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Volume Zl _THE CHARLOTTE POST - Thursday, January 2, 1986 Price- 10 Cents
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Story On Page 11A
Miller
Story On Page 2A
patients and helping them through
dental care,” she relates. An im
portant part of her duties involves
teaching people the basics of dental
hygiene.
But her weekends are still “her
time” and Floresa puts them to good
use. Her favorite leisure activities
include camping, tennis, basketball
and snow skiing. “I’m a sports
fanatic," she confesses.
Siding is great fun, tells Floresa.
She usually goes to Snow Shoe in
West Virginia or Beech /*'
Mountain in North Carolina for the
activity. It’s meeting many different
people on the slopes that Floresa
finds most enjoyable in this par
ticular hobby. “I just wish more
blacks would get interested in
skiing,” she expresses.
Floresa says she is “friendly,” she
likes to talk and stay on the go. She .
especially enjoys going to church. “I
like sharing Christ with others,” she
points out, “Jlo let people know we
need spiritual as well as physical
enrichment."
What Floresa has learned through
spiritual enrichment is, she points
out, “the act of building people up.”
This is very Important to her since
the has observed that “blacks tend
to downgrade each other.
“Instead we need to empower
each other,” she asserts.
—
_* V 'J
Memory if thf truaiirj and
guardian of all thiagr
S3 percent of Meek children lived in
one-perent families in 1934, the
mother being the lone parent in 99
percent of them. One out of six whit*
children end one of every four His
panic children lived with one pa
rent. .
Mothers in black families where
they are the only parent are more
likely then Meek two-parent fami
lies to here a lower family Income,
to be unemployed or not in the labor
force, to be taoo educated, to live to
cities to rent their living quarter*,
end to have another adult in the
In marrtad-oouple black famines,
13 percent of the children hed e
parent with four or more years of
college compared with four percent
of children living with their mothers
ontv
Other findings from the report
ni«cK enup ui n one-parent
families ware most likely to be littrg
with e parent who hed never mar
ried, while white children were most
likely to be Hving with a divorced
parent ’ ■
' f-' * • , *]/ * >'
One of the people this week's
beauty most admires is gospel
singer, Andre Crouch. “There’s
something in his music that inspires
me and means a lot to me,” she
describes.
Twenty-eight-year-old Floresa has
two brothers, who are both min
isters, and two sisters, one of which
is a minister. “We all love the
Lord,” she enthuses.
Her parents, Frank and Barbara
Edwards, are “the greatest in the
world,” according to Floresa. “They
were strict and when I was younger
and I didn't understand and didn't
want to listen. But when you’re out
on your own it all comes back to
you to help you out.”
Her goal for the future is “to be
the best dental assistant I can be,
with Jesus first in all," Floresa
relates
Finally, asked her advice for
others, she quotes Proverbs 3:5,
“Trust in the I,ord and lean not on
thy own understanding but in all thy
ways acknowledge Jesus Christ and
he will direct your path.”
“That,” concludes Floresa, "is
good advice for everybody.”
According To Graves j
HacksWiDWalklighti'ope
Special To The Post
“We have good reason to be
•pessimistic about the nation's
financial health.” reports the Black
Enterprise Board of Economists in
its Annual Economic Outlook for
Black America in the January issue
of Black Enterprise magazine.
The Board predicts that the
economy will grow slower than
necessary to keep black unemploy
ment from rising in 1986 Dr
Andrew F. Brimmer, a Washington
based consultant and a former
governor of the Federal Reserve
Board, forecasts a rise in overall
unemployment from 7.3 percent to
7.5 percent, but for blacks the rise
will be from roughly 15.7 percent to
16.1 percent.
Part of this increase is due to the
emergence of “discouraged
workers,” people who just stop
looking for jobs. Dr. Bernard E
Anderson, a Black Enterprise
Economist and a visiting fellow for
public and international affairs at
Prince Irow
WUsoh the
the lar . . toyed
black young adult?.
Dr Margaret Simms, a guest
economist and director of the
Minorities and Social Policy
Program at the Washington-based
Urban Institute, concurs with Dr.
Earl Graves
.Black Enterprise publisher
Anderson. “There is growing
evidence that unemployed teenagers
who remain jobless as young adults
may never become a permanent
part of thp labor force,” says
Simms. '•
As unemployment grows, so will
the gap between the black middle
class and the black poor
Another problem facing black
Americans is the looming trade
deficit, which the Black Enterprise
Board expects to climb as high as
$165 billion in 1986.
"While the overwhelming
majority of jobs in this country are
insulated from the impact of the -
trade imbalance, many black _ .'
American workers who are dis
proportionately employed in
industries adversely affected by .
imports will continue to be harmed r
by the foreign trade deficit,” says '
Dr Brimmer “By contrast, blacks {
have a smaller proportion of the jobs *\
in industries where U S exports «
remain strong ” *
Brimmer recommends a sizable >'
tax increase and less federal ; ‘
spending to counter the deficit. A
cutback in spending would lead to a
drop in interest rales which would,
in turn, lower the value of the dollar. ;
cut imports, and stimulate exports. ’ -
The Board also took note of a
decline in available investment
capital, which will lead to fewer
black entrepreneurs. One solution,
suggests Black Enterprise Pub-'.'
lisher Earl G. Graves, is for estab- -
lished black businessmen to form ■ _
“emergency equal opportunity
control bojfrdST“tb finance
businesses.
