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THE CHARLOTTE POST - Thursday, March 21, 1985 «. t 2t2u
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Turning 100 Is "Just
Another Day" Per
Mrs* Breazeale
Story On Page 7A
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Mecklenburg
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-* --.4 Marilyn Donnelly
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Marilyn Donnelly Is
Beauty Of The Week
By Jalyne Strong
Post Staff Writer
Twenty-seven-year-old Marilyn
Donnelly has parlayed a background
of radio and television experience
into a business. This enterprising
young lady is the operator of Toy
Jay Video, a video and audio
production company.
A native of Mullins, South
Carolina, Marilyn attended Francis
Marion College and worked her way
through college as a radio
announcer. She’s worked for WOIC
in Columbia and WYNN in Florence,
South Carolina. “I came to Charlotte
to get experience in a larger
market,” she explains.
“I began freelancing here and it
turned out to be lucrative,” Marilyn
discloses. She established her
business two and one half years ago.
"I videotape any event with sound,
such as workshops, business
meetings and sales promotional
tapes”she mentions, adding sht
owns the equipment necessary for
these projects. For large projects,
Marilyn employs two sub
ujiiudtwr®.
“I enjoy the creativity of it ali. I
like putting together the (Afferent
products. Meeting people and
making money is always nice.”
She works out of her residence at
this time and says she’s satisfied
with the progress of the company so
far. "It’s going along as I’ve planned
it,” she assures. "The future looks
bright,” Marilyn alludes. "As
Charlotte grows, I see my business
as really being a part of it."
“I love Charlotte,” expresses
Marilyn about her new found home
base^Thtpeople are nice and they
’* tier favorite female Jazz vocalist.
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personality. “I’m outgoing and I like
to be in control and call the shots,”
Marilyn states. A Cancer, Marilyn
claims she definately exhibits a few
of the zodiac sign’s most dominant
traits. “I am home-loving, motherly,
sensitive and creative,” she
describes.
"I like to have fun,” relates
Marilyn. She also claims that if she
could attain anything she wanted in
the world the prize would be “a
million dollars!” Marilyn says the
cool million would primarily allow
her financial security. But for girls
who want to have fun, a good time
can certainly be had on the divi
dends.
Marilyn attends Little Rock
A.M.E. Zion Church.
First Ward’s Earle Village :
An Urban Mistake?
By Teresa Simmons
Post Managing Editor
The streets are wide and a bit busy
for the number of children walking
to school or to the school bus stops
each day. In 1960 the rows of
apartments were “modern" with hot
running water, inside plumbing...
which became a blessing for some of
the residents.
But today the buildings have torn
screens, barren yards consisting
mainly of dirt and in some areas
large rocks, which were never re
moved during the initial clearance.
Standing 15 years old there are
complexes with roof leakages caus
ing serious mildew problems and
one elderly resident lives with hot
tar dripping onto her front porch
area because of improper repair of
her front porch roof.
While many of the apartments
need repainting on the inside, in
adequate garbage receptacles aid in
the increase of the rodent popula
tion. And, finally, a tire sits idle in a
frpnt yard, a reminder of how the
community seems to be going no
where.
As familiar as these descriptions
may sound they are pot examining
the ghettos of New York’s Harlem
Instead this is the way people live in
Charlotte’s own Earle Village. Lo
cated in First Ward, Earle Village is
a 409 public housing unit.
After residential homes in First
Ward were bought by the City and
bulldozed or carted out to the
suburbs for resale, “Great expanses
of open lots were simply left vacant
as a result of the 60s’ renewal which
erased the structures, the history
and the community of First Ward.’’
This quote comes from authors
Nancy Jones and Debbie Fullbright.
They are now in the process of
writing a comprehensive book about
First Ward for the Charlotte-Meck
lenburg School System in connec
tion with the First Ward School’s
85th anniversary in April. The theme
is “Sake’s Alive: We're 85.”
“There is such a wealth of in
formation we have uncovered,”
Mrs. Jones commented. “We’ve
This is First Ward today. “Tee"
Hall, a resident of the projects,
stands in front of a couple of the 409
units. It makes one wonder why the
beautiful homes bulldozed were not
renovated for occupancy in lieu of
erecting dwellings that are now
experiencing interior delapidation.
come across so much valuable
information that we didn't know was
there.”
The book will be published by the
Charlotte-Mecklenburg School
System but Jones and Fullbright
may go on to publish a more ex
tensive hardback edition. The two
have been working on the present
edition since January, which
didn’t give them a lot of time for the
April deadline and celebration.
“I can’t imagine not going on,”
Mrs. Jones stated about the future
hardback cover. “The hard bound
book will be more detailed.”
Both Jones and Fullbright feel
that the public's image of Earle
Village is that of an undesirable
place to live or Work, and that the
residents not only desire improved
external conditions, but would
prefer that the City improve living
conditions within their homes first
The present City plan, the French
man Plan, calls for external face
lifts, according to Jones’ and
Fullbrights' investigations and In
Black Executives To Hear
Chamber Of Commerce President
Carroll Gray, president of the
Charlotte Chamber of Commerce,
will be a featured speaker at the fifth
annual Black Executive Exchange
Program (BEEP) career confe
rence at Johnson C. Smith Univer
sity March 24 through 26.
