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THE CHARLOTTE POST - Thursday, June 19. 1986 ~ Price- 40 Cents
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.XXXJ_i_A_I
I Comes Close To
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; Capturing Lead
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.Store manager
Into Outstanding Career
By Jalyne Strong >
Poat Staff Writer
■fj' From an Inexperienced beginning
this week’s beauty, Peggy Johnson,
has accomplished an outstanding
J career in sales. Today she is the
manager of the Radio Shack store in
Cotswakl Shopping Center. She Is, in
fact, die only black female, Radio
Shack manager in the city.
A native of Chester, S.C., Peggy
arrived in Charlotte about 17 months
• ago looking for work. "There’s
limited professional work In a
small town, South Carolina,” claims
• P***y Once here, she searched for
a Job for two months then a neigh
bor suggested she try Radio Shack.
“I had virtually no experience with
retail sales,” Peggy recalls. "But I
interviewed with District Manager
Joe Columbus, a great sales
mptivator, and he gave me a
chance.’’
Peggy started her career as a
salesperson at the Radio Shack in
the Radisson Mall and, after that, at
the store at Park Road Shopping
Center Based on her performance,
she was promoted to the position of
maruger-tn-tndmfW at Eastland
MaO and finally she wea elevated to
manager at the Cotewold location.
Describing herself as a “aalf
made person,’* this week’s beauty
says Mie became a “hot” sales
paraon in eatence because, as she
enlstai, “I’ve always had a lot of
self confidence. I’ve also believed
there aren’t too many things I can’t
jJ: •
“You have to be very aggressive,”
Piggy explains about her Job. “Bo'
that’s part of my personality I’m
not afraid of people. I have, what the
Ufa l« not a having and a
CMting, but a being and a
I
French call, ‘savoir faire.’’’
And it has paid off for this young
lady who has achieved not only
monetary gain but has, additionally,
won a trip to the Bahamas for
having more sales than any other
Radio Shack employee in the region
for a two-month period. And Peggy
recently returned from Fort Worth,
Tx., on an extensive training
session. While there, she met the
people who run the Tandy Corpora
tion, which owns Radio Shack
Stores. She was selected for the
session by her district manager.
Heaping success upon success in
her career, this 30-year-old young
woman feels that now, “There’s
nothing I can’t do. It takes a lot of
stamina to be in this type of
business. You have to be able to
bounce back and not take things
personally”
Indicative of the stamina neces
sary in Peggy’s line of work is the 50
to 60-hour work week she puts in,
with only Sundays off. But Peggy
says she never liked routine any
way. And she especially enjoys
"writing my own ticket."
Recommending this type of work
to "aggressive black women and
men who want to get ahead,” Peggy
allows, "You have to be willing to
put In a lot of hours and a lot of hard
work. Yet I believe a lot of good
comes out of a lot of hard work.”
She has hardly a minute to spare
but when she does unwind. Peggy
says she’s a "private” type of
person who prefers to spend time
with bar brother and his family, who
live in Charlotte. She says he and his
wife and children have been very
supportive of her career.
in mm
mcriflct"
Peggy Is undoubtedly a multi
faceted individual on the move. And
for those of you interested in getting
the most out of life, she advisee.
“Don’t be afraid to try new iMi«s!
Have a lot of confidence becauM the
next person is no better th
Always take the opportunity
arises.” y! ” 'rv
From "Peace Officers^ To Police Officers
Charlotte’s Black Patrolmen
Are Finally Making Progress
By Jalyne Strong
Post Staff Writer
A white man under the influence of
alcohol staggers down a downtown
Charlotte sidewalk and comes upon
the only black policeman walking
the downtown beat. Spurred on by
alcohol induced bravado and pre
judice the white man shouts,
‘‘Nigger! You’re not going to arrest
me!” To this, the black patrolman
responded, “I hadn’t thought about
it but now«if seems a good idea.”
‘‘Well, we’re going to fight right
here.’V the white man slurs.
Unavonably, a brawl ensued.
^LThis same black policeman when
'jjaprehending a young black than for
MWme in a black community is
J^ffed at by the youth. “You can’t
me when you can’t afaest whites?”
The young black man continues his
taunts as he is led to jail.
“I caught a lot of flak from whites,
blacks and my white co-workers,”
admits Officer Tracey “T.C.”
Barrett recalling these separate
job-related incidents from his past.
“I just took it as part of the job. I
knew I had a task to perform to the
best of my ability.”
For Barrett and all the black men
who became police officers in
Charlotte during the early 1960s,
frustrating occurrences such as told
by Barrett were par for the course.
During this time of the first inte
gration of the Charlotte Police force,
black law-keepers worked in a
no-man’s land: hated and dis
criminated against by the white
established officers, disregarded by
white citizens and distrusted by
black citizens.
These were the conditions when
Barrett joined the Charlotte Police
Department. He was one of the only
15 black police officers on the
Charlotte law enforcement team at
that time.
The first black officer accepted in
the Charlotte Police Department
was Armstead "Bud” Houston. He
was hired In 1941. "At that time
black officers were called ‘Peace
Officers.’ They could only work in
certain areas of Charlotte and they
weren't under Civil Service rules
and regulations," explains Barrett.
“They were hired on a yearly basis
and received very little training.”
