TV1 Aia i V li)/. r~ onAinoTTc M[cywipfcapifc. ^ __ _ ssCMr'ijfPHP rnUDIATTP m iorp --, =VE 1XI" unAUJuv 1 x I* Jr I o 1 CALL 392-1306 ^ ~ ~ \ ^ A I BY FAR. MORF J njiarlotte 8 r astest Growing Community Weekly” ~ | black consumers PRICE 20c Low Income Can Get Assistance By Sandra Bowers Post Staff Writer If you live in one of the Charlotte Target Area, need fuel and running short of cash because of the severe hard ship of the unseasonalbe cold winter, you’ll be happy to learn that there is an agency here that can assist you. According to W.H. Draddy, Director of Management for Charlotte Housing Authority, persons living in target areas Grier Heights, North Char lotte, Cherry, Third Ward, West Mnreheari First Ward Southside Park, Five Points and West Boulevard-are eligi ble to receive $50 allocation for the City of Charlotte from the winter crisis assistance program. "The money must be used to purchase fuel, oil, coal or firewood," Draddy said. To apply, contact Family Housing Service, Inc., 403 N. Tryon Street at 375-4409 or 375-4494. Citizens having difficulty re siding in the nine target areas, were allowed a maximum of $50 worth of fuel, and those who need fuel can apply for help until the end of March. An amount of $15,600 that was left from its winter crisis assistance program can help tenants living in the nine low-income areas of Char lotte keep warm and the $50,000 Community Develop ment Department, which also expires at uie ena ot March, ^ has provided fuel, money and ouier help to more than 450 poor persons here since it began Feb. 1. Through Feb. 25, 239 homes were winterized with plastic weather stripping and 50 gal lons of oil, a half ton of coal, and a load of firewood were made available for 455 per sons or up to $50 cash to help pay gas or electric bills. City Council authorized the program after the plight of poor families and elderly peo ple trying to survive one of the coldest winters on record in unheated and underheated homes was brought to public attention. The city has spent $14,167 to buy fuel and make cash pay ments to residents of the target areas. The average spent per home was about $36 -- $13.95 less than the $50 per home allocated in the pro gram budget due to the fact that many residents had small oil tanks that wouldn't hold $50 worth of fuel. About 220 persons who have applied for help have been referred to other agencies because they didn't live in a community development tar get area. IXMjperauve Office Bancfuet Scheduled Students, who work part time while attending school through the Charlotte-Meck lenburg Schools Cooperative Office Occupations (COO) program, will entertain their employers with a banquet Thursday, March 17, 7 p.m. in the Independence Barroom at the Radisson Plaza Hotel. ■ ii i ■■ ■ ——■ ■\X- , ...II it weren’t for FOOLS WISE MEN couldn't make t LIVING. _ MS. WILLIE MAE BEST ...Graduate ofJBarber-Scotia Ms. Willie Best Is Beauty Of Week By Melvetta Wright Post Staff Writer The ambitious Libra-born lady who represents the Post as Beauty of the Week in this issue is Ms. Willie Mae Best, a native of Hartsville, N.C. -Ms Best is a grartnatp n( Barber-Scotia College with a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree in Business Administration. While at Scotia she was an honor student, the captain of the cheerleading squad and became a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. The daughter of the late Rufus Best and Mrs. Sarah Best, our Beauty later plans to return to school, probably the University of South Carolina in Columbia, where she will pursue a Master's Degree in Business Administration. But presently she is employed by Collins and Aikman as an Industrial Engineer. She is one of the first Black women to hold an executive position with this company and sees the job as having great possi bilities for promotion. Among her other many duties, Ms. Best visits various colleges and universities for the pur pose of recruiting qualified students for the company. She was recently transferred from Charlotte to Spartanburg SC Our Beauty was one oi xuz many persons who enjoyed seeing "Rich Man, Poor Man, Book II” on television and was disappointed, as were many of us, when the series went off the air. But she is pleased that her other favorite pro gram, "60 Minutes,” still airs "60 Minutes" appeals to her because "It gets down to the roots of things and is very informative to the public ” Ms. Best's favorite actress is Diana Ross because she feels that Miss Ross possesses > the same type of ambition that she herself has. Her parents are the persons who stand at the top of the list of those she admires the most because of the way they over came the struggles they en Hearing Set For General Revenue Sharing Fund* The Charlotte City Council has scheduled a public hear ing ior Moridiy. M1KII' 'X BT .1 p m. in the Council Chamber at City Hail to receive com ments and suggestions on the possible uses of General Re venue Sharing Funds for fiscal ■ year I97R I countered in rearing four children and the guidance they sought to give their off springs. Our Beauty's favorite colom are, naturally, red and white, and she enjoys that "good ole homecooking." While talking to one of Ms. Best 's admirers, this reporter discovered that she can really "burn a pot ", Born October 2, 1953, Ms. Best exhibits those characte ristics that seem to have been incorporated into the form from which all Libras were made. She’s likeable and easy going. She's patient and be lieves that "the best way to get around any problem is to go through it." Appropriately, Ms. Best be lieves that beauty lies in the personality of an individual rather than in the physical makeup. If this is true, and many believe it is, then Ms. Best is truly a beautiful per son. And, so as not to disap point those who disagree and believe that beauty is a pretty face, our Beauty fits well in that category, also Congratulations and best wishes are in order because our Beauty hears the tinkle of wedding bells coming closer and closer. She declines giving a dale at me time, but says that it will happen in the very near future Hats off to Ms. Willie Mae Best, an ambitious, indepen dent and appropriately cited Beauty of the Week. Blacks Warn ‘Turn Cities Around Or Parity