Rev. Clifford Jones On
Stewardship In African
American Church/9A
It's Really 4U:
' Group Reaching
' I For Fame/1 B
W
V
Olympics Is A Way Of
Life For USOC's
LeRoy Walker/8B
Charlotte Botet
Volume 19, No. 5
TEIUESDAY SEPTEMBER 16,1993
50 Cents
espau*
, Age Of Murder
Spawns Violent Behavior ^
News Artd Notes From Charlotte
And The Rest Of The World.
Central Alumni
Gathering
The Charlotte chapter of
the N.C. Central University
Alumni Association will
sponsor a gathering Sept. 25
immediately after the Queen
City Classic football game
between Central and John
son C. Smith University.
Central alumni, supporters
and friends are Invited to at
tend the event at Renais
sance Place, 631 N. Tryon St.
Donations are $5 and pro
ceeds benefit the chapter's
scholarship fund.
For more information, call
549-1531 after 7 p.m.
Dialogue On
Race Relations
Barber-Scotia College and
the Concord-Cabarrus Coun
ty Human Relations Com
mittee will sponsor an "Open
Dialogue On Race Relations"
Sept. 21 at Concord Middle
School. The program starts
at 7 p.m.
The goal of the event is to
promote understanding, re
spect and goodwilx among all
citizens. The event is free
and open to the public. For
more information, call
Mary Blakeney, co-chair of
the Humans Relations Com
mittee at (704) 782-7356 or
Charlene Price-Paterson at
Barber-Scotia at (704) 786-
5171, extension 326.
Farrakhan In
Winston-Salem
Nation Of Islam Leader
Louis Farrakhan will be in
N.C. Saturday.
Farrakhan will speak at
Lawrence Joel Coliseum in
Winston-Salem at 7 p.m.
Doors open at 5 p.m. Tickets
are $10 and av^able at all
TicketMaster locations and
the Clean N Fresh Power
House on West Boulevard
(377-6937).
Black Political
Caucus To Meet
The Charlotte Black Politi
cal Caucus will hold its
monthly meeting Sunday at
First Baptist Church-West,
180 Oaklawn Ave. The meet-^
ing starts at 7:30 p.m.
The agenda includes pres
entations by the Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Board of Edu
cation, discussion on the No
vember bond proposal and a
report on Northwest Corri
dor improvements.
Week Of Family
Involvement
Families with children in
Mecklenburg County's public
schools have a chance to
participate in school activi
ties Oct. 3-9.
Charlotte -M ecklenburg
Schools and Charlotte-
Mecklenburg PTA will spon
sor Family Involvement
Week Oct. 3-9. The festivities
start with a parade and rally
Oct. 2. The parade will start
at First Ward School and end
at Marshall Park. Cheer
leaders, bands and food will
be among the featured at
tractions. For more infor
mation, call 379-7275.
This is the third in a series of
articles on the criminal Jus
tice system and its relation
ship to African Americans.
By John Minter
POST CORRESPONDENT
They are murderers.
They are young.
They are black.
They are the tip of an Ice
berg of despair which freezes
many of their age and race in
a cold, lifeless world of sur
vival, where proving one's
manhood is a daily, almost
hourly and surely dangerous
pursuit.
A UNC Charlotte criminal
Justice student's case study of
29 young African Americans
who killed other African
Americans paints a gloomy
picture of what will be the
nation's future unless an
swers are found.
Nancy Thompson of Kings
Mountain did the study over
a two-year period and pro
duced a document titled "An
Early Winter." Its findings:
America's institutionalized
racism has pushed young
and poor African Americans
out of the mainstream - at
school, where the underach
ievers are often suspended
and eventually pushed out,
and the job market, where
the uneducated and un
trained are shut out.
You can't be a man without
a job, the ability to take care
of yourself and your family,
according to conventional
American ethic.
These youth, earlier and
earlier it seems, become con
vinced they can never attain
society's ideal of success in
the business and corporate
world. So they take to the
streets, where money can be
made by hustling and power
can be found In a gun and a
willingness to use it.
They and millions of oth
ers like them are terrorizing
America, striking fear in the
black communities in which
they live and white commu
nities from which springs
the institutionalized racism
which spawns them.
Isolated from their race
and society in general, the
dlspossed have developed a
subculture of their own In
which life is worthless and
only the continual pursuit of
manhood matters.
Thompson, a former Char-
See BONDS On Page 2A
|M
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riends
Charlotte Hornets gaar4L'
la*t.
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♦
1^
FHOTO/JIM BLACK
Charlotte rolled out the red carpet Tuesday In pitching the
city for the NAACP's 1996 national convention. Pictured left
to right are Patty Rlchboiu-g, director of convention sales.
