«S0 THE CHAD ,1ITTE PI 1ST [SSI
“Charlotte’s Fastest Growing Community Weekly’' -—
Vol. 4 N"
POST, Thursday. May 24. 1979 ^^*~^~^
1 ___ Price 30 Cents
Local GroupLaunchesFund-Raising
Effort To Support Black School
Laurinburg Institute
“Is Suffering For Money”
Special to the Charlotte posi
When more than 30 percent
of black students in public
schools failed the state s com
petency test last year, it
created a shock that has com
pletely obscured a much more
positive story.
At Laurinburg Institute, a
small college preparatory
school in Laurinburg, N.C.,
about 95 miles northeast of
Charlotte, only one of 125
students failed the test And
even more surprising, this
student, who had entered the
school eight months before the
test reading on a fifth grade
level, failed by only one point
Laurinburg Institute is only
one of two black-owned and
operated prep schools in the
country. All of its students are
black.
School officials took their
excellent showing on the state
competency test calmly, far
more disturbed by the on*
student who failed, than
excited by the 124 who passed.
"We fully expected all our
students to pass the test," said
Bishop McDuffie, who
ceacnes, coaches the basket
ball team, and is the school's
vice-president "Existing as
we do here in a relative
cocoon, we're frankly surpris
ed by some of the negative
things we hear about public
school education, especially
about how poorly black stu
dents are doing "
McDuffie, whose father.
Frank McDuffie, heads the
school, says he feels that
students perform to the level
of teachers' expectations
"We expect excellence from
our students and we get it," he
said "It’s too bad other
schools don't expect the
same."
But Laurinburg, like all
small schools, particularly all
small black private schools, is
suffering for money.
According to the senior
McDuffie, whose father
Emmanuel McDuffie founded
the school 76 years ago. school
tuition is about $3,000 annual
ly But the average student
pays only about $800 of that
The rest of the school's annual
budget of between $250,000 and
$300.(XX) comes from donors,
many of whom have been
l-aurinburg benefactors for
years.
But even with good support
from donors, who provide
much of the school's annual
operating costs, Laurinburg is
still in trouble because it can't
put together enough money to
plan growth and development
to keep pace with the increas
ing demands of a complex
society
"Our goal with students has
always been to send them
from here prepared educa
tionally. motivationally, and
emotionally to function effec
tively in this society." said Dr
McDuffie "But that gets
harder to do each year as
more and more of our money
goes just to keep up with
escalating costs."
A group of Charlotteans.
several of them I^aurinburg
Institute graduates, have or
ganized to solve the school's
crippling money problems
Headed by Dr Ken Chambers,
a local gynecologist, and a
graduate of the prep school,
this organization has pledged
to raise SI 5 million for Lau
rinburg Institute over the next
five years
Dr. Ken Chambers
. Heads drive
“We understand," said
Chambers, “the kind of pres
sures the school faces. It
would be easier to get by with
settling for less educationally,
but the thing that makes Lau
rinburg Institute unique is
that it has always set n.gn
standards and met them."
The fundraising organiza
tion has an ambitious plan to
raise the money for the school
from the country's largest
industries, and the commu
nity-at-large
It has retained Jordan &
Associates, a local communi
cations, research and plan
ning consultant firm, to assist
them in raising the money
Calling themselves “The
Friends of Launnburg Insti
tute,” the local group is cur
rently conducting its first
fund-raising effort They are
selling raffle tickets for an
all-expense paid weekend trip
to Hilton Head, the South
Carolina resort. The tickets
are $5 and can be bought at the
L'nct _n I_
branch of Mechanics and
Farmers Bank from 9 a m to
4:30 p.m Monday through
Friday. Evenings and week
ends, tickets can be bought
wherever you see a placard
advertising the promotion
“We felt that it was better to
try to raise money by giving
people a chance to get some
thing in return in addition to
the pleasure of helping a very
deserving black school,''
Chambers said “We certain
ly hope the community will
respond wholeheartedly to
this effort.”
