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\ ^The Voice Of The Black Community”
THE CHARLOTTE POST - Thursday, April 30, 1987 Prir«- Kn*
1 ——-1
Dr. Bertha Maxwell
To Speak At
New Mowing Glade
Sunday
For Seniors
Story On Page 7A
Black Coach For
Charlotte's
NBA Team?
Opinions 2A
Jackson
G«orge Shinn
Shinn Speaks
At JCSU
You can hear a true success sto
ry and see the man behind the sto
ry, George Shinn, in person at the
annual Johnson C. Smith Univer
sity Athletic banquet, which will be
held May 4 at 6:30 p.m. in Grimes
Lounge. The donation for the ban-'
quetis $10.
Newspaper accounts have told
the story of the Charlotte business
man who went from the mill to be
ing a millionaire. Other stories
have talked about the poor boy
with a mission. However you label
George. Shinn, the bottom line is
that he is Successful ■if' rSteji -*
Tlfc Kannapolis-born Shinn, in
addition to aU of his recent suc
cesses, is perhaps most pleased at
the success pursuit to bringing an
NBA team to Charlotte,,
for the last two years, Shinn
sought to do what many people
imagined was an impossible feat
and that feat was to sell the NBA
team owners on himself and the
Queen City. On May 22, 1987,
NBA League officials announced
that Charlotte has indeed become
one of the expansion sights for the
NBA. The Queen City rejoiced at
the news and so did Shinn and hiB
associates.
Shinn, in 1974 at the age of 34,
won the Horatio Alger award for
his rags to riches story. That story
and its reward can be told again.
i Tackles Education
By Loretta Manage
Post Staff Writer
Who doesn't have some form of
complaint about the educational
process?
Some say teachers aren't like
they used to be. Teachers com
plain that their job has been re
duced to babysitting posts. And if
there isn't a problem with the cur
riculum, then there's concern
over the methods of discipline im
plemented in the school system.
When the topic of "black stu
dents in education" arises, the
number of concerns increase
multifold. There are unan
swered questions as to why black
students choose regular classes
when they have the ability to excel
in gifted classes. There are un
answered questions as to why
black parental involvement in
the PTA is low. Questions re
main unanswered when it is
asked why young black, teenage
girls who become pregnant have a
high drop out rate. The questions
aren't easy ones, nor are there
any easy solutions.
The Urban League has taken
this educational issue under its
wing and has committed itself to
finding the answers, developing
solutions and making the educa
tional system work for the black
child. Through a,program ap
propriately called the Education
al Initiative, the Urban League
determines to get to the'root of the
problems.
Just recently, the Educational
Initiative Task Force, of the
Charlotte Urban League held a
community meeting,'in which
anyone-parents, students, edu
cators, businesspeople- who was
concerned about the black student
in school system could voice his
or her opinion and offer solutions
to the problems that exist.
Unlike many meetings that
are presided over by individuals
somewhat removed from the prob
lems -at-hand, the people who
were most affected by the educa
tional system, black students as
well as their parents, were given
Ellanor Graves
John Crawford
Madine Fails
Arthur Griffin
the opportunity to speak and to be
heard.
The meeting which was held in
the community room of the
Friendship Baptist Church, al
though small in attendance,
overflowed with ideas offered,
and solutions to as well as the rec
ognition of different problems.
Barbara Davis, chairperson of
the Task Force and opened the
meeting by explaining that the
responsibility of the Task Force
is to take the recommendation
£ that it j^» given then sub/nit tbjyja
recommendations to the Urban
League. "The Task Force
serves as a study group to look
into the problems encountered by
minority students in the Char
lotte-Mecklenburg School System
and to mobilize the community to
work out those problems."
Within the Task Force there
are four subcommittees: 1) Disci
pline, 2) Dropout, 3) Existing ser
vices and 4) Academic Improve
ment. Task Force members, El
lanor Graves, John Maye, Arthur
Griffin, Lynn Barnhardt, Ra
leigh Bynum and John Crawford
were on hand to provide the audi
ence with information on each of
the subcommittees and to seek
feedback from the audience.
Arthur Griffin, a past school
Martin Plays Politics With MLK Holiday
By J&tyne Strong
Poet Managing Editor
A letter approved by Governor
Jim Martin, written and circulat
ed by Richard V. Lee, State Per
sonnel Director, has given rise to
comments that the Governor is
‘playing politics" with the Mar
tin Luther King Jr. holiday in
North Carolina.
On March 25, 1987, the North
Carolina General Assembly ap-'
proved a paid state holiday in
honor of Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr.. Passage of the bill came by a
vote of 11441 in the State House of
Representatives. The holiday
created by the bill will be the thh-d
Monday in January, the same
day as the Federal holiday.
However, on April 8, State Per
sonnel Director Lee distributed a
letter to state employees contain
ing two questions. One of which
was: ‘Do you feel that the Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr. holiday
PAOK •
EDITORIALS 2A
LIFESTYLES 7A
CHURCHNEWS 10A
ENTERTAINMENT IB
SPORTS 6B
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CLASSIFIEDS 14B
Gov. Jim Martin
should be an optional holiday?"
In regard to this specific ques
tion, some North Carolina dti
sens, who wars privy to this letter
called, "foul;" since the question
regarding the holiday had al
ready been decided.
North Caroline Representative
Dan Blue says, "The Governor is
clearly trying to play on people's
reactionary emotions. He's play
ing to the Helm's wing of the Re
publican Party. But it is an act of
futility on the Governor's part.
