Greater Bethel AME Church kicks off centennial year/Page 13A
Wht Cljarlotte
VOLUME 22 NO. 12
THE VOICE OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY
THE WEEK OF DECEMBER 5,1996
75 CENTS
ALSO SERVING CABARRUS, CHESTER, ROWAN AND YORK COUNTIES
PHOTO/CALVIN FERGUSON
Mecklenburg County commissioner Hoyie Martin said there are differences between his new office and his former one as a member
of Charlotte City Council. Martin, who was sworn in as District 2’s representative Monday, has aiready jumped into the debate over
county controi of Chariotte-MecMenburg Schoois.
Trading places
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Hoyle Martin’s return to
local government, this time on
the Mecklenburg County
Board of Commissioners, is off
to a rocky start.
Martin, who served three
terms on Charlotte City
Council and ran for mayor last
year, was elected to the county
board in November, replacing
.Tim Richardson. Martin joins
Darrell Williams as the only
African Americans on the
nine-member board, which
now has a Democratic majori
ty.
Martin has new role as commissioner
There are differences
between being a county com
missioner and city council
member, Martin said.
“The difference is that we
have different issues,” he said.
“We (commissioners) deal with
soft issues that deed with more
direct people needs, like social
services. We have to be pre
pared to make adjustments
depending on welftire reform.
There are the school issues.
We are getting 3,000 more stu
dents a year and we are losing
25 percent of our best teachers
each year. Even though we
don’t make (school) policy, we
have got to provide the fund
ing for their needs.”
It was the school system
which sparked the opening
debate in what could be a
rocky commissioners term.
Newcomer Bill James want
ed commissioners to get
involved in requiring neigh
borhood schools and holding
tighter rein over the system.
That’s unrealistic, Martin
says.
“It is not uncommon when
people are elected to public
oSice and have no experience
to make ridiculous statements,
Martin said. “It takes five
votes on the board to do any-
thipg. We don’t have any busi
ness trying to manage the
school board. It is not our job,
even imder law to go in there
and manage schools and set
policy. When Bill James says
what he is going to do he is
blowing off at the mouth.”
“There’s a definite split,”
Martin said. “BiU James, Joel
Carter and George Higgins
are out in left field or right
See MARTIN on page 2A
Marshall cooperated with FBI
Civil rights legend gave feds vital information
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - The late
Thurgood Marshall, the first
black member of the Supreme
Court and a towering civil
ri^ts leader, began giving the
FBI information about the
movement in the 1950s despite
his outspoken criticism of the
bureau, USA Today reported
Monday.
Marshall passed along infor
mation about a dissident
NAACP leader in North
Carolina and about other civil
rights leaders who were advo
cating violence in the state, a
June 4, 1959, memo from the
FBFs New York office indicates.
Marshall, onetime head of the
NAACP Legal Defense and
Educational Fimd, also gave the
FBI advance warning about an
upcoming NAACP convention
vote on a resolution critical of
the Justice Department, accord-
Four options
for pupil
reassignment
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials, after heated opposition
from south Charlotte residents, were planning to revise pupil reas
signment proposals by today.
At a meeting with the school board on Tuesday, Supt. Eric Smith
said he would present a fourth assignment plan to the school board
today.
“I think you are going to see a lot of little shifts,” school board mem
ber George Dunlap said.
“Plan 4 will be based on No. 3,” Dunlap said. “It will be the modified
version of Plan 3. Most people who voiced opinions liked Plan 3.
“West Charlotte (High School parents) didn’t like Plan 3. They liked
Plan 2, which left West Charlotte intact. The new plan, with the revi
sions, would be more like Plan 2 for West Charlotte.”
That plan would account for complaints firom white families who
objected to their children being reassigned from Providence High
School to Olympic and some in the Matthews area who wanted their
children to remain in Matthews.
Blacks had accepted the proposals, despite some adjustments to
their attendance zones because West Charlotte would remain at least
50 percent Afirican American
Under the original proposals, the new Education Village high school
near UNC Charlotte would open with a black population of 40 to 46
percent, depending on which proposal .is approved. The new south
east high school would have a black population of 36 to 43 percent.
The opening of two new high schools meant some reassignments
See PUPIL on page 2A
NAACP results
don’t offer
many surprises
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
ing to a 1956 memo from a
1,300-page file the FBI kept on
him.
The file became available for
release under the Freedom of
Information Act after Marshall,
who served on the court from
1967 to 1991, died in 1993 at
age 84. The FBI took three
years to review the file before
See MARSHALL on page 3A
Results of the local NAACP
elections weren’t surprising.
Neither was the challenge to the
returns filed five days later.
Rev. Conrad Pridgen, pastor of
Greater Bethel AME Church
was unopposed for president. As
were the three vice presidential
candidates and the candidate
for treasurer.
Eighty-one members voted in
unofficial election returns,
choosing 24 executive board
members from among 32 candi
dates.
Executive board members
elected were Robert Davis,
Alfred Alexander, Margaret
Alexander, Rev. Stan Crawford,
Almetta Alexander, Robbie
Banks, Helen Alexander, Terry
Belk, Jackie Lawrence, Gary
McFadden, Fred Alexander,
Anthony Hunt, Ruby
McCathorine, Bonnie Marsh,
Louise Sellers, Teresa Wright,
George Dunlap, Vivian
McMillan, Sandra Hamrick,
James Harrill, Kimberly
McGuine, Anna Hood, Valerie
Woodard and Hoyle Martin.
Vice presidents who were
unopposed included Mary
Clarke, (Jeneal Frazier Gregory
and Melvin B. Lowery.
John Davis was reelected sec
retary, beating Elaine Grier,
and David Howard was elected
treasurer.
Pridgen, noting that he does
not officially become president
until Jan. 1 and that the elec
tions are being challenged,
reserved comment on his future
plans for the organization.
“Tm basically in a prayer pos
ture... seeking guidance from
God about what we worrld do,”
he said. “I am pra3dng for unity
for the branch at this point. Tm
prayir^ for unity and dfrection.
Fm praying for a lot of wisdom
fixjmGod.
“I do know one of first things I
would want to do if we are
allowed to take office is meet
with the local pastors. We cer-
See NAACP on page 3A
Racist label doesn’t fit, Farrakhan says
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WINSTON-SALEM - Nation
of Islam leader Louis
Farrakhan says it’s unfair to
portray him as a racist.
“Fm not a hater of white peo
ple,” Farrakhan said last week
before a speech at Winston-
Salem State University. “You
look at my skin color, you can
tell that there’s some white
blood in my family.
“I am not anti-Semitic. I do
not hate Jewish people. I have a
profoimd respect for the Jewish
people.”
The religious leader has been
criticized as a racist by people
who are afraid of him,
Farrakhan said.
‘I’m not a hater of white
people.”
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan
If I
Farrakhan attended the um-
versity in the 1950s, when it
was known as Winston-Salem
Teachers’ College, and left in his
senior year to begin a career as
a singer £md classical violinist.
He spoke to a crowd of 1,800
people during a more than two
hour appearance.
Farrakhan said he remem
bered when he was a young
man traveling through North
Carolina and stopped to visit a
courthouse. He needed a bath
room and “had to go down into
the beisement, to a toilet with no
door on it....”
“I came upstairs burning with
rage,” Farrakhan said. “I was
not bom to take that crap. I was
bom to destroy it forever from
the face of the Earth.”
Farrakhan became the Nation
of Islam’s chief spokesman
before Malcolm X was assassi
nated in 1965.
FILE PHOT
Louis Farrakhan, shown at the Million Man March, returned to
Winston-Salem State University last week.
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