Options To Help Adults
Find Day Care For
Elderly Parents/7A
M
Sade, Digable Planets
Come To Charlotte's
Blockbuster/1 B
^iii^
Exclusive Black College
Football Standings,
Results And Schedule/SB
Charlotte |^e(t
Voltame 19, No. 4
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 9,1993
50 Cents
N*ws And Notes Prom Charlotte
And The Rest Of The World.
Black Town
Meeting
A Black Town Meeting to
address the state of Black
America will be held Sunday
at 5 p.m. at Bruns Avenue
Elementary School at 501 S.
Bruns Ave.
For more information, call
333-6471 or 391-7446.
For Thursday's
Child Saturday
A fundraiser for a child
support enforcement group
will be held Saturday on
Beatties Ford Road.
Supporters of Thursday's
Child will participate in the
fundraiser sponsored by Au-
larale Skin Care & Cosmet
ics at 2340-2342 Beatties
Ford Road. Food, baby items
and cosmetic makeovers
will be part of the vendor
market. Vendor spaces are
available. For more infor
mation, call Sylvia Grier at
391-7446.
Student
Recognition
The Wilmore Student Rec
ognition Picnic will be held
at 6 p.m. Sept. 23 at Calvary
United Methodist Church,
512 West Blvd. The event is
for elementary and Junior
high school students and
their parents from Wilmore
who attend DUworth, Easto-
ver and Sedgefleld elemen
tary schools and Alexander
. Graham and Sedgefleld mid
dle schools.
The picnic, sponsored by
the STEP Committee of
Myers Park Presbyterian
Church and Calvary United
Methodist Church, is free
and will begin between 6:30
and 6:45 p.m.
For more information, call
376-8584.
Contracting For
NFL Stadium
Prospective contractors for
the proposed uptown NFL
stadium have a chance to
talk business next week.
Minority Business Con
tractors & Business Asso
ciates will host a meeting
with Richardson Sports and
Thompston/Turner Con
struction Co. on the stadium
Sept. 14 at 6:15 p.m. at John
son C. Smith University's
Honors College. Discussion
will focus on the expansion
franchise drive and con
struction-related opportuni
ties.
For more information, call
Edroy Moore at 537-8828.
Charlotte Rep
Holds Auditions
Toot your horn or ring a
bell with the Charlotte Re
pertory Orchestra.
The group is holding audi
tions for all instruments
Sept. 11 at Central Piedmont
Community College's Bryant
Hall. Programs Include mu
sic from the classics and
mpdem literature.
Interested musicians are
asked to send a resume to
P.p. Box 11334, Charlotte,
. N.C. 28220-1334. For more
information, call 553-8320.
Black Voters May Not Buy Bonds
By John Mlnter
POST CORRESPONDENT
Local officials pushing a
multi-million dollar bond
referendum on the November
ballot are putting on a hard
sales pitch to win over Afri
can American votes.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Schools Supt. John Mur
phy's $25,000 mortgage bo
nus has surely heightened
opposition to the $192 mil
lion in school bonds. But
many African Americans
want to know more about
how the new spending will
affect Inner city and westslde
schools before promising
their support.
"If It passes, it is going to be
with a lot of work on the par-t
of those heading up this bond
issue," said Charlie Dannel-
ly, the former Charlotte City
Council member who is first
vice chairman of the Black
Caucus. "People in all com
munities are concerned that
there’s not enough Informa
tion about the bonds."
Concern about how magnet
schools affect pupil assign
ments for African American
children and drain resources
from non-magnet schools
has grown over the past
year.
And black opposition,
coupled with anticipated op
position from Citizens for
Effective Government (CFEG)
could produce the second de
feat for a school bond issue
in as many elections.
A $15 million bond propo
sal that would have put a
magnet school in uptown
Charlotte was defeated in the
November 1992 election.
The current $192 million
school bond Issue would use
$123 million to build four
elementary schools, a mid
dle school and two high
schools, plus another $34
million to expand and reno
vate six high schools - Myers
Park, North Mecklenburg,
Ol3nnplc, Providence (the
See BONDS On Page 2A
Charlotte-Mecklenburg
School Bond Package
• Enrollment Growth:
$123.1 million
• Expansion/Renovation Of 6
High Schools: $34.45 million
• Renovation/Expansion of 3 In
ner City Schools: $21.9 million
• Asbestos removal, ADA compli
ance, underground storage tank
removal: $3.27 million
• Replacement of roofing, air con-
ditbning/heating systems :
$8 million
• Preparation For Instructional
technology (Electrical service/
wiring and network cabling):
$1.18 million
Total; $192 million.
