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http://www.thepost.mindspring.com
THE VOiCE OF THE BLACK COMMUNiTY
THE WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 25, 1997
VOLUME 23 NO. 2
75 CENTS
ALSO SERViNG CABARRUS, CHESTER, ROWAN AND YORK COUNTiES
40 years after Little Rock
AP PHOTO/WILL COUNTS
Heckiers, inciuding Hazel Bryan, jeering at center, follow Elizabeth Eckford as she walks away from Little Rock’s Central High School Sept. 4,1957. Eckford was turned
away by Arkansas National Guardsmen, who were instructed by Gov. Orval Faubus not to allow nine black students to enter the school, despite federal court orders.
Now 55, Bryan and Eckford met Monday, Sept. 22,1997, for the first time since that troubled time.
Charlotte experience difficult
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
In September 1957, while
federal troops were escorting
nine African Americans into
Central High School in Little
Rock, Ark., Dorothy Counts
was walking a gauntlet of curs
ing and abusive children and
adults into Harding High
School in Charlotte.
Counts, now Dorothy Counts
Scoggins, made the two-block
walk from Cedar and Fifth
streets to what is now Irwin
Avenue Elementary School
alone.
T was just surrounded by
kids,” she says. “Adults were
telling them what to do. They
were chanting out remarks. ‘Go
home.’ ‘Go back to Africa.’ ‘Go
back, nigger.’ They were spit
ting and throwing things.
“There was no police protec
tion at school at aU. Nor was
there anyone from the school
on the outside to assist me to
make sure I got in safely. Not
even at the door.”
Young Dorothy’s time at
Harding was brief - just four
school days; five counting a day
she missed due to illness. The
physical abuse and name-call
ing constant. Tbachers did not
call on her in class. White class
mates spit in her food at lunch.
On the fifth day, Scoggins,
then 15,
asked her
father if she
could come
home for
lunch. Her
brother had
been dis
patched to
pick her up
with. When
Scoggins got
to her locker, someone had bro
ken in and vandalized it. Then
someone hit her in the back
and in the head. When she got
See COUNTS on page 2A
Central High crisis opened
new chapter in race relations
Scoggins
By Chris Reinolds
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -
Ernest Green, one of the nine
blacks who integrated Central
High School in 1957, said
Tuesday he applauds Little
Rock residents for facing up to
their history.
“Most historians say that we
can't look at our history until
we’ve had three or four genera
tions pass on. In some cases it’s
painful to look at history when
its very close in front of your
face,” Green said at a meeting
of the Little Rock Rotary Club.
‘1 think if Little Rock can
stand self-examination con
cerning race relations, then
certainly there’s room for this
country to examine itself and
put this issue further and fur
ther and further behind us.”
Over the weekend, the
Central High Museum and
Vistor Center opened across
from the school.
Green, 56, was the first black
to graduate from Central High
School, in 1958. He is now
See TIMES on page 2A
Million Woman March focuses on pressing issues
By Arlene Edmonds
THE PHILADEPHIA TRIBUNE
African American women from
around the country will converge
on the Benjamin Franklin
Parkway Oct. 25 for the Milhon
Woman March. Part of the mis
sion for the march is to help black
women regain control of families,
strengthen the foundation of the
community and acknowledge the
strengths that exists within the
collective voices of these families,
organizers said.
Weekly conununity-wide meet
ings are being held to plan, strate-
gize and mobilize , women for this
historic event.
The first neighborhood satellite
office opened two weeks ago in the
northwestern sections of
Philadelphia. They hold meetings
every Tuesday evening at 7 p.m.
When the office of state Rep.
LeAnna Washington, D-Phila.,
held its second annual
Wadsworth Day, Tabiyah Ngozi,
pubhc relations coordination for
the MWM, was also on hand to
greet the community.
“This is an event which will
bring our issues to a global level,”
said Ngozi. “We are encouraging
sisters from around the country to
bring their issues. We as females
are always concerned about our
children, om families, health and
medical care and education.
That’s why it’s important that for
this day we bond together at the
Million Women March and bring
your platform the international
See MILLION on page 6A
Title VI focus of Oct 7-9 workshop
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Army Secretary Togo D. West Jr., right, presents Leroy David,
president of S.C. State University, the two gold lieutenant bars
and the commission awarded posthumously to James Webster
Smith, the first black cadet at West Point. Story, page 10B.
A workshop next month in the
Charlotte area will discuss what
businesses and
government
agencies must
do to comply
with Title VI of
the federal
Civil Rights
Act.
Title VI says
minorities can
not be excluded
from an activily
receiving federal funds.
Organized by the N.C. Black
Watson
Chamber of Commerce, the Oct.
7-9 workshop will bring together
business leaders and African
American groups, including legis
lators from North and South
Carolina.
The event will be at the
Radisson Grand Resort in Fort
Mill, S.C.
“I feel the momentum is going
fairly well,” said organizer Troy
Watson, executive director of the
Black Chamber of Commerce. “I
think it is going to set the stage
for what's going to happen going
forward.”
Watson said the shift to focus on
Title VI comes as affirmative
action laws are being attacked
Few
primary
surprises
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
The next Charlotte City
Council could very well be dom
inated by Republicans, though
three black district representa
tives seem assured of keeping
their seats.
District 3 council member
Patrick Cannon won handily
(1,340 votes to 237) over chal
lenger Yvette Sayles in
Tuesday’s Democratic primary.
Cannon has no opposition in
the Nov. 4 general election.
Neither District 2 representa
tive Malachi Greene nor
District 4’s Nasif Majeed had
primary opposition. Majeed
has no general election oppo
nent and Greene will 'face
Republican Steve James, who
beat ^rican American Rickey
Reid in Tuesday’s primary
African American Democrat
Ella Scarborough is not seek
ing reelection to the at large
seat she won four years ago.
Instead, Scarborough says she
will run for her party’s U.S.
Senate nomination next year.
That leaves only African
American Kyle Stefan Winston
among four Democrats in the
at large council races. But a
strong Republican field, includ
ing incumbents Don Reid and
Lynn Wheeler and former
Mecklenburg County
Commissioners’ chair Rod
Autry could easily take three of
See HARRIS on page 2A
PHOTO/CALVIN FERGUSON
Leonard “Preacherman” Harris
had a hopeful look after casting
his vote Tuesday in Charlotte’s
Democratic primary.
across the country.
A citizens referendum in
Cahfomia and court ruling in
Tfexas have already disband affir
mative action laws and more than
a dozen other states, including
North Carolina, are considering
similar measures.
Watson said the focus on Title
VI was decided upon at this year’s
National Black Chamber of
Commerce meeting. Initiatives
are imderway in several states,
including Tfennessee, he said.
“North Carolina is picking up on
idea of abolishing affirmative
action... and 18 states have adopt
ed the California plan of aboHsh-
See TITLE VI on page 3A
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