, The drawing for the Hilton
Head trip will be held June 17
in the E Independence Plaza
parking lot, during a planned
disco dance Admission to the
disco will be a ticket for the
promotion. Ticket sales will
end Friday. June 15.
ine winner win ny from
Charlotte on Friday, June 29
to Savannah, and be whisked
to Hilton Head where the
winner and a companion of
their choice will spend a luxu
rious weekend in a seaside
villa on Sea Pines, one of the
island's plushiest areas They
will fly back to Charlotte on
Sunday. July 1
Other facets of the fund
raising effort includes organi
zing other Friends of l^urin
burg organizations around the
country The local group has
asked former Celtic basket
ball great Sam Jones, and
trumpeteer. Dizzy Gillespie,
both Laurinburg graduates, to
co-chair the national group
Dr Jacqueline Renee West
cott, a vice-president at
Central Piedmont Community
College and another Laurin
burg graduate, has been asked
to chair the state group
LINDA MOSES
...W. Charlotte junior
Channing Linda Moses
Is Beauty Of Week
by Sherleen McKoy
Past Staff Writer
Our beauty for this week is
Linda Moses, a junior at West
Charlotte High School.
Linda’s favorite subjects
are history and a food service
course.
She is a member of the
Future Homemakers of
~ AhterlcJ Hero Club (FHAH).
She is also an Explorer at
CPCC, a club (similar to the
Boy Scouts of America),
which consists of a group (16)
of school age girls who meet to
raise money to help disadvan
taged children during the Eas
ter and Christmas seasons. If
the girls’ efforts are success
ful, they will receive half a
credit towards their gradua
tion points.
Classifying herself as an
honest, trustworthy and ambi
tious person, Linda’s post
graduation plans include at
tending Winthrop College in
Rock Hill, S.C. to fulfill her
desire of becoming a dietician.
“I like working with sick
people,” Linda stated. “I’ve
been working with the food
service department since I’ve
been in junior high school.”
An alternate career plan for
Linda is to become a register
President Names
Mrs. Koontz To
Women’8 Board
Washington-Presii nt
Jimmy Carter has announced
Elizabeth Koontz will serve as
one of two vice chairpersons of
the President's Advisory Com
mittee for Women.
Koontz is assistant state
superintendent of education
for North Carolina and chair
person of the National Com
mission on Working Women.
Koontz wjii snare the vice
chair position with Marjorie
Bell Chambers, who has been
acting chairperson since
January.
ed nurse, where she yet will be
of service to others who lack
good health.
Linda’s hobbies are tennis
and traveling. “I’d like to do
more traveling," Linda said,
“preferably to some foreign
country.”
This summer Linda and a
group of girls are planning a
cruise to the Bahamas in
August.
Linda cites her parents as
having a positive effect in her
life.
“My mother and father are
always encouraging me to
want to succeed in life and to
get the best of everything I
can,” she explained. They are
also special “because of the
persons they are and the love
they’ve given me."
The youngest of four child
ren, Linda said, “It’s okay, I
get more attention being the
youngest.”
Linda recalls her mo6t ex
citing adventure as being the
time that she visited her uncle
in Philadelphia and they went
to Atlantic City.
"It was really nice,” she
reminisced.
Linda is anxiously awaiting
her senior year. “I’m looking
forward to it very much," she
admitted. “I’m ready to start
on my future (career), begin
ning with college.”
The driving force in Linda's
life is that she “always keep in
mind that where there's a will,
there’s a way."
Linda is the daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. Mitchell Moses.
ONLY
was
'_ out for a
BEER on the way home from
work?
Disco To
Benefit Civil
Rights
by Eileen Hanson
Special to the Post
The disco sounds of Bionic
Chicken will set feet dancing
in Marshall Park Saturday,
May 26 starting at 4 p.m.
The disco is sponsored by
People United for Justice and
Friends of Rev. James
Barnett to raise funds for
special civil rights projects. A
$2 donation is requested.
