Post Commemorates Black History
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“Charlotte s Fastest Growing Community Weekly _,
DAW ANA DYLYNNE DURANTE
~~Olympic High School cheerleader i
uawana Uylynne Uurante
Is “Beauty Of The Week”
by SHERLEEN McCOY
Pott Staff Writer
Our beauty for this week is
Dawana Dylynne Durante, a
junior at Olympic High
School.
Interested in business,
Dawana said that she would
like to be an executive
secretary when she finishes
her academic studies.
“I like office work,’’ she
said, “especially typing and
shorthand."
Dawana said that she wants
to attend Kings College but
seriously thinks it would be
better to matriculate at a four
year college. Nevertheless
she still has time to make the
best decision.
A fashion conscious person,
Dawana stated, “I also want
to go to modeling school
someday I want to be able to
dress and look nice and
develop poise. It’s something
else to do aside from working
in an office all the time.
Dawana wants to get in
volved with modem dancing.
At the present though, she
doesn't know how or where to
get started here. A
Charlottean, Dawana was
raised and lived in Durham
until two and a half years ago
when she moved to Charlotte.
While there in an Upward
Bound Program she learned
modern dance and wishes to
continue with it.
Dawana describes herself
as having a very nice per
sonality, attractive, quiet
(sometimes, “when Pm in the
mood”), nicely built, nice
smile, pretty eyes and one who
likes nice things.
When the weather permits,
she likes to swim. Considering
herself as a semi-amateur,
she said she was on her
school's swim team about five
years ago.
"I like horseback riding,
loo, tnough I haven t naden a
horse in a long time,” she
said.
Dawana als9 likes listening
to music. Her favorite male
vocalists are Earth, Wind and
Fire and female vocalist
Donna Summers.
Though she doesn’t fix i
anything special, Dawana
said that she likes to cook.
At Olympic, she belongs to {
the cheerleading team. Her |
favorite school subjects are
shorthand, typing, English ,
and business math.
Dawana credits her parents
as having the most influence
in her life. “They try to in
fluence me to get on the right
track when I'm off,” she
explained. They tell me why I
need to go to school everyday
and finish my education."
Dawana said that even ,
though she misses her friends
from Durham, she has
developed a liking for
Charlotte, however, she
doesn’t plan to make her
future home here.
“I don’t want to go up
north,” she said assuredly,
"but I like Atlanta and I'd like
to see California."
In the meantime, she said,
“I want to get out of school
• college), get a good job
somewhere, save some of my
money and go into modeling.”
Dawana is the daughter of
Reginald and Ernestine
Durant and has a brother,
Reginald Quanta, who is four
years old.
Report On Housing
Conditions Of Blacks
The housing in which Black
Americans live is flawed twice
as often as the housing of the
total population, according to
a report released today by the
Department of Housing and
Urban Development.
This is one of the findings in
a summary report on the
housing situation of Black
households in the United
States.
The report. How Well Are
We Housed?, is the third
in a series of housing
conditions of various groups of
Americans. The first two
reports in the series deal with
the housing conditions of His -
^ganicsjnd^emale-headed
households
This latest report reveals
that Black people spend more
of their earnings than the
general population to live in
decent housing. It estimates
that 37 percent of Black
Americans-but only 20 per
cent of the total
population-need to spend
more than a quarter of their
income to live in unflawed,
uncrowded housing.
"The fact that some Ameri
cans are still treated as
second class citizens cannot
be tolerated," said Secretary
Patricia Roberts Harris. “I
will continue to fight for the
right of all minorities to get a
fair share of the benefits of
this society."
Another finding in the re
port, which is based on data
from HUD’s Annual Housing
Survey for 1976, is that main
tenance and plumbing are the
most frequent deficiencies
found in Black households.
HUD Assistant Secretary
for Policy Development and
Research, Donna E. Shalala,
wnose oiiice prepared the
report for release during Afro
American Heritage Month,
said that, “No better time can
lie imagined to rededicate
ourselves to lhe goal of a '
decent home and a suitable
living environment lor every
American fanoiy.
