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The Voice of the Black Community
JOHNSON C. 31th UNiVERSITY
CHARLOnE, NORTH CAROLINA 28216
100 Seatties Ford Rd
Charlotte NC 28216-5302
Also serving uauaiiuo w
Governor true to
old school R&B
Singer isn’t afraid to put
his dreams into niu^ic.
‘Tm trying to put the blues
back in R&B,” he says.
Voting
rights fight
shifts to
Senate
Civil rights activists
taking no chances in
applying pressure
By Hazel Trice Edney
milONAL NEWSPAPER
PUB.!SHERS ASSOCIATION
WASHINGTON - Civil rights
leaders are pleased that the Voting
Ri^ts Act renewal bill has finally
passed the House, but have vowed
to place pressure on the Senate just
in case unexpected opposition
mounts.
“We’re going to cel
ebrate the House,
but we’re going to
pressure the Senate.
There’s ho question
about that,” NAACP
President and Chief
* “ Executive OflQcer
Gordon Gordon, told
reporters at the
organization’s annual conference in
Washington before leading a dele
gation to the Hill on Wednesday to,
lobby senators- “We have not
crossed the finish line,,. The Senate
has work to do. We’re not goir^ to
just sit in. the inoms, but we’re
going to be in the streets. We’re
going to be on the Hill.”
It is probably wise that the
NAACP doesn’t rest on its victory
See PUSH/2A
Agency
for
change
PHOTO/CALVIN FERGUSON
Gwenarda Isley, executive director of the Northwest Corridor Community. Development
Corporation, said 15 years of revitalization projects like University Park Shopping Center have
turned neighborhoods along Beatties Ford Road into a vibrant and economically viable com
munities. The non-profit agency has led efforts to boost the area’s housing and businesses.
West End nonprofit
marks 15 years as
corridor's most
aggressive booster
By Herbert L. White
herb. whiJetSJhechartottepost com
Once faded, the economic
and cultural jewel of black
Charlotte is regaining its lus
ter.
Northwest Charlotte,
anchored by communities
along Beatties Ford Road, is
booming with new housing
and middle-class families.
New businesses, ranging fiom
, health care centers to super
markets, have moved in. And
the Northwest Corridor
Community Development
Corporation, a leading agency
in revitalizing the area, turns
15 this year.
The organization was
launched in 1991 as part of for
mer Johnson C. Smith
University president Robert
Albright’s Rxject Catalyst to
boost communities along
Beatties Ford. The corpora
tion, which represents 12
inner city nei^iborhoods,
including Biddleville/Five
Points, Dalebrook, Seveisville
and Washington Heights, has
a string of accomplishments,
but there’s work to be done.
“There are businesses we
don’t have, fike cofiee shops or
video rental places,” said exec
utive director Gwenarda Isley
‘We don’t have a
FedEx/ICinko’s kind of location.
That’s the kind of market we’re
thinking.”
The NWCCDC counts a long
list of achievements: 21 new
homes built; 20 others refur
bished and sold; construction
of University \niage Shopping
Center, The LaSalle at Lincoln
Heights, a senior housing com
munity and Biddle Point
Primary Care Center, operated
by Carolinas Medical Center.
“They’ve done a lot of great
things,” said Darrel Williams
Please see AGENCY/2A
The Charlotte Water
Works plant (above) and
tile Grand Theater are two
of the best-known land
marks along Beatties
Ford Road, which the
Northwest Corridor CDC
refers to as Historic West
End.
What’s in a slur? Activist want to know at conference
WSOC-TV
PHOTO/CALVIN FERGUSON
Charlotte social activist Ahmad Daniels will lead
a workshop on use of the word “nigger” at the
Global Pan Afrikan Reparations and Repatriation
Conference in Ghana and Benin.
By Erica Bryant
WSOC-TV
Ahmad Daniels calls
Malcolm X his mentor and
motivator.
Those who
meet him
clearly see
news glimpses of
connection Malcolm in his
work-
This week, the local
Charlotte educator/activist
continues the rolling with a
trip to the Global Pan-
Afrikan Reparations and
Repatriation Conference in
Ghana and Benin, West
Afiica.
“The goal is to educate
people about the movement,
and to gain support for Afiu-
descendants throughout the
Diaspora seeking repara
tions and/or repatriation,”
says Daniels.
Daniels is the only repre
sentative fi-om Charlotte,
and one of only 45 partici
pants fium tile U.S. Guest
speakers include President
Robert Mi^abe of
Zimbabwe and Minister
back 10
drawing
boaid
County commissioners vote
forces alternate plans for
school construction plans
By Erica Singleton
FOR THE CHARLOTTE POST
A surprise defeat for school construction
funding is forcing Charlotte-Mecklenbuig
Schools into scramble mode.
‘T’m still processir^ what
happened last night,”
Superintendent Peter
Gorman said Wednesday at
his weekly media briefing on
Wednesday following
Mecklaiburg county commis
sioners’ 5-3 vote against the Gorman
School Building Solutions
plan.
On July 11, the school board voted to
approve the plan, which called for $172 mil
lion in certificates of participation to address
the district’s most critical needs as well as,
up to $400 million in general obligation
bonds to be submitted in public referendum
in 2007. The plan was recommended by a
panel chaired by former N.C. Gov Jim
Martin,
“We got voted down,” said Gorman. “That’s
the only way to look at it. Last evening they
reached a solution that did not put kids
first.”
Gorman said the situation Charlotte-
Mecklenburg faces calls for calculation.
“Don’t lash out,” he said. ‘We have to step
back, be tiiou^tful ...think of what to do
next. We must figure out how to move for
ward.”
Gorman discussed meeting with the school
board; analyzing the situation to figure out if
fhere is a proposal that Ihe commission could
Please see SCHOOL/3A
Louis Farrakhan of the
Nation of Islam. In his
workshop, Daniels plans to
have a frank discussion
about the use of tiie word
“Nigger” fium Brooklyn, to
Soweto,
‘What was the social con-
tert that gave birth to the
word nigger? What was the
context that gave birth to
the word KaflSr in South
Afiica which is also a deni
grating term?” asks Daniels.
Daniels believes raising con
sciousness can help reclaim
Please see ACTIVIST/6A
the box
NEWS, NOTES & TRENDS
Welfare overhaul
shortchanges
America’s poor
By Allison Stevens
WOMEN’S E-NEWS
WASHINGTON — Tbn years after
the federal government overhauled
the nation’s welfai-e system, key state
officials say Congress has short
changed child care programs as low-
income parents, many of whom are
sir^le mothers, have moved into the
work force.
‘We’re beit^ increasingly challenged
to have enou^ money for diild care,”
Illinois Department of Human
Services Secretary Carol Adams said
at a July 11 news briefing on Capitol
Please see WELFARE/6A
Preventing burglary as
simple as tying basic
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