Page 2A - THE CHARLOTTE POST - Thursday, March 17, 1988
Black Leadership Oi^amzation Gives First Awards At Banquet
By William James Brock
Post Staff Writer
'Tonight is more exciting than
the Grammy’s," said Dr. Paula
Newsome, as she prepared to
announce the winners of the
first Focus On Leadership
awards. "So many people did so
much good work—1 know it was
difficult to select the winners. To
me, they were aU winners."
Bob and Gerald Johnson, co-
publishers of The Charlotte
Post, were among the thirteen
people who received awards for
community service and achieve
ment in categories ranging from
arts to politics and religion. The
awards banquet was held last
Friday at McDonald's Cafeteria
on Beatties Ford Road. More
than 300 people paid $15 a
plate to attend the awards din
ner.
"Rockin' Ray" Gooding, a WBT
radio personality, served as
moderator of the Focus On
Leadership awards banquet.
The veteran announcer kept the
banquet hall In a light mood
throughout the dinner festivi
ties.
"Everybody In the room
seems to be running for some
thing," Gooding quipped after in
troducing several notable politi
cal candidates among the
night's guests. "When dinner is
over. I'm going to start running
for the South Carolina border."
In addition to the Johnson
brothers, twelve other people
were honored with FOL awards.
In order of appearance on the
program:
Teklta Lockhart, Jonathan
Smith, La Shanda Staton-
YOUTH AWARD
Richard Campbell-
RELIGIOUS AWARD
Rebecca Sturgis Taylor-
POLITICS AWARD (posthu
mous presentation)
Dr. Melvin Pinn-HUMAN
SERVICE AWARD
James Underwood-
PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT
AWARD
I
Robert Washington
Robert Johnson, Gerald Johnson and Paula Newsome (standing left
to right).
John Crawford
Michelle Thomas and Roosevelt Gfudner.
Photos by M. L. LANEY
Kevin Patterson, Ray Gooding, Sarah Stevenson and James Ferguson
(left to right).
John Crawford-
EDUCATION AWARD
Mary Battle-BUSINESS/
ENTREPRENEUR AWARD
Eleanor Jones Washington-
COMMUNITY SERVICE
Tony Feimster-ART
AWARD.
The aforementioned Johnsons
won the Media Award for
"keeping the black community
constructively Informed."
Focus On Leadership came
into being in January 1988. It is
the result of a three-year dream
of former City Council member
Ron Leeper.
The program consists of 18
classes involving leadership
skills. Participants pay $25 to
take the course, according to
FOL president Kevin Patterson.
This includes such topics as
black history, black family rela
tionships and business and p>o-
litlcal leadership in the commu
nity. The series of seminars are
held at Johnson C. Smith Uni
versity.
'The achievement awards
be an annual event," Patterson
said. 'The banquet tickets, i^ro-
gram ads and banquet sponsor
ships generate about 80% of bur
operating budget at present." 1
Dianne Barnett, one of those
who bought the $15 tickets,
thinks that FOL is a good thing
for blacks. !
"It gives us a way to develop
the community leaders of to
morrow," Barnett said. "Up to
now it was just a shake- out sit-
uation--with people vying for
leadership on a leam-as-you-go
basis." Barnett is with the Char
lotte office of BarclaysAmeri-
can.
Michelle Thomas echoed
those sentiments.
'We need the black role models
like Harvey Gantt, Laura Me-
Clettie and Ron Leeper," Thomas
said.
"This also helps identify
emerging young leaders like Al
fred Glover and Sonya Me-
Claughlin."
The FOL awards banquet was
not all seriousness and black
robes.- Robert Washington, who
appeared as a surrogate for his
honoree wife, brought down the
house with a joke about his sex
life.
Roosevelt Gardner, a Republi
can candidate for District 2
Mecklenburg County Commis
sion, managed to crash the ban
quet. And then insisted the mod
erator introduce him along with !
the other candidates at the gala
affair.
, Economic Sanctions Campaign In N.Y.
Continued From Page 2A
grade.
--- In Wake County, there are
356 black students in programs
for those identlfled by the state
as academically gifted — about
2 percent of the black enroll
ment. That compares to 6,439
whites Identlfted by the state as
gifted, or about 15 percent of the
white enrollment. Placement in
such classes is based in large
part on achievement test scores.
The problems have persisted
despite the promises that ac
companied integration.
" Black students now have ac
cess to more books, more micro
scopes and better-prepared
teachers," said Lloyd V. Hackley,
chancellor of Fayetteville State
University and former Univer
sity of North Carolina system
vice president.
"Still, they are not doing abso
lutely or relatively better,"
Hackley said.
But William Peek, senior asso
ciate state superintendent, said
there had been improvements
for all children since integra
tion.
"Where we fall down is in our
expectations — we want to move
faster and when we don't, we get
discouraged," Peek said.
Ideally, Peek said, the state
should require an individuad ed
ucation plan, like those com
piled for special-education stu
dents, for all students.
" Ultimately, we have got to look
at kids as individuals, not as
groups," Peek said.
N.C.’s Top Democrats
Continued From Page 2A
support him in the race," said
Poole, who was Sanford's 1986
campaign manager.
