Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Sept. 25, 1997, edition 1 / Page 2
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2A NEWS/ The Charlotte Post Thursday, September 25, 1997 If you can’t jive ‘em, buy ‘em: You may have noticed a group of folks from the Men’s Homeless Shelter hawking The Post at the Square downtown in recent weeks, but that’s his tory. Why, you ask. Fly’s spies say Tim Minor, project manag er for Charlotte Center City Partners, told the hawkers Charlotte has an ordinance prohibiting street sales of newspapers. So the peeps at The Post checked with Mike Boyd in the city attorney’s office for some 411. No such a thing, he says, and sales con tinue. End of story, right? Not so fast, amigo. CCP makes a donation to the shelter and the hawkers are Audi downtown. Guess money does talk. • Didn’t you usta he: Spotted former Johnson C. Smith foot ball coach Ray Lee and family at a recent football game at Providence High. The spies (who obviously like football as much as the next southerner) tell Fly that homeboy didn’t look all toe all up because he ain’t coaching. It’s a good thing, since the Bulls weren’t exactly world-beaters when he was there. Still ain’t, either. • Fly’s still waiting to hear •whazzup with McDonald’s Restuarant. Seems some broth ers bid on it, but nobody’s talk ing about who they are and where they be from. The bid was much less than the bank wanted for the McDonald’s spread, only about $1.25 mil- Uon dead presidents against a $3 milhon loan. But then, Mr. Mac was the man at the place and with him gone, the busi ness ain’t really biunpin’. No word on whether the Gantt family is going to jump in and bid more for the restau rant and adjacent hotel. Fly wishes one of those attorney types would call The Post and enlighten my peeps about what’s happening with the deal. I mean, we might want to put in our own upset bid. Let’s see. $26.25, plus $42.50 and $18.33.... • Hot pepper: Julius Erving didn’t ’ need much help operating on the basketball court in the ‘70s and ‘80s, but he’ll have serious loot backing his entry into auto racing next year. Dr Pepper will sponsor Dr. J’s NASCAR Grand National team in 1998, the first time the soft- drink maker has gone that route. Grand National, for those of you unwashed at the temple of speed, is a rung below the Winston Cup circuit, NASCAR’s top level of competi tion. The Doc (Erving, that is) has hired Jimmy Foster, 20, to navigate the ride. And no, he ain’t a bro. • Meanwhile, the Colored People’s Organization is look ing for new digs as it cuts the Alexander umbihcal cord. Would-be Alexander family patri arch, Prince Kelly Jr. has been suspend ed by the national NAACP board and current Charlotte chapter President Conrad Pridgen, that’s Rev. Conrad Pridgen, is trying to make the organization more independent. Rebum’ Pridgen wants to move the NAACP office from Alexander Funeral Home, where it has been since See FLY on page 6A Erving Pridgen Counts faced difficult days Continued from page 1A outside, the family car’s win dow had been shattered. ‘That’s when I really got scared,” Scoggins, 55, said. ‘When I went home at lunch and told my father what hap pened, my father said ‘enough is enough’.” Everyone promised Scoggins police protection, but Herman Counts decided not to send her back to Harding and sent her to an integrated private school in a Philadelphia suburb instead. She graduated from an aU- girls school in Asheville which had an integrated faculty. She graduated from Johnson C. Smith University and is now director of corporate services for Child Care Resources in Charlotte. 'The decision for Scoggins to go to Harding rather than West Charlotte High with other African Americans was a mat ter of convenience, she said. 'The Counts family lived on the JCSU campus, near Five Points. 'Three years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling, her father did not see why she had to walk more than a mile to West Charlotte rather than the few blocks to Harding, which had better fadhties. After two years of delays and legal wrangling, she finally got assigned to Harding. “1 don’t think we had any idea that what happened in Little Rock was going to happen in Charlotte,” Scoggins said. ‘There was sort of a low key kind of thing on opening day. What happened at Harding was a lot more than what hap pened at other schools. “Administrators at Harding did not come up with a plan to do it. When you compare what happened at Harding to what happened at (Charlotte) Central High School, it was a lot different. The principal at Central had gotten teachers together and talked about the process and about what he would tolerate and what he would not.” Gustavus Roberts integrated Charlotte Central at the same time Scoggins entered Harding. Two other students - Delores Hrmtley and Girvaud Roberts — also desegregated local schools that year. Scoggins’ ordeal didn’t gener ate the national fervor that hovered over the Little Rock Nine. President Clinton will be in Little Rock this week to help commemorate the events of 1957. No such celebration is plarmed for Charlotte, where the school system continues to wrestle with desegregation. Even the 1971 Swarm v. Board of Education ruling that opened the doors to busing as a remedy in some ways eclipses images of Scoggins, whom a New York Times reporter descrihed as “a comely lady of uiunistakable gentleness and breeding,” being hounded at Harding. Scoggins said she is troubled by the current mood in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. “I think there was a period of time when I think we had made some progress in Charlotte, but I have some con cerns now about things that happen in the school system, particularly as you look at the busing situation,” she said. “When I go into schools, I see classes that are segregated. That is the way it is designed. I wonder about people coming into the Charlotte community and not knowing what