According to Barnett, the
funds will help pay travel
expenses for the Charlotte
delegation that attended a
national civil rights confer
ence, and for the Martin
Luther King, Jr. Statue that is
to be erected in Marshall Park
this year.
Sixteen Chariotteans attend
ed the Fifth annual conference
of the National Alliance
Against Racist and Political
Repression in New York City
May 11-13.
According to Dr. R. B.
Phifer, so many people came
to the rally that hundreds had
to stand outside the Covenant
Baptist Church in Harlem.
Angela Davis, co-chair of the
Alliance, and writer James
Baldwin were among the
speakers.
The next two days were
devoted to workshops attend
ed by 226 delegates and 273
observers Danny Gilmore of
Charlotte participated in the
Political Prisoners workshop.
"Almost everyone there had
some person in their family in
prison,” said Gilmore. “One
person had a son who was shot
by the Ku Klux Klan.”
Other workshops included
Repressive Legislation;
Rights of Labor; the KKK,
Nazis and other Hate Groups;
and Behavior Control.
Actor Ossie Davis and Rep.
John Conyers (D-Mich) also
addressed the meeting. The
Rev. Ben Chavis of the Wil
mington 10 was re-elected co
chair along with Ms. Davis.
V I ■ -B
Cherry Community Organization planned a Johnson, Jean Thompson, Oscar Here (Dresi
successful Cherry Reunion May 18. Yvonne dent), Sybil Lee Johnson (assistant secre
Bittle (secretary); Wilhemenia Adams, tary), Lucy Ellis, Jannie Tucker, and Mary
Evelyn Arant (seated, secretary), Florence McLaughlin. (Photo by Eileen Hanson)
t^nerry ^felebrates Own Roots
by Eileen Hanson
Special to the Post
Cherry residents, past and
present, dug back to their
roots last weekend with a
neighborhood reunion on May
18 at Morgan Park. Several
hundred Cherryites turned out
for 6-hours of activities, inclu
ding a bike race, ball games,
sack races, disco, and histori
cal displays.
“We wanted to dig into our
own past and learn from older
people who have lived through
so much,” said Mary Johnson
Tison who has spent the last 6
years collecting the history of
Cherry.
The reunion was organized
by the Cherry Community
Organization and was part of
the Central Area of Celebrate
Charlotte.
The Cherry neighborhood
was developed around 1915
when a wealthy white family,
the Myers, built houses for
black domestic workers who
worked in the white homes in
Myers Park The workers
could easily walk from Cherry
to their jobs
Violet Wallace Robinson
still lives in the same house on
Baxter Street where she was
born some 50 years ago.
"Cherry was way out in the
country then and McDowell
Street was city limits," she
recalled "I think it’s a nice
place to live. We have new
people, but it hasn’t changed
much ”
The Cherry comn.unity
seems to have a special i.ie all
its own. Nestled between
Independence Boulevard,
Morehead and Kings Drive,
Cherry still has an air of
“country” as you drive
through its quiet streets
Another life-long Cherry
resident, Jannie Lucille
Wallace, wouldn't live any
where else. "I love Cherry.
It’s my home and I'm proud to
live here." Residents seem
attached to Cherry, almost
like to a small town
At the reunion the younger
generation kept time to the
disco beat, while older folks
admired household articles
from the early 1900’s. News
clippings and photo displays
told of Cherry's past and the
special role it has played for
black Charlotteans.
When other neighborhoods
like Brooklyn were tom down
for urban renewal and the
residents scattered to every
corner of Charlotte, the
Cherry community stayed in
tact. The strong bond between
the residents is a glue that has
withstood even the bulldozer
All present and past Cherry
residents are being asked to
sign the Reunion Quilt
Names will be embroidered
and the final quilting will be
done by senior citizens.
Those wanting to sign the
quilt should call Ms Tison
(372-5902) or Sybil Johnson
(375-4641).
On Saturday, May 19.
