I- (*>1
The Uniqueness Of Ubiquitous Galiery
ENTERTAINMENT/ PAGE IB
Eastern Stars Host 87th Grand Session
LIFESTYLES/ PAGE 7A
Cljt Cljarlotte Bosft
Vol. 14, No. 14 Thursday, September 1,1988
THE AWARD-WINNING "VOICE OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY"
50 Cents
Group Pushes Black Vote
By Jalyne Strong
Post Editor
As the November elections
draw near, rallies for North
Carolina's black voters are be
ing designed to Inform the black
electorate about the presence of
the state's black candidates, the
need for black community uni
ty, and the practice of ticket
splitting to elect the best-
quallfled candidates.
"North Carolina's black voters
should not vote for a candidate.
Just because that candidate Is a
Democrat or Just because that
candidate Is black. Any candi
date who gets the black vote
ought to be required to earn It
based on his or her contribution
to the well-being of the black
community."
In this statement, Peter Gre^,
chairman of the North Carolina
Black Leadership Caucus
(NCBL), lays the foundation of a
new black agenda he will pro
pose to the black North Carolina
citizens who attend either of two
NCBL Family Unity rallies this
fall.
The first rally, for the western
part of the state, will be held
Saturday, September 24, In
Winston-Salem, N.C., 1 p.m,, at
Winston-Salem State Universi
ty's Athletic Field. The second
rally Is tentatively scheduled to
be held October 29, In Goldsboro,
NC.
Grear, of Wilmington, NC, Is
adamant about the focus of these
rallies. "It Is to bring together
till
Grear
the black community of this
state, to showcase the black can
didates who are running for
statewide, district and local
elections; to develop support for
black candidates and support
for a black agenda."
Cathy Hughes of Charlotte,
NCBLC Western Vice Chairman,
says the gathering will also
serve as a "pep rally" of sorts to
encourage blacks to vote In No
vember. "Eh^en without Jesse, we
need to vote," she says.
'There will be voter registra
tion, voter education and get out
to vote reminders during 5ie ral
ly," sa)fs Grear. But, he promises.
Black Staffers Are
Few In Congress
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Few
blacks hold positions on con
gressional staffs from North
Carolina and South Carolina,
following a pattern on Capitol
Hill that has drawn Increased
attention.
"1 can say this without hesita
tion," said Andrea Turner Scott,
administrative assistant to Rep.
Charlie Rose, D-N.C. "I am not
happy with the fact that the
North Carolina delegation has
such a poor track record when It
comes to hiring minorities,"
Of the 238 staffers employed by
North Carolina's two U.S. sena
tors and 11 representatives, 33 —
- or 14 percent — are black. That
In a state In which blacks make
up 20 percent of the population.
The problem Is not limited to
the Carollnas.
To correct the Imbalance, a
caucus of black Senate policy
advisers Is urging senators to
hire more blacks. And Rep. Lynn
Martin, R-Ill., Is leading a bipar
tisan effort to bring Congress —
like the rest of the country —
under the civil rights laws It en
acted more than 20 years ago.
Critics say the number of black
congressional staffers falls far
short of what could be expected.
"There's so few blacks on Capi
tol Hill period ... ," Ms. Scott
said. "It's even been called the
Last Plantation."
In the Senate, which has no
black members, only a third of
the members employ a black In
a policy-level Job on either their
personal or committee staffs,
according to the Senate Black
Legislative Staff Caucus.
In the House, a separate study
shows almost half the 435 mem
bers employ blacks In similar
positions.
In South Carolina, as In North
Carolina, the percentage of
black congressional staffers
falls short of the proportion of
black population In the state,
according to a survey by The
Charlotte Observer.
While 28 percent of South Car
olinians are black, blacks make
up 16 percent of the congression
al staffs. There are 28 among the
178 staff members employed by
the state's two senators and six
U.S. representatives.
Among Individual members,
the number of blacks varies.
See BLACKS SCARCE On 2A
Jackson Speaks At Duke
DURHAM lAP) — The Rev.
