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http://www.thepost.mindspring.com
THE VOiCE OF THE BLACK COMMUNiTY
THE WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 18, 1997
VOLUME 23 NO. 1
75 CENTS
ALSO SERViNG CABARRUS, CHESTER, ROWAN AND YORK COUNTiES
Town split by race, class
By Patrick O’Neill
FOR THE CHARLOTTE POST
ENFIELD - After several failed
tries at firing the town police chief,
Enfield Mayor E. Kai Hardaway
thought his opportunity had come.
One of the town’s three white com
missioners was sick, so a vote to fire
the chief would he tied 2-2, giving
the mayor, who is black, the oppor
tunity to cast the tie-breaking vote to
fire the woman who had accused
him of being “a crime figure.” The
chiefs claims were never substanti
ated. Hardaway was never charged
with a crime.
To the surprise of Hardaway and
the two black commissioners, none
of the white commissioners showed
up for the commission meeting.
Without a quorum, the meeting was
cancelled.
“I just made a mental note of that
tactic,” Hardaway said.
Today Hardaway, the savvy mayor
who champions himself as an advo
cate for dozens of the town’s poorest
residents, many of whom lack
indoor plumbing in their shanty-like
homes, has used the same tactic to
bring national media attention to this
small Halifax County town located
60 miles northeast of Raleigh along
the 301 corridor near the Virginia
line.
Hardaway and black commission
ers Bud A Whitaker and James E.
Sledge have refijsed to attend a town
commission meeting since June 16.
The trio, who appear to have sup
port among the town’s African
American majority, have vowed not
to return to meetings until the white
commissioners agree to act in the
interest of all citizens. Hardaway,
who has a long family lineage in
Enfield, says the three black politi
cians plan to boycott commission
meetings until November’s elec
tions when, with the aid of the state
chapter of the NAACP, a strategy is
being laid to help blacks gain a
majority on the town commission.
In June, Hardaway, Whitaker and
Sledge presented a list of 14 items
that have come to be known as
“Hardaway’s Demands,” Besides a
call for a 5.1 percent pay raise for
See ENFIELD on page 3A
Groundbreaking for black Civil War memorial
AP PHOTO/PATSY LYNCH
Rev. Jerry Moore, left, joins Washington Mayor Marion Barry, second from left, and others during the beginning of construction of
the African-American Civii War Memoriai last week in Washington. When compieted, the memorial will feature a nine-foot, 3,600-
pound bronze scuipture entitied Spirit of Freedom, honoring the forgotten black soldiers of the Civii War.
Primary day first step for some
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Cannon-Sayles council race draws interest
Charlotte mayoral candidate
Leonard “Preacherman” Harris
heads the list of African Americans
on Tuesday’s primary ballot
Harris, 53, a street preacher once
convicted of bank robbery, feces fel
low Democrat Jim Harwood, 42, a
self-employed salesman, in balloting
to decide who will fece Mayor Pat
McCrory in November. McCrory, a
Republican, has primary opposition
fi-om Ken Pfenninger, 31, an
armored truck driver.
An interesting Democratic contest
is the District 3 race between incum
bent Charlotte City Council member
Patrick Cannon
Yvette Sayles,
who has been
dogged by alle
gations that she
has ties to
Republican con
servatives.
There’s no
Republican can
didate in the dis
trict so the pri
mary winner will
take the seat
and newcomer
Sayles
Sayles reportedly admitted attend
ing strategy breakfasts sponsored
by Republican council member Don
Reid at the invitation of Reid sup
porter Tom Bumgardner. And sev
eral conservatives say they fevor her
over Cannon, who spearheaded the
drive to establish a citizens review
board to monitor police conduct
“I’ve gotten encouragement from
them, but no financial support”
Sayles said of the rumors. “I like to
get a perspective of both sides. I like
to attend meetings where I can
learn.”
Sayles, 34, a U.S. Delivery
Systems distribution manager, said
she did not solicit support from con
servatives.
Tt is up to the voters now,” Sayles
council. He
replaced Ella
Scarborough
when she gave
up the District 3
seat to run at-
large.
At age 30,
Cannon remains
the youngest
council member.