NAACP Warns Carter To
P.I.N. Down
Childhood
Diseases
The recent outbreak of red
measles in Charlotte schools
again calls attention to the
need for proper im
munizations against o
preventable childhood
diseases
Last Spring, Mercy Hospital
joined in a nation-wide effort
through the American
Hospital Association to
provide free immunization
record cards for parejais as ci
public service That eroiect j..
again being promoted to help
make more parents aware of
the potential dangers in
lagging behind on their
children s immunizations
The program called P I N
• Proper Immunization Now).
ciiiuiua ^idicuia nidi
>ercent of the children in
America today are not
•eceiving vaccines as they
;hould, even though these
/acines are readily available
^s the card explains, "no
natter how effective a vac
cine is, it can only work if a
:hild receives it.”
The P.I.N. oroject.en
courages proper timing for
immunizations as well, since
oo many parents put off
children's vaccinations until
they are ready for school --
long after disease has an
opportunity to strike Still
others forget that older
children need booster shots, as
evidenced by the measles
outbreak in junior high
schools.
The P I N. card contains a
complete schedule of im
munizations as recommended
by the American Academy of
Pediatrics. Childhood
diseases for which vaccines
are now available are
diphtheria, tetanus, polio,
whooping cough, measles,
mumps, and rubella
0 »-oa|t •
Union Memt>ers are on strike at Cont
inental Forest Industries demanding
equal pay. Cora Audrey, Gladell Mar
i „ .:< • *. \ «.
shall. Stanley Alexander. Billy Joe
Burch. Mary Frances Green < Photo
by Eileen Hanson*.
Union btrikes ror rxjual ray
By EILEEN HANSON
Special To The Post
Neither sleet nor snow nor
cold of night could keep the
striking employees of Con
tinental Forest Industries
from walking the picket line 24
hours a day for the last four
weeks
As members of Printing
Specialties and Paper
Products Union I^ocal 527
tAFL-CIO), the employees
say they want equal pay with a
sister plant in Lithonia.
Georgia and less harassment
on the job. On Jan 19 they set
up a cardboard shelter, a fire
and a picketline in front of the
plant on Westinghouse Blvd
When their union contract
expired Jan. 15, the company
refused to sign a master
agreement covering the
Charlotte and Lithonia plants,
as they had promised when
they opened the Charlotte
plant three yeans ago.
The two plants produce the
same fibre drums, but in
Georgia the pay is 40c an
hours more New contract
proposals at the two plants
would put the Georgia em
ployees 62c a hour ahead The
workers in Lithonia belong to
the same union local and are
also on strike.
Wages under the old
agreement at the Charlotte
plant, which has 60 em
ployees, began at $4 12 an
hour, with a wire operator
making $4 85 and mechanics
$5.60.
"We just want equal pay for
doing equal work,” said T.R
Wilson, shop steward and
member of the negotiation
committee According to
Wilson the strike is 100 percent
effective. "All but one em
ployee belongs to the union
There is no production going
on inside, only management."
he said.
The company .division of
the multinational corporation
Continental Group (formerly
Continental Can) refused to
comment to The Post about
the strike
When a Mecklenburg
County police car suddenly
appeared on Jan 22, strikers
feared something was about to
happen
"Within minutes a big truck
shot around the corner and
through the picket line at
about 35 m.p.h saia tyerry
McGee "It skinned Dennis
firown on the leg and spun him
iround so he fell down.”
Frances Green said she
aulled Brown out of the truck's
aath just in time "I don't
(now what would have hap
sened. that truck was coming
rast." she said.
