DRESSED FOR
SUCCESS
For tie first time,
black Holiday
Barbie gets a _ ^
gown designerffey
Bob Mackie/ID
joltin’ joe
New coffee drinks
put musde behind
traditional
beans/1 B _ ’'x.
Court case
could set
precedent
on abortion
Ayotte could alter
women’s options by
weakening Roe
By Cynthia L. Cooper
WOMES'S E-SFM'S
WASHINGTON - A. New Hampshire
abortion case before the U.S. Supreme Court
could vastly r^hape and curtail women’s
ri^t to choose, according to legal reproduc
tive ri^ts advocates.
Tlie key question before the Supreme
Court is whether anti-abortion laws passed
by states may be challenged in court as
unconstitutional before they take effect.
Bringing these challenges, as currently hap
pens, prevents many restrictions passed by
anti-abortion legislatures fix>m interfering
with a woman’s rig^t to choose, whether
bans on abortion procedures, spousal notifi
cation and others.
By changing the legal standard for when
an abortion restriction can be challmged in
court, anti-abortion laws could quickly
entangle women across the country, without
directly overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973
Supreme Court case that held that states
could not criminalize abortion in all circum
stances.
‘This is an incredibly important case.
Depending on how the court rules, this could
be a really critical moment for the pro-choice
movement,” said Jennifer Dalven, deputy
director of the New York-based Reproductive
Freedom Project of the American Civil
Liberties Union, which represents a doctcH*
and three clinics challenging abortion
restrictions passed in New Hampshire.
The case, Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of
. Northern New En^and, lies far below the
radar of the general public and even many
pn>choice activists. Those who are aware of
it think of it as a case about parental notifi
cation on abortion. But its implications, said
Dalven, go far beyond.
‘Women seeking abortions would be forced
to fight court battles while they are facing
emergency medical needs,” said Nancy
Northup, president of the New York-based
Cento* for Reproductive Ri^ts, author of a
friend-of-the-court brief on this point on
behalf of 30 health, research and women’s
oiganizations.
A ruling against the pro-choice position
could strip away a wall of judicial protection
that has so far stopped numerous anti-abor-
Please see AYOTTE/2A
PHOTO/DALVIN FERGUSON
The Historic Excelsior Club, founded in 1944, has been the site of meetings that helped shape
Charlotte’s social and political climate. The Excelsior has been sold to attorney James Ferguson II.
Westside landmark site of
political, social
By Chens F. Hodges
cherisJuxiges®thecharlottepost£Om
The Historic Excelsior Club
on Beatties Ford Road has been
sold.
Former owner N.C. Rep. Pete
Cunnin^am sold the club and
all its glory to Charlotte attor
ney James Ferguson 11.
‘Tve just purchased the club
and we’re going to continue a lot
of the things that the club has
done and we’re
going to do some
new things as
well,” Ferguson
said.
Ferguson said
he wasn’t ready
to get into details
about the future
of the club since
the purchase is so
The Excelsior,
Ferguson
new
located on
Beatties Ford Road about one-
half mile north of Johnson C.
Smith University, was for many
years the leading private black
social club in &e Southeast,
and one of the largest of its kind
on the East Coast. In addition
to its importance as the only
social club for black profession
als in the area, it also became a
political focal point of Ae city
Please see HISTORIC/3A
Clemency calls increase for Crips founder
By Olu Alemom
W.WT NEWSPAPERS
LOS ANGELES - Less than
two week before his scheduled
execution intense pressure is
being brought on Cahfomia
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
to grant clemency to death
row inmate Stanley “Ibokie”
Williams.
A week-long series of
demonstrations and press
conferences culminated
Saturday with a rally in
Watts featuring Snoop Dogg.
TOUiams supporters have
marched on
Schwarzenegger’s Los
Angeles office. On Sunday,
there vriU be a candle light
vigil as part of a “National
Day of Action to stop the exe
cution of Stan Ibokie
Williams.”
Williams, a co-founder of the
Los Angeles Crips street gang,
is slated to be executed on
Dec. 13 in San Quentin state
prison. During the 19908, he
wrote a series of award-win
ning books for children, warn
ing against gangs, crime and
prison which earned him a
nomination for the Nobel
Peace Prize.
Please see PRESSURB2 A
Williams
areas
Durham sianmit
seeks input from
across state
By Sommer Brokaw
THE TRlANGlJi TRIBUNE
DURHAM - A two-day
conference will tiy to solve a
whodunit that has perplexed
North Carolinians for years:
How can crime be arrested
in mostly-black neighbor
hoods.
The conference will be held
at the N.C. Central School of
Law Friday and Saturday
‘T think with this whole
issue of crime in the minori
ty community, we are in a
time that requires some
deep soul searching as a
community,” said the Rev.
Wilham Barber, the new
president of the North
Carolina branch of the
NAACP.
The documentary
“Welcome to Durham,”
which premiered about a
year ago, showed the city has
as much trouble with gangs
as more infamous cities like
Chicago or Ixis Angeles.
Since then, there have been
several conferences on crime
in the minority community
But this is one of the
largest coUabca-ations with
the NAACP, the North
Carolina Black Lawyers
Association, North Carolina
Blacks in Criminal Justice,
and the Lost Generation
Thsk Force aU working
together. The groups will
come together to analyze the
causes of crime in the minor
ity community and devise
some solutions.
“From the dialogue we
want to move towards some
action,” said Irving Joyner, a
professor at NCCU law
•school. “And, we have one of
the No. 1 civil rigjits action
organizations in the state
working with us.”
According to the Rev.
David Forttes of Lost
Please see SUMMIT/7A
Exhibit recounts all-black elementary school
PHOTCVBETTY CROCKETT FAULKNER
The faculty of Isabella Wyche School, situated In Charlotte’s Third
Ward. The school was named for the first black woman principal In
Chariotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
By Paula Young
THE CHARLOTTE POST
On Saturday, Isabella Wyche Elementary School
will get the recognition it deserves.
The school’s memoirs will be on exhibit at the
Beatties Ford Road Library. A reception will be held
Saturday at 3 p.m.
The school once stood where Bank of America
Stadium now stands. It was named after Isabella
Butler Wyche, who was the first Afiican American
principal in Chariotte and the first woman princi-
paLof Myers Street.
Dot Brooks Siler, program and exhibit coordina
tor for the public library, is excited to be a part of
the project. Siler was approached by Dr. Eariine
Major Patrick, an alumnus of the school with the
project.
“This brings back memories of a time past,” said
Siler of the exhibit “A celebration of the past and
also to the alumni, a future of a memory of what
See THIRD/BA
the box NEWS, NOTES & TRENDS
Anniversary of bus boycott
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MONTXX)MERY, Ala. - With the death of Roea Paife,
the 50th anniversary of her arrest and the
historic bus boycott it spaiiied will focus on
the lesser-known foot soldiers in the
protest.
The commemoration will also look to the
future, kicking off today with a children’s
march to the Capitol.
Parits, who died Oct. 24, was remem
bered by national and civil ri^ts leaders Parks •
for her simple act of defiance - refusing to
give up her bus seat to a white man - that helped inspire
a movement for racial equality that spread to voting
booths and schools as well as buses.
Pioneer Bowl VIII; Complete
coverage of black college
football classic 1C, 4C, 8C
LifelB
Religion 8B
Sports 1C
Business 8C
A&E1D
Happenings 6C
INSIDE
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