SPORTS
Saturday’s game is
likely to be Sam
Mills’ last /I C
STYLE
Holidays can be
meaningful for kids
of divorce /IB
BUSINESS
BET Holdings’Bob
Johnson sets his
sights higher/SA
Cfjarlotte JPosit
http://www.thepost.mindspring.com
THE VOiCE OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY
THE WEEK OF DECEMBER 18, 1997
VOLUME 23 NO. 14
75 CENTS
ALSO SERViNG CABARRUS, CHESTER, ROWAN AND YORK COUNTIES
Political
plots
thicken
Democrats, Martin
going separate ways
for 1998 elections
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Politicians on both sides of
Mecklenburg County’s ideology
line - three if you count maverick
Democrat
Hoyle Martin —
are gearing up
for what could
be a bruising
election next
Martin
year.
Democrats
announced
Monday that
former county
commissioner
Jim Richardson, 71, will come out
of retirement to seek an at-large
seat on the board. That move is
designed to squeeze Martin out of
support he could’ve counted on
for an at-large campaign.
On Thesday, Martin, the incum
bent in District 2, announced he
will run as an independent for
one of three at large seats.
Community activist Norman
Mitchell has said he will seek
District 2’s seat
the
Mitchell
in the 1998
election. He is
expected to
make a formal
announcement
Monday.
Martin, never
one to shy
away from con-
troversy,
angered
Democrats and
some African Americans by
breaking with the party to help
elect Republican Tbm Bush com
missioners chairman. Martin,
who was elected vice chairman,
said he voted to oust former
chairman Parks Helms because
Helms was supporting a homo
sexual candidate who planned to
run at-large.
Martin fumed in reaction to
comments made in the wake of
his Dec. 3 vote, including attacks
by several westside political
activists who suggested that he
join the Republican Party.
The brouhaha began last spring
when Martin broke away from
the Democrats to join the so-
called “Gang of Five” and cut
county funding for the arts.
Martin said the Arts and
Science Council supported the
play “Angels in America,” which
had a homosexual theme.
Many African Americans were
curious about Martin’s vote then,
but accepted it as an expression
of a personal view. However, the
See RACE on page 2A
Survivors of Congo violence
p ■%
H ■“ zyy I
• *ev
A
APPHOTO/ BRENNAN LINSLEY
Congolese Tutsi refugee children who survived an attack last week by Hutu exremists guerrillas
at Mudende camp, pass the day at another refugee camp, in Nkamira, Rwanda, Sunday. Over 100
children were reported to have been among the roughly 300 people who were killed when Hutu
rebels entered the Mudunde refugee camp.
U.N. can’t verify massacre
By Robert H. Reid
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
UNI'TED NATIONS - U.N.
investigators withdrew from a
town in northwestern Congo
after residents protested their
investigation of alleged mas
sacres of Rwandan refugees.
Juan-Carlos Brandt told
reporters Monday the United
Nations was not sure when the
investigators could return to
Mdandaka, where the team
began field work last week
after months of delays.
Brandt did not say when the
team left Mbandaka. He said
they had returned to Kinshasa,
the Congolese capital, and was
awaiting instructions.
The U.N. team is in Congo,
formerly
* -k
called
Zaire, to
investigate
allegations
that
President
Laurent
Kabila’s
forces mas-
sacred
thousands of Hutu refugees
during the seven-month war
that ousted Mobutu Sese Seko
from power last May.
Kabila has denied his fighters
Congo was
known as Zaire
before a coup
earlier this year.
massacred refugees. The
United States has tied any
direct economic aid for recon
struction in Congo to Kabila’s
cooperation with the U.N.
investigators.
Last Jime, U.S. Ambassador
Bill Richardson secured a
promise from Kabila that the
team could carry out its inves
tigation. But the work was
delayed for months because of
what the United Nations said
were repeated obstacles raised
by Kabila’s government.
'The government finally
agreed to let the team visit
Mbandaka, where they were
See U.N. on page 2A
Elbert Phillips, owner of
westside pharmacy, dies
By Ken Koontz and
John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
FILE PHOTO/PAUL WILLIAMS III
Elbert Patterson Phillips, owner of Queen City Pharmacy, and later
Queen City Sundries, died Monday at age 85.