Cherry residents brought their
• Cherryscope" program to
Marshall Park as part of
Celebrate Charlotte. The his
torical displays, a karate
demonstration, a fashion show
and disco were Cherry's con
tribution to the "Heartbeat
Charlotte" theme
Janie Tucker had the origi
nal idea for the two-day pro
gram. and Lucy Ellis was in
charge of arrangements
Many members of the Cherry
Community organization
worked to make the events
successful.
"History usually focuses on
people long dead," said Ms
Tison. "Our focus is on the
living, on the stories of people
standing up for their rights as
citizens ”
Many other Cherry resi
dents have already made oral
history tapes which Ms Tison
plans to make available to
schools, the state archives,
and CPCC's listening library.
Reception Will Be
Held For Dr. Burke
Dr Selma Burke, creator ot
the Martin Luther King Jr
sculpture to he erected in
Marshall Park, will be honor
ed at a reception in Charlotte
Saturday
The reception at NCNB wii.
be hosted by Hugh McColl.
president of North Carolina
National Bank, and members
of the Martin Luther King Jr
Memorial Commission
Fund-raising efforts have
been coordinated by the com
mission and by a committee of
Charlotte businessmen head
ed hy McColl
For Friday, May 25
African Liberation Day Pro: ram Set
hv F.ilMM! Hanonn - - - * ’ —
by Eileen Hanson
Special to the Post
A shocking film about life in
South Africa will highlight this
year’s African Liberation Day
program, Friday, May 25 at
Spirit Square, 8 p m Uhura
Sasa (“freedom now’’ in
Swahili), a youth group study
ing about Africa, will sponsor
the event to mark the founding
of the Organization of African
Unity in 1963.
A donation of $1 will be
taken to help Geraldine Jones,
an 8-year-old girl who was
seriously injured when an oil
track overturned on her two
weeks ago.
African Liberation Day is
observed throughout Africa
and by blacks In other parts of
the world as a day to focus on
the current liberation
struggles
In the last 20 years most
African countries achieved
political independence from
colonial rulers. However, in
Southern Africa (South
Africa, Zimbabwe and
Namibia) wars of national
liberation still continue
The film to be shown Fri
- - j
Khadijah Abdullah
...Youth group leader
day, "Last Grave at
Dimbaza", is a shocking por
trayal of life in the "apart
heid" (meaning rigid color
segregation) system of South
Africa. Shot secretly inside
the country and smuggled out,
the film exposes the inhuman
conditions African families
face.
According to Dumi Mtim
kulu, a South African who
escaped in 1978 and is now a
student at Johnson C. Smith,
"Many children (in South
Africa) grow up with only one
parent, the other has to go to
work in the city.”
Men are often hired as
contract laborers to work in
the gold mines and are gone
8-12 months at a time. The
women are left behind to work
as domestics in white homes.
They leave their children at A
a m. and don't return until
after 10 p.m.
Conditions are so bad that
half the African children die
before the age of 9. The
graves at Dimbaza, an Afri
can resettlement area, are
dug weeks ahead of time,
waiting to embrace the small
children when they die
There are 22 million Afri
cans, two million Coloureds
(mixed race), one million
Asians and four million whites
in South Africa. Only the
whites are allowed to vote.
They also control all the eco
nomic power. Strict laws
regulate the coming and going
of the blacks, who must carry
passbooks to Drove their em
s'
ployment and tax payments
If they are not authorized to be
in certain areas they will be
arrested.
Mtimkulu said he was once
arrested for not carrying a
pass, though he was not yet 16
years old, the age required for
having a pass
The African Liberation Day
program will also focus on the
struggle in this country, inclu
ding speakers about the Wil
mington 10 and Charlotte 3
and other problems of discri
mination in Charlotte
Khadijah Abdullah organiz
ed Uhuru Sasa to teach young
girls about African history
and culture Most of the
students live in Earle Village,
near Ms Abdullah's store,
Dar Es Salaam (House of
Peace» on 7th and Tryon
"We are not celebrating a
holiday The celebration will
come after liberation," said
Ms Abdullah "We will draw
attention to the continuing
struggles in Africa today, and
also those here in Charlotte
N C ”