The legislature is in no mind or
mood to change a law we just
passed."
Emery Rann, Director of Mi
nority Affairs for Governor Mar
tin, says the Governor had no
such intentions when he author
ised Lee's letter. "It was an at
tempt by the governor to get state
employees viewpoint on what day
to substitute for the Martin Luther
King Jr. holiday,* explains
Rann. "The General Assembly
had failed to make that clear."
When the King bill was signed
into law it was required that the
State Personnell Commission,
which sets annual holiday calen
dars for state workers, include
the King holiday beginning next
year and it barred the commis
sion from granting more than the
11 holidays observed in 1986.
The effect was that one of the
existing holidays be substituted.
The bill was amended to require
that Veteran's Day not be dis
carded.
The second question in Lee's
letter did ask which of the State
paid holidays would employees
"be moot willing to give up in fa
vor of the Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr. holiday?"
But it remains that many, par
ticularly black, State dfoens took
offense to tha
first quaetion.
"Tha latter
want out prior to
review by tha
Governor," ;
•ay* Rann. "It
was not hia in
tention to in
timidate or ha
rass.”
Bruce
Lightnar, co
chairman of
_mi
tha atatawtda Martin Luther King
Celebration Committa, aaid Mar
tin baa picked tha wrong aactors
of tha community for a fight.
Lightner aaid racism was tha mo
tive, "if not by tha governor him
self, than by Ids people in the Per
sonnel Commission and...the di
See Martin on Pag* SA
board member and businessman
gave remarks on the topic of ex
isting services. His comments
about such existing services as
pre-school, counseling, scouting
brought about a lively discussion
on the subject of the low parental
involvement in the PTA. Recom
mendations to improve that situa
tion ran the gamut from provid
•. :___
ing transportation for parents, to
bringing the PTA meetings to the
community. Parents- feeling of
intimidation was another factor
brought out that could possibly be
attributed to low parental involve
ment.
As co-chairperson of the aca
demic improvement subcommit
tee, Ellanor Graves cited that the
thrust of her group is to define and
identify, the nature and extent of
achievement among black stu
dents.
"We want to know the average
gpa (grade point average) of the
graduating, black student. We
want to know how many black
Soe Urban on Page 5A
The Charlotte Black Media Association recently
awarded The Charlotte Pont with the Image Award
in memory of late publisher Bill Johnson. Stand
ing from left to right is A1 Wheeler, BMA presi
dent, Bob Johnson, co-publisher of The Post and
Cal Thorton, manager of WPEG and WGIV radio
stations.
MCEP Program To Increase Minorities
In State Government
Special To The Post
By Nellie Riley
Director Equal Opportunity
Services Division
Like all employers, North Caro
lina state government is interested
in attracting highly qualified and
motivated individuals to become
employees. This becomes a diffi
cult task, however, when recruit
ing protected group individuals
especially minorities, due to their
higher percentages of limited
availability and/or experience.
The Model Cooperative Educa
tion Program (MCEP) was esta
blished to address recruitment dif
ficulties and problems of under
representation in state govern
ment. The MCEP is part of the
state's total strategy aimed at in
creasing the representation of mi
norities and women in and
throughout the workforce. It is
specifically designed to increase
the supply of minority and female
job candidates for position classifi
cations and occupational catego
Stroud Foundation
Develops Computer
Learning Center
The Anita Stroud Foundation
Board of Directors has authorized
the creation of a computerized
teaming resource center to com
plement the Foundation's existing
tutorial reading program.
The learning resource center
will be housed in a portion of new
space recently acquired from The
Housing Authority in an adjacent
building to the Anita Stroud Youth
Development Center. This newly
acquired space will,allow the en
rollment in the existing program
to increase by 80% to approxi
mately 78 kids," says Allan King,
chairman of the Foundation
Board.
The learning resource center
will initially house six IBM person
al computers to be used with
IBM's "Writing to Read" and other
programs. 8ays Mr. King, "The
Board is very excited about the
creation of this program while re
alizing that it represents a substan
tial financial commitment." One
Board member said, "If it helps the
kids to learn and the teachers to
teach, let's do it!"
The Foundation acknowledges
with great appreciation the assis
tance of IBM, Southern Bell, The
Foundation for the Carolines, and
the City of Charlotte Housing Au
thority toward the creation of this
center.
ries where they are found to be
underrepresented in the state
workforce.
During a reception honoring
the first students in the Model
Cooperative Education Program,
Governor Martin indicated that
the state wanted to attract some of
the brightest and most talented
students to state service. The
MCEP ofTers the state a vehicle to
compete with other employers as
well as an opportunity to establish
links with institutions of higher ed
ucation. These institutions can
then serve as referral source for
the recruitment of qualified mi
nority or female applicants.
The Model Cooperative Educa
tion Program, like other coopera
tive education programs, allows
students to alternate formal aca
demic study with periods of prac
tical work experience in business,
industry, government, or service
organisations, students are placed
in Jobe that relate to their academ
ic major fields of study and are
given an opportunity to augment.'
and enhance their academic prep
aration for future post-graduate
employment through work exper- ; <
ience. In many instances, it pro
vides the student with that com
petitive edge eo necessary in to
‘ day’s tight labor market.
Ae an employer, the state realis
es s number of benefits from the £
program. One of the most compel- ♦
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8m MCEP Program on Page €A --