Objective Is Doomed’ Food Stamp Office Opens New Site The Mecklenburg County Food Stamp Office will open at its new location on the fifth floor of the East Independence Plaza Building, 9S1 South In dependence Boulevard, Mon day morning, April 4, accord ing to Larry Goolsby, Eligibi lity Director for the program. The last day of operation at the present location, 800 Briar creek Road, will be Tuesday, March 29. The office will be closed Wednesday, March 30, through Friday, April 1, to allow time for moving into the new offices. The office telephone number will remain 374-2677. The new location is at the intersection of South Indepen dence Boulevard and South McDowell Street. It is located at City Bus Route No. 3. Free parking space is available adjacent to the building, with access from South Indepen dence Boulevard and South McDowell Street. Goolsby said he expects the new location "will-better ser ve the needs uf fu respcctor of disability Hr continued. "Life is rough on a blind man. you can't enjoy life like you want to. S. r BLACKS on Page Ifi Minorities Efforts Jeopardized The efforts of minorities to ichieve economic parity in the oreseeable future are serious y jeopardized by steady dete ■ioration of the nation's cen :ers of commerce, according x> the head of the nation's >ldest national business or ganization. Dr. Berkeley G. Burrell, tenth President of the National Business League, to lay warned that unless mino rities can produce a healthy sconmic climate in their com munities, efforts to achieve economic parity may well be doomed. Said Burrell: “A mong the many obstacles con fronting us, the one. 1 think, which most threatens to un dermine and destroy our pari ty struggle is the absence of a national economic policy for the revitalization of America’s centers of commerce. Thus, turning our commercial cen ters around and restoring them to patterns of productivi ty growth must become a national priority." Addressing the Mid-Winter Conference of - the- National association of Minority con tractors, sponsored by the Minority Contractors Re source Center, Burrell decried the steady deterioration of our urban communities and noted the impact of persistent eco nomic stagnation on the Black community, saying: “Our cur rent problems of inflation and sluggish recovery from the worst recession since the Great Depression, place tre mendous pressures on unsta ble income areas As a result, the Black market is seriously depleted " Burrell noted that Booker T Washington founded this or ganization when he concluded that there was a need for a structure that could bring Black business persons toge ther for consultation and to secure information and inspi ration from one another Washington had an abiding faith in America, but he had an even greater faith in Black America According to Bur rell. that faith is being severe ly tested today because the same issues and concerns that confronted Black Americans in 1900 still confronts them today He continued "Four hundred years after Blacks helped to create the first American enterprise through the trade of their lives into bondage we are still a poor race For when we divide our total assets among the mil lions of our population, it does not represent a very large.per capita Turning to the plight of minority contractors, he not ed "(If all Federal contracts awarded. 74 percent of them went to big business Only 2g percent were awarded to small business firms, despite the fact that the small busi ness community represents M percent of all business firms in the country Yet, of the M percent that went to small business firms, 25 3 percent were awarded to white small businesses That means that only seven tenths of one per cent of the MO billion worth of Federal contracts went to you rmm»nty uunirgewm Burrell urged the minority contractors to Join in the parity fight to demand their fair share of huge government expenditures Neighborhoixl Organization* NWCAA Brings Community Changes By Hoyle H. Martin Sr Post Staff Writer The Northwest Community Action Association, a federa tion of 12 neighborhood or ganizations, has been success ful in initiating "drives" and "protests" that have resulted in IS community improve ments during its 4-year his lory. Under the direction of L C Coleman (Westside Improve ment Association), Howard Campbell (University Park Improvement Association) and the leadership of the other 10 affiliated organizations, projects including additional school buses, increased black voter turn-out, neighborhood rezoning, the building of parks and sidewalks and the rerout ing of truck routes were suc cessfully pursued Working behind the scene effectively advising and assisting this leadership has been Dave Ble vins, a professional communi ty organizer, formerly with the Charlotte Area Fund and now operating independently. Furthermore, officers and members of NWCAA have met with representatives of nume rous City departments (Engi neering, Public Works, Traffic Engineering. Planning Com mission etc.) to gain informa (ion about the City's plans for road construction, the location of parks, new sidewalks and neighborhood zoning. NWCAA has also appeared before the City Council and School Board HA-Ajiumber Jd occasions to express their member organi zs(ions' concerns. In this re gard, for example, tyWCAA was instrumental in ttnvinc ing the Planning Commission to hold a Public Hearing at West Charlotte High School when none was scheduled for any Black neighborhood In addition. NWCAA has con ducted many neighborhood meetings to assist in organi zing people to take action offensive to their neighbor hoods. Among the specific achieve ments of NWCAA are: (1 > Protests by the Hoskins Action Committee over the unsafe conditions in which their children had to walk to school The School Board pro vided a bus for the children. (2) Failing in its effort U defeat a bond referendum on . April 10.1877. NWCAA ntvtL theless was responsible for a Black voter turn-out that was three times larger than for a similar bond referendum a few months earlier, In commenting on these ■ irt « L C. Coleman -...flWCAA leader efforts NWCAA president L C Coleman said. We seek no reward, but to see an improve ment in the quality of our lives through a better living envi ronmenl