Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Aug. 22, 1996, edition 1 / Page 22
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York/tKlje Cfjarlotte ^oit/Rowan REGIONAL THURSDAY, August 22, 1996 New Livingstone president looks to make changes By Carol Meeks THE CHARLOTTE POST A S of July 1, 1996, Burnett Joiner took over as the 10th president of Livingstone College and Hood Theological Seminary. After only 7 weeks in oftice, Joiner has made some critical observations. Joiner says, “As I assess the situation and continue to talk with people and look at the [Livingstbne College and Hood Seminary] Strategic Plan, sev eral challenges must be addressed quickly.” This comment comes on the heels of negative publicity in a SaUsbury newspaper. The pub licity did not deter Joiner and his vision for the College and Seminary. Joiner is a man with a vision. He comes to Livingstone hav ing had a myriad of successful professional experiences and training in education. He has a Ph.D from the University of South Carolina, a master’s degree from Bradley University in Peoria, 111.; a bachelor of science degree from Alcorn State University in Lorman, Miss.; and a LL.D from Riverside Baptist College and Seminary in Fort Washington, Maryland. He has received additional acade mic training at Utica Junior College, the University of Southern Mississippi and Delta State College, all in Mississippi. Joiner translated his experi ence into a vision prior to com ing to Livingstone. His most recent experience as President was with LeMo3me-Owen College in Memphis, where his vision and management expanded the commuter col- See LIVINGSTONE on page7B South Carolina man defies Klan, becomes target THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MANNING, S.C. - Manuel Leroy Thompson recalls seeing the Ku Klux Klan posters hanging from utility poles near the recycling center where he worked days after he finished a second night job. Thompson, a 34-year-old black man, tore down the posters - only to have them reappear. “I wasn’t pushing the issue,” he said. “I just said I wasn’t going to tolerate that on my job site.” Some signs invited the public to the four Klan rallies held in 1994 and 1996. Others simply featured a figure in a white robe and the words. “The Klan is Watching You.” Now, he says he believes the Klan was watching. Thompson is mentioned in a federal indictment made pub lic in Charleston on Friday. The indictment charges former Clarendon County Klansmen Arthur Haley, 61, and Hubert “Herbert* Rowell, 60, with civil rights violations, including conspiring to bum Thompson's car. Shortly after Thompson tore down the Klan signs, strange things began happening at his day job at the Clarendon County Service Center. One day, he found a trash bin burning when he arrived at work. At night, he could hear gun shots and cars slowing near his Bloomville home. He found three of his dogs shot to death in his front yard. Thompson told The (Sumter) Item he started worrying about the safety of his wife and four children. He wouldn’t let the children play outside, and when he was away from home, the family was all he thought about. “I just had on my mind the whole time, 'What’s going on at home?”’ Thompson, who worked nights at a second job, said when he arrived at the recy cling center on the morning of October 17,1994, he found the hut he manned there burned to the ground. Eventually, the family moved and Thompson quit his job at the recycling center when the county wouldn’t rebuild the hut and he had to work out of his March 2, 1995, his car was burned, too. Thompson recalls a run-in he had with Haley in early 1995. He asked Haley about the posters, and the two “exchanged words.” The same day, he said he ran into Rowell who also ques tioned him about the posters. Thompson said that Rowell told him, “You don’t know who you’re messing with.” “I said. You don’t know who you’re messing with,”’ Thompson said. Haley and Rowell also are charged with conspiracy in the June 1995 burnings of two pre dominantly black churches. Haley pleaded innocent Friday, and Rowell is set to appear in court Tuesday. Two other former Klan mem bers admitted last week to actually setting the fires at the Mount Zion AME Church in Greeleyville and Macedonia Baptist Church in Bloomville. Gary C. Cox, 22, and Timothy A. Welch, 24, pleaded guilty last week to conspiracy to vio late civil rights and using fire to commit a felony in violation of civil rights. Both men are cooperating with federal authorities inves tigating the blazes. Ex-Klansmen charged in fires BY JESSE J HOLLAND ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER CHARLESTON, S.C. - Two ex-Klansmeo were charged Friday with maiterminding a reign of terror in rural South Carolina that began with the torddng of a Hispanic migrant camp and ended with the burning of a pre dominantly black church, Arthur A. Haley, 61, and Hubert “Herbert* Rowell, 60, were taken into cuetody and charged with conipiring with two other Klanimen to bum Macedonia Baptist Churdi in Bloomville, burning a migrant camp and other civil rights violations, Haley pleaded innocent to the charges, while Rowell’s arraignment was delayed until Tuesday. U.S. Magistrate Judge R^rt Carr ordered both men held by federal marshals, Haley without bond and Rowell until his arraignment Tuesday. Haley, a former IQansman from Manning, organized rallies attended by Gary C. Cox and Timothy A. Welch, also of Manning. Cox, 22, and Welch, 24, pleaded guilty Wednesday to burning Mount Zion AME Church in GreeleyviUe and Macedonia Baptist Church in Bloomville. The 20-count indictment said Haley selected Macedonia Baptist Church to be burned and gave Welch and Cox the flammable liquid they used. Rowell then blended the mixture in a plastic jug and showed Cox and Welch how to use it, the indictment said. Horace King, a South Carolina KKK grand dragon, said in an affidavit Thursday the Klan had nothing to do with the church burnings. “The destruction of any church ... is an un- Christian act and contrary to the goals and beliefs of the Christian Kni^ts,” King,said. The indictments also accused il^well of burn ing a Hispanic migrant camp in the Bloomville area in October 1992. It goes on to accuse both men of burning another migrant camp near Haley’s house in Pebmary 1996. “Haley select ed this camp because he did not want Hispanic persons living in his neighborhood," the indict ment said. The two also illegally purchased several firearms, including Norinco SKS rifles, the indictment said. A prosecution witness heard Haley mention “a race war was coming, white