Churches hope to score points on football Sundays/Page lOA
I ®Ije Charlotte BoSt
VOLUME 21 NO. 50
THE VOICE OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY
THE WEEK OF AUGUST 29, 1996
75 CENT:'
SERVING CABARRUS, ROWAN AND YORK COUNTIES;
The coalition to kill consolidation
Black Democrats, conservative Republicans deny public vote
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
An unlikely alliance of African
Americans and politicril conser
vatives killed governmental con
solidation Monday in a 7-4
Charlotte City Council vote.
The vote means a referendum
NAACP audit
delayed for
two weeks
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
The audit of N.C. NAACP
finances has been halted
because records and meeting
minutes requested from sus
pended president Kelly
Alexander Jr. have not been
turned over to auditors, accord
ing to acting state NAACP pres
ident Melvin Alston.
Alston, a Guilford County
commissioner, said Monday the
auditors are consulting with
national NAACP officials and
plan to again ask Alexander and
state conference bookkeeper
Linda Crites Gaines for the
needed financial records.
“They hope to get started
again in about two weeks,”
Alston said of the audit.
“Everything is still on track to
be settled in time for the nation
al board meeting in October.”
Alston said he was not at lib
erty to discuss details , of what
records or minutes were needed
to complete the audit.
He said the auditors were
planning to make another vol
untary request for the needed
records, but that other, more
compulsory options are avail
able.
Alexander was suspended on
May 15 by the national board
pending an audit of financial
records of the state chapter
going back several years. The
suspension followed complaints
from board members elected in
October, including treasurer Z.
Ann Hoyle, a Hickory city coim-
cil member, Alston and Valerie
Woodard of Charlotte.
Alexander has headed the
state conference of branches
since 1986. His father, Kelly
Alexander Sr., stepped down to
become chair of the national
board, a position he held at the
time of his death in 1985.
The audit was delayed once
before, after auditors realized
they had mistakenly assumed
Gaines was state NAACP trea
surer. Also, the scope of the
audit has expanded and now
focuses on a cash management
account held by Merrill Lynch,
into which some NAACP fimds
were deposited, but to which
only Alexander had access.
Also being reviewed are finan
cial transactions between the
See NAACP on page 2A
on whether to merge Charlotte
and Mecklenburg County gov
ernments will not be on the bal
lot in November.
Black Democrats Ella
Scarborough, Malachi Greene,
Pat Cannon and Nasif Majeed
were joined by Repubhcans Don
Reid and Lynn Wheeler and fel
low Democrat Sara Spencer in
voting against putting a consoli
dation referendum on the ballot.
The idea of merging the two
governments have been dis
cussed for nearly 20 years and
the only time it came to a vote -
in 1971 - consolidation was
defeated.
Despite efforts to insure ade
quate black representation in a
merged metro government body,
African Americans generally
opposed the idea, saying it
would dilute hard-won gains
which now include three city
council seats and two seats on
the nine-member county board
of commissioners.
County comifiissioners
approved the 13-member metro
plan in July, but the council
delayed action until Monday.
Greene put forth a 16-mem
ber, all-district plan which, was
defeated Monday.
Consolidation raises a number
of problems among African
AmericEm office holders.
Mission: Save Barber-Scotia
f -
PHOTO/SUE ANN JOHNSON
Sammie Potts has returned to North Carolina to rebuild Barber-Scotia College. The Concord school has pared its $3.1 mil-
iion debt to about $1 miliion.
President aims to meet challenges facing school
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
CONCORD - Haywood
Keaton has been around
Barber-Scotia College for 15
years, long enough to recall
the glory years.
And long enough to have
seen the dark days of the past
three years.
Three different presidents.
Threatened suspension by
the Southern Association of
Colleges and Schools.
Disastrous public relations on
campus and beyond.
But Wednesday, Keaton,
who works in the school’s
library, was all smiles as he
anticipated the administra
tion of Barber-Scotia’s newest
president, Sammie Potts, a
York County, S.C., native.
Potts graduated from
Benedict College in
Columbia, S.C., and earned a
doctorate from the University
of Massachusetts in 1976.
“I remember him when he
was here before,” Keaton
said. “We’re excited. We are
on the right track. I think
everyone’s positive about
what’s going on.”
Potts’ assumption of the
presidency brings him back to
the school where he served
from 1979-88, rising to the
position of vice president for
development.
His homecoming has been
greeted with high praise -
and high expectations.
Barber-Scotia is in danger
of losing its accreditation
from SACS because of linger
ing financial problems exacer
bated by bad management.