SOURCE/CHARUDTTE-MECKLENBURG
SCHOOLS
(rating
mi
m
The C«rolinM Black Reuoionat
BometsNeat Park «aa a aoeceae, with
an j^OOO peopk partfislpatls^
acec^ng Porter, chief of the
Ifecktenhurg X^k Sahjlim. In &et, the
crowd wai
assigned to
Freedom over to help
m
t-ahhts Ixtihe /
• Ntcote
ityi^
m
f
t'- A;;
Alternative
Chamber
Takes Off
Sept. 17
FROM NEWS SERVICES •
3
A minority-led Chamber of
Commerce in Charlotte is of
ficially In business.
Roosevelt Maske, president
of the Charlotte Area Busi
ness League (CABL), an
nounced this week the League
will become the Metro-
Charlbtte Minority Cham
ber, CDC on Sept. 17. The Me-
tro-Cr\amber will become
one of I te loui newchambe- s
that have opened recently in
the Charlotte area. He said
that the Metro-Chamber re
places the CABL, an organi
zation started in 1978.
W. Troy Watson, President/
Executive Director of CABL,
said, "the new chamber will
do all the work previously
done by the Business League,
such as operate the Charlotte
Minority Business Develop
ment Center, Small Cities
Programs, Metrolina Re
source Bank and other pro
grams. However, it will add
tremendously to its current
scope of work. The official
opening of the Metro-
Chamber will take place on
Sept. 17 during the awards
reception/banquet to be held
at the International Trade
Center."
Watson said that Oscar Cof
fey, President of the Nation
al Association of Black and
Minority Chambers of Com
merce, will be the Metro-
Chamber's special guest for
the evening and will, help
kick off the opening of the
chamber. Over the years,
Coffey, a native of Oakland,
Calif., has been responsible
for assisting in the opening
of many of the more than 68
See CHAMBER On Page 3A
Bessie Coleman, World’s First Great Female Flyer, Gets Her Due
By Nita Lelyveld
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - She was a
pioneer American aviator.
Her flights drew big crowds.
She was daring and exciting
and beautiful, too. And she
died tragically while flying.
But unlike her contempo
rary, Amelia Earhart, Bessie
Coleman made no splash hi
history.
Bessie Coleman was black.
The world's first black fe
male aviator got her pilot's
license in 1921 - two years
before Earhart. She flew in
Europe, starred in air shows,
and tried her best to become
famous. But outside of the
segregated black world in
which she lived, few people
ever paid attention.
Now the author of an ac
claimed biography of Ea
rhart is working to change
that, with a new book,
"Queen Bess: Daredevil Avia
tor."
Doris L. Rich first heard
about Coleman while doing
research for "Amelia Ea
rhart: A Biography." Over
and over, she came across
her name In early aviation
history. But no one gave de
tails.
It took a lot of digging to
find any.
Coleman didn't leave
records; she could barely
write. And the mainstream
press rarely wrote about her.
Old copies of the weekly
black newspapers that cov
ered her appearances are not
easy to come by.
'With Earhart, I was flood
ed with information," says
Rich. "Every time I found a
fact about Bessie, I was deep
ly grateful that day."
Looking back, it's hard to
believe anyone could have
lived Coleman's life. Bom in
1892 in east Texas, she grew
up in a three-room shotgun
shack, picking cotton and
taking In white people's
laun(£y. She went to Chica
go in 1915 and became a ma
nicurist in a black beauty
shop.
Then one day she decided
to fly.
How she came to the idea
is unclear. But she had al
ways set her sights high.
Rich says.
"She was bom with a kind
of self-confidence in which
she viewed herself as very
gifted, very special - as
someone who was going to
amount to something," Rich
said. "With people like that,
background and beginnings
don’t matter."
When no one In Chicago
would agree to teach her,
Coleman raised the money to
travel to France, where she
took courses at one of the
best flight schools - L'Ecole
d'Avlation des Freres Cau-
dron at Le Crotoy in the
Somme.
Between 1921 and 1926,
Coleman earned the nick
name "Queen Bess," touring
the country, giving exhibi
tion flights and speaking at
black churches and schools.
4A-5A Editorials
7A Lifestyles
7B Sports
10B Classifieds
Story Idea? Call 376-0496
©The Charlotte Post Publishing Company