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THE VOICE OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY
THE WEEK OF DECEMBER 31, 1997 75 CENTS
VOLUME 23 NO. 16 ALSO SERVING CABARRUS, CHESTER, ROWAN AND YORK COUNTIES
Protesters
gathered at
The Square
in January to
protest the
shooting of
African
Americans by
Charlotte-
Mecklenburg
police. A citi
zens review
board was a
byproduct of
those efforts.
PHOTO/CALVIN
FERGUSON
Clinton
Haitians
can stay
in U.S.
By Lawrence L. Knutson
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - President
Clinton acted Tuesday to delay
for a year the deportation of up to
40,000 Haitians who fled to the
United States while an abusive
military junta ruled their island
nation.
Clinton also promised to work
with Congress to provide the
Haitians long-term legislative
relief of the
kind provided
earlier this
year to Central
Americans who
also fled civil
strife in their
homelands.
“Haitians
deserve the
same treat
ment we
sought for
Central Americans,” CUnton said
in a statement. “Like Central
Americans, Haitians for many
years were forced to seek the pro
tection of the United States
because of oppression, human
rights abuses and civil strife at
home.”
Despite a fragile peace in Haiti,
Clinton said he believes he is
fully justified in permitting
Haitian exiles to remain in the
United States.
“Staying the deportation of
these Haitians and obtaining for
them permanent legislative relief
will help support a stable and
democratic Haiti, which, in turn,
is the best safeguard against a
renewed flow of Haitian immi
grants to the United States,” the
president said.
The White House said the pres
ident’s action applies to Haitians
who were admitted to
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in
Cuba after the 1991 overthrow of
Haitian President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, those who reached U.S.
shores and were permitted to
remain, and those who applied
for asylum before the end of 1995.
Haitians convicted of serious
crimes or marked by the
Department of State for removal
will not be eligible, the White
House said.
'The generals who ruled Haiti
after Aristide’s overthrow were
expelled in 1994 by an American-
led peacekeeping force.
In a battle between the White
House and the Republican-con
trolled Congress over immigra
tion policy, the Haitians were
omitted from legislation exempt
ing hundreds of thousands of
refugees from civil wars in
Nicaragua and El Salvador from
deportation rules under the strict
1996 immigration law.
With U.N. peacekeeping forces
withdrawing from Haiti, admin
istration officials argued that
sending thousands of Haitians
back home would destabilize an
See HAITIANS on page 2A
1997: Race matters again
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
The issue of race permeated much of
what made news in Charlotte in 1997.
The city was filled with racial tensions
six weeks after the Nov. 16, 1996 shoot
ing death of James Willie Cooper, an
unarmed black motorist, by Charlotte-
Mecklenburg police officer Michael
Marlow. Cooper was the second imarmed
black motorist killed by police in three
years.
Carolyn Sue Boetticher was shot and
killed by poUce after the car in which she
was a passenger ran a hcense checkpoint
on the westside.
'TransAmerica Reinsurance president
Bill Simms, the city’s highest-ranking
black business executive fell from grace,
admitting to several lies on his resume.
Kenneth Simmons, the black principal
of West Charlotte High School - the city’s
last remaining former all-black high
school - was reassigned after 44 white
faculty members threatened to transfer if
he stayed.
The year ends with acrimonious debate
over what some consider Mecklenburg
County Commissioner Hoyle Martin’s
betrayal of his constituency in favor of an
anti-gay agenda. Martin, a Democrat,
not only led a successfiil right-wing effort
to cut arts funding because of homosexu
ality, but helped elect Republican Tbm
Bush chair of the coimty board. . i
'The news was not all bad, however. . t
'The city — spurred apparently by the
See RACE on page 3A
NEWSMAKER OF THE YEAR: James Ferguson
Attorney
led fight
for justice,
equality
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Charlotte finally decided to
do something about its deep
racial divide.
