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Thursday, January 8, 2004
Former HAACP president highlighis local MIK events
By Herbert L. White
herb.white® ihecharloireposf.com
Mecklenburg County has a
full slate of Martin Luther
King observances.
At Davidson College,
Myrlie Evers-Williams, for
mer presi
dent of the
NAACP, will
highlight
events
observing
King Day.
Classes will
not be held
on Jan. 19, so
students and
faculty can
attend the
11:30 a.m.
convocation in Duke Family
Performance Hall at which
Evers-Williams will speak.
The convocation is free to the
public.
The college’s overall King
Day observance, “Actively
Building an Agenda for
Change,” encompasses sev
eral days of activities.
In 1995, Evers-Williams
became the first woman to
chair the NAACP.
Evers-Williams met her
first husband, Medgar
Evers, when they were both
students at Alcorn State
University in Mississippi,
and were married in 1951.
In 1954, Medgar became the
Mississippi state field secre
tary for the NAACP, and
Myrlie worked as his secre
tary as they organized voter
registration drives and civil
rights demonstrations. Then-
activities made them high-
profile targets for white
supremacists, and on June
12, 1963, Medgar Evers was
slain by a sniper on the cou
ple’s front porch.
Evers-Williams resettled
in California, -wrote a biogra
phy of her late husband “For
Us the Li-ving,” and began
making personal appear
ances on behalf of the
NAACP.
In 1990, she initiated court
action to re-tiy Byron De La
Beckwith, who had earlier
been acquitted of Evers’
death. That trial was suc
cessful, and Beckwith was
sentenced to life imprison
ment,
• A montage of illustra
tions that capture and
chronicle
much of the
Ci-vil Rights
Movement
will be
Ruffin
among sev
eral high
lights of “You
are the
Dream” Jan.
14-16, at
U N C -
Charlotte.
The Timeline Exhibit will
be open to the public Jan. 14
from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the
Lucas Room of the Cone
University Center. There
will be sections of the room
that address education, vot
ing, great leaders, constitu
tional rights, college stu
dents, protests and King’s
assassination. The Le-vine
Museum of the New South
■will pro-vide portions of the
exhibit.
Ben Ruffin, an emeritus
member of the UNC Board
of Governors, will be the
keynote speaker at the Jan.
15 MLK birthday celebra
tion.
The first African-American
to chair the N.C. Board of
Governors, Ruffin was vice
president of corporate affairs
for R.J. Reynolds Tbbacco
Co. and remains an ad-visor
to the company.
A graduate of N.C. Central
University, Ruffin earned a
ihaster’s degree from UNC
Chapel Hill. He has received
honorary degrees from sev
eral state universities
including NCCU, N.C. A&T
State, fllizabeth City State
and Winston-Salem State
universities.
The city of Charlotte will
also host several MLK
events, including a wreath
laying service and memorial
Jan. 15 at 12 p.m. at
Marshall Park,
The Public Library Main
Branch will show the Public
Broadcasting Service docu
mentary “Race: The Power of
an Illusion” Jan, 15-17. A
, cultural diversity celebration
will be held Jan. 17 at 2 p.m.
at Charlotte Hilton and
Towers.
The following Martin Luther King
events are free unless otherwise noted.
Davidson College
Jan.15
7 p.m., Smith 900 Room of the
Alvarez College Union
• Showing of “The Ghost of
Mississippi,” a film about the lives
of Mec^ar Evers and Myrlie Evers-
Williams.
Jan. 18
6 p.m., Duke Family Performance
Hall
• Martin Luther King
Community Celebration Gospel
Extravaganza. Musical guest artists
will include D.A.Y.O.N.E. of
Statesville, the Mallard Creek
House of Prayer Shout Band of
Charlotte, and Leviticus of
Charlotte.
Jan. 19
• King Day 5K Fim RunAValk.
There is no registration fee for this
athletic event, which will begin at 9
a.m. at the college’s Smith Field
track. All participants will receive a
free t-shirt, and trophies will be
given to the top finishers.
• King Day For Kids. From 10-
11:30 a.m. in the Smith 900 Room of
the Alvarez College Union,
Davidson students will lead chil
dren in educational activities about
Dr. King’s life and the civil rights
movement.
• Community convocation.
Address by Myrlie Evers-WiUiams,
11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. at Duke
Family Performance Hall.
• Community lunch. Free lun
cheon will be served from 12:30-1:30
p.m. in the Brown Atrium of the
Alvarez College Union.
• Fireside Chat with Myrlie
Evers-Williams. Evers-Williams
^dll entertain questions and lead
informal discussion from 2-3 p.m. in
the Smith 900 Room of the Alvarez
College Union.
• A Dialogue on Race at Davidson.
