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Volume 31
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Jaies B. Duke Library
100 Beatties Ford Rd
Charlotte NC 28216-5302
The Voice of the Black Community
Charlotte NC 28216-5302
oarlotte soiit
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Also serving Cabarrus, Chester, Mecklenburg, Rowan and York counties
WEEK OF DECEMBER 15-21, 2005
Grace AME Zion Church is the last
church in Charlotte’s Second Ward. The
Historic Landmarks Commission wants
to buy the site and preserve it, but a dis
agreement over how much the site is
worth may hasten Gragpisjiestruction.
Couniv
pondeis
stale of
Grace
Future of historic
Charlotte church in
limbo over buyout
By C. Jemal Horton
FOR THE CHARIJOTTE POST
Grace A.M.E. Zion Church, the last
remaining thurch in Charlotte’s historic
Second Ward, is at a severe crossroads.
^th the church’s congregation vacating
the building to move to a new location in
University City, the Historic Landmarks
Commission is se^dng to purchase the sto
ried Grace site and ja^eserve it.
However, a difference of $735,000 - and a
Board of County Commissioners meeting on
Tiiesday - ultimately could lead to Grace’s
demise
The church is asking $1,575 million for the
site. However, when the Historic
Landmarks Commission had an appraisal
done last spring, the Grace site was valued
at $840,000.
Historic Landmarks Commission, though
does not currently have enough money in its
revolving funds to pay the $840,000 for the
site, let alone $1,575 million. The Historic
Landmarks Commission, however, has
asked the Board of County Commissioners
to temporarily replraiish its revolving flmds
so it can make an offer on the Grace site,
then sell it to a new buyer with the agree
ment to preserve it.
The Historic Landmark Commission’s
request is on the agmda for Tbesday’s Board
of County Commissioners meeting.
Dan ^forrill, consulting director for the
Landmarks Commission, said the
Commission is willing to pay more than the
$840,000 fcfl* the site, but not the $1,575 mil
lion faice tag - as long as the County
Commissioners agree to replenish his
grovqj’s revdving fimds.
Rease see HISTORIC/2A
PLAN TO REMAKE CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG SCHOOLS
CMS task force
recommendations
* District would be split
into semi-autonomous
subdistricts of 40,000
students.
■ CMS would intervene
in low-performing
■^schools.
■ K-8 student assign-
’ ment would be fixed
based on residence.
■ School board would
shrink from 9 to 7 with
one member appoint
ed by Mecklenburg
commissioners.
■ Superintendent
would have expanded
^ authority.
^ CMS TASK
Another daunting task
Panel begins job of selling skeptics on recommendations
By C. Jeinal Horton
FOR THE CHARIjOTTE POST
Harvey Gantt smiled con
fidently Wednesday when
he called recommendations
put forth by the Citizens’
Thsk Force on Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Schools a
“bold move” that will
enhance public education
in the district.
Not everyone shared
Gantt’s enthusiasm, howev-
Gantt, the former
Charlotte mayor who co
chaired the 16-member task
force with Bank of America
executive Cathy Bessant,
was met with plenty of resis
tance after the recommen
dations were revealed at the
Government Center.
Some in attendance
expressed concern that the
task force’s proposal to keep
one district but subdivide it
into three or four geographic
areas with their own super
intendents would result in
what many see as a familiar
problem: schools with high
concentrations of low-
income students would con
tinue to receive fewer
resources than those in the
suburbs. .
Some were upset about
possible dramatic changes
in how school board mem
bers are determined. For
Please see CMS/7A
PHOTO/WADE NASH
Task force co-chair Harvey Gantt (right)
makes a point while Cathy Bessant listens
Wednesday during a press conference
announcing the panel’s recommendations.
Crip executed,
but debate over
life continues
By George E. Curry
NATIONAL NEVtSfAPER PUBUSHERS ASSOCIATION
ft Stanley “Tbokie” Wilbama, the notorious
co-founder of the Crips street
gang who led an anti-gang
crusade from his death row
prison cell at San Quentin,
was executed early Tliesday
morning, leaving behind a
spirited debate over what
constitutes justice and
Williams redemption.
After Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger rejected a second last-ditch
legal appeal at 11:30 p.m. Monday Williams,
Please see DEBATE/3A
i A
the box
NEWS, NOTES
& TRENDS
Torre Jessup, community liasion for U.S. Rep. Mel
Watt (right) accepts a petition backing a timetable
for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq Wednesday
in Charlotte. Maggie Davis and Teresa Davis of
MoveOn.org handed Jessup the petitions.
Food banks
go all out for
the holidays
By Herbert L. White
herb .whited thecharlotteposterm
What will the hohdays become for
families who can’t put food on the
table?
Second Harvest Food Bank of
MetroUna has sponsored food drives
since November to help low-income
families. Successful drives included a
concert by R&B recording artist Ray
J Dec. 10 at Lake Norman High
School that collected 7,584 pounds of
food; the Charlotte Bobcats’ Street
Tlirkeys drive that raised $13,300 in
donations and approximately 1,000
Please see FOOD/3A
Please see DEBATE/3A Please s
America urged to recognize Africa’s strategic value
By Jim Lobe influential Council on Foreign ulariy in energy-producing coun- deploy a larger fon
By Jim Lobe
ISTERNAVOSAL PRESS SERXTCE
WASfflNG’TON - Afiica’s
strategic importance to the
United States — both with
respect to Washington’s °war on
terrorism” and the growing com
petition with China for access to
enei^ supplies and other raw
materials — should be given
more attention by policy-makers
and the. pubhc, according to a
major new report released by the
influential Council on Foreign
Relations.
The 139-page report, which
charges the Bush administration
with lacking a comprehensive,
long-term strategy for dealing
with the region, calls on
Washington to upgrade its diplo
matic and intelligence capabili
ties in the region by appointing
an ambassador to the Afiican
Union and opening more mis
sions in key Afiican cities, partic-
ulariy in energy-producing coun
tries.
It also calls for greater higji-
level attention to resolving con
flicts in the region, particularly
those, such as in the Democratic
Repubhc of the Congo, that
threaten the stabihW of whole
sub-regions or involve large-scale
atrocities.
On Darfur, the report urges
Washington to work with the AU
in gaining U N. authorization to
deploy a larger force of Afiican
and non-Afiican soldiers to join
the nearly 7,000 AU troops
already there to protect nearly
two million displaced civilians
and take military action, includ
ing a no-fly zone, to counter any
threat against them.
However, the report argues
that a strictly humanitarian
approach to Afiica — as symbol
ized by last June’s global “live 8”
See AFRICA/6A
o#o
University Park Baptist
growth leads to acquisition
of Merchandise Mart 8B
Life IB
ReligjonSB
Sports 1C
Business 8C
A&E1D
Happenings 6C
MSieE
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