Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Dec. 24, 1996, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
Rowan County teacher honored by national publication/Page 8B ®hc Charlotte ^oSt VOLUME 22 NO. 15 THE VOICE OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY THE WEEK OF DECEMBER 24,1996 75 CENTS ALSO SERVING CABARRUS, CHESTER, ROWAN AND YORK COUNTIES Group urges welfare extensions By Herbert L. White THE CHARLOTTE POST Poor people shouldn’t go hungry for lack of jobs, a Charlotte-based advocacy group plans to tell Mayor Pat McCrory. ACORN, a grassroots organi zation, will ask McCrory to urge Gov. Jim Hunt to waive rules that require poor people Crime a concern inNW Hearings planned for Jan. and Feb. in affected areas find jobs or risk losing welfare benefits. ACORN held a meet ing last week at the Greenville Center. “We are asking the mayor to help send a message to the governor that without a waiv er people here who are doing all they can to find a job wiU lose their benefits,” said ACORN leader Mary Ellen Phifer. “The limit in this law doesn’t ask if people are look ing for work, it doesn’t check if there are enough jobs - and in our neighborhoods right now, the fact is that there aren’t enough jobs for everyone who needs one.” McCrory, who is co-chair man of a task force convened by the U.S. Conference of Mayors to review welfare reform’s impact on public housing, said Friday he hasn’t heard from ACORN, but would like to. “I’m not aware of that request as it relates to the governor,” he said. “I’m very accessible to hearing their proposal.” Under the welfare reform bill passed this year, up to 15,000 North Carolinians could lose their food stamps. including 1,000 Mecklenburg residents. The law allows peo ple without children to receive food stamps for no more than three months in a three-year period unless they are work ing a minimum of 20 hours a week. People who aren’t work ing lose those benefits, even if they have registered for work or job training, but the law allows states to ask for a By Herbert L. White THE CHARLOTTE POST It’s getting harder for Willie Garner to tell the good guys fi-om the bad in some northwest Charlotte neighborhoods. Garner, president of the Lincoln Heights Community Organization, said more crimi nal activity is creeping into the neighborhoods adjacent to inter states 85 and 77 along Beatties Ford Road. The problem, he says, lies in the type of people who move into the area. Most are decent hard-working people. Others, however, are setting up shop for drug dealing and dis rupting the peace. “Some of those same people are being pushed into this area” finm other neighborhoods where residents are being displaced. Gamer said. “They’ve got to go somewhere. It seems like they’re not screening the people who are renting these apart ments like they should.” Because of what northwest residents feel is a rise in crimi nal activity in their area, a series of community meetings will be held through February. The hearings, sponsored by the Northwest Corridor Community Development Corp., will include Charlotte police and members of Charlotte city council’s public safety committee. 1 “If it feels to be true to the neighbors, then it needs to be addressed,” NWCDC executive director Ike Heard said. The NWCDC, which is leading efforts to restore housing and business interest in the area, has a vested interest in ridding the area of crime. To attract new homeowners, northwest communities need to be made See NORTHWEST on page 3A Emphasis on Africa - PHOTO/SUE ANN JOHNSON Africologist Melodye Micere Stewart leads a discussion of African history at Bruns Avenue School. The piiot program is an attempt to improve academic achievement of black students. Black history part of curriculum By John Minter THE CHARLOTTE POST Bruns Avenue Elementary is making a unique attempt to deal with low achievement of African American students at the magnet school near uptown Charlotte. The school has hired an expert on African history to provide a pilot African and Afiican American history sem inar to about 40 students in the minority achievement pro gram. Bruns Avenue assistant principal Haze Moore said he’s not aware of an5rthing similar in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School system, though the minority achievement pro gram and many teachers rou tinely expose African American students to histori cal and cultural lessons, using outside speakers sponsored by the Afro-American Cultural Center or community resources like Glenda Manning or Ahmad Daniels, Afiican storytellers and other artists. Melodye Micere Stewart Stewart, a self-described “Africologist,” has provided similar programs in Philadelphia since 1987. Stewart meets with students in the minority achievement program twice a week, teach ing them about their culture and history. Moore got the idea for the program fiom Stewart, who is a member of Ws church. See STUDIES on page 2A Do Black English be right thing to teach? By Michelle Locke THE ASSOCIATED PRESS OAKLAND, Calif. - This