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Volume 30 No. 47
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The Voice of the Black Community
Also serving Cabarrus, Chester, Mecklenburg, Rowan and York counties
WEEK OF AUGUST 11-17. 2005
Fund
honors
YMCA
friends
Campaign for
Richardson,
Stratford
By Herbert L. White
herb.white@lhecharlotteposi.com
The West Boulevard
YMCA has launched a cam
paign to honor west
Charlotte community lead
ers "^^e Stratford and Jim
Richardson.
Money from the YMCA’s
Promises for the Future
campaign will go to the
Kresge Challenge to build a
35,000-square foot facility on
West Boulevard. The
$800,000 pledge made by the
Kresge Foundation hinges
on the YMCA raising $3 mil
lion.
Richardson, who died in
2003, and Stratford, who
died a year earlier, were
longtime friends and west-
side residents. Both were
known for their dedication to
Charlotte, especially, the
YMCA.
“The YMCA is an organiza
tion that held a special place
in both thdr hearts,” said
Mary Richardson, Jim
Richardson’s widow and
chair of the campaign. “They
wished to insure that a suit
able place was available
where citizais of the west
(Charlotte) community could
reach their full potential as
human beings created in the
image of God.” >
Once completed, the West
Boulevard Y will house an
after school and day camp
for children ages 5-13; teen
initiatives such as photojour
nalism, choir and drill team.
Programs for seniors and
active older adults will also
be part of the mix.
For information on the
Friends Commemorative
Fund, call Byron Henson at
(704) 716-4816 or e-mail
byron.henson&ymcachar-
lotte.org.
PHOTOA^LVIN FERGUSON
Mary Richardson, widow of
former Mecklenburg com
missioner Jim Richardson, is
leading the Friends
Commemorative Fund at the
West Boulevard YMCA.
Tips for dressing cooler
when surrvner’s rays
won't let up 8C
Charlotte’s
gameplan
forCIAA
tournament
TOP PHOTO/WADE NASH; ABOVEAJALVIN FERGUSON
Charlotte and CIAA officials gave thumbs-up to the basketball tournament’s new logo Wednesday
at Johnson C. Smith University. On hand for the press conference were (from left) Tim Newman,
Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority CEO, CIAA Commissioner Leon Kerry, Mayor Pat McCrory,
JCSU President Dorothy Cowser Yancy and Charlotte Organizing Committee Chair Lenny
Springs.
Organizers pledge one of a
kind experience for hoops fans
By Cheris F. Hodges
cherishodges®thecharlottepost£om
The CIAA basketball tour
nament is touted as the “get
down in uptown” and
Charlotte officials say it wiU
be fim and safe.
At a press conference
Wednesday, Mayor Pat
McCrory and Charlotte
political and business lead
ers involved in the pursuit of
the tournament unveiled its
logo and plans for the
February classic.^
“One promise We made to
the CIAA is that it wasn’t
just going to be an event
where you come to the arena
and watch great basketball
then leave,” McCrory said.
“It’s going to be an evCTxt
where before the game,
you’re going to have fim,
during the game you’re
going to see great athletes
and after the game you’re
going to have more fun.”
As Charlotte prepares to
host the CIAA for the first
time, city and league offi
cials are working tc^ther to
make the transition fium
Raleagh’s RBC Center to the
new araia uptown.
“This is a step up for the
CIAA tournament,” said
Commissioner Leon Kerry
‘We break in new arenas.”
CIAA facts
See CHARLOTTE’S/2A
• Fpunded: 1912 as the Colored
Intercollegiate Athletic Association,
• Membership: 12 historically black
colleges along the Eastern
Seaboard.
• First tournament: 1946 at Turner
Gym, Washington; D.C.
• 61 St tournament Feb. 27-March
4, 2006 (first in Charlotte).
For black males, every day brings crisis
By Kenneth Mallory
AFRO NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON - Are black
males an endangered species?
