SEASON OF
RRSTS
A
1
Blumenthal
Performing Arts
Center 2(X)5-06
lineup includes
1
Cece Winans 1D
3
United Methodist
ministers focus on
history and
community 8B
DEFENSI-BULL
Retooled defense key
to competitive season
at Johnson C. Smith 1C
Defensive end Donald
Haynesworth
Volume 30 No. 49
$1.00
Oarlotti
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James B.
100 Beatties
Charlotte NC 2821
The Voice of the Black Community
Also serving Cabarrus, Chester, Mecklenburg, Rowan and
WEEK OF AUGUST 25-31, 2005
NOI
leader to
rally for
Millions
Farrakhan to
speak at Little
Rock AME Zion
By Herbert L. White
herb.white® ihecharlott€posi£orn
Nation of Islam leader
Louis Farrakhan will be in
Charlotte next month to rally
support for October’s Millions
More march in Washington.
Farrakhan will speak Sept.
12 at Little Rock AME Zion
Church, 401 McDoweU St.
Doors will open at 5 p.m.
Farrakhan’s talk is part of
the Million More Movement
Mobilization, a cross-country
tour of U.S. cities to push par
ticipation in the Oct. 15 rally
on the National Mall.
Farrakhan, who last visited
Charlotte in 1997, was invit
ed by the Millions More
Movement Local Organizing
Committee.
“It’s been a while sinc« he’s
been to Charlotte,” said
Michael Muhammad, a mem
ber of the Nation of Islam.
‘We’re biUing it as the return
of Farrakhan.”
The Millions More rally
commemorates the 10th
anniversary of the Million
Man March, believed to be
one the largest gatherings in
Washington history
Estimates of attendance at
the 1995 rally - also led by
»Farrakhan - ranged from
700,000 to more than 1 mil
lion black men.
In visits to cities such as
Indianapolis, Ind., Dallas,
Tfexas and Atlanta,
Farrakhan has encouraged
Millions More participation
among groups other than
black men. Unlike the 1995
run-up, most black organiza
tions and politicians have
been supportive of, if not
openly embracing, the rally
On the Net
Millions More Movement
yvwyvjtullionsmoremovement com
X
f k
A
Nation of Islam leader
Minister Louis Farrakhan will
speak In Charlotte Sept
ENSURING NO CHILD IS LEFT BEHIND
OHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG SCHOOLS
Karen Young, a fifth-grade teacher at Shamrock Gardens Elementary School, leads a class In
April. To help black students catch up academically, African American educators and adminis
trators are pushing for more funding for No Child Left Behind, a federal program that measures
schools’ education progress.
Closing academic gap
requires dollars, sense
Black student achievement focus of conference
By David D. Dawson
THE CHARLOTTE POST
The No Child Left Behind
Act is only as good as its fund
ing to eliminate educational
gaps for African American
students, the president of the
National Education
Association said last week.
Reginald Weava: outlined
ways to dose the academic
gap in public education at the
fifth annual National
African-American School
Board Members Summit in
Charlotte. Weaver told school
board members from across
the U.S. that the keys to
improving academic achieve
ment is to improve and
increase funding for No Child
Left Behind.
“The goals of No Child Left
Behind are good, because
they are the same goals that
you work to have in your cur
riculum,” he said.
“Accountability, hi^ test
(scores), clcsing the achieve
ment gap. But how this law is
crafted it is difficult, if not
impossible to get there. Tha:e
needs to be more flexibility
and funding. Ri^t now, we
believe that the program is
$27 billion shy of what it
needs to be.”
No Child Left Behind,
signed into law in 2002 by
President George W Bush,
has expanded the federal role
in education and set require
ments in place that affect
See ACHIEVEMENT/2A
U.S. school daze
• Black fourth-graders are 28
percentage points behind whites
in reading
• 50.2 percent of black ninth-
graders graduate with a high
school diploma, compared to 74.9
percent of whites
• Between 1990-2000, the average
percentage of black students at or
above basic achievement levels in
math was 32 percent; tor whites, it
was 72 percent
• Blacks make up 17 percent of
public school enrollment, and 33
percent of suspensions.
