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;■ . ■_"The l (tire Of The Mack <Annnnuiitx " call 374-0496
■Volume 12, Number 4 „ , _ THE CHARLOTTE POST - Thursday. June 26. 1986 Price. 4Q Cents
Dun st on
See Section
"Church worker " Contest
Enters Finnl Two Wooks
Of Competition
Stories On Pages 16, 17, 18B
Nia Anderson
.Carving out career
Anderson Chooses Friends
As Opposed To Going Out
By Jalyne Strong
Post Staff Writer
Twenty-one-year-old Nia
* Anderson is carving out a career for
herself in the dental industry.
Though, as she points out, there
aren’t many blacks in the field, Nia
has taken up the challenge and is
going against the odds.
She is a dental assistant working
for local dentist, Dr. Gwyn Davis.
Nia describes her job as “helping
the dentist prepare patients and
assisting the dentist with instru
ments and such.’’
Nia trained for the position by
taking Central Piedmont Communi
ty College’s one-year Dental Assist
ant course. She was the only black
student in the class, ttiree days
after she completed her studies she
went to work for Dr. Davis.
"I like my Job,'' assures Nia. "Dr.
Davis keeps my busy.” Nia pursued
dental aselstantshlp in the beginning
primarily because she felt it would
be a challenge. She’s found, how
ever, that the work is not really hard
yet it requires diligence. ‘‘It’s con
sistent type of work,” explains this
week’s beauty. “You have to know
. what’s next-anticipate what the
■dentist wants done. You have to be
/ vary aware of what’s going on when
handling a patient.”
* j. Now that she has this type of
^Experience, Nia haa her sight set
on another component of dentistry.
She’s planning to attend Durham
Technical to study Dental lab
ris strong wno conquers
• others; he who conquers himself
Is minify
/
t ' vlirtsRZ yifr *• > '1*
Technology. “I like to work with
my hands so I think it will be a good
field for me,” she says. The fact that
Nia admits preferring to work alone
is conducive to working in a dental
laboratory setting.
Nia describes herself as a
"private” individual who’s not very
outgoing or social. She likes most
her own company or the company of
close friends as opposed to going out
a lot. With a smile, she reveals she’s
“self-centered.” Which is her way of
saying she's very “independent "
For relaxation, Nia enjoys cross
stitch. She mostly decorates pillows
and is right now working on a set of
pillows for the Johnson C. Smith
football team.
A former gTahplc arts major, this
week’s beauty also makes car signs
in her spare time. She hand-paints
the signs with an air brush.
Nia also likes bike riding and she’s
learning to play pool. She’s looking
forward to learning to play tennis
and racquetball.
The youngest in her family, Nia
has one brother Henry and one sister
Betty. She says it’s no big deal
being the so-called "baby” in the
family. “My brother gets all the
attention anyway because hte’s the
only guy,” Nia laughs.
She has great admiration for her
mother, Geneva Durant, who, Nia
says, “is always doing some
thing. She caters, sews, snd
organizes things. And she gets
things done on her own without
anyone helping her."
If she could have the one thing she
wsnts above all else, this young lady
claims it would be “the chance to go
to school without any financial
problems.'’ Nia says when ah* does
go away to school she's going to miss
“going in her house and opening the
refrigerator '' JCven so, she's still
anxious to get out on her own, though
she believes her mother doesn’t
want her to leave.
When Nia finishes school and has a
few more years of experience, her
ultimate ambition Is to own a dental
fab and have lota of clients.
“The time Is now to discover what
you can do,” offers Nia in advice to
other young people. She implies
there la no excuse for giving up on
one’s goals. And she oondudes.
“Rely on yourself nof other people
Bill Johnson’s Key Motivation
Was To Make A Difference
By Audrey C. Lodato
Post Staff Writer
"His key motivation was to make
a difference.”
That’s how Gerald 0. Johnson
described the driving force behind
his father, the late Willie L.
“Bill" Johnson.
Johnson was owner and publisher
of the Charlotte Post for 12 years. He
died June 20, 1986, after a three
month bout with leukemia
Newspapering was in the man’s
blood, according to his son. While
working full time for the United
States Post Office (he was the first
black to serve as a mail carrier in
Charlotte), Johnson also worked
part time as a reporter for several
newspapers, including the Charlotte
Observer, the Charlotte News, the
Afro-American, and the Norfolk
Journal and Guide.
Johnson was bom in Laurence,
SC, on March 7, 1918. He attended
Second Ward High School in Char
lotte and earned a bachelor’s degree
In journalism from the United States
Armed Forces Institute. He did
additional study, through the
Newspaper Institute of America.
In 1947, Johnson began his Post
Office career, from which he retired
about 1972
Johnson was the first known black
to work for a white daily news
Rill Johnson
.Editor-Publisher
paper in the area. During the
mid-fifties, he covered sports at
Johnson C. Smith University and the
local black high schools for the
Charlotte Observer and the
Charlotte News
He went on to serve as sports
information director at Smith in the
late fifties and early sixties
After his involvement with the
Queen City Gazette, a business
venture that folded in the sixties,
Johnson began working for the Post.