Elbert Patterson Phillips loved
the children who frequented his
westside drug store and svmdry
shop, a community landmark.
He’d even call their parents
rather than police when he
caught kids stealing. He’d often
give young thieves a lecture on his
own.
They loved him for it.
Phillips died Monday, after a
brief ftlness at age 85. He ran
Queen City Sundries on Beatties
Ford Road until he got sick just
before Thanksgiving.
Phillips, fondly called “Doc,” ran
Queen City Pharmacy and later
Queen City Sundries for four
decades. Queen City Pharmacy
opened in 1946 on East Second
Street in Charlotte’s old Brooklyn
neighborhood.
Working as a clerk and a dehv-
See PHILLIPS on page 3A
School board
looking for a
replacement
Winner will fill the remainder of
Susan Burgess’ unexpired term
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Wanted: Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board member.
Qualification: Abihty to satisfy parents’ demands for integrated
schools and neighborhood schools; discipline in the classroom and high
academic achievement; and upgrading inner city schools while build
ing new ones to meet soaring growth in the suburbs.
Pay: Not much.
The school board must appoint a new board member since former
chair Susan Burgess resigned last week after a coup elevated Arthur
Griffin to the top slot and John Lassiter to vice chairman.
Griffin, the second Afiican American to chair the nine-member board,
was passed over for the chairmanship in 1992 when he was the top
vote-getter. He said he sought to oust Burgess after fellow board mem
bers approached him about the position.
TViesday night, the school board established the procedure for replac
ing Burgess by Jan. 13. Interested citizens shordd apply before Dec. 30.
Applications are available at the Education Center. Applicants wiB
have an opportunity to address the school board on Jan. 6 during a spe
cial public hearing.
The board will make nominations and vote a week later at a regulaf
board meeting. The successful applicants must get a majority of the
votes of board members present and voting.
The new school board member could tip Jhe balance uoser to or firp-
ther away fi om- the ending of forced inte^ation witli busing toward
neighborhood schools. Currently, three of the eight members are con
sidered neighborhood school advocates.
Report: Former U.S.
Commerce chief’s death
could have been cover-up
By Elaine Hegwood Bowen
CHICAGO NEW CRUSADER
After the death in April 1996 of
U.S. Commerce Secretary Ron
Brown, some in the African
American commemity said the
crash of his plane in Bosnia
reeked of conspiracy.
Now, more than 18 months
later, a Pittsburgh 'Tribune
Review expose, while not clearly
substantive, points to tragic cir
cumstances.
A hole in Brown’s skull could
have been a gunshot wound,
wrote reporter Christopher
Ruddy. Ruddy interviewed sever
al major players in the ensuing
plane crash
investigation,
which didn’t
prompt an
autopsy of
Brown’s corpse.
One reason
that an autopsy
wasn’t per
formed is
because White
House officials
were pressured
disintegrating bullet.”
And while Cogswell didn’t
examine Brown’s corpse. Ruddy
wrote, he (CogsweU) did interview
colleagues who were part of the
examination team. Cogswell also
reviewed reports, records and
photographs of the crash scene
and victims.
Other Cogswell findings include
the Air Force ignoring a two-step
investigation process that calls for
a safety board, in which all crash
es are treated as suspect. Instead,
Ruddy wrote, the Air Force went
immediately into an accident
investigation of the crash.
Shortly after the crash, the
Bosnian airport maintenance
chief was found dead, reportedly a
SLiicide victim, the expose said.
Ruddy also wrote that investi
gators report the hole in Brovm’s
See CRASH on page 2A
Brown
to speed up the return of Brown's
body to the United States for his
funeral. Ruddy wrote.
According to Ruddy, Lt. Col.
Steve Cogswell, a doctor and
deputy medical examiner with
the Armed Forces Institute of
Pathology, said that evidence that
Brown may have been murdered
has been ignored. A 22-volume
report issued by the Air Force said
the crash, which kBled Brown
and 34 business executives and
others, resulted from pilot error
and faulty navigation equipment,
CogsweU said an X-ray showed
small metal fragments inside
Brown’s head and he claims
according to Ruddy, that this X-
ray has disappeared.
Ruddy wrote, “The pathologist
said the fragments could be what
pathologists sometimes call a
“lead snowstorm’ pattern from a
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