FIT TO RACE
Trainer keeps
NASCAR’s best at
physical peak/1 C
Shelby native Al
^ Shuford leads the
sport's fitness wave
TAKING ON
RADIO’S
GOLIATH
WBAV-FM’s Jay Delai
has made a career of
battling top-ranked Tom
Joyner show/1 D
JAMES B. DUKE MEMORIAL LIBRARY
Ln!'\’.SQN C. SMITH
_ TURNSTILES
Charlotte Sting
owner Bob
Johnson optimistic
WNBA team can
become profitable/8C
Volume 29 No. 36
www.thecharlottepost.com
$1.00
W^t Cliarlotte
WAY 2 8 2004
******)i!*!t:**)t;*5-oiGIT 28216 S12 P2
James B. Duke Library
100 Beatties Ford Rd
Charlotte NC 28216-5302
The Voice of the Black Community
Also serving Cabarrus, Chester, Mecklenburg, Rowan and York counties
WEEK OF MAY 27-JUNE 3, 2004
Woodard
Programs
battle to
stay in
budget
By Herbert L. '^hite
herh.white@ihechiirlotfeposi.com
Mecklenburg County is
going through the budgetary
vereion of musical chairs.
Programs
that face
potential
cuts rally to
hang on to
funding
while county
commission
ers debate
which are to
be cut, boost
ed or left
alone.
The Court Clubhouse
Children’s Play and Care
Center is targeted for cuts.
The center,
which cares
for children
of jurors and
witnesses in
26th Judicial
District
cases, is
expected to
lose half its
county fund
ing
$50,000.
“That’s not enough for us to
continue to provide services
we’ve been accustomed to
providing the last three
years,” said Gloria Peters,
the center’s director. “We will
continue lobbying the com
missioners to fund us fully.”
Commissioners will decide
on a budget on June 15. A
pubhc hearing will be held
Thesday at the Government
center. County Manager
Harry Jones is recommend
ing a $1.1 billion budget for
the 2004-05 fiscal year,
which starts July 1.
On Wednesday, activists
from Justice, Not Just Us In
Education announced their
intention to lobby commis
sioners to deny Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Schools’
request for $290 million next
year, an increase of $25 nul-
hon. Jones has recommend
ed $276 million, but the
group wants funding to stay
at $265 million. School offi
cials plan to apply any
increase to expansion pro-
See MECKLENBURG/3A
Jones
Charles Brown isn’t trying to reinvent
Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s public libraries. He
wants to expand them.
Turning the
page
PHOTO/CALVIN FERGUSON
Charles Brown, director of the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, didn’t
expect to make a career out of working in libraries. But he’s led library systems in Minneapolis,
Minn., San Francisco and Columbus, Ohio.
By Cheris F. Hodges
cheris. hodges@thechariottepost. com
Thirty-five years ago,
Charles Brown walked into
the downtown library in his
hometown of St. Louis and
applied for a joh.
Brown, director of the
Fkibhc Library of Charlotte
and Mecklenburg County,
didn’t expect to make a
career out of working in
libraries.
“I started spending a lot of
time in the downtown
hbrary and I decided to go
upstairs and apply for a job,”
he said. “It was a real fluke.”
Brown’s fluke turned into a
hfelong career. He has led
library systems in
Minneapolis, Minn., San
Francisco, Calif., and
Columbus, Ohio.
Brown hasn’t plarmed any
major changes to Charlotte’s
library system, but he is look
ing to expand the hours of
operation at the Freedom
Regional Libraiy and Sugar
Creek Branch.
The Freedom branch’s
hours are Monday, 10 a.m.-7
p.m., Tuesday-Thursday, 8
a.m.-5 p.m., and Friday, 9
a.m.-6 p.m. The libraiy is
closed on Saturday and
Sunday.
The Sugar Creek branch is
open Monday-Thursday
from, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. and
Friday and Saturday finm, 1
p.m.-6 p.m.. The libraiy is
Please see LIBRARY/3A
Black students still struggle in post-Brown Ameriea
By Hazel Trice Edney
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER
PUBUSHERS ASSOCIATION
WASHINGTON - Now
that most of the hoopla sur
rounding the 50th anniver
sary of the Brown v. Board
of Education Supreme
Court case outlawing “sep
arate but equal” schools
has receded, major educa
tion problems still face
African-American stu
dents.
Among them:
• African-American
fourth-graders are 28 per
centage points behind then-
white counterparts in read
ing, according to the U.S,
Department of Education;
• While 74.9 percent of
whites who enter the 9th
grade currently graduate
with a regular diploma
from high school, only 50.2
percent of blacks do,
according to a Harvard
University Civil Rights
Project Study titled,
“Losing our Future;”
• Between 1990 and
2000, the average percent
age of white students at or
above basic achievement
levels in math was 72 per
cent; for blacks, that num
ber was 32 percent, accord
ing to the National Center
for Education Statistics;
• According to the
Advancement Project,
black students comprise 17
percent of public school
enrollment, but account for
33 percent of the suspen
sions and
• According to another
Harvard Civil Rights
Project Study, titled,
“Brown at 50: King’s
Dream or Plessys
Nightmare?” at a time the
nation is celebrating the
Brown decision, our schools
are growing increasingly
segregated.
“Most of the children who
Please see BLACK/6A
Futrell
Maioritv
alms for
veto-proof
comracts
Kinsey key to council’s
small business vote
By Herbert L. White
herb.whUe@thechcirhneposi.com
The direction of Charlotte’s Small Business
Program rests with one City Council member —
Democrat Patsy Kinsey.
Her absence from a vote on
whether the city should give spe
cific goals for minority-owned
businesses on city construction
contracts led to Mayor Pat
McCroiys veto. Six Democrats
supported the goals. Kinsey is in
China and didn’t vote. Shell be
back June 7, her son David said.
“Patsy has the right to make her
own decision, said council member
Malcolm Graham, a Democrat. “I think shell
thorough in making her decision. I trust her judg
ment.”
But Kinsey will likely hear numerous pitches
from both sides by the time council votes again. In
an April committee meeting, Kinsey indicated,
support for dtywide participation goals.
Republicans on the board and McCrory have
Please see DEMOCRATS/3A
Program takes the
worry out of kids’
adoption fears
By Cheris F. Hodges
cheris.hodges@thecharlotteposi.com
Part of a year-long series on adoption and foster care in
Mecklenburg County.
Once a child is adopted and brought into a new
home, Mecklenburg County Youth and Family
Services wants to make sure he or
she is comfortable with the new fam
ily-
“A lot of times children don’t want
to be hurt,” said Amy Ciceron with
Youth and Family Services.
When a child is 12 years old, he or
she has the option to object to adoption. Ciceron
said children don’t want to be rejected. So, the
department works with other agencies in what is
Kinsey
OPEN
HEARTS
OPEN
HOMES
Please see PROGRAM/3A
the box
NEWS, NOTES
& TRENDS
The Eastside Community Development
Corporation will host a motorsports exhibi
tion next month.
The Race lb Success exhibition and fair will
be held June 26 from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. at
Eastland Mall. Showcars and pit crew
demonstrations will be on display. College
recruiters and a fashion show will also be
included. Motorsports professionals will also
be on hand to talk about career opportunities
in the racing industry.
For more information, call (704) 563-2100.
Inside
Editorials 4A
Life4B
Religion 8B
Sports 1C
Real Estate 5C
Business 8C
A&E1D
Happenings 4D
Classifieds 5D
To subscribe, call (704) 376-0496 or FAX (704) 342-2f60.
© 2004 The Charlotte Post Publishing Co.
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