After he retired from the Post
Office, Johnson was managing
editor of the paper under Garland
Atkins, who bought the paper when
Dr Tross died Johnson then bought
it from Atkins in 1974
Gerald Johnson recalled, "When
he got into all the black news
papers, it became his dream to own
one."
Johnson believed in being in
volved in his community Besides
keeping his paper involved in the
goings-on of Charlotte's black
citizenry, he took an active part in a
variety of community organiza
tions. He w-i •> member of the West
Charlotte Lions Club, the YMCA
board, the As ouation for Sickle Cell
Disease, and the William E
Robinson Post 7775 of the Veterans
of Foreign Wars
He also served on two boards of
the Small Business Administration
and was active in fundraising for
Johnson C Smith
Johnson is survived by three sons
and three grandchildren
“Freedom Riders 1986” Witness Victories
One of the most important elec
tions of the decade took place
recently in the Alabama Black Belt.
At stake were numerous political
offices held by black elected offi
cials in 10 key black-majority
counties. Also at stake were the
progressive gains which have been
made in that area over the past
several years.
The area is often referred to as
"the cradle of the civil rights
movement.” It is here that many
lost their lives in the determined
struggle for the right to vote. It is
here that Jimmie Lee Jackson and
Viola Liuzzo were killed during the
Selma to Montgomery March in
1965. It is also near here that four
little black children were bombed in
a Birmingham church in 1963
The June 3 primary was the
area’s first election since a Justice
Department investigation targeted
the black leadership of those five
counties with the largest number of
black elected officials: Greene,
Perry, Sumter, Lowndes and
Wilcox. Local citizens had charged
that the Investigation was launched
to decrease black voter turnout in
the upcoming elections.
m an errort to counter the chill
ing effect of that investigation, the
Commission for Racial Justice of the
1.7 million-member United Church
of Christ began a “Freedom Riders
1986” campaign. Over the last four
months the Commission took more
than 100 freedom riders, hailing
from several states, to Alabama to
work on voter mobilization
According to the Rev. Benjamin
F. Chavis Jr., the Commission's
Executive Director, the aim of the
group was to beer witness with those
who had been intimidated by the
Justice Department investigation, to
mobilize Mack voters and to moni
tor the primary election. In Alaba
ma the group Joined with other
freedom workers who had also come
from across the country to assist in
the election.
As Dr. Chavis told a church con
gregation two days before the
election, “I don’t have to come from
New York or Washington, DC, or
anywhere else to tell you how to
vote. You know how to vote. I’m here
In the time of the Lord only to make
sure that you do vote We are called
Speaking at a voter mobilization prayer vigil in
Greene Co.. Ala.. It Rev. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr..
Executive Director of the Commlttion for Racial
Justice of the 1.7 million-member United Church of
Christ. With him Is Splver Gordon (I). the long-time
Greene Co. civil rights leader, who, along with other
key Civil rights leadership, was the target of a Justice
Department Investigation Rev. Chavis took over ion
community organizers as part of the "Freedom Riders
IMA" campaign to Alabama to mobilize black voters,
most recently tor the June orfmary. Numerous black
elected officials, Including Sen. Sanders, were
re-elected in that primary. (Photo by Gene Young)
on June 3 to practice our faith by not
giving into the powers of evil and
staying home, but by coming out and
having a joyous day."
As a result of strong grass roots
political organization and with the
assistance of concerned volunteers
from throughout the U S. key
political poets were retained in the
hands of black office holders. One
election centered around the seat of
Incumbent black State Senator
Hank Sanders Sen. Sanders, a
dedicated civil rights attorney, was
the first black state senator elected
from the western Alabama Black
Belt in over 100 years. He was first
elected in 1903.
Sen. Sanders won with 50 percent
of the vote. In analyzing his vic
tory he noted, "My opponent was so
busy consolidating the white vote
that he unwittingly helped us con
solidate the black vote." Sen
Sanders' opponent, Andrew M
Hayden, had said in an interview
that his candidacy offered white
voters their first opportunity to vote
for a black candidate who would
represent their interests
Yet the hard struggles of the Civil
Rights Movement are still deeply
ingrained in the consciousness of the
Alabama Black Belt. At a prayer
vigil in Greene County where Dr
Chavis spoke the Saturday before
the election, Mrs Juanita Walton
and her husband Lewis Walton
spoke of the way it was before the
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Mrs Walton reflected, "I went
through a lot of trouble to get
registered back before the Voting
Rights Act. Two white people had to
sign the application form for you
back then in order for blacks to get
registered That's why the vote is so
important to me now. It makes
me feel really important It makes
me feel like I'm on the level with the
ones that think they're on top ”
The Waltons, both In their 70s, have
been community organizers in
Greene County since the early
1960s
The election in Greene County was
particularly important as it took
place in the wake of continued
Federal and state intimidation of
black voters. In fact, while the
Freedom Riders were in Alabama
an FBI agent conspicuously drove
See Freedem On Page IIA
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