on A8&9
Volume 43, Number 23
—WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.
—THURSDAY, February 9, 2017
D.D. Adams running for Congress
Seat now held by long- time
GOP Rep. Virginia Foxx
BY TODD LUCK
THE CHRONICLE
City Council Member Denise “DD.”
Adams is running for the 5th
Congressional District seat, which
Republican Virginia Foxx has held since
2005.
Adams said she decided to throw her
hat in the ring for 2018 to help change the
direction of Congress and the 5th District.
“I’ve always been a public servant and
always been a champion of what’s right
and what’s just,” said Adams.
She said there’s strength in the diversi
ty of the district, which is almost 20 per
cent minority. She believes she can unite
the district on issues like creating jobs,
helping displaced factory workers find bet
ter employment,
making small
businesses more
competitive,
raising gradua
tion rates and
improving
healthcare.
The 5th District covers parts of 11
northwestern North Carolina counties,
including all of Forsyth.
A Democrat hasn’t represented the dis
trict since 1995, when Richard Burr took
the office,
which he
held until he
became a
senator in
2005. Foxx,
a former edu
cator in
Watauga
County, has
dm
defeated
many
Democrats in
her long
tenure,
including for
mer N.C. Sen. Roger Sharpe and School
Board Member Elisabeth Motsinger.
Adams
Despite its reputation as being a con
servative stronghold, it still attracted three
candidates in last year’s Democratic pri
mary. Josh Brannon, a software developer
from Watauga County, won that primary
for his second consecutive general election
contest against Foxx. He lost to Foxx by
nearly 17 percent of the vote.
Democrat Jennifer Marshall, who has
been a teacher and business owner,
announced her bid for the 2018 nomina
tion on Saturday.
If Adams gets the nomination, she’ll be
the most prominent Democrat to run for
the district in years. Adams has represent
ed the North Ward on the ,City Council
since 2009 and has been re-elected twice.
See Congress on A2
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
‘Crippled by
miseducation’
Photos by Timothy Ramsey
Dr. Winston Bell presented a powerful account of African-American history to the audience last Saturday.
St. Benedict the Moor
Catholic Church celebrates
African-American History
BY TIMOTHY RAMSEY
THE CHRONICLE
Black History Month is upon us and
African-Americans of the past and present
will be celebrated all over the country. St.
Benedict the Moor Catholic Church, 1625
E 12th St., held an African-American his
tory program last Saturday honoring
African-American's who contributed to the
progress of the culture.
Dr. Winston Bell also touched on the
woes of the African-American community.
Bell was the speaker of the event. He
has taught African-American history class
es at Winston-Salem State University
(WSSU) and helped construct the African
American course curriculum for students
at WSSU.
He says the African-American commu
nity has every means to get out the situa
tion they are in collectively but just aren’t
aware of it.
“We have the resources, the money and
the information has been here but its not
going to come through organized educa
tion,” Dr. Bell said. “The system itself was
not built in our favor yet we still expect
that we are going to go in and change the
system to do for us what has not been done
for 400 years.”
“The miseducation is we are never
given the information to make ourselves
independent of the system. The education
we are given makes us a part of the system
and then dependent upon it.”
Bell says he normally titles his pro
grams “2019” to commemorate the 400
years since the first Africans were brought
to this country on slave ships. He says he
does this to make others aware of who they
are so they may become more independ
ent.
Bell started his lecture by giving the
audience a brief history of some important
and lesser known figures from the African
American community. He talked about
how civilization started on the continent of
Africa and posed a thought-provoking
See History on A2
Father Basile Sede
of St. Benedict
speaks before Dr.
Winston Bell
delivers his
presentation.
EXCLUSIVE
Former LHA
director speaks
to The Chronicle
Terrance Gerald of Kemersville
dropped from lawsuit
BY CASH MICHAELS
FOR THE CHRONICLE
On Tuesday of this week, Terrance Gerald’s name was
repeatedly being uttered in a Davidson County courtroom
as attorneys gave closing trial arguments in a five-year
old $25 million lawsuit against the Lexington Housing
Authority (LHA) and Gerald, its former executive direc
tor.
But Gerald, now of Kemersville, was nowhere near
that courtroom. The presiding judge had ruled last week
that Gerald be legally severed as a defendant from the
case.
He had been
originally sued by
five former main
tenance workers
who accused him
of publishing
“false and slander
ous” statements
about them in
2011 prior to their termination. However, the court sided
with Gerald’s attorneys that whatever he allegedly did, if
anything at all, was in his capacity as executive director
then, and thus was acting as an agent of LHA, and
couldn’t be sued separately.
To Gerald, the ruling was a relief, and a vindication.
Despite the ruinous allegations that came at him nonstop
ever since he embarked on necessary cost-cutting meas
ures while at LHA to deliver cost-effective housing and
services for residents of low-income housing, Gerald told
The Chronicle in an exclusive interview this week that the
only thing he was guilty of was just doing his job.
“I was brought to Lexington to basically do develop
ment,” he said, relating how, as LHA executive director,
his main focus was preparing the agency for the Rental
Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program, a U.S. Dept,
of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program that
allowed public housing agencies to convert projects fund
ed under the public housing program to a long-term
Section 8 rental assistance program, complete with proj
ect-based vouchers. \
“I was brought in for change,” he told The Chronicle.
“That’s what the board was looking for.”
r
LEXINGTON
Housing Authority
SO YEARS OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING
See LHA on A7
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WINSTON SALEM NC 27101-4120 01
McDonald’s group honors Sprinkle-Hamlin
BY TIMOTHY RAMSEY
THE CHRONICLE
For the past 17 years, McDonald's, 91.1
WQMG and 1510 WEAL have honored local
individuals who have made a significant impact
in the communities of Winston-Salem, High
Point and Greensboro. The unsung heroes hon
ored this year have raised the bar for future hop
orees with their tireless work in their respective
cities, officials said.
Sylvia Sprinkle
Hamlin of Winston
Salem, Lindy Gamette
of Greensboro and Keith
G. Pemberton of High
Point were honored
from the three cities.
Alana V. Allen of High
Point was honored as
Sprinkle-Hamlin
the Lifetime Achievement Award recipient.
The partnership that merged two concepts,
music and community into one program that
would bring affordable entertainment to everyone
but more importantly honor the heroes in the
community birthed the Rhythms of Triumph.
According to officials, the program is
designed to celebrate those special individuals
See Honors on A2
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