hap pened in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s. Then they come in finm anoth er city and another state and decide this is the way it is going to be. We are going back to 40 years ago when people say they want segregated schools.” Times have changed since ‘57 Continued from page 1A managing director for pubhc finance at Lehman Brothers, an investment bank in Washington, D.C. Former President Jimmy Carter appointed Green assis tant secretary of labor in 1977. President Clinton appointed him chairman of the Afiican Development Foundation, and he serves as chairman of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Capital Financing Advisory Board. “He is a really wonderful per son. .. .'There is no trace of bit terness in this man’s being,” said Rett 'Ilrcker, local busi nessman rmd president of the Central High Museum and \5stor Center Inc. “He is what I call a genirine American hero.” 'The integration of Central High was difficirlt and demand ing. But, “40 years later I wouldn’t take nothing for my journey now,” Green said, alluding to a book by poet MayaAngelou. In 1957, blacks in the South were barred from white schools and from some restaurants. “When I say I suffered rmder apartheid in America as I grew up in Little Rock in the 1950s, that’s a very personal state ment,” Green said. “Forty years ago, I and eight other students thought that we had an oppor tunity to improve our educa tion options. It was because of the sacrifice of our parents and Mrs. [Daisy] Bates and others that we succeeded.” ^ Green said the civil rights movement was a struggle not only for black people but for aU. “We as a people have chal lenged the injustices ... and the nation is better off for it,” he said. “The point I would stress until I go to my grave is that the widening opportimities, which we started in ‘57, bene fited whites as much as it did blacks in Arkansas.” Green told the audience that Little Rock wfil stiU be judged by other problems that need to be addressed. “The problem of Little Rock - and the problem of the country - is how do you make this soci- ely accessible to poor kids who may not have achieved a lot in education and don’t see the rel evance in education translating to a better life for them,” he said. When Green graduated in 1958, most high school gradu ates had their diploma in one hand and a bus ticket out of Arkansas in the other, he said. Green said he left the state because he felt he had few edu cation and career options. “Now this state has become an example of economic progress,” Green said. “People are coming back.” BOBBY’S PAINTING COMPANY 126 State Street Charlotte, NC 28208 (704)372-4046 Fax 372-9076 Pager 356-5809 Bobby Nichols, President |Wholesale Computers, lnc.| ■ FALL SAVINGS! : Large Selecton Of New & Pre-Owned Computers Desktop Systems • Notebooks Multi-Media Systems * Fun Uhe of Accessories FUU SERVICE DEPARTMENT A-h Authorized Service Center NEW HOURS MON. - SAT. 10AM - 6PM 3633 E. Independence Blvd. (Behind Pizza Hut) 704-567-6555 THE COLLECTION , for men nautc^ wear 119.99 “BORDER'*{shown) A new exciting leather ! hiker from Nautica. ‘ Available in black, tan or sand. Men's sizes 8-13 M.* The Nautica Collection consists of other styles^ sizes 8-13M, at prices ' starting at 79.99. Be sure to come in today for your Charlotte - 4118 E. Independence Blvd; Freedom Village - Freedom Drive; Concord - Clover Leaf Plaza; Rock Hill - Cherry Park Ctr.; Gastonia • Gaston Mall; Monroe-r 1209 W. Roosevelt Blvd. Men's shoe sizes over 12 slightly higher. STORE HOURS: Mon-Sat 10-9, Sun 1-6 SELECTION MAY VARY BY STORE Harris loses bid for Charlotte mayor Harwood defeats ‘Preacherman’ Continued from page 1A the four at-large seats. Only A1 Rousso is viewed as having a good chance to win an at large seat for the Democrats. The Democrats have practi cally conceded the mayor’s chair to Republican Pat McCrory, who swamped token opposition in the primary and faces Democrat Jim Harwood on Nov. 4. Harwood defeated Leonard “Preacherman” Harris, an African American street minis ter once convicted of Eumied rob- beiy. Harwood got 3,675 votes to 2,454 for Harris, who said Wednesday he’s disappointed with Tuesday’s low voter turnout (6.4 percent), but pleased with his efforts. “I know there is apathy because for so long people have seen that they have no power to change,” he said. ‘"They say the leadership is going to be the same. People who feel neglect ed say ‘my vote don’t count.’ They are tired of choosing the lesser of two evils.” Despite his loss Tuesday, Harris said he will remain involved in local politics. “We are just getting started and we are going to be a pres ence in the election process and are going to hold those who are elected accountable,” Harris said. “I wanted to attack the racial divide problem. We have for centuries built up walls of ignorance and intolerance. We have defeated our own purpose. I was hoping we could come together and see a common problem and work to rectify that problem and not look at the color of the skin.... “I’m out there and Tm going to stay out there,” Harris send. “Any town meeting. Any forum where I can have input, I plan to be present. This is a new area of ministry.” Clarification A story in the Aug. 7 Post on the Anita Stroud Youth Eiuichment Program con tained information that needs clarification. Ola Mae Brown is assis tant director of the pro gram, which had 47 par ticipants over the summer. Nine paid teachers worked for the program, as did two volimteers. Planning to buy or sell a house? Call: Veronica MomaWalker; .ARealtor that is dependable, hardworking, knowledgeably, caring and an outstanding service provider!. , , 2 BR (master has his & her clos ets), 2 FB (1 with skylight). Par quet floors at foyer. 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The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Sept. 25, 1997, edition 1
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