From 3-5 p.m. in the Smith 900
Room of the Alvarez College Union,
members of the public are invited to
participate in small group discus
sions about race and its effect on
society.
• Panel Discussion on Affirmative
Action. Beginning at 7 p.m. in the
Brown Atrium of the Alvarez College
Union, a panel will lead a discussion
of whether affirmative action is still
necessary. Panelists will include con
servative radio talk show host Kevin
Moxley, who is also vice chair of the
Tennessee Republican party, and
Davidson College faculty members
Dan Aldridge of the history depart
ment and Mary Thomberry of the
political science department. Nancy
Fairley, professor of anthropology at
Davidson, will moderate the panel.
For more information on any of ,
Davidson’s King Day activities, call
Ernest Jeffries, assistant dean of
students, at (704) 894-2225.
UNC Charlotte:
Jan.14
Panel discussion: Once Upon A
Time: Reflections From The Past to
Build On the Future, Cone Center,
11 a.m.-l p.m.
Timeline exhibit, Lucas Room, 3-9
p.m.
Jan. 15
Vendor fair. Cone Center, 10 a.m.-
6 p.m.
Movie, “A Walk to Remember,”
Cone Center, 12 p.m.
Candlelight vigil, Moore, Sanford
and Oak halls, 5:30 p.m.
MLK formal program featuring
Ben Ruffin, McKnight Hall, 7 p.m.
Reception begins at 6:30 p.m.
City of Charlotte:
Jan. 15
Wreath-laying sendee and memor
ial, 12 p.m. at Marshall Park.
Jan.15-17
Public Library Main Branch will
show the fdiblic Broadcasting
Service documentary “Race: The
Power of an Illusion.” Showings are
6:30 p.m. Jan. 15 and Jan. 16; 10
a.m. Jan. 17.
Jan.17
Cultural diversity celebration, 2
p.m. at Charlotte Hilton and Tbwers.
Will include cultural marketplace of
vendors, music, food, fashion and
art.
Jan.18
Legacy Basketball Classic,
Flu season haunted by Tuskegee experiment
By Hazel Trice Edney
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER
PUBUSHERS ASSOCIATION
WASHINGTON - As the
nation experiences a flu out
break, some black adults are
refusing to get vaccines or to
take their children for shots
because of misconceptions
about the vaccines, a top
health official says.
“What we know from our
focus group work is that a lot
of the misconceptions about
the influenza vaccine are
seen in the African American
community,” says Dr. Walt
Orenstein, director of the
national immunization pro
gram at the Atlanta-based
Center for Disease Control
and Prevention. “Tuskegee
comes up and the trust of
governmental recommenda
tions.”
The fear of being injected
to fight influenza (flu), a con
tagious respiratory illness
caused by a virus, may come
from memories of the 1932
Tuskegee, Ala. syphilis
study. In that experiment,
the U.S. government used
600 black men as human
guinea pigs over a 40-year
period. As part of the study,
African Americans were not
treated for the disease after
it had been diagnosed.
The CDC reports that last
year, only 49.4 percent of the
nation’s black elderly got the
shot while 68.1 percent in
the White community did, a
difference of almost 19 per
cent.
Concerned about the dis
parate rate of vaccines
among the elderly, a group of
doctors at the Duke
University Medical Center
in Durham, hope that at
least 90 percent of black
elderly people will be vacci
nated against flu, every year.
“Our data show that we
have significant work to do
to reach this objective,” says
Trules Ostbye, lead author of
a study that found the racial
disparities between blacks
and whites reaching as high
as 20 percent over the past
decade. “More research is
needed to understand the
cultural issues that may be a
barrier to vaccination in this
population.”
Flu symptoms include hav
ing a fever, a headache,
extreme tiredness, a dry
cough, a sore throat, runny
or stuffy nose and muscle
aches. More common symp
toms among children are
nausea, vomiting and diar
rhea.
The flu vims is spread
when someone coughs or
sneezes it into the air or by
leaving it on a surface where
someone else picks it up and
touches it with their nose or
mouth.
One of the misconceptions,
Oberstein says, is that peo
ple get the flu from the vac
cine.
“I can tell you that the flu
shot itself cannot cause the
flu,” he explains. Oberstein
says another misconception
is that the vaccine does not
work.
According to the CDC, peo
ple who get the vaccination
rarely get the disease and if
they do, it is usually a milder
form. Other ways to protect
against the flu is through
prescription anti-viral med
ications.
Dr. Julie Gerberding, the
director of CDC, has called
the spread of the flu vims a
national epidemic, in part,
because of the rapid number
of child deaths outside the
normal age group and
because flu outbreaks start
ed in October, which is earli
er than usual.