According to Ihe pickets the
policeman was looking, but
lidn't see anything He spoke
lo the driver from Johnny's
Transfer Co. and left. When
ihe truck left ihe company
premises it hit Brown's car
before speeding off
Pickets say the police of
ficer returned and told them to
be quiet or they would be
locked up
The next day the company
requested and got an in
junction against the strike
prohibiting them from
blocking the plant entrances
"Now we know when a truck
is coming in," said McGee
"The cop car always arrives
first
In addition to equal pay and
a master agreement, the
union wants a holiday for
Martin Luther King Jr 's
pay. shift differential, a 30
month contract and increase
in insurance benefits
Kmployees also want better
work rules "There's no sick
leave and if you've out one day
they demand a doctor's
statement." said union leader
Alfred Harrison "The em
ployee loses three limes for
one illness no pay for being
out sick, having to pay an
unnecessary doctor bill, and
risk being suspended.” he
said "This rule hurts people
more than anything."_
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breakdown vim are
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Carter Urged
To Prepare
Energy Policy
Special To The Post
Washington, D.C. - The
leader of the NAACP has
warned Congress and the
Carter Administration to stop
playing political tennis with
an energy problem that poses
a massive threat to em
ployment and upward
mobility for minorities
Speaking before the
National Conference on *
finely Advocacy in
Was.'ingt in, D.C., on
February 3. Margaret Bash
Wilson declared: "The
national government must be
made to lead in ensuring that
the country develops abun
dant, .affordable energy
supplies that will promote
vigorous economic growth "
She urged President Carter,
in preparing an updated
energy policy, to this time
seek the views and concerns of
minorities, the poor and the
aged, "the most vulnerable
segments of thp nonnlatmn "
Another conference
speaker, U S. Senator James
McClure (R-Idaho). also
addressed this theme, war
ning that an America without
adequate energy supplies
could result in the creation of
a new "feudal era "
"The reason is that an
economy which does not grow
makes no allowance for up
ward mobility. Of necessity, it
would result in the creation of
a permanent underclass "
Rlacks. and others who are
only just attaining the
American dream, would be
the ones condemned to that
fate," he argued
The relation between energy
and jobs also was stressed by
U S Rep Mike McCormack
'D Washington), and by the
AFI^CIO's Jacob dayman,
who called energy production
"a simple economic issue
involving the preservation of
our economy - our jobs ”
Mrs Wilson spoke out
sharply against the present
tendency to politicize the
energy situation “Someone
told me that the senior Senator
from Massachusetts is
making our energy policy
What he meant, I later
realized, was that the ad
ministration is m disarray on
energy and is concentrating
on the primaries of 1980. If
that's the case, I say to them:
A pox on both your houses.’
"If the Congress and the
administration continue to
engage in a tennis match with
energy policy, it will be a love
game and the American
public will be out ”
The NAACP national
chairwoman also attacked the
federal regulatory
bureaucracy as a "monster"
that has gone so far beyond its
mandate to protect the public
thqi it is now causing Injury.
j tor tebruary J1-J5
African Liberation Weekend Set
by EILEEN HANSON
Special To The Pool
Building bridges between
Charlotte and Africa will be
the theme of an African
Liberation Weekend, Feb. 21
25, sponsored by Greater
Bethel AME Church, 201
Grandin Rd
The 5-day program will
feature local black leaders,
African music and dance, a
colorful exhibit of African
batiks, an African art sale,
films and religious services
"We want our children to
know more about Africa,"
said Dora Durante, a member
of the planning committee
that has been working for
three months to pul the
program together "This is
I
our contribution to Black {
History Month.”
The programs are free and
open to the public. All events
except Friday’s batik exhibit
will be held at the church
On Wed , Feb 21 at 7:30
p.m Attorney James
Ferguson will speak on
"Black Justice - world, state
and local.” Educator
Elizabeth Randolph will
discuss “Competency
Testing,” and Dr. Bertha
Maxwell of UNCC’s Black
Studies Department will
speak on "Black Culture.”
Refreshments will follow
The youth of the church will
present the program Thurs
Feh 22 at 7 30 p m The
theme will he "Is Charlotte
ready to adopt a sister city in
Elizabeth Randolph'
...CMS Adminiatrator
AfricaThe youth have
selected three African cities
For consideration Fran
nslnwn. Botswana. I.ilongwa.
Malawi, and Ouagadougou,
tipper Volta
A colorful art exhibit and
sale of East African batiks
will be held Fri , Feb 23 at the
Kadisson Plaza on the square
The public is invited to a walk
in exhibit from 4:30 to 6 4S
p.m. At 7 p m. Jerry Drew of
the Sister Cities Program will
give a formal talk about the
batik art A raffle is planned
with one of the batiks as a
prize Refreshments will be
served
According to Rev Frank
Reid, pastor of the church.
"These batiks are some of the
most beautiful pieces of art I
have seen The designs are
uniquely African "
A full afternoon of African
culture is planned for Sal
Feb 24 beginning all on p m
See Bethel on page 5
Nothing brings the
truificREGULA'I iONS T«>
MIND QUITE LIKE
SPOTTING A POLICE
CAR in the REAR VIEW
MIRROR