people had to arm themselves, and the Norinco SKS rifles were the weapon of choice," said Justice Department lawyer Jim Oliver. Oliver also said Haley had threatened one of the witnesses and had been heard to-say that he would “dig a moat around his house, fill it with gasoline and wait for agents to show up.” Haley’s lawyer. Dale Cobb, denied aU the charges. He said Haley’s broffier Romeo, who was arrested ecu'lier on weapons chargee and is expected to be a prosecution witness, owned most of the gims found in Haley’s home. Haley told a newspaper Thursday that he expect^ to be indicted. He said he might as well talk, because “I’m a cooked goose any way.” Haley told The (Columbia) State the govern ment is targeting Man leaders to justify the time and money spent investigating,church fibres across the Southeast. “It’s a setup to get somebody. They are after the Man and they’re not going to stop” until they get current or former Man leaders on conspiracy charges, Haley, who surrendered to federal marshals Friday morning, refused to talk to reporters as he entered the courthouse. Rowell was arrest ed Thursday night and driven into the court house garage by federal marshals. Haley faces a maximum of 210 years and a $4 million fine if convicted on his 16 counts, while Rowell faces 190 years and a $3 million fine if convicted on his 12 coxmts. Livingstone honors naval commander SPECIAL TO THE POST R ear Admiral Larry L. Poe, a graduate of Dunbar High School, was honored with a reception Saturday night at Livingstone College’s Aggrey Student Union. The reception celebrated Poe’s assumption of the Naval Reserve Intelligence Command at Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base in Texas. Poe began his naval career in 1967 upon graduation from the Aviation Officer Candidate School. He was released from active duty in 1972, but main tained his reserve affiliation, holding several command posi tions. Currently he is the Central , Intelligence Agency’s to the National Maritime Intelligence Center. He has served as the CIA director’s senior representative to the office of the Secretary of Defense. Poe, son of Marion Poe of East Spencer and the late Winfred P. Poe, attended Livingstone College before graduating from UNC Chapel Hill with a degree in zoology. He earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Southern California and a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the U.S. Naval War College. Poe also completed the Senior National Security Fellows Program at Harvard University. He is married to Livingstone alumnus Barbara Parker, a Fayetteville native. The couple reside in Issue, Md. Their daughter, Kristin, is a student at the University of Maryland, and their son, Larry Jr., is an ensign in the United States Navy. Clintons and Gores help rebuild Tennessee church By Woody Baird THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FRUITLAND, Tenn. - Athalia Donaldson was proud to have the president of the United States helping rebuild her small, rural church Monday, but she wanted to point out that many others have helped, too. “It’s really nice that he was able to come down, but we don’t con sider him any higher than those people who have already come to do the work that has been done,” she said. “We’re blessed that so many people have come.” Salem Baptist Church, which dates its history to 1872 when it was founded by former slaves, fell victim to arson early last year but is well on the way to being rebuilt, largely due to volunteers and donations from around the country. President Clinton, Vice President Albert Gore, Mrs. Clinton and Mrs. Gore joined the list of Salem volunteers, dropping by to help put up drywall in the church sanctuary and prepare the walls for painting. A crowd of 300 spectators gathered in a side yard of Salem Baptist to welcome the Clintons and Gores, who also brought along their children. Clinton and Mrs. Gore arranged the Salem Baptist visit on their Sm CLINTON Pag* 7B Former Panther moves to Atlanta THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ATLANTA - The woman who led the Black Panther Party in the mid-1970s has embraced this Southern capi tal as her new home and the site of her next mission for social change. When Elaine Brown, 63, returned to the United States after living in Paris for seven years, she headed to Oakland, Calif, where the Panthers had nm free-food programs, health clinics and other community projects. “I thought that I could re-cre ate a base there for some kind of serious social change,” she said. “But the black hierarchy in Oakland has absolutely done zip for the black commu nity.” So she came to Atleuita where her daughter Ericka Brown lives. Now she hopes to build a school here modeled on the Panthers’ Oakland Community School. “Given the macho image of the Panthers, anyone would realize it took a very special type of person to run that party,” Stanford University his torian and Black Panther expert Claybome Carson said. Ms. Brown, who ran the party from 1974 to 1977, has already met a few high-profile Atlantans including civil rights icon and former Atlanta mayor and U.N. ambassador Andrew Yoimg, the former senior policy advisor for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Shirley Franklin and Jamil Al-Amin, the Panthers’ former minister of justice, then known as H. Rap Brown. Until her school project mate rializes, she plans to see her autobiography, “A Taste of Power,” made into a film, revive her singing career, finish her second book and give an occa sional lecture. Arkansas considers statue as an apology for slavery By Davida Lieb THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LITTLE ROCK - Arkansas officials are considering a pro posal to erect a monument at the state Capitol or a public park renouncing and apologizing for the state’s former practice of slavery. The idea, by the Arkansas Black History Advisory Committee, was presented Friday to the Legislative Council, which referred it to a committee for more consideration. Supporters said Arkansas has a poor image on slavery, and this would be one way to start reversing that. “The state has never said it was wrong,” said Curtis Henry Sykes, chairman of the Black History Commission. “By us say ing we understand it was wrong, it would give us a strong point to denovmce slavery.” Arkansas seceded from the Union in 1861, after the Civil War already had begun. More than 50,000 Arkansans fought for the Confederate strmies, while about 10,000 residents broke from the state and fought for the Union. "T
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