Poole noted that in the 1986
Senate primary, Jackson en
dorsed Theodore Kinney, a black
real estate agent from Fayette-
' vllle, who ran against Sanford.
"We didn't take that as a per
sonal thing," Poole said. "Tm
sure that Reverend Jackson
doesn't take Senator Sanford's
endorsement of Senator Gore as
a personal thing."
" I think Governor Hunt and
Senator Sanford's position in
support of issues importance to
the black community is long
standing and historical, and
that hasn't changed in any way,"
Poole said.
Any bruised feelings seemed
unlikely to spill over into this
fall's governor's race, because Lt.
Gov, Bob Jordan, the likely
Democratic nominee, remained
neutral in the primary.
"I think Bob kept himself pret
ty much above the fray and kept
himself clean," Michaux said.
•' He conducted himself in a way
that Hunt and Sanford should
have. I don't think he ticked off
anybody."
Rep. Daniel C. Blue Jr., D-
Wake, state chairman of Jack
son's campaign, said Gore's per
formance was not particularly
impressive, noting that he at
tracted only about one-third of
the Democratic vote.
" They (Sanford and Hunt) bas
ically activated the entire Dem
ocratic network they built over
the last quarter-century," Blue
said. "Not withstanding that,
the runs Jackson and Dukakis
were pretty darn impressive."
Local Candidates Prepare For May
Continued From Page 2A
lection in House District 60. He
was first elected to the seat in
1984 and was reelected in 1986.
Shirley Fulton, a District
Court Judge, is running for a
newly created Superior Court
seat.
The Duke Law School graduate
was an assistant District Attor
ney in Charlotte before Gov. Jim
Martin appointed her to her cur
rent past last year.
Yvonne Evans, 36, is trying to
succeed Fulton in the District
Court, Another Duke Law gradu
ate, she is a practicing attorney
In Charlotte.
Elvans is best known as coun
sel to Westslde Coalition
Against the Garbage Dump, a
group of citizens trying to block
construction of a recycling cen
ter on LaSalle Street near a
black neighborhood.
New York - The escalating ra
cist violence in New York has
prompted African American
leaders here to return to an old
but effective strategy of the civil
rights movement — economic
withdrawal. On Friday, Febru
ary 19, the Committee for Eco
nomic Sanctions Against Ra
cism in New York announced
that two New York-based com
panies. Macy's Department
Store and Sterling Drugs. Inc.
(maker of Bayer Aspirin, Phil
lip's Milk of Magnesia and D-
Con), would be the Committee's
initial targets.
The targets were announced to
an overflow crowd of more than
2,000, which packed Bethany
Baptist Church in Brooklyn. As
one member of the audience
pointed out after the rally, "This
is the first time I've seen this
many people come out for any
thing besides a major racial in
cident. This group is serious."
TTie meeting at Bethany was the
culmination of a series of mass
meetings which the Committee
had held throughout New York
since January.
The Committee is a coalition
of over 40 African American
leaders in New York from esta
blished clergy, business, labor,
civil rights, community and
youth organizations. They be
gan plans for the economic
sanctions campaign in Decem
ber of 1987. The committee has
called its effort an "economic
sanctions campaign" to under
score its long-range scope and
to indicate the broader purpose
of the campaign.
The Committee's research re
vealed that both Macy's and
Sterling Drugs maintain rela
tions with South Africa do not
deposit in African American
banks in New York, do very litUe
advertising with Black media or
Black advertising firms and
make minimal use of African
American contractors and ven-
i
The Committee for Economic Sanctions Against
Racism in New York annoimced that Macy's De
partment Store and Sterling Drug, Inc. were its
initial targets. At a mass meeting in Brooklyn,
NY which kicked of the sanctions campaign are:
Mioto^^^ra5ua^Eon*
(at podium) Rev. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., Execu
tive Director of the United Church of Christ
Commission for Racial Justice; (to left of Chavis)
Mr. Kermit Eady, President of the Black United
Fimd of New York.
dors. Additionally, Macy's rele
gates most of its African Ameri
can employees to visible but
low-paying cashier and sales
jobs, while promoting its white
employees to executive manage
ment positions.
The Comrqittee for Sanctions
is hoping to 'rtationallze its cam
paign in the coming months.
Particularly as the Easter sea
son approaches. As one orga
nizer declared, "We have a pro
found responsibility not only to
struggle, but to winl"
Westside Recreation Center Talks
Continued From Page 2A
ningham says he was encour
aged to initiate an effort to
develop the property as it was
originally Intended. Cunning
ham proposed in his letter to
Nortliwood Estate residents that
the community could share in
developing the property. He in
vited the residents to visit the
site the first Saturday in March
at which time he presented sche
matic drawings and details of
the proposed project.
"We can make the decision as
to what we want in our neigh
borhood by investing in our own
neighborhood," says Cunning
ham, who has already solicited
a committment from 100 inter
ested persons.
Estimating that the purchase
and development of the property
will total approximately
$400,000 - $500,000, Cunning
ham is looking for at least 1,000
investors at $500 per investor.
Saturday's meeting will be the
last public meeting on the pro
ject. says Cunningham. 'We will
have a lay-out of the property
and offer suggestions as to how
the property can be developed.
Attorney Calvin Brown will be
on hand to answer legal ques
tions and make recommenda
tions."
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