SOURCES:
U.S. DEPT. OF EDUCATDN;
HARVARD UNIVERSITY: NATIONAL
CENTER FOR EDUCATION
STATISTICS AND THE
advancement PROJECT
Annan tours Niger to highlight crisis
By Dalalou Mamane
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ZINDER, Niger - U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi
Annan visited skeletal
babies in Niger and heard
villagers’ pleas for help
Tuesday seeking to put
attention on 5 million north
west Afiicans left short of
food after their crops were
ravaged by drought and
locusts.
The United Nations was
among the first, in
November, to warn of the
impending hunger crisis in
the desert region, but its
appeals for aid were largely
ignored A French himiani-
tarian group accused the
world body on Monday of
responding to Niger’s pli^t
with too little, foo late.
Niger President Mamadou
Thndja, who has accused
U.N. officials, aid groups
and opposition parties of
exa^erating his country’s
problans for political and
economic gain, welcomed
Annan at the aiiport in the
eastern city of Zinder.
‘T came to see myself, to
talk to the government, to
see what we can do together
to improve the situation not
only in the short-term, but
also in the long-term,”
Annan told repoitos as he
began a two-day visit.
With an entourage of more
than 100 officials and jour
nalists, Annan toured
Zinder’s main hospital. He
spoke to mothers about thdr
problems, standing near
dozens of emaciated children
in beds, some with TV drips
in their arms.
Annan saw similar scenes
at an emergency feeding
center run by the French aid
group Medecins Sans
Frontia:es. On Monday, that
group said that “the U.N.
was slow to react to the cut-
associated PRESS/SCHALK VAN ZUYDAM
Please see UN/3A
Rental
AifG :s
cariax
faces
hunlles
Funding proposal for
arts plan may not get a
hearing until 2007
By Herbert L. White
herb.whUe®thechartottep(>st£om
Charlotte City Council’s proposed rental car
tax hike may face a tough time
passing legislative muster when
it comes up for debate.
The council voted 8-3 to override
Mayor Pat McGroiys veto of a tax
increase from 11 percent to 15
percent, but that just removed
one hurdle to budding $147 md-
lion in new museums and the
atres. Hie General Assembly will
likely be more difficult to navigate
Earle
given that the rental tax increase faces opposi
tion on several fronts.
The earhest the hike could be considered is
next summer if the entire Mecklenburg delega
tion gives its blessing, which is far from certain
Without unanimous approval, the proposal
would likely be pushed back to spring 2007.
“The only thing I can say is it won’t be taken
up imtd next summer,” state Rep. Beverly Earle
said in a telephone interview from Raleigh
Wednesday ‘Tm not so sure we’d have unani
mous support. In the long session, anyone can
bring it up, but in the short session, you need
Please see RENTAL/2A
For documentary
producer, there’s
strength in video
Voting rights clash to
debut on WTVI
By Herbert L. White
herb .whiie®thecharlottepost com
Award-winning documentary producer Steve
Crump’s latest endeavor puts a new face on the
Alabama clashes that created a
national drive for voting rights in
the South
Crump’s film, “Strength From
Sehna,” wdl premiere tonight at
6:30 p.m. at Levine Museum of
the New South. A reception wdl
be held, foUowed by a discussion
led by Crump and viewing at 8
p.m. Admission is free. Hie docu-
Crump
Amlsso Ado, age 3 and weighing 12 pounds
due to malnutrition, Is treated in a makeshift
feeding center In Maradi, Niger in this July 24
photo.
mentary debuts on WTVI (channel 42) simul
taneously
Oump, a WB’TV reporter who has won
regional Emmy awards for his documentaries,
interviewed numerous participants in the infa
mous 1965 “Bloody Sunday” confrontation
between voting rights advocates and Alabama
state police at the Eldmund Pettus Bridge.
Among them; U.S. Rep. John Levris and retired
Sheriff Jim Clark Hie protesters’ beating at the
bridge — and its broadcast on national television
- provided momentum that ultimately pro
duced the Voting Rigjits Act.
Stylist to the stars
opens South Park
salon 8C
INSIDE
Life IB
Religion 8B
Sports 1C
Business 8C
A&E ID
Happenings 6C
To subscribe, caB (704) 376-0496 or FAX (704) 342-2160.® 2005 The Charlotte Post Publishing Co.
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