the
defendants seven days proba
tion. a $5(X) fine and court
costs. Mychal Bell, the sixth
defendant, had previously
pleaded guilty to a second
degree battery charge and
received an 18-month sen
tence.
"I just thank God that it's
all over." said John Jenkins,
Jones' father. "It's
of a deal that
included pleading
no contest to misde
meanor, simple bat
tery.
The charges
against the five -
Carwin Jones, Jesse
Ray Beard, Robert
Bailey Jr., Bryant
Purvis and Theo
Shaw - had previ
oiisly been reduced
from attempted murder to
aggravated second-degree bat
tery after they were accused of
beating and kicking school
mate Justin Barker.
Civil rights leaders railed
against the harshness of the
original charge, saying it was
because the defendants were
black and Barker was white.
The severity of the original
charges brought widespread
criticism and eventually led
more than 20 .(XX) people, to
converge in September 2(X)7
on the tiny town of Jena for a
major civil rights march/Some
$275, (XX) was raised to hire a
large defense team for the six,
said Beard's attorney, David
Utter.
Racial tensions at Jena
High School reportedly grew
in the months before the
attack. Several months prior to
the attack, nooses were hung in
a tree on the campus, sparking
outrage in the black communi
ty which viewed them as racist
symbols of lynchings.
Residents said there were
fights, but nothing too serious
until December 2006 when
Barker was attacked.
"Everybody pointed a fin
ger at Jena during this, but this
happens to African-American
males across the country,"
Utter said. "These young men
were lucky that people cured
Hell
been a long, painful
journey for every
one on both sides of
this thing."
Barker and his
family and friends
sat without expres
sion through the
hearing. Barker's
attorney said he has
graduated and is
now working in the
oil fields. The family did not
comment.
As part of the deal, one of
-die attorneys read a statement
from the defendants in which
they said they knew of nothing
Barker had done to provoke
the attack..
"To be clear, not one of us
heard Justin use any slur or say
anything that justified Mychal
Bell attacking Justin nor did
any of us see Justin do any
thing that would cause Mychal
to react." the statement said.
The statement also
expressed sympathy for Barker
and his family, and acknowl
edged the past two-and-a-half
See Jena on A10
Bail Bonding
Selester Stewart, Jr.
"Serving you when others want"
Office: (336) 727-0606
Pager: (866) 304-0973
Cell: (336) 399-2889
E-mail: selesterb@aol.com
A career you
can count on.
As a State Farm' agent, you run your business
your way and have the chance to earn a great living.
With so many unknowns in fife; your career shouldn't be one Of them.
BECOME A STATE FARM AGENT.
Leam more;
StateFarmtiaspartneredwiththePiedmontChapterofNationalBlackMBA
tobringyouanEntrepreneurialWorkshopandStateFarmRecruitingSocial
Thursday, July92009(6p.m -9pm.|
ProximrtvHbtel.704GreenVarieyRd.GreensbordlMC27408
PleaseRSVPtoDANA BERRY HL3D@STATEFARM.COMor|800|727 0255
statefarm. com/careers
estate Farm
An Equal Opportunity Employer State Farm Bloommgto/i II P097075 I
ailUB aFliRP PIUR
uusfiitmu ,JiAa .?) .liifM niiiim
JULY 2
THE PRANKSTERS
?nwncnwn m
cni?iiit PiiJi nimr s anpy.a inpy
JULY 10
FOUR SO EAST
summBPMiiPane
JULY 4
www.dwsp.org