Gray and other local business
leaders will join the conference at a
breakfast gathering Tuesday.
The BEEP seminar will put seven
Atlantic Richfield Co. executives in
classes, forums and individual
meetings with JCSU students. It is
sponsored by the National Urban
f League and Atlantic Richfield.
A plenary session in the Student
Union at 4 p.m., Monday, is open to
the public.
Robert W. Brocks bank, chair
man o4 the board of the Council on '
Career Development for Minor! tjsf!
will speak at a luncheon Monday! A
frequent visitor on campuses, he is
on leave from a position Afrfnanager
of college relations altd college
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Can-alt Gray
.C.C.C. president
tor at Atlantic Richfield, and
Renee Du Jean. BEEP program
director at the National Urban
League.
JCSU coordinators of the event
are Jodi Douglas Turner, career
counselor and placement specialist,
and Curtins P Simmons, director of
career planning, placement and
cooperative education.
The Urban League started the
BEEP program to bring reprcsen
tatives from business, industry and
government to historically black
colleges and universities to the
V '4 .y* • r
1968-69 school year, Mrs Simmons
noted.
Since then, more than 2,000
Mack professional men and women
employed by 600 organizations have
participated in seminars, workshops
and courses on 70 black campuses,
she added.
JCSU To Celebrate
Founder’s Day
Johnson C. Smith University cele
brates Founders' Day next week
Related activities begin Wednesday,
March 27, with a program by the
Communication Arts Department at
7:30 p.m. The program is entitled,
“Perspective: Theatre at Johnson
C. Smith."
Thursday, the 28th, features a
basketball game between the Bulls
and former Bulls. The game will be
played In Brayboy Gymnasium at
7:30 p.m. Admission is free.
The Musk; Department will pre
sent a concert at 7:30 on Friday at
University Church.
"Festival of the Founders” Is an
all-day event at various campus
locations on Saturday The Foun
ders’ Day Convocation will be held
at 3:30 on Sunday at the Univer
sity Church. Dr James H. Cost an.
president of the Interdenomination
al Theological Center hi Atlanta, will
be the speaker
A reception at Grime* Lounge,
mediately
terviews with people like Warren
Burgess, senior urban designer,
Planning Commission; and Elaine
Burgwyn, member of the Planning
Commission
Edgar Alexander, presently a
home owner on 8th Street in First
Ward since 1955. recalls that First
Ward had started to become run
down in the 1950s. "There was a bad
element. You could not leave your
home without someone breaking
in." But now, he says, mostly
church-going people live within the
two blocks of the residential area
(from Myers to McDowell)
"I’d like to see more single house
dwellings instead of projects,"
Alexander commented "The area is
so densely populated."
Alexander feels "pretty good"
about the development of Earle
Village. Malik Tillman who lived in
. b irst Ward for 20 years, however,
feels a lost
"I grew up in First Ward in a big
house. I’d like to see First Ward
return to a neighborhood I think the
public housing was a mistake in the.
long run. I don t think the planners
anticipated that Charlotte would be
growing as fast as it has The 50 or so
homes in First Ward should have
been remodeled or revitalized
instead oF the erection of Earle
Village. It is a social and economic
step backwards Urban renewal to
me has always been Negro re
moval.
I remember the throughway of
black businesses from McDowell to
College Streets. Like the Thad late
Barber Shop But when the neigh
borhood was destroyed." Tillman
said, “the businesses were either
forced to relocate or close."
Tillman, a writer-businessman, is
now' working on an historical
overview of blacks in Charlotte since
the 1600s and also is working on the
archives for the Afro-American Cul
tural Center
Tillman did see positive ramifi
cations of Earle Village. “Some of
the residents did not have hot water
before, the apartments were safer
dwellings than some of the shotgun
houses.’ Some of the houses they left
experienced roof leakings, for ex
ample It was a positive opportuni
ty for some
“But in my case the move was
negative My family had a 17-room
house which to me was beautiful
with a beautiful front yard and
garden in the back The people I had
run to the store for were all moving
away. It was as if a door was being
closed in my face and my entire life
as a child was being disturbed
“I’ve also found out in my re
search for the book," Tillman
continued, "that 90 percent of Ur
ban Renewal involved black neigh
borhoods In First Ward’s case, the
renewal stagnated relationships be
tween blacks and whites (the
present First Ward population is
now 90 percent black, whereas the
population was once integrated
before the 1960s I. Also the renewal
attempted to erase the historical
contributions blacks made to
Charlotte ’’
Black Chemists
To Hold Fundraiser
The National Organization of
Black Chemists and Chemical En
gineers. Charlotte Chapter, will hold
its first fundraiser of the year on
Saturday night, Sp in. until I a m at
the Excelsior Club. Donation is $3
per person, and door prizes will be
awarded.
Calling it “A Night To Remem
ber,” spokesperson Betty McKinney
explained that the proceeds will go
toward the NOBCCE s scholarship
fund Each year, the organization
sends at least one high school
senior to Howard University's
Science Academy The group hopes
to raise enough money to be able to
provide college scholarship funds.