Volume 32 No. 20
S1.00
®[ie C][)anrli]tte
The Voice of the Black Commuhity
Also serving
Meet the
coaches who
make Sunday's
Super Bawl a
game of histone
proportions/! C
STEP LIVELY
Sure-footed routines
made popular by
Greek-letter groups
translate to big
screen in “Stomp
The Yard"/! B
No lock
on black
voters for
Obama
Rivals Edwards,
Clinton will
stump, too
By Beth Fouhy and
Erin Texeira
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK - Being black
doesn’t necessarily mean
White House hopeful Sen.
Barack Obama has a lock on
black voters.
In vt'ooing a faithful
Democratic constituency,
Obama faces two-tenn New
York Sen. Hillary Rodham
Clinton, the
party front
runner who
enjoys strong
support in
the black
community.
She also is
married to
former
President
Obama
Clinton, so wildly popular
among black voters that
novelist Ibni
Morrison
dubbed him
“the first
black presi
dent” in a
1998 essay.
Obama also
must contend
with John
the 2004 vice
PHOTO/BRANDI WOODSON
Darnelle Rice stocks shelves at a Family Dollar store in Charlotte Tuesday. Congress is con
sidering a federal minimum wage increase to S7.25 by 2009.
Hike would help
make ends meet
Edwards
Edwards,
pi-esidential nominee who
has won
Millions would benefit from federal minimum wage boost
By Brandi Woodson
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Everything is on the rise:
gasoline, taxes, and rent.
But a raise in the minimum
wage would provide some
light at the, end of that expen
sive tunnel of life. Congress is
considering bills that would
boost the federal minimum
wage from $5.15 an hour to
$7.25. It’s estimated that
more than. 2 million African
Americans would benefit
frorh an increase, according'
to the Joint Center for Political
and Economic Studies, a
Washington, D.C., think tank.
'They need to raise the min
imum wage anyway," said
Darnelle Rice, who works at
Family Dollar in Charlotte.
"You can’t raise a family and
support children off of that."
The federal wage hasn’t
changed since 1997.
A study published last week
by the Joint Center found that
black workers make up 16
percent those who would see
an increase in their wages due
to the Fair Minimum Wage Act
of 2007.
The U.S. House of
Representatives passed a bill
last month that would raise
the minimum $2.10 by 2009.
The Senate version is bogged
down over a Republican
amendment that includes tax
relief for small businesses. If
the GOP version passes the
Senate, a compromise bill
would be negotiated before
Please see MINIIViUM/2A
Pursuit of murder suspect leads to N.C.
By Allen G. Breed
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York commemoration
of Martin Luther I'Cing Jr. -
at the invitation of the slain
civil rights leader’s son.
“It will be a challenge,
because iObama) will be
competing against people
who have relationships in
the black community,” said
the Rev, Jesse Jackson, who
ran for the Democratic pres
idential nomination twice in
the 1980s.
Jackson, who won 13 pri-
See OBAMA/3A
RALEIGH - As a deacon at
Bunkley Baptist Church,
Charles Marcus Edwards was
responsible for opening up for
Sunday school. And so on that
sultry Mississippi morning, he
and his wife were the first to
arrive at the tiny brick chapel.
A minivan pulled into the
gravel drive behind them. A
black man got out and
approached, followed by a
younger white man carrying a
video camera.
"Mr. Edwards,” the black man
said, extending a hand with a
Dead man’s kin,
filmmaker track
alleged Idller
sealed envelope. "1 have some
thing for you, sir.”
"What is this?” Edwards
asked.
Inside were pages from an
unfinished story.-
The nine sheets, copied from
a 42-year-old FBI file, told of Ku
Klux Klansmen and secret
codes and terror. They told of
the kidnap, torture and killing
of two black men - Henry
Hezekiah Dee and Charles
Charlotte campaign’s a many-splendored thing
WrVI-sponsored project encourages communication of love and forgiveness
By Brandi Woodson
THE CHARLOTTE POSr
How deep is your love?
Do you have the capacity to
forgive?
WTVl (channel 42) is looking
for people who are willing to talk
about the power of both during
the a three-year Campaign for
Love and Forgiveness. The
Charlotte PBS affiliate will use
three films as conversation
starters of the depth of love and
forgiveness on a personal and
community level.
The campaign, funded by the
Fitzer Institute, researched the
energetic force of love, the
unfailing power of forgiveness
and how they can effect change.
Fitzer is also working with exist
ing organizations to help indi
viduals and communities dis
cover the transformative power
of love and forgiveness on a
spectrum of issues.
The campaign kicked off last
month at the West Boulevard
Library with the unveiling of a
campaign symbol, the Red
Bench of Love. The bench can be
found engraved with three com
pelling symbols: a dove, a heart,
and a man and woman repre
senting the ultimate power of
love and forgiveness.
Wesiem
■'C
skimming
fromJlinca
Untaxed profits bilking
billions from continent
GLOBAL INFORMATION NETWORK
Giant corporations are skimming billions of
dollars out of Africa by avoiding taxes and
. exploiting tax havens, said a new pan-African
organization at a meeting of tax experts held
this month in Nairobi, Kenya.
Despite the global commodity boom over
the past three years, the group found, African
governments lost more than $150 billion in
unpaid tax and royalties, and in some cases
actually received less revenue from mining
companies than before.
In Tanzania, for example, as production of
copper, gold, nickel and platimim soared, the
British anti-poverty group Christian Aid
found, revenue from gold fell by nearly a*
third. In Zambia, revenues from copper have
been cut in half. Pressure from the IMF to sell
off industries on advantageous terms to nun-
ing firms is responsible for the shortfall,- say
campaigners: ‘The myth that tax rates have to
be slashed to attract overseas investment
needs to be challenged,’ said Aima Thomas,
Christian Aid’s policy manager.
The missing tax receipts widely surpass the
pledges of aid made by leaders of the world’s
richest nations in a summit of the Group of 8
Please see BILLIONS^SA
thebox
NEWS, NOTES & TRENDS
Kenyan wins
mutilation
reprieve
Eddie Moore.
Edwards limped quickly
toward the church and climbed
the three steps, stopped and
turned.
"What’s your name, fella?”
the 72-year-old white man
asked.
"My name is Moore,” the
stranger replied. "Thomas
James Moore.”
The reputed former
Klansman moved to enter the
sanctuary, then paused and
turned again.
"I’m going to tell you, fella,”
he said. "1 DID not kill your
A U.S. appeals court has granted a
temporary reprieve to a Kenyan
woman who feared traditional genital
mutilation by relatives if forced to
return home.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
in St. Louis sent the case back for
rehearing by the Board of Immigration
Appeals.
Olivia Chebet Kipkemboi, 34, and her
husband had asked for asylum, claim
ing that the practice of female circum
cision would be carried out on her and
eventually on her 3-year-old daughter
if she were deported. Her daughter is a
U.S. citizen.
Please see PURSUrT/6A
“This campaign will allow
those in the Charlotte area com
munity to speak about their
experiences, listen and respond
to one another with encourage
ment and compassion as it
relates to the diversity and
inherent mystery of love," said
Beverly Dorn-Steele, WTVl direc
tor of education and outreach
services.
Please see PROJECT/3A
PHOTO'CAl.VIN FERGUSON
WTVl education and outreach director Beverly
Dorn-Steele sits on The Red Bench of Love at
the West Boulevard Library.
Impressive Volvo C70 at its
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