Jesse Jackson Invited Duke Uni
versity students to be a part of
Martin Luther King's dream In a
speech he gave to 7,000 people
Sunday night at Duke Universi
ty-
"If I can as
pire to be pres
ident of the
United States
of America,
you can aspire
to be president
of Duke Uni
versity," Jack-
son told black
students In the
audience. The
crowd had
waited for two
Jackson
hours without air conditioning
for the former Democratic presl-
dentlad candidate.
Jackson told his audience that
exactly 25 years ago he arrived
In Greensboro to attend N.C.
A&T University "full of excite
ment, fear and trepidation." He
attributed the fear to being three
days late for football practice
and the excitement to the march
on Washington from which he
had Just returned. At that
march. King made his famous "I
Have a Dream" speech.
The speech In Duke Universi
ty's Cameron Indoor Stadium
was full of the classic Jackson
one-llners and alliteration de
livered. Jackson's appearance
was part of the school's orienta
tion for new students and was
was sponsored by the Black Stu
dent Alliance and Duke Univer
sity Union.
Jackson Issued a challenge to
the Durham school, where en
rolling black students and hir
ing black faculty has been em
phasized during the past yesir,
"to be bigger and to be better."
King gave the nation his dream
but was not a dreamer. Rather,
he was a practical man of action
and a heroic fighter, Jackson
said.
The moral Issue of that day was
racial segregation dr racial vio
lence sanctioned by law, Jack-
son said, and a generation rose
to meet that challenge.
Some In that generation died
In Selma, Ala, so that all could
have the right to vote. The power
of black voters can be seen 25
years later In the changing face
of the New South, jJackson said.
underlining the political pep
talks will be the hard-driven
theme of building a black sup
port base In the state.
"The rally will be specifically
geared to our support base," says
Grear. "Black people need to
come together to reaffirm our
committment to black candi
dates."
Black Candidates Only
Grear, who has said that
blacks should not vote for a can
didate Just because that candi
date Is black, pushes the Idea of
having a rally to showcase only
black candidates. But he denies
the assumption that this Is a
contradiction.
The parading of the black can
didates before the participants
of the rallies,
says Grear, Is
the means of
"black people
becoming
aware that
there are black
candidates out
there."
According to
Grear, the
NCBLC Is a
non-partisan
organization,
and the rally Hughes
will not be a forum for endors
ing candidates. It will, however,
be a means through which the
N.C. black electorate will learn
how many blac'--: candidates are
running for office, what they are
running for, and who they are.
The spotlight will only be on
N.C.'s black candidates. "This
will not be the appropriate time
for other candidates to make
their pitch to black voters," says
Grear.
In keeping with Its non
partisan stance, the rally will
not support either party's candi
dates. On the contrary, Grear
hopes to get across to the black
participants the Idea of using
ticket-splitting for the benefit of
the black community.
If the rally accomplishes this
purpose, says Grear, "ticket
splitting will not only be coming
from the white community come
November. We're strongly urg
ing the practice among the black
voters.
"The black agenda has to
transcend party. We must be pre
pared to support candidates re
gardless of who's pocket they're
In."
Blacks And The Split-Ticket
Both Grear and Hughes are
professed "staunch" Democrats.
See BLACKS On Page 2A
ONE-MAN BAND...Crooner extraordinaire, Bobby McFerrin, vo
cally reproduced the sound of almost every known instrument last
Sunday at Spirit Square. See more in Entertairunent, page IB.
Pnoto/CALVIN FERQUSON
Brother Of Ex-M.D. Says System Failed
By HERB WHITE
I^t Staff Writer
As Vincent Mallory sits In a
Georgia prison, his brother
Wayne, a Charlotte resident,
thinks about America's Justice
system.
Too often, Wayne Mallory says,
blacks believe the s}rstem works
for everyone. But that's not al
ways the case. It wasn't for Vin
cent, a former doctor who is
serving a life sentence for a
crime many believe he didn't
commit.
"The only thing good that's
come out of It Is that It has unit
ed blacks there," he said. "They
see that it doesn't have to be Dr.
Mallory. It can happen to any
body."
Vincent Mallory, 32, a graduate
of Johnson C. Smith University,
had a general practice In the
predominant^ white Fort Valley
area. He served about 4,000 pa
tients, a third of them white..
