Shazada Music stores seized by federal marshals/page 6A
I Charlotte BoSt I
VOLUME 21 N0.17
JANUARY 4,1996
75 CENTS
Consolidation board seats may not go to blacks
By John Minter
THE CHAELOTTE POST
Brazil’s ‘racial
democracy’
image is a myth
By Harold Olmos
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SERRA DA BARRIGA,
Brazil - The granite statue of
the rebel slave leader Zumbi
stands in a clearing high in
these green hills, a lonely trib
ute to a broken dream.
Three centuries have passed
since Zumbi commanded the
Quilombo dos Palmares, the
largest community of runaway
slaves in the Americas. With
nearly 30,000 followers, he
shook the foundations of
Portugal’s slavery-based colo
nial rule.
But in the end, Zumbi’s
poorly armed rebels were
defeated by 9,000 soldiers and
mercenaries supported by can
nons. The rebellion was
crushed and the runaways’
villages burned.
Today, equality remains a
distant dream for millions of
black and mixed-race
Brazilians. And Zumbi again
has become a symbol of their
struggle.
"Those who say Brazil is not
a racist society are denying
more than 300 years of slav
ery,” said Zezito de Araujo, a
black professor of history at
the Federal University of
Alagoas in Maceio, 60 miles
east of this mountain region.
Brazilian elites have long
promoted the nation’s self-
image as a "racial democracy”
where everyone is equal.
Black activists say it is noth
ing more than a myth that
comforts the country with the
largest black population in
South America.
They note that although
black and mixed-race people
make up nearly half the popu
lation of 155 million, few hold
top posts in business or gov
ernment. Of 513 congressmen,
only 11 are black.
An overwhelming majority of
blacks live in the big-city
slums known as "favelas.”
Most blacks are among the
officially recognized 31 million
illiterate and, along with
See BRAZIL page 2A
Editorials 4A-5A
Community News 3A
Lifestyles 8A
Religion 10A
Arts/Entertainment 1B
What's Up 5B
Sports 7B
Classified 11B
Kid’s Corner 13A
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© 1995 The Charlotte Post
Publishing Company.
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charpost@clt.mindspring.com
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg
consolidation committee will
be more representative of
westside interests, but three
slots opened last week won’t
necessarily be filled by African
Americans.
The 25-member committee is
charged with writing a char
ter for a joint Charlotte and
Mecklenburg County govern
ing body.
African American Charlotte
City Council members com
plained two
weeks ago
that the
board was
not represen
tative of
M African
Americans or
the westside.
Last week.
Mayor Pat
McCrory McCrory got
three mem
bers of the mostly male and
white board to resign, making
room for more diverse repre
sentation.
But
McCrory
said
Wednesday
his main
concern is
the westside.
“The key
factor is
westside rep
resentation,”
he said. “The
Scarborough
westside includes a very large
area and many different types
of people, both racially and
culturally. My major concern
is representation of all areas
of the city.”
McCrory said he will wait for
council to fill two of the three
available seats before making
his appointment.
“I will make an appointment
based on what I see are any
voids,” McCrory said- “That’s
why I’m waiting. Several
minority people have called
me up, but none of them live
on the westside.’’
Council member Ella
Scarborough said she thinks
African Americans should fill
the two open council slots that
will be filled by the city coun
cil. But, Scarborough said, she
and other African American
council members had not
decided who to nominate
Monday for the open seats.
“I think it is important that
the consciousness of the coun
cil has been raised and also
responded to,” she said. “All
areas and all communities
will be represented on the
committee.
“This committee will shape
the next millennium fqr
Charlotte-Mecklenburg and if
is important that we have a
diverse representation,”
Scarborough said. “I hope we
will make a conscious effort to
see than an African American
female is appointed. We tend
not to put African American
females on committees in this
city. We need to make a con
scious effort to see that they
are represented.”
See POLITICS page 2A
Blockade
OF Black
History
Slave ship exhibit detoured
from Charlotte museum
0
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
n African American has vetoed the exhibition by
Discovery Place of the African slave ship Henrietta
Marie, which sank in 1701 35 miles west of Key West,
Fla.'
Remnants of the Henrietta Marie were found in 1972
by treasure hunter Mel Fisher. Thousand.^
' artifacts
1
mm.
. FISHER MARITIME I
and relics, including neck shackles and the ship’s bell, iiave been
recovered and are stored at Fisher’s Key West museum.
An exhibit of the artifacts and relics has begun a national tour,
beginning in Detroit. The tour is funded in part by the National
Endowment for the Humanities and sponsored in part by the
National Association of Black Scuba Divers, which has a local
chapter.
