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
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