And James Ferguson was
there amid the action
Ferguson, The Post’s news
maker of the year, represented
the families of inree black
motorists slain by Charlotte-
Mecklenburg police in as many
years. He is seeking to reopen
the landmark busing case won
by his law firm 30 years ago.
And, he chaired the task force
which organized the city’s first
race summit.
Ferguson said he is humbled
by the honor.
“There’s always someone else
equally deserving,” he said.
“That’s certainly true where I
am concerned.”
'This year’s decision wasn’t
an easy one. Others were con
sidered by virtue of strong
opinion and bold action, as was
the case with Mecklenburg
County Commissioner Hoyle
Martin, or because of attempts
at change, as was the case with
former West Charlotte High
School principal Kenneth
Simmons. Even former
TransAmerica executive Bill
Simms was in the running.
And new school board member
Vilma Leake dominated dur
ing election season.
Ferguson has been making
news most of his life; As a high
school student, he organized a
sit-in movement is his home
town, Asheville.
’Then it was off to college and
eventually Columbia
University law school, where
he met Juhus Chambers in
1967. Chambers had opened a
law practice in Charlotte in
1963 and invited Ferguson to
join him. 'They formed the first
integrated taw firm in the
state and perhaps the nation
when Adam Stein and Jim
banning became associates.
Ferguson says it was coinci
dence that brought him to
Charlotte.
“I was going back to
Asheville to practice civil
rights law,” he said. “I hap
pened to meet Chambers in
New York at the (NAACP )
Legal Defense Fund. We
talked about me coming here
to join him since we were both
going to be doing the same
thing. I came down during
spring break. I liked what he
was doing. He was willing to
give me a chance to work with
him. That was the greatest
coincidence of my life.”
PHOTO/CALVIN FERGUSON
Charlotte attorney Janies Ferguson is best-known for his work in the civil rights arena. This
year, he represented the families of three African Americans shot and killed by Charlotte-
Mecklenburg police
Within two years Chambers
and Ferguson were involved in
the school integration contro
versy and fought and won the
historic Swann v. Board of
Education case, which estab
lished busing as a method of
integration.
Since then, the firm, now
headed by Ferguson, has been
involved in dozens of civil
rights cases.
“One of the most important
cases to me was working on
the Asheville school desegrega
tion case,” Ferguson said.
“'That was an extension of
what I had started as a high
school student. I and some stu
dents stopped the school board
from making additions to my
high school and required them
to build a new school. When I
went back that was part of a
continuation.”
Community leaders say the
man they call “Fergie” has
been a community resource for
years, often eschewing the
limelight while advising and
guiding the efforts of others.
“I think you are making a
See VOLATILE on page 2A
Ferguson also chaired a
multiracial committee
that organized
Charlotte’s race sum
mit. The two-day event
drew hundreds of com
munity leaders of vary
ing races, ethnic groups
and religions to talk
about divisions
between groups of peo
ple.
PHOTO/PAUL WILLIAMS III
:
i
Museum
recalls
M
history
National Afro- -:
American Cultural •;
Center in Ohio
By James Hannah
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WILBERFORCE, Ohio - John
McLendon Jr. felt the sting of
racial discrimination as a college
athlete and later as a coach. ’That
is why he contributed part of his
own past to tte National Afin-
American Museum and Cultural
Center.
‘We’ve contributed too much to
American life and it should be
remembered,” he said, referring
to black Americans. ‘You should
have a history of it.”
On exhibit at
the only con-
gressionally
recognized
museum spe
cializing in
African
American histo
ry is an auto
graphed bas-
k e t b a 1 1
McLendon took
to the Soviet
Union when he coached the U.S.
Olympic team in the 1960s.
“It talks about the importance of
fighting for something that's'
right, and success,” museum
curator Floyd Thomas said of
McLendon’s basketball and life
story
In the 1930s, McLendon, from-
Cleveland, was banned from
swimming pools, cafeteria tables, ■
campus housing and filUng sta
tions because of the color of his;
skin, when he was a student at
See MUSEUM on page 2A 4;
McLendon
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