First in series
By the time Barrett joined the
police force in 1965 not much had
changed “Black police had been
changed to regular officers in 1946,
yet they were still restricted," he
cites. “The only two areas black
officers could work in Charlotte
were the black areas: Brooklyn
First Ward and the Beatties Ford
Oaklawn area."
It was also rumored at this time,
says Barrett, that black officers
could not arrest whites violating the
law. Black officers, indeed, would
not have much opportunity to arrest
whites since they solely worked
keCpVands off was still ImpHe§ to
Barrett, himself. He remembers,
“One of my lieutenants did not say I
could not arrest whites Though he
did say to me, before doing such,
‘use horsesense.’ Which meant be
careful, take a second thought.” The
same warning did not apply to
blacks though. “Definitely not,”
assured Barrett.
As time went by Barrett became a
“first black” on the Charlotte police
force. He was the first black to
integrate the downtown walking
beat in 1965. Then in 1969 he was the
first black to integrate patrol cars.
Nonetheless, the Charlotte Police
Department did not boldly thrust a
black face among its more visible
law enforcement officers. In fact,
when Barrett was walking the down
town beat he was relegated to the
midnight shift. And his partner in
the "integrated” patrol car was an
Indian “going for white,” Barrett
claims. Plus they were assigned to
patrol the Oaklawn area first. “To
see how we were going to be
accepted," Barrett maintains.
Gradually black police were
placed in patrols around the city, so
that by the early 1970s the dif
ferent police areas were almost
fully integrated. Yet things were
still not all well for the black
Charlotte policemen.
“In the 1940s there was one black
police sergeant, named T.G. Nash
He at first could only supervise
Negro officers. Eventually, he wore
a uniform, got paid, but had no
Officer Tracey “T.C.” Barrett
.Integrated downtown beat
authority at all," states Barrett.
After Nash retired in 1967, there
were no blacks in supervisory
positions.
It was due to this circumstance
that the North State Law Enforce
ment Officer’s Association filed a
class action suit against the City of
Charlotte Police Department for
discrimination of hiring, promotions
and other working conditions of
black officers. There were 21 black
police officers on the force at this
time They were all patrol officers
no detectives and no supervisors
The North State Law Enforce
ment Officer’s Association
< NSLEOA) was first organized in
1952 in Durham, N.C. It was first
called the Negro North State and its
purpose was to unite black officers
in N.C. Additionally, blacks were
barred from white officer associa
tions at that time.
In 1971, North State filed the first
class action suit against the City of
Charlotte Police Department. It
wasn’t until 197-1. that the City
accepted an out of court agreement.
Relates Barretts, "It was agreed
that the department would find at
least six qualified blacks and
promote them to the rank of
sergeant in sOven days Also, it
would begin hiring blacks on a 50-50
scale with whites for one year and
after that blacks at fio percent and
whites at 40 percent until the
department was 20 percent black,
based on the ratio of the black
population of the city then ”
See BRACK PORK KMAN I'.ige HA
National Teacher* Exam
Why Are Black Teachers
Failing?
By Audrey C. Lodato
Peat Staff Writer
Educator* are still theorizi^ why
more than 00 percent of the HI
blacks who took the National
Teacher* Examination (NTE) in
North Carolina last October failed
the teat. This la In striking con
trast to the leee than 10 percent
failure rata for whites
What’s going on hare?
One possibility offered by a
Charlotte-Meek ion burg principal
and echoed by someone who took
and failed- the test four years ago is
that some schools Specifically leach
what they know will be on tha test.
William Blakeney, principal at
Coulwood Middle School,
commented, “Different schools'
curriculum are geared to the test,
while others’ are not. If all had
access to the same type of informa
tion. there would be no problem
Blakeney further suggested that
some black colleges and universities
might not “know the right people” to
advise them with regard to focusing
their cwriculum on areas tha NTE
win cover.
When Blakeney took the exam ia
1948, In South Carolina, it was a new
m_
teat, and everyone he knew paaeed
it If there waa any difference in
scores between blacks and whttea, it
was not publicised, he said. One
difference he noted In the test as It
was administered at that time was
that, instead of just pass" or
"fall,” the exam allowed for two
£_
teveto of certificate*, with the higher
"A” certificate commanding a
Mgher salary. Anyone who made a
MB” could take the taet again to try
for an "A."
A young non-public school
teacher, who requested to remain
anMymous. took the teat twice and
failed both times She,expressed the
opinion that "white schools are
taught the test." She attended
Fayetteville State, with a ma)or in
early childhood
There was a lot on the exam,
which she took four years ago, that
she hadn’t seen before, she recalled,
adding "It’s something you can’t
study for. Some people are a whir a
tests, but I’m not."
She said that the test covered two
major areas, basic coursework like
math and English, "similar to the
SAT, but harder”; and the area of
the student’s major.
She said she did better in the
second part, which measured her
professional knowledge
She added that some people she
has spoken with feel the test Is
biased because some of the material
was not being taught in Mack
schools before Integration
‘‘They’re toeing a lot of good
teachers who can’t pass the teat/' ■
she remarked
This year’s Charlotte-Meckleh
burg "Teacher of the Year for the
East-West area, Sherrill Coutourler.
took the test back in mi.
See BLACK TEACHERS Rage HA