Convention and Visitors Bureau; Melvin Tennant, CEO of the
bureau; Ana Aponte, NAACFs director of Conference Depart
ment and Brian Monroe, sales manager of the new Conven
tion Center.
Charlotte Making Its Best Moves
To Win 1996 NAACP Convention
By Herbert L. White
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Charlotte made its pitch to host the 1996 NAACP national
convention Tuesday. And Ana Aponte was Impressed.
Aponte, director of the civil rights organization's conference
department, stopped short of saying Charlotte is a lock for '96,
but said she's impressed with the city, which is competing
with Detroit, Cleveland and Louisville, Ky.
"I think it has some very nice qualities," she said. "It has as
good a chance as any of the other cities."
The '96 convention would be a major coup for the winning
city. Not only would an estimated 15,000 people gather for a
week's activity, but presidential candidates historically show
up to campaign, brliiglng extra media attention.
"It would be a real plum for Charlotte," said Melvin Tennant,
president and CEO of the Charlotte Convention & Visitors Bu
reau (CCVB).
This is Charlotte's first attempt to land the NAACP, said Al
fred Alexander, president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg
See NAACP On Page 3A
SOURCE/CHARLOTTE POLICE
Power In
Selma Has
A New Look
By Jay Reeves
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SELMA, Ala. - A shift of
City Hall power from whites
to blacks has barely raised a
whimper in this riverside
town best known for bloody
voting rights clashes that oc
curred nearly 30 years ago.
Joanne Bland expected
fellow blacks to rejoice when
they won control of the City
Council in Sehna, a national
symbol of racial strife since
law offtcers used tear gas and
clubs to beat down civil
rights marchers in 1965.
"We thought people would
be out dancing in the streets,"
said Bland. "They weren't."
Likewise, Selma's white
minority population was
strangely quiet about the
transition from a 5-4 white
majority to a 5-4 black ma
jority.
"People just haven't been
talking about it," said Sandy
Llpham, a white who works
at an office supply store
across from City Hall on
scenic Broad Street, with Its
brick storefronts and clean
sidewalks.
Could it be that Selma fi
nally is at peace with itself?
After all, blacks and whites
walk together under the hot
noontime sun, and they eat
together In the same diner.
That Is a far cry from the
civil rights era, when Dallas
County Sheriff Jim Clark's
posse enforced segregation
laws and whites screamed
racial slurs at black demon
strators who lined up day af
ter day seeking the basic
right to vote.
"Selma's all right," black
See SELMA On Page 3A
African National Congress Commemorates Massacre
By Sahm Venter
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KING WILLIAM'S TOWN,
South Africa - A year ago,
Ntembeko Mafa marched for
political freedom in the Cls-
kel black homeland and
wound up gasping for breath
with a bullet in his back.
Last week, Mafa, now con
fined to a wheelchair, laid a
wreath at the site where Cls-
keian troops killed 28 people
and wounded scores in a
shooting that drew world
wide condemnation and
highlighted charges of politi
cal repression In the home
land.
In a somber ceremony on a
hot, dusty road, African Na
tional Congress officials and
mourners said a prayer to
honor victims of the massa
cre.
Police and homeland sol
diers watched from nearby
hills as about 150 people, in
cluding survivors of the
shooting, held the brief me
morial service. News reports
said police detained one man
and confiscated a hand gre
nade after searching a vehi
cle.
The 23-year-old Mafa, an
ANC member, said he was
not bitter about the shooting
that paralyzed him and
probably ended his teaching
career.
"I don't hate him," Meifa
said of Brig. Gen. Oupa Gqo-
zo, the Clskel ruler who had
warned the ANC against
marching on Bisho, the
homeland capital, on Sept. 7,
1992. "I think now, this time,
that we must extend our
hands in friendship even to
our enemy and make peace,
because South Africa needs
peace.
"I think even if I'm dis
abled, I can do something. We
must all contribute to the
new South Africa."
Wreaths of yellow and
white flowers, some decorat
ed with ANC flags, were
placed on the dirt road along
the South Afrlcan-Clskel
border where the shooting
occurred.
Later, officials unveiled a
marble tombstone wrapped
in ANC colors of green, gold
and black at the cemetery
where 13 of the victims were
burled.
Gqozo said his forces fired
after being shot at from the
crowd. Witnesses said hun
dreds of Clskel troops
opened fire without cause or
warning. Twenty eight pro
testers and one Clskelan sol
dier died in the incident.
A judicial commission
called the shooting "morally
and legally indefensible" but
also blamed march oYganlz-
ers for deviating from an ap
proved route.
"One is filled with very sad
memories of the actual
slaughter that took place
here," said ANC official Ron
nie Kasrlls, who was cited by
the commission for leading
marchers in a rush across
See SOUTH On Page 3A
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