Volume 32 No. 17
TOFO'^F
$1.00
The Voice of the Black Community
Serving Cabarru:
Controversial
‘Color of the
Cross' now
available on
DVD/5B
HEY ROOKIES
Home-grown talents
Stephen Curry (right)
and Jerry Hollis moke
a splash as college
freshmen/1 C
PHOTO/PAUL WILLIAMS III
Nicole Darmody and Calvin Love partici
pate in a breakout session during the
CM3A town hall meeting last week.
Forum’s
test in
streets,
homes
Initiation bf agenda first '
step to ending disparities
By Erica Singleton
FOR THE CHARLOTTE POST
Dayna Sanders and TVavis Roseboro took a
first step towards personal responsibility at
the Charlotte Mecklenburg Afncan American
Agenda Tbwn Hall meeting last weekend.
“I signed up with the Urban League,” said
Sanders. “I committed to help out with CM3A
and since [the Urban League] will be the force
behind the information, Fd like to be a part of
them.”
Sanders was among the more than 2200
Charlotteans who attended CM3A’s Tbwn
Hall meeting on Friday and Saturday. A ht-
eracy facilitator at Wmdsor Park Elementary
School, Sanders had professional and person
al reasons for attending.
“I [went] because I’m concerned for the
youth, even in elementary schools,” said
Sanders. “Also, I have a brother in high school
who waited until his senior year to not want
to graduate.”
Sanders was not alone in her feelings that
youth and education were important, in the
CM3A data overview of priorities, 29 percent
agreed that education is the top, followed by
Economics/Finance (21 percent) and Health
care (13 percent). As well, 29 percent of youth
agreed that education was their top priority,
with 27 percent of politicians leaning the
same way.
In data compiled by the Lee Institute, the
common theme expressed about education,
was “the need, value and importance of
investing in early readiness, especially for
reading proficiency...which relates to later
crime and behavioral issues.” Behind educa
tion, across the board, the next priorities were
economics and finance, voting and politics,
followed by healthcare and legal justice.
Part of a summary listed on CMSA’s web
site, CM3Alists youth concerns, including the
feeling that there needs to be a similar event
Please see MOVE/3A
PHOTO/WADE NASH
Sherman Vlfarner of the Charlotte Department of Transportation presses lettering onto
a Martin Luther King Boulevard street sign Tuesday. Charlotte becomes the latest U.S.
municipality to name a street after the slain civil rights leader Saturday with the
renaming of Second Street in center city.
Events fit for King
Renaming Second Street, annual parade among the
Charlotte activities honoring slain civil rights activist
By Brittanie Dixon
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Charlotte will finally
have its Martin Luther
King Boulevard Saturday.
The city will honor the
slain civil rights activist, by
renaming Second Street at
10 a.m., bringing a year
long campaign to a close.
The dedication will take
place at Second and
Graham streets
“It gives me pride to know
that Charlotte recognizes
Martin Luther King and
his views of non-violence,
respect and economic jus
tice,” said Charlotte City
Council member James
Mitchell, I
who lobbied I
for a street I
designation. I
Mitchell :
said the ■
street will be
embraced by
the African
Please see MLK/2A
Mitchell
Civil rights supporters hold key spots in new Congress
U.S. takes
Al Qaeda
huntte
By Hazel Trice Edney
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER
PUBUSHERS ASSOOATJON
WASHINGTON
Nothing illustrates the
shift in political power in
Congress more dramatical
ly than this: Under
Republican control, all key
committee chairpersons
earned an F on the NAACP
Report Card. AH of the key
incoming Democratic
chairs in the House and
Senate earned As or Bs
under the latest grading
system.
“This says that there is a
great deal more hope. The
chairs of the committees
are the gatekeepers. They
determine which issues
come before their commit
tee before they go to the
floor of the House or the
Senate to be voted on. This
means that in many cases,
now we also have chairs
who are original co-spon
sors of legislative priorities
for the African-American
community and the
NAACP,” says Hilary 0.
Shelton, director of the
Please see CIVIty/A
ftfiica
American airstrikes in
Somalia aim to root out
Muslim extremists
By Scott Baldauf and Mike Pfianz
THE CHR;57IAN SCIENCE MONITOR
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
AND NAIROBI, KENYA — On the heels of
U.S. air strikes Monday, US helicopter gun-
ships strafed villages in Somalia Tuesday in
an ongoing hunt for Al Qaeda operatives in
the Horn of Africa.
U.S. military officials say that Somalia’s
lawless state had become a safe haven for Al
Qaeda activists, including possibly those
responsible for the embassy bomb attacks in
Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam in 1998.
This week’s attacks illustrate how much
US military policy has changed since Sept.
H, 2001. As the US closes or downsizes mas
sive cold war-era bases in Germany and
South Korea, its presence is expanding in
Uganda, IJjibouti, Senegal, and Sao Tbme
and Principe, African nations once seen as
far beyond American interests. Tbday,
African bases serve both as “jumping off”
points for the war in Iraq and also as bul
warks against new threats in volatile regions
of Africa.
At press time, the US military had not
released the numbers nor the names of those
killed in the attacks.
The sites attacked, close to the border with
Kenya, were considered the last strongholds
of Somalia’s Union of Islamic Courts, which
held sway over the country for the past six
months until it was driven from power two
weeks ago by an alliance between Somalia’s
transitional government and Ethiopia.
U.S. helicopter gunships Thesday carried
out mopping-up operations, according to
Please see AL QAEDA/6A
thebox
NEWS, NOTES & TRENDS
Free after 39
years, mistake
in conviction
By Ernest Alexander
AFRO NEWSPAPERS
BALTIMORE — Imagine that you
are convicted of a crime you didn’t
commit. Despite pleas of innocence,
you face racially biased testimony and
ajury not composed of your peers. You
are foimd guilty and sent-to jail. Your
freedom stripped and your dignity
lost. What do you do, how do you cope
with the reality that is now your life?
This was the reality for Walter
Lomax, after serving nearly four
decades in prison for a crime that he,
as well as family, says he didn’t com
mit.
Lomax, now 59, was released on
Dec. 14 after being accused, tried and
convicted for the killing of Robert
Brewer, a 56-year-old convenience
store manager, on Dec. 2, 1967. Over
Please see WRONGLY/8A
Charlotte-based rappers look to
merge styles of East, West./1 D
INSIDE
LifelB
Religion 5B
Sports 1C
Business 6C
A&E1D
Classified 5D
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