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VOLUME 21 NO. 36
MAY 23, 1996
75 CENTS
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PHOTO/CHARLES CLARKSON
Rev. Wftliam Conrad.
Racist message
threatens local
black church
By John Minter
THE CHARtOTTE POST
The terror of an African American church burning at the
hands of white racists has come to Charlotte.
No church has burned here, but a hate-filled message
was left on the answering machine of a south Charlotte
church Sunday.
Rev. Wiliam Conrad, pastor of China Grove AME Zion
Church, found the message Sunday afternoon and
promptly notified police.
The FBI has also been called in to investigate the phone
threat.
Conrad said the call could have been a prank, but a rash
of burnings and vandalism across the South has church
officials and police taking the threat seriously.
Church burnings have been the subject of congressional
debate this week, with federal law enforcement officials
telling the House Judiciary Committee they have found no
evidence of a widespread conspiracy to link the church
arsons and vandalism of black churches across the South.
The Justice Department counts 28 arson attacks on
African American churches in the past 17 months, but
civil rights groups count as many as 45 suspicious fires at
black churches since 1990.
Conrad said Sunday’s message was very threatening.
“All niggers will die in the fires of the Aryan people,”
Conrad quoted the caller as saying.
“There were a great deal of expletives then ‘Die. Die.
Die.' That communicated to me that there may be physical
Sm burnings on page 3A
NAACP internal woes
Suspension, audit of Alexander causes rift
before July national convention here
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
The move that led to Kelly
Alexander’s suspension as
head of the N.C. NAACP was
filed after he failed to turn
over financial books and
records to the new treasuer, Z.
Ann Hoyle of Hickory.
The NAACP national board
on Saturday suspended
Alexander pending an audit of
the N.C. chapter’s financial
records for the last four years.
The board didn’t reveal why it
called for the audit.
It’s unclear how the suspen
sion will affect planning and
fundraising for the NAACP
national convention scheduled
this July in Charlotte.
Charlotte City Council mem
ber Ella Scarborough, head of
a blue ribbon fundraising com
mittee, could not be contacted
this week.
Hoyle, a Hickory city council
member, was among a group
of new officers opposed to
Alexander, who were elected
in October. Valerie Woodard
of Charlotte, a longtime
Alexander opponent, was
elected second vice president
of the state chapter, ousting
Alexander supporter Kermit
Waddell.
See NAACP on page 2A
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kelly Alexander Jr.
Olympic Effort
PHOTO/WADE NASH
The eight-time Olympic champion Carl Lewis Is still a force to be reckoned with at age 35. Lewis placed second In the
'Atlanta Grand Prlx last week and said he's peaking In time for the Olympics this summer. Story on 8B.
Black Caucus re-elects Bob Davis
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Bob Davis is again chairman
of the Black Political Caucus,
beating back an effort by
Republican Jewett Walker to
head the organization.
Davis, a Democrat, won an
overwhelming victory in orga
nization elections Sunday at
First Baptist Church West,
getting 45 votes. Challenger
Malcolm Graham, another
Democrat, got 21 votes and
Walker, a Republican, got
seven.
Davis, who headed the cau
cus for 12 years, decided to
run last week after learning a
Republican would be nominat
ed to chair the organization
Davis helped found in the
early ‘70s.
“These are crucial times,”
Davis said. “Mean-spirited
Republicans can no longer
occupy the legistature. City
Hall or the White House. It is
necessary that we get
(President) Clinton back.
Harvey (U.S. Senate candi
date Harvey Gantt) in and
maintain state auditor Ralph
Campbell. We don’t want to
lose anything we have got at
the local, state or national
level and the Democratic way
seems to be the best way at
this time.”
Davis listed among the cru
cial issues that must be faced
by African Americans the pro
posed consolidation of
Charlotte and Mecklenburg
County governments.
“With consolidation, blacks
loose representation,” he said.
“Now we have four city council
(persons), three commissioners
and three school board mem
bers. If the 8-5 plan the
Chamber of Commerce is push
ing passes, we lose representa
tion in numbers. In the 8-5
system, there would be eight
districts and five at large
seats. There would be two pre
dominantly black districts.