However, Discovery Place, which considered showing the arti
facts in 1998 during a exhibit about underwater exploration, has
decided not to do so, in part because of concerns for the image of
African Americans it depicts.
“I have some strong concerns about this particular exhibition,”
said Rudy Cooper, Discovery Place’s vice president of exhibits,
research and planning. “If, in fact, we are very much interested
in bringing something about African Americans, we should bring
something more positive...something on our contributions to sci
ence, not a rehash of old history.
See CONTROVERSIAL page 2A
JCSU grad raises
$62,000 for UNCF
By Herbert L. White
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Charlie Kennedy may be the
biggest fan of the United
Negro College Fund.
Kennedy, a Winston-Salem
pediatrician and Charlotte
native, hosted a black benefit
in August that raised $62,000
for UNCF, a fund that sup
ports 41 private black colleges
across the U.S.. Winston-
Salem socialites anted up
$125 a head for a black-tie
affair that was attended by
Lou Rawls, host of the nation
al Lou Rawls Parade of Stars
telethon. The broadcast airs
Saturday on WB'TV (channel
3) in Charlotte.
Money from the gala will go
to six UNCF schools in North
Carolina: Barber-Scotia
College in Concord, Bennett
College in Greensboro, St.
Augustine's College and Shaw
University, in Raleigh,
Livingstone College in
Salisbury and Kennedy's alma
mater, Johnson C. Smith
University.
The Kennedy party, which
was the third for UNCF, is his
way of giving back to histori
cally black colleges, said John
Kennedy, his brother. "He
doesn't do it for the publicity,"
John Kennedy said. "He just
wants to do something posi
tive for the schools."
Special guests at the gala
included presidents and other
representatives of North
Carolina's UNCF schools.
Talbert O. Shaw, president of
Shaw University, said the
party is becoming popular
with administrators.
"This is one of the rites of
summer that I look forward to
with great anticipation," he
told the Winston-Salem
Journal. "This is the closest I
come to Beverly Hills."
Bernard Franklin, St.
Augustine's president, said
the efforts of black college
graduates like Kennedy are
an inspiration to younger gen
erations.
"When we can teach our
young people to serve, then
truly they can learn how to
lead,” he said.
Rawls, whose hit songs
See UNCF page 3A
Get out of gangsta rap biz
By Chester Higgins, Sr.
SPECIAL TO THE POST
Washington, D.C. - A cru
sade against the lyrics of
gangsta rap music launched
nearly three years ago by The
National Political Conference
of Black Women, Inc.,
(NPCBW) has taken on an
international thrust.
In a recent a letter, C.
Delores Tucker, NPCBW chair
urged Sir Colin G. Southgate,
chairman of Thorn EMI, a
giant record producing compa
ny (comparable to America's
Time Warner) in England, "to
discontinue" distribution of
gangsta rap.
"This pornographic and vio
lent music contains lyrics that
glorify drugs, gang rape, gun
toting and violence. It is...
offensive to women and to
black women in particular,"
she wrote.
However, Southgate rejected
Tucker's request, replying: "In
a democracy, freedom of
expression is a cherished
right. We may not like what
we hear but that doesn't give
us the right to suppress what
is being said. The response of
the industry has been to work
with parental groups and
other interested parties to
strengthen the parental label
ing programme (sic) and to
ensure that music containing
explicit lyrics is branded in a
way which is credible, visible
and consistent so that the
general public may make an
informed decision to accept or
reject such music."
But Tucker said her organi
zation has pointed out for
years the failure of parental
labeling to curb juvenile
record purchases. "Over the
counter record sales to chil
dren continue despite label
ing," she said.
According to Billboard mag
azine, the pop entertainment
industry bible, 50 percent of
the gangsta rap recordings in
this multi-billion dollar mar
ket, is sold to teens and
underage children.
Tucker insists that she does
not want to be a censor.
However, she wrote, life in the
African-American community
consists of more than violence,
rape and murder, "that you
(Thorn EMI) wish to portray
as our day to day reality. One
of your artists, currently on
trial (in the U.S.) for murder.
See TUCKER page 3A
Vigil recalls Windy Thompson
PHOTO/JAMES BROWN
Women memorialize Windy Gaii Thompson, the 32-year-old
mother killed Dec. 29, 1993 by Charlotte police Officer Mark
Farmer. A memorial service and candieiight vigii was heid
Friday at Littie Rock AME Zion Church. The event was spon
sored by Citizens for Justice, a grassroots group formed in
response to Thompson’s death. Farmer has been cieared by
local and federal Investigations, but a civil lawsuit has been
filed against Farmer and the city of Charlotte.