Another
Cannon
African American, Republican Ricky
Reid, faces Steve James in the
District 2 primary. Reid, 43, has pre-
See PRIMARY on page 3A
McDonald’s sold
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
PHOTO/CALVIN FERGUSON
McDonald’s Cafeteria and the adjacent hotel were tentatively sold
Monday for $1.25 million.
McDonald’s Cafeteria and the
adjacent hotel were tentatively sold
for Sl.25 million Monday to an
African American group.
Another black group, headed by
former Charlotte mayor Harvey
Gantt, did not bid on the complex.
However, sources said the bid by
Baldwin, Shakur and Associates
could be upset within 10 days and a
representative of the Gantt group,
attorney James Ferguson, attended
Monday’s foreclosure sale. Sources
at the auction could not determine
where Baldwin Shakur is based or
who owns the firm.
McDonald’s restaurant, a westside
landmark founded two decades ago
by the late John D. McDonald,
closed last month and a foreclosure
sale was delayed until Monday.
African Americans have favored
keeping the complex, which
anchors the north end of the
Northwest business corridor, in
black hands.
McDonald’s widow, Eunice
McDonald has run the restaurant
since her husband’s death.
See WESTSIDE on page 2A
PHOTO/PATRICK O’NEILL
Enfield Commissioner Bud A. Whitaker (left) and Mayor E. Kai
Hardaway inspect an outhouse. Many homes lack indoor plumbing.
Pratt tries to
clear name
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
OAKLAND, Calif. - Elmer
“Geronimo” Pratt, freed after spend
ing 27 years behind bars, is deter
mined to clear his name.
Three months after a judge over
turned his murder conviction, the
former Black Panther charged with
killing a Southern California school
teacher wants to prove that J. Edgar
Hoover's FBI conspired to put him
in prison.
Pratt's supporters, led by
Congressman Ronald DeUums, for
mer U.S. Attorney General Ramsey
Clark and a former FBI agent, are
calling for congressional hearings
into an alleged conspiracy.
They believe FBI documents can
prove the agency framed Pratt as
part of a conspiracy against the
Black Panthers and others per
ceived as enemies of the U.S. gov
ernment
The FBI and House Judiciary
Committee chairman Henry Hyde
See PRATT on page 6A
FILE PHOTO
Former Black Panther Elmer
“Geronimo” Pratt has under
taken a campaign to clear his
name by proving the FBI’s
COINTELPRO program unfairly
targeted black activists and
organizations for elimination in
the 1960s and ‘70s.
Satcher up for
Surgeon General
By Amy Goldstein
THE WASHINGTON POST
said Wednesday. Cannon, also a
newcomer when he ran for the
District 3 seat in 1993, is seeking a
third term on
President Clinton last week nomi
nated David Satcher as surgeon gen
eral, moving to fill a job that has lain
vacant for nearly three years and
unexpectedly proved one of the
most contentious of his administra
tion.
In choosing Satcher, director of
the federal Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention,Clinton
tapped a physician who has devoted
the bulk of his career to medically
underserved communities but has
been enough of a Washington insid
er to already win congressional con
firmation once.
The nomination of Satcher, 56,
resolves the long-standing question
of whether Clinton would attempt to
appoint a new surgeon general, a job
that congressional Republicans have
argued is not needed and that has
caused the administration grief in
the past
Clinton’s last nominee, obstetri
cian Henry W. Foster Jr., was reject
ed by the Senate two years ago after
a maelstrom over abortion. The year
before, Clinton fired the last person
he had named to the job, Joycelyn
Elders, because of repeated contro
versies she had stirred over her
views on abortion, masturbation and
the legalization of drugs.
But what yesterday’s nomination
leaves unresolved is whether the job
- largely a bully pulpit from which to
exhort the government and ordi
nary Americans to do better on mat
ters from exercise to AIDS - can
prove an effective megaphone after,
it has become so politically charged.^
Clinton’s formal announcement of
Satcher comes months after his
name first surfaced for the job,
allowing time for an uncommonly
thorough vetting and for potentid
opposition to surfece. If approved,-
Satcher would also carry the title of
assistant secretary for health in the
Department of Health and Human
See SATCHER on page 3A
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