much is settled - Black English will be recognized as a second language in Oakland schools. Whether it is consid ered an insult to the students or a helping hand is the sub ject of hot debate. Critics said the decision to interpret Black English in class, rather than just calling it “wrong,” underestimates black students’ learning abili ties and could give them the wrong idea about what it takes to succeed. “This hurts the kids, that’s the real tragedy of it,” said John Fonte, a visiting scholar in education at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. “The way to learn English is to study English.” Proponents say the idea is to help students make the transi tion to standard English by understanding and translat ing their mother tongue. “We’re not saying (Black English) is wrong, we're say- See BLACK on page 2A Gaston County family complains of excessive force By Jen Young THE CHARLOTTE POST A Gastonia couple have filed a complaint against that cits^s police department over what they say was an excessive use of force. Gastonia residents Sylvia and Barry Bey have filed a compli ant against Gastonia Police Officer Kevin Myer. On Oct. 9, the couple allege that Meyer used excessive force to arrest Sylvia Bey and her 15-year-old son, Christopher. Meyer, who is white, used pep per spray to subdue Sylvia and Christopher Bey. Meyer was one of two officers to respond to compliant for tres passing issued by Gastonia Senior - Code Inspector Neil BeU. Bell’s offipe sent a letter to the Beys, who at the time hved in Florida, to inform them that Christopher had inherited prop erty on Davidson Street, near the new municipal court and jail facility being built in predomi nantly black Ward 4. Sylvia Bey said she and her faiMy came to Gastonia to see the house. After arriving, Bey said Bell told them that the house needed almost $20,000 worth of work. “He told us the plumbing was shot,” she said. “He also said the windows needed repair and that it would take between $16,000 and $18,000 to complete the work. He offered to give the us a loan against the house, hut we refused. We didn’t want to get involved with that.”. Bell’s office then arranged in September for the couple to meet with two investors inter ested in purchasing the proper ty- The Beys refused both offers. They asked to see an inspection report to verify the costs of the repairs. “He refused to show us an inspection report,” Sylvia Bey said. “They told us how much it would cost to repair the house, then couldn’t show us how they figured that out.” The Beys then decided to fix up the house themselves. They See FAMILY on page 3A waiver in areas where jobs are scarce. Because federal welfare funds flow to states instead of cities, local government is lim ited in its ability to affect change. In Charlotte, “the area we might see the great est benefits would be in the public housing communities,” See WELFARE on page 2A Trouble Charleston Navy brig site of alleged race, sex harassment THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CHARLESTON, S.C. - The Navy and the Air Force are investigating allegations of racial and sexual harassment at the Navy consolidated brig at the Charleston Naval Weapons Station, a newspaper reported Saturday. The Post and Courier of Chari sston said it received two written reports about the inves tigation, both of which describe a climate of racial and sexual tension at the brig. Although operated primarily by the Navy, the Air Force has roughly 30 active-duty members who work at the brig eis part of a separate detachment. Air Force and Navy officials are making few comments about the reports. “It’s part of an ongoing investi gation,” said Navy Cmdr. George Admire, the brig’s com manding officer, who refused to reveal further details. Admire said he had not seen a Nov. 27 Navy report which says “there is an undercurrent of inequitable treatment (at the brig) on both a racial and sexual basis.” The report, signed by Navy Capt. W.F. Eckert Jr., assistant chief of Naval personnel with the Bureau of Naval Personnel in Washington, D.C., was based on an inspection last month by Navy Capt. Linda McBride. “There is an appearance of, and there may be, a ‘good old boj^ network (at the brig) that resists change and outside direction,” Eckert’s report says. The report, addressed to the deputy chief of Naval Personnel, recommends no definitive pun ishment against Admire, See AIRFORCE on page 2A PHOTO/SUE ANN JOHNSON Barry Bey (center) addresses a rally In Charlotte as wife Sylvia and son Christopher look on Inside Editorials 4A-5A Strictly Business 6A Lifestyles 8A Religion 11A Sports 1B A&E 4B Regional News 8B Classified 10B Auto Showcase 11B To subscribe, call (704) 376- 0496 or FAX (704) 342-2160. © 1996 The Charlotte Post Publishing Company. Comments? Our e-mail address is: charpost@clt.mindspring.com World Wide Web page address: http://www.thepost.mindspring.com
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Dec. 24, 1996, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75