The CDC reports that last
year’s flu season, which usu
ally mns from November
through March, was “rela
tively mild,” although during
any given year, approxi
mately 36,000 people die
fmm complications of the flu
and 114,000 are hospital
ized. The flu has shown up in
all 50 states this year, but
has hit particularly hard in
about 36.
The elderly aren’t the only
people who are especially
vulnerable.
Children have been partic
ularly hard hit with 42
deaths this year. Normally,
child deaths occur under the
age of 5, about 92 annually.
But, this year, almost half of
the deaths have been
between the ages of five and
17.
It is difficult to track the
extent of the illness among
children or adults because
state health departments
are not federally mandated
to report the disease, says
CDC spokeswoman Rhonda
Smith.
Some child advocates
worry about the effective
ness of any CDC effort to
narrow the gap between
blacks and whites.
“Given that we have not
resolved the racial disparity
problems in the standard
immunization series for
young children. I’m not sure
that we will so easily over
come this disparity for the
flu shots even though this is
obviously a pressing need,”
says Martha Teitelbaum,
senior health analyst for the
Children’s Defense Fund.
Teitelbaum points to a
CDC report on the rate of
black children getting stan
dard immunization shots
against diseases like
measles and poho last year.
The study shows the rate of
black 2-year-ol9s getting the
shots as being 9.5 percent
lower than white toddlers,
70.7 percent to 80.2 percent.
‘Tes, we are concerned that
the children in the black
community in particular
might not be getting the
immunizations they need to
protect them,” Teitelbaum
says.
Part of the problem has
been getting information
Orenstein, the CDC immu
nization official, says: “I hope
that by working to get this
message out, that in future
years we can assure that
African Americans have the
same opportunities to pre
vent this disease as the
whites.”
Charlotte Coliseum. Livingstone vs.
N.C, Central; Winston-Salem State
vs. Johnson C. Smith. Tickets avail
able through Ticketmaster.
Jan. 19
MLK Holiday Breakfast, 6:30
a.m., Adams Mark Hotel. Sponsored
by H.L. McCrorey Family YMCA.
Tickets are $20 and sponsorships
available by calling (704) 716-6506.
• Community celebration, 9:45
a.m., Little Rock AME Zion Church.
Parade, Trade and Graham
streets and ending at Grady Cole
Center.
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UPCOMING CONCERTS!
Fri Jan 16 & Sat Jan 17 « 8 pm
Blumenthal Performing Arts Center • Belk Theater
DIANNE REEVES
CELEBRATING SARAH VAUGHAN
Albert-George Schram, conducting
Proudly sponsored bv:
directly to the black commu
nity.
‘T am very concerned that
■we have a way of preventing
what can be a very serious
illness, but we have not been
able to get the message out
that we have a tool, an
influenza vaccine, that can
reduce this very serious mor
bidity and even death,” says
Orepstein.
Meanwhile, across the
coimtry, efforts are being
made to curtail the spread of
flu, specifically in the Black
community.
The Duke doctors say they
will aim for their 90 percent
goal by coordinating efforts
between public health pro
grams and the community to
get the message out in a cul
turally sensitive way.
The CDC has also estab
lished a new project, the
“Racial and Ethnic Adult
Disparities in Immunization
Initiative,” called READII
(Pronounced Ready). It
includes a component that
aims to expand the use of
black and other “targeted”
media to educate Afiican-
Americans and other minor
ity groups on health issues.
“We’ve been just putting
information out there and
assuming everybody in
America -will get it,” says
Smith, CDC spokeswoman.
“But, the fact of the matter is
that not eveiybody gets
information in the same way.
And so we’re just moving
towards being more proac
tive to reaching out to tar
geted media and to tiying to
communicate to people in
ways that they can best
receive it.”
Two-time
GRAMMY® Award
WINNER
Reeves can wrap her voice
around a melody like few
other current jazz singers...she
caresses every phrase with
palpable warmth and joy.
-Billboard Magazine
^ Northwestern Mutual
FINANCIAL NETWORK*
Presenling Sponsor of the
Charlotte symphony Pops
^ Science
►2 cx
CS COUNCIL
WBTV Mvjnc"S koKC (I Mstoi,
Mon Jan 19 • 7 pm
Blumenthal Performing Arts Center • Belk Theater
DAYBREAK
OF FREEDOM
7th annual
)r. Martin Luther King,
Tony McNeill & Alan Yamamoto, Co-Directors
Friendship Missionary Baptist Church Choir &
Charlotte Community Choir, Tony McNeill, Director
"A community tradition...
too poignant to do witJiout"
~ The Charlotte Observer
tThc Charlotte ©bscroer
F»I=»IDE
For Tickets or Exchanges Or visit CSO Ticket OHice
SymphonyCharge
704-972-2000 (Concert Saturdays only)
www.charlottesymphony.org or pac box office 704-372-1000