That question was posed to a
variety of panelists, including
the Rev A1 Shaiptcai and hip-
hop journalist Kevin Powell, at
the 95th National Urban League
Annual Conference’s plenary
session, ‘’The Black Male;
Endangered Species or Hope for
the Future?”
°l don’t have to teU anyone in
this audience that there is a cri
sis when it comes to black,
males,” NUL President Marc
Morial told the session.
Hi^ incarceration, high
dropout and unemployment
rates, stringent drug policies
impacting African-American
males and the extent to which
the media influences criminal
behavior and perpetuates nega
tive stereotypes of Black men
were all salient topics addressed
by the panelists.
Journalist and author Ellis
Cose said black and Latino men
make up 1.3 million of those in
the nation’s jail and prisons.
Collectively, Cose said, they
would constitute the seventh
largest dty in the United States.
‘’One-third of black males bom
today can eq^ect to spend some
time locked down,” he said
Judging fixan some of the pan
elists’ remarks, the issues
reportedly affecting black males
seemed interrelated But discus
sion hinged more on solutions
than on the problems them
selves.
According to Powell, in addi
tion to addressing black males’
spiritual, political, cultural and
economic engagement and well
being, attending to their physi
cal and mental health is also
needed to empower Black men.
Powdl said havii^ family mem
bers who died fium chronic dis
eases led him to take charge of
his health.
Jawanza Kunjufu, author of
“Ccjuntering the Conspiracy to
Destroy Black Boys,” said the
issue of fatherlessness in the
black community ‘’needs to be
addressed.” Also, he said the
black community needs to pro
vide greater support to Black
businesses so they could produce
more jobs for Black men.
Sharpton, using his signature
‘’teU it like it is” delivery and
preacher’s cadence, aroused
applause among attendees when
Please see CRISES/3A
Paydal
tendlpg
undei
'i.V'.
scnidrit
N.C. lawmakers look to
curb activity, especially
in low-income areas
By Sommer Brokaw
VIE CHARLOTTE POST
The payday lending
industry has been
accused of loan sharking
due to hi^ interest rates
that creates a cycle of
debt.
Supporters argue the
service is an alternative
for customers in a finan
cial crunch.
N.C. Senate bill 947 is
fueling both sides of the
debate.
Payday loans are short
term transactions of $1
and $500 taken out at 15
percent interest rates.
‘We have gotten a bad
rap because there’s a mis
conception calculating
APR or flipping or roUing.
loans,” said Willie Green,
a lobbyist for the indus
try. “The opposition
claims our loan’s APR is
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION/
CURTIS WILSON
Please see PAYDAY/6A
African American
neighborhoods
have three times as
many payday lend
ing stores per capita
as white neighbor
hoods, according to
the Center for
Responsible
Lending.
JOHN H. JOHNSON
Journalism’s
Ebony light
Publishing mogul
challenged stereotypes
By Herbert G. McCann
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Johnson
CHICAGO — Pioneering pub
lisher John H. Johnson, whose
Ebony magazine cormtered
stereotypical coverage of blacks,
died Monday He was 87..
Bom poor in Arkansas, Johnson
went into business with a $500
loan secured by his mother’s fur
niture and built a publishing and
cosmetics empire that made him
one of the wealthiest and most
influential black men in the United States,
Beyond his own economic stature, Johnson
broke new ground by bringing positive portray
als of blacks into a mass-market pubhcation
and encouraging corporations to use black mod
els in advertising aimed at black consumers.
Johnson built Ebony from a circulation of
25,000 on its first press run in November 1945
to a monthly circulation of 1.9 million in 1997.
Jet magazine, a newsweekly founded in 1951,
has a circulation of nearly 895,000. Athird mag
azine, Ebony Man, a monthly men’s magazine,
was started in 1985 and has a circulation of
325,000.
Life 18
Religion 8B
Sports 1C
Business 8C
A&E1D
Happenings 6C
IKSIOE
To subscribe, call (704) 3760496 or FAX (704) 342-2160.® 2005 The Charlotte Post Publishing Co,
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