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THE VOICE OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY
THE WEEK OF APRIL 3,1997
VOLUME 22 NO. 29
75 CENTS
ALSO SERVING CABARRUS, CHESTER, ROWAN AND YORK COUNTIES
Democrat
Hoyle
Martin’s res
olution to
ban Arts &
Science
Council
funding
passed by a
5-4 margin
Tuesday.
Martin
Doctor vows to fight CMC ruling
Arts vote
split board
and county
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Mecklenburg County’s African
American commissioners came
down on opposite sides of an
anti-homosexual arts motion
'Tuesday.
Commissioners approved by a
5-4 vote a proposal to pull $2.5
million from the Arts & Science
Council and gives the county
decision-making power for pub
lic arts funding. An estimated
700 people jammed the
Government Center to oppose or
support the measure.
District 2 commissioner Hoyle
Martin broke ranks with fellow
Democrats and voted with
Republicans to pass the mea
sure, which he wrote.
District 3 commissioner Darrel
Williams voted against the mea
sure, saying it is divisive and
diverts valuable time and ener
gy from county priorities.
Martin proposed the measvu-e,
saying homosexuals are trying
to recruit heterosexuals into
their lifestyle.
“It is the agenda of the gay
community to get people to not
Only accept their lifestyles, but
to allow ourselves to be drawn
into it, particularly our chil
dren,” Martin said in an inter
view before the vote.
Heated arguments for and
against the measure were made
Tuesday from Christian conserv
atives and homosexual rights
and arts advocates.
Martin’s stance attracted oppo
sition from many African
Americans, including members
of the Tuesday Morning
Breakfast Club, where he
explained his position this week.
Community activist Anna
Hood said she was disappointed
by the commissioners’ vote and
Martin’s position.
‘T don’t see how this is going to
help us with the harmony we
are are trying to build,” Hood
said. ‘“The commissioners have
enough to do without taking on
this task. They are not equipped
yet to handle the funding. They
are going to have to set up crite
ria.
“This is divisive,” Hood said.
“We should be seeking ways to
include people and groups
rather than exclude them.”
Of Martin, Hood said: ‘T don’t
know why he is on this binge.
He is treading on dangerous
ground to be talking about this
when so many more issues of
values they should be working
on.
“God loves all people,” Hood
said. ‘We should not be trying to
judge people.”
See MARTIN on page 2A
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Carolinas Medical Center’s
ban of a black cardiology firm
from its high tech cardiology lab
is drawing complaints from
African American officials.
Carolinas Medical signed a
contract last year with Sanger
Clinic giving the cardiology
practice exclusive use of the hos
pital’s cardiology lab. That
omits the Mid-Carolina
Cardiology and its five African
American heart specialists,
headed by Dr. A.O. Aluko.
Aluko is fighting the move,
though a lawsuit filed on his
behalf was dismissed last week
in U.S. District Court because
the case was ruled improper for
hearing in federal court.
The attorney representing
Aluko and his partners said the
ruhng was not on the merits of
the complaint.
“I have not met with my
physician chents,” Gary Hemric
said. “I don’t think it is over.
The dismissal was based on
whether it was a federal matter.
He did not rule at all on the
merits of our claims.”
The claim is based on Aluko
and the other doctors not being
given due process when hospital
administrators decided to end
full privileges at the hospital,
Hemric said.
Other action is being consid
ered to stop the hospital.
Mecklenburg County
Commissioner Darrel WiUiams
and other African American
political leaders sat in on two
meetings with Carolinas
Medical officials.
Williams said one of the meet
ings was called last week by
State Rep. Pete Cunningham,
See DOCTORS on page 14A
PHOTO/SUE ANN JOHNSON
Sarah Stevenson, who won a seat on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board In 1980, is one of a handful of African American
women to win an at-large election. Progress has been slow since Betty Miller was the first black woman to win public office in 1966.
The glass door
Political clout proves
elusive for black
Mecklenburg women
By Jeri Young
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Sarah Stevenson will never forget her 1980 election to the
Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board.