“We want a decision making
body with strong enough num
bers to have some impact,”
See CAUCUS on page 3A
Separate and unequal still
By Roxana Hegeman
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW ORLEANS - The
same attitude that led to the
“separate but equal” U.S.
Supreme Court decision 100
years ago is behind the cur
rent conservative movement,
the dean of the congressional
black caucus said Saturday.
U.S. Rep. Charles B. Rangel,
D-New York, made the com
ment at the Plessy
Conference, which concluded
Sunday in New Orleans, on
the anniversary of the May
18, 1896 decision that led to
Jim Crow segregation.
On June 7, 1892 in New
Orleans, Homer Adolphe
Plessy, a black man, was
arrested after boarding a rail
road passenger car reserved
for whites. The arrest was
carefully orchestrated by
prominent black New
Orleanians challenging
Louisiana’s “separate car act."
The Plessy decision was not
overturned until 1954, when
the Supreme Court handed
down its landmark decision
that separate facilities were
inherently unequal.
While the United States has
come a long way in the civil
rights movement since that
day, it may not take much to
erase those gains, Rangel
said.
“Plessy is over. Where is the
equality? The separation is
still here,” Rangel said.
Rangel said the current
Supreme Court may knock
three to 10 black congressmen
out of office by not allowing
district boundaries drawn
specifically to enhance the
chance of electing a minority.
Today’s attacks are coming
in the guise of tax cutbacks
that will eventually cut wel
fare, education, health care
and other programs which
benefit the poor, Rangel said.
“No matter what civil rights
you have, if you don’t have a
job, what good is it," Rangel
said.
Civil rights are back to
where they st2uTed because in
an era of high-tech develop
ments, schools teaching black
students are underfunded,
Rangel said.
Rangel also said anti-crime
measures are being unfairly
applied against minorities.
Blacks make up a widely dis
proportionate share of the
inmates in U.S. prisons, he
said.
“What is booming today? It
is not the military complex. It
is the law enforcement com
plex,” Rangel said. “Politicians
are no longer looking for mili
tary bases ... The enemy is no
longer the communists. It is
‘get them off the street.’”
Rangel said he is concerned
most about public attitudes
that put those politicians and
judges into office.
“They talk about angry
white men. They are insecure
white men,” Rangel said.
Management of King Center given to park service
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA - The family of
Martin Luther King Jr.
agreed Monday to turn over
management of the slain civil
rights leader's tomb to the
National Park Service.
The move comes after the
park service, which has con
ducted tours of King property
for 12 years, was banished
from the King birth home and
the King Center last year dur
ing a dispute that was later
resolved.
The park service will take
over tours of King’s tomb,
located at the King Center, as
well as the Freedom Hall
exhibit building before the
Olympics, when officials
expect 100,000 visitors a day.
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iKM
Coretta Scott King and her children, Martin III., Bernice and Dexter pray with President Clinton.
The King family will main
tain ownership of Freedom
Hall and the tomb. A date for
the new management was not
immediately announced.
The King Center, which has
been cutting back on staff
while coping with financial
difficulties, will also turn over
control of a $534,000 federal
grant used to maintain the
sites, said Troy Lissimore,
park manager for the Martin
Luther King Jr. National
Historic Site.
“It appears they've made a
real gut-wrenching assess
ment to come and determine
they were never intended to
be in the service business to
begin with.” Lissimore said.
The King historic site, locat
ed in the Atlanta neighbor
hood where King grew up,
draws 1.5 million visitors a
year.
The park service, which is
opening an $11.8 million
King-themed visitors center
across from the King Center
in mid-June, already conducts
tours of King’s birthplace and
the surrounding historic
neighborhood of Sweet
Auburn.
And last month, the park
service signed a 99-year lease
to conduct tours of Ebenezer
Baptist Church, where King
and his father both preached.
The agreement ends the rift
between the park service and
the King family, which want
ed to build its own $60 million
interactive museum that
would have competed with the
new visitor’s center, Lissimore
said.
King’s son Dexter Scott
King, who heads the King
Center, said in a statement
the move will free up the cen
ter to focus on developing its
archives of King’s speeches
and writings.