The problems came to light
with the sudden resignation
of Joel Nwagbarocha in
March 1994, revealing debt
approaching $2.5 million and
other problems.
By the time Potts came
aboard this summer, SACS
was threatening to withdraw
accreditation.
Potts has a meeting with
SACS representatives next
week to discuss what will be
expected of the school during
an official visit in October.
“I am meeting with repre
sentatives from SACS to bet
ter prepare,” Potts said. “We
have never been told exactly
what we should do.”
He said 413 students are
enrolled for the 1996-97
'school year, including 199
freshmen. That’s up from last
year, Potts said.
He said one of the sugges
tions from SACS has been
that the school increase its
enrollment by 10 percent
each year.
To please SACS and revital
ize Barber-Scotia, Potts has
launched “Partners in
Progress,” a program to
increase the school involve
ment in the community and
put priority on “total student
development.”
Last week, for example, he
told professors to ask them
selves each day what they
had done to help a student be
a better person.
One aspect of Partners in
Progress is the seeking of
agencies that will allow
Barber-Scotia students to
work, free of charge, to give
them life experiences.
“They learn what the real
world is all about,” said Potts,
who says Barber Scotia grad
uates should stand out as
See POTTS on page 3A
I § I
p>i.
Gadhafi aid offer draws criticism
Mffn
m
PHOTO/RONNIE BURKE
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan wants to receive $1 bii-
lion from Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, but the U.S. govern-
me,nt is opposed. i
By Jim Drinkard
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - An offer by
Libyan leader Moammar
Gadhafi to funnel $1 billion in
humanitarian aid to Nation of
Islam leader Louis Farrakhan
already is drawing outrage from
critics who say it is an attempt
to soften economic sanctions
against Libya.
“My husband and I are
appalled,” said Susan Cohen,
whose only daughter, Theodora,
died in the bombing of Pan Am
Flight 103. Libyan terrorists are
suspected of planting the bomb.
“This is nothing but a bribe,”
she said in an interview.
Cohen and her husband
Daniel wrote the Treasury
Department, calling it “unthink
able” that permission would be
given for Farrakhan to accept
the Libyan money.
The go-between in
Farrakhan’s effort to win feder
al permission to accept the
money is a North Carolina busi
nessman, Marion “Rex” Harris,
according to Monday's edition of
The Wall Street Jornmal.
Harris did not return tele
phone calls. But he told the
newspaper he sees the money as
a way “to bring black Americans
back into America” by helping
educate, house and feed them.
A Republican official on
Capitol Hill said Cohgress
would be watching closely to see
how the administration
responds to Farrakhan’s
request. Given passage of new
sanctions against companies
ijivesting in the oil industries of
Iran and Libya, “the sentiment
in Congress is pretty clear,” the
official said.
To be able to accept the offer,
Farrakhan must win a govern
ment exemption from U.S. sanc
tions that bar most financial
transactions between the two
countries. The sanctions were
imposed after Libya became
linked to international terror
ism.
President Clinton is under
pressure to demonstrate resolve
See FARRAKHAN on page 2A
For example, Scarborough, the
only African American elected
at large, could face a more white
electorate. The percentage of
black registered voters drops
from 27 to 22 in an at-larg;
countywide race.
Overcoming that margin is not
impossible. Arthur Griffin is an
at-large member of the
See CONSOLIDATION on 2A
Getting
house in
order
Smith brings
change to CMS
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Equity.
That’s part of the drasticab
different pmspective greelin
students and staff of th:
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
as they return
Smith
for the 1996-
97 year.
New Supt.
Eric Smith
took over the
93,000-stu
dent system
Aug. 1, and
has reorga
nized top
management,
hiring an
African
American as a top assistant.
Smith, tall and bespectacled,
promises to answer a major
complaint of AfHcan Americans
under John Murphy.
Equity. Equity in school facili
ties. Equity in course offerings.
Equity in hiring and firing of
minorities.
Murphy had pushed a pro
gram of magnet schools
designed to attract white stu
dents to predominantly black
neighborhoods. That program,
coupled with the construction of
new schools in newer suburban
areas, raised concerns among
African Americans in older
inner city neighborhoods that
the school system was becoming
two-tiered again, a la the sepa-
rate-but-equal policies of the
pre-civil rights era.
Smith says he wants all
schools to have excellent facili
ties, excellent faculties and
excellent curriculums.
“When parents attend one
school or another, new or old,
magnet or non-magnet, parents
see that they are all high quali
ty,” he said.
‘There have been events that
brought out real and perceived
See SMITH on page 3A
Inside
Editorials 4A-5A
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Religion 10A
A&E IB
Regional News 6B
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