“The access to capital remains the
number one roadblock to minority
business development today.”
asserts Graves. "New answers to
the problems are not needed What
See BLACKS On Page 1A
Cunningham Enters District 59 Race
By Audrey C. Lodato
Post Staff Writer
Friday at 12:30 William “Pete”
Cunningham makes it official. At
that time, he'll announce his can
didacy for the North Carolina House
seat being vacated by Representa
tive Jim Richardson.
Richardson is leaving the State’s
House of Representatives to seek
election to the Senate from District
33, a seat presently held by Mel
Watt. Senator Watt announced last
week that he is not running for
reelection so that he can spend more
time with his family.
Richardson’s present seat is
House District 59
This will be Cunningham’s first
bid for elective office. “I’ve been
asked to run the past four years,” he
remarks, "but I was quite satisfied
with the candidates who were run
ning. After Mel Watt decided he
wasn’t going to run, people
approached me to run for the House
if Jim Richardson ran for the
Senate."
Although Cunningham has not
held public office, he brings to the
race a variety of business experi
ences and community involvements
which may very well make him a
candidate to be reckoned with.
A Union County native.
Cunningham attended Johnson C.
Smith University After serving 20
years in the Navy, he retired to
Charlotte in 1973 In 1984, he re
tired from his personnel business,
Hatchett and Cunningham
Associates, which specialized in re
cruiting professional and technical
personnel for Fortune 500 companies
nationwide.
At present, Cunningham is presi
dent of Affordable Used Cars, a
business which he says was designed
to give him freedom. The busi
ness, he notes, would not be a
hindrance to his ability to serve in
Proposed Education Bill Leaves
i.
Many Questions Unanswered
By Audrey C. Lodato
Post Staff Writer
Three weeks ago, U.S. Secretary
of Education William J Bennett
unveiled a new education bill, the
Equity and Choice Act of 1965. Under
the proposed bill, low Income
parents would be able to receive
voucher* worth 1600 to be ueed for
their children's education. The
vouchers could be used to seek
remedial help, to send their children
to private schools, or to transfer
them to other public schools in the
system
According to conservative black
columnist Thomas Sowell, half the
low-income children covered in the
proposal ara Mack. Also according
to Sowell, the proposed legislation
gives low-income families the same
educational choices available to the
more affluent “Private schools, “he
wrote, "are producing better
educational results - especially for
Mack children - at far lower coats '
Support for the bill In the
Charlotte Mecklenburg area teams
fluaraen at rxm. Ninth District
Congressman Alex McMiUan Is still
studying Uie blM Among the
unanswered questions, said
McMillan’s administrative assistant
1
Rep. A lei McMillan
.. Ninth Dili. Congressman ,
* v X
Frank Mil. are what effect the MU
might have on the puMk schools and
how to insure that those targeted for
help actually get the vouchers
' y- .■ 11 £
“Congressman McMillan la
supportive of quality education.
HiU said, "Mil this Is a new oewcept
The gray area between pubik and
private education needs to be
defined We need to be clear about
where the money la going The
> . r
D.G. Martin
Congrrsatenal hopeful
Congressman la supportive of public
education and wants to be sure
things are done equitably”
McMillan's likely opponent for Ms
Congressional seat later this year,
Charlotte attorney D.G. Martin, also
sees several problems with the
proposal The legislation, stated
Martin, would "create a tremendous
drain on Chapter I funds which
See PROPOSED Oa Page ISA
' * t
Mil *' -.r-' .;o
William "Pete" ( unninghum
— First hid for office
Raleigh.
Cunningham’s community in
volvements are numerous. He's
been chairman of the trustee board
of Parkwood Institutional CME
Church for II years and also
co-chairs the church's benevolent
fund
He cochairs the board of direc
tors of the Genial Gene Potts
Foundation
He's a member of the Charlotte
Mecklenburg Black Caucus, the
Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club,
the Johnson C Smith Alumni
Association, the NAACP. and the
ACLU
He was founding president of the
Charlotte Business League, a group
which insured minority participa
tion in the building of the airport",
co-chairman of the City Water and
Sewer Bond Committee this pa$t
fall; and past board member of the *'
Charlotte Chamber of Commerce
He's also a contributor to the hot .
lunch program for the elderly
Cunningham sees a number of
concerns that need to be addressed
by the legislature over the n! •
couple of years One of his priori- *
ties would be to continue the work,
begun by Jim Richardson concerfp ! •
ing the city's ability to enact its own
M WBE program.
He would alto tike to see toe at
school boards have greater author}* '
ty in issuing their own contracts for ;
repairs and purchases, rather than
' leaving the state to regulate the.
. larger contracts. "This would give '
greater opportunities to small
businesses, especially minority
business,"' he elsinn.
The candidate says he's concert
See CUNNINGHAM Oa Page 4A