York curator of African American studies brings history to life/7B
B tKlje CI)arlotte Bosit ■
VOLUME 21 NO. 26
MARCH 14, 1996
75 CENTS
White UNC students challenge race-based scholarships
By Dennis Patterson
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RALEIGH - Past racial dis
crimination at the University
of North Carolina does not
justify race-based scholarships
now, according to a federal
lawsuit filed by eight
Republican students.
Kmart
boycott
planned
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Worjcers at a Kmart distrib
ution center in Greensboro are
calling for a national boycott
of the troubled retailer start
ing during the Easter shop
ping season.
Easter is April 7.
The group came to Charlotte
last weekend to meet with
local ministers.
Rev. Warden Henderson,
president of the Christian
Ministers Fellowship
Association, said the interde
nominational group will con
sider the workers’ request for
support at its April 13 meet
ing. Two workers met with the
ministers at Henderson’s
Weeping Willow AME Zion
Church Saturday.
Workers at the Greensboro
center say they are paid as
much as $6 less per hour than
those at 10 others around the
country, according to Ben
Hensler, a spokesman for the
union representing the work
ers. The pay practices are
racially discriminatory,
Hensler said. The Greensboro
union is predominantly black.
"All we are asking for is to
be treated the same as other
Kmart employees who do the
same jobs we do,” said worker
Deborah Compton-Holt. “We
can’t let a company like
Kmart, that makes millions of
dollars from our community,
turn back the clock on dis
crimination.”
Hensler said the Union of
Needletrades, Industrial and
Textile Employees is seeking
support from around the coun
try for a nationwide Kmart
boycott. UNITE has taken on
several major North Carolina
employees in long hard battles
and won, including J.P.
Stevens and Cannon Mills.
Kmart workers in
Greensboro voted to join the
union in 1993, but UNITE and
Kmart have yet to sign a col
lective bargaining agreement.
The National Labor Relations
Board has cited the company
for failure to bargain with the
union.
Kmart says it has negotiated
in good faith with the workers
and pays a wage based on the
cost of living in the
Greensboro area and on
seniority. The Kmart distribu
tion center opened in
See UNION page 3A
Jack Daly and seven other
UNC students are challenging
minority presence grants that
have been used since the early
1980s to attract white stu
dents to predominantly black
campuses and black students
to predominantly white cam
puses.
The grants initially were
part of a court settlement over
desegregation. But when the
consent order ended, the state
kept the grants, earmarking
$1.6 million for the program
this year.
“There has been an uncon
scionable history of racial dis
crimination in the UNC
System," said Daly, a UNC
law student and GOP candi
date for state auditor. “That
does not justify race discrimi
nation in 1996."
Daly said at a news confer
ence Monday that the grants
discriminate against both
whites and blacks.
See RACE page 2A
SERVING MANKIND
Elizabeth Randolph has given Charlotte more than 50 years of untiring, dedicated service.
Libby Randolph inspires with five decades of service
By Tammie Tblbert
THE CHARLOTTE POST
A fter five decades as
an educator and
civic leader,
Elizabeth Randolph
still likes being
involved.
"Education never ceases to
be important,” said Randolph,
a retired Charlotte-
Mecklenburg administrator
and recipient this week of the
Whitney M. Young Jr., Award
ISXORY-MQN
from the Charlotte- bridge nuild
Mecklenburg Urban League.
Randolph's nephew,
Baltimore mayor Kurt
Schmoke presented the
award, given annually to an
individual who has furthered
equal opportunity for African
Americans and serves as a
e?'be^een the
ge
races.
Randolph has been helping
people all her life. In 1936, the
Shaw University graduate
began her teaching career
working in the public schools
See RANDOLPH page 2A
Professor James Roland Law
JCSU remembers
professor James Law
with campus service
By Wir.fred B. Cross
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Johnson C. Smith University will suspend classes from 11 a.m.
- 1 p.m. today in memory of psychology professor James Roland
Law.
Mr. Law died Sunday of an apparent heart attack while jog
ging. His funeral is noon today in the Jane N. Smith Memorial
Church on Smith’s campus. His body will lie in state from 11 a.m.
until the service.
Smith President Dorothy Cowser Yancy issued a statement
Tuesday asking the campus to take a moment of silence at noon
to honor Mr. Law's memory.
"We are saddened by the loss of our teacher, mentor and friend
and extend heartfelt condolences to his family," Yancy wrote. "We
ask that the JCSU family take time out...in celebration of the life
of Dr. James Roland Law."
Yancy is a former student of Law's, as is Maxine Moore, direc
tor for the Center for Integrated Study. She said Mr. Law's death
was "a shock to all of us.
"It shocked the total college community because he was doing so
well in his pursuit and training in track and was very active in
the community," Moore said. "1 can truthfully say we are deeply
grieved by his loss.”
Moore called Mr. Law a "tough professor," but a true gentle
men.
"He always joked he was a 17th century gentleman caught in
the wrong century," Moore said. "He was a demanding instructor,
very accomplished. He worked very hard to see his students pos
sessed the knowledge needed to succeed.”
Law's association with Smith began in 1949. He eventually
served as vice president for academic affairs before stepping
down in 1988 to become the James B. Duke Distinguished
Professor of Psychology.
Mr. Law, who was awarded the title professor emeritus by
JCSU this academic year, was on a five-year leave of absence
from the university. During that time he became an avid runner,
earning the title "the fastest senior in the world." His passion for
track led him to push Mecklenburg County commissioners to sup
port a bond referendum to build a $2.3 million Olympic-size
track on campus-owned land.
"To know he will not be around to see this project come to (com
pletion) is really a shocker," said Steve Joyner, Smith men's bas
ketball coach and athletic director. "He was very instrumental in
this coming about.”
See LAW page 6A
Sixty years on the cutting edge
PHOTO/CALVIN FERGUSON
A.D. Neal loves his job, cutting hair and giving out advice and
opinions on any and aii subjects in his Oaklawn Road shop.
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Head on out Beatties Ford
Road a ways, beyond Johnson
C. Smith University and the
water treatment plant, and a
quick glance to the right gives
you a peek at Neal’s
Barbershop.
The shop and its delightful
owner Albert D. Neal have
been a fixture near the comer
of Beatties Ford Road and
Oaklawn for more than half a
decade.
And, while at age 73, Neal’s
planning to cut back on the
number of days he works in
the small shop, he’s not about
to stop cutting hair.
After all, this is a man who
spends one of his days off -
Tuesday - cutting the hair of
the sick and shut-in at their
homes or at hospitals and
nursing homes. For free.
“I wouldn’t trade barbering
for a Ph.D,” Neal says. “I love
it. You have to love it to (start
cutting) hair for 15 cents and
still be here.”
He spends much of his other
day off, Sunday, at church.
That’s Friendship Missionary
Baptist, further out Beatties
Ford, beyond the 1-85 bridge
and McDonald’s Cafeteria.
Neal, a member of
Friendship’s Adult Choir, is
leader of the bass section.
Neal began cutting hair
when he was 13 years old,
learning the trade from Frank
Williams, out of New York.
He never went to barber
school and when the state
inspector caught him cutting
hair in a shop, he gave Neal a
chance to take the test. “I
made the highest score,” Neal
said. “1 skipped the apprentice
See SHOP page 3A
Inside
Editorials 4A-5A
Community News 3A
Lifestyles 9A
Religion 11A
Arts/Entertainment 1B
What's Up 5B
Regional News 7B
Sports 8B
Classified 13B
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© 1996 The Charlotte Post
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