■\Tncent Mallory
Mallory was found guilty last
year for the murder of Shelby
Fields, a 49-year-old former pa
tient. Fields, a white woman, was
found shot once In the head with
a .22 caliber handgun.
The body was discovered In
the charred remains of the home
owned by the victim's dentist,
George Fuller.
The Jury, made up of nine
whites and three blacks, con
victed Mallory and sentenced
him to the Metro Correctional
Institute In Decatur, Just outside
Atlanta. He was also stripped of
his medical license.
Since the conviction, challeng
es to the handling of Mallory's
case have been filed. Efforts are
under way to have the convic
tion overturned and a new trial
ordered.
Mallory's lawyers. Jack Martin
and Carl Bryant of Atlanta,
charge that the state's case
against Mallory Is based on cir
cumstantial evidence and unre
liable Identification of a llght-
sklnned man driving a red pick
up seen near the murder site be-'
fore Fields's body was found.
Vincent Mallory Is fair-
sklnned, but owns a gray truck,
his brother said. No murder
weapon was found.
Wayne Mallory, 26, feels his
brother's conviction may have
been partially motivated by
race. Fort Valley, a town located
In rural Houston County, Is
made up primarily of whites and
convicting a black person--
even If he Isn't the culprit—may
have been the motive for closing
the case.
"It may not have started out
that way, but I believe that's how
It ended," Wayne Mallory said. "It
may have been a thing of 'we
have him, let's get It over with
and convict him. I'm not sure It
was racially motivated, but there
were so many Inconsistencies."
The appeal process has been
slow, with the court bureaucracy
See JUSTICE On Page 2A
Veterans Of 1963 March Return To D.C.
BY NANCY BENAC
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Harri
son Hawkins was a 20-year-old
busboy when he Joined 250,000
civil rights demonstrators In
the 1963 March on Washington
where the Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr. articulated the dreams
of black Americans.
Hawkins couldn't eat at the
Washington restaurant where he
worked at the time. No blacks
were served.
"I thought something had to be
done about segregation," he said
last Saturday as he Joined a ral
ly marking the 25-year anniver
sary of that historic day. "It was
the first time I'd seen that many
of our people — black people —
get together and do something
positive."
Hawkins, now a rigger who
handles heavy objects at the
Smithsonian Institution, said
he feels good about the progress
that's been made on civil rights
In the past quarter-century, al
though he says more remains to
be done.
"In the workplace you see petty
things, hidden things." he said.
"It's not direct discrimination,
but It's there."
Another veteran of the 1963
march who was on hand for Sat
urday's anniversary event was
76-year-old Eula Johnson of
Washington, whc sat q iletly In
a shaded lawn chair listening to
the speeches.
She said she left her six chil
dren at home and came to the
1963 march because "I felt that
Negroes were making progress
and 1 wanted to be a part of It. I
was raising children at the time
and 1 wanted them to have the
> »o*tv(a
i I
whites to be together."
Naomi and Seymour Wenner, a
retired white couple from subur
ban Chevy Chase, Md.. said they,
too, felt drawn to the 1963
march.
"It was a great event in my life,"
Wenner, 75. recalled Saturday.
"Everything was focused on one
thing -— civil rights for Ne
groes."
He said that while Saturday's
rally marked the progress made
over the past 25 years, "there are
too many groups taking a free
ride on this — Justice for Jani
tors, this union, that union, so
cialist workers, ERA. They're
not focused. It isn't what the
memory of Martin Luther King
was about."
ROY WILKINS, MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., AND A PHILIP RAN
DOLPH: three of the best-known heroes of the civil rights move
ment at the 1963 March on Washington.
opportunities I thought they
should have."
Mrs. Johnson said she re
turned home, picked up her
youngest daughter, 7-year-old
Theresa, and took her to a rally
later that day, "Just so she could
know how It felt for blacks and
Inside This
Week
Editorials
4A
Have you an open mind?
Lifestyles
St. John Episcopal's
STEP to elevation.
7A
Church News.
9A
Rev. L. J. Wallace celebrates
an anniversary.
Obituaries
10A
Entertainment.
1 B
Sports
7B
Classifieds
12B
The Alliance....
Sec. C