That year, Stevenson withstood a run off election with current
Charlotte City Council member EUa Scarborough.
It was a challenge, sfie said.
“There were 20 people running for five seats in the at-large
race,” Stevenson, 71, said. “Can you beheve it, 20 people running
for five seats. That was before you had districts. We were lucky to
get any black people in seats back then.”
Stevenson’s election ended a 14-year drought for African
American women. Betty Miller, who won election as a city magis
trate in 1966, was the first black woman to win an elected office
in the county.
For black women in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, pohtics has been a
difficult field to break into.
Black women ran six times from 1966 to 1980, without winning
a seat.
It remains a challenge. Of the 64 elected positions available in
See POLITICAL on page 2A
MECKLENBURG ADVISORY BOARDS
Females
to positions
'iburg
White Males White Females Black Males Black Females
Black Females elected in Mecklenburg
NC Senate: 0 of 4
NC Representatives: 1 of 11
County Commission: 0 of 9
Superior Court Judges: 1 of 6
District Court Judges: 1 of l4
School Board: 0 of 9
Ratio of black
females in
elected positions
Buffalo Soldiers turns into history buff’s passion
By Margie McAllister
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BROOMFIELD, Colo. -
History buff John W. Bell Jr.
never really beheved family sto
ries about his grandfather being
a “buffalo soldier,” an African
American who served in the
U.S. Army and helped settle the
West in the late 1800s.
After all, Bell reasoned, “I’d
never read anything about buf
falo soldiers in any history I’d
studied.”
But his father maintained
that Bell’s grandfather Addison
Taylor had fought Indians and
been in the cavalry. He would
tell his son John, “You should
check this out.”
About a decade ago, Be’d took
his father’s advice.
Now, the 55-year-old Bell is
devoted to researching the buf
falo soldiers. In the basement of
his Broomfield home, BeU slow
ly is collecting items for a future
museum - saddles, hats, sabers,
carbines, photos and mementos
from those soldiers.
Historians can only estimate
how many African Americans
were buffalo soldiers, serving in
the cavalry and infantry maiiJy
from 1866 to 1898, from after
Ordeal
ends
for fan
Acquited in
1996 scuffle
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Shirley Outing’s year of ‘hell”
is finally over.
Outing was acquitted last
month on assault charges filed
after a Harding-North
Mecklenburg high school basket
ball game that ended in a near
riot on Feb. 15,1996.
The game resulted in a post
game fracas
and a hail of
racial slurs.
Outing, moth
er of a
Harding play
er, filed subse
quent co-m-
plaints
against North
Mecklenburg
coach Leroy
Holden. A month after the
game, she was arrested and
charged with assaulting
Holden’s wife, Virginia.
Holden was nc : disciplined,
though his son,’ an assistant
North Mecklenburg coach, was
suspended after saying he made
some improper statements.
Outing was convicted in dis
trict court by Judge David
Gayer, but appealed the case to
Superior Court. Two weeks ago,
a jury deliberated less than 30
minutes before acquitting her.
“It has been a year of hell,”
Outing said Tuesday.
The incident carried over to
this basketball season. Outing
was ordered to leave the
Harding-North game at North
Mecklenburg in February.
“They tried to arrest me,
because they said I shouldn’t be
at their games,” she said. “They
harassed me.”
Calls to Leroy and Virginia
Holden were not returned.
Outing said she now feels vin
dicated and wishes the matter
would end. However, she plans
to attend her son Michael’s
games — including the ones
against North Mecklenburg -
whenever she can.
See FIGHTon page 6A
Outing
the Civil War through the
Spanish-American War.
“But we know that about
8,000 were in this immediate
area,” Bell said, speaking of the
Denver area. The buffalo sol
diers served in two infantry and
See BUFFALO on page 3A
Inside
Editorials 4A-5A
Strictly Business 7A
Lifestyles 9A
Religion 17A
Sports 1B
A&E 4B
Regional News SB
Classified 10B
Auto Showcase 12B
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© 1996 The Charlotte Post
Publishing Company.
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charpost@clt.mindspring.com
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