Volume 32 No. 34
$1.00
The Voice of the Black Community
U.S.
House
OKs hate
erime bill
Senate debate
pending
NAnONAi NEWSPAPER
PUBUSHERS ASSOCIATION
WASHINGTON - The U.S.
House of Representatives
has passed the Local Law
Enforcement Hate Crimes
Prevention Act of 2007,
sponsored by Judiciary
Committee Chairman John
Conyers (D-Mich.).
The bill
L Li ^ Also serving Cabarru^ Ghi jster, Mecklenburg, RowarVapdVork counties
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i.ii.nt
Conyers as giving
strong civil
rights protec
tion to an issue with deep
roots in the black communi
ty-
"It is one that is supported
by more than 230 civil
rights, education, religious,
and civic organizations,
including the NAACP, the
ACLU, and the Leadership
Conference of Civil Rights,”
Conyers says. “It is also sup
ported by virtually every
major law enforcement
organization in the country,
including the International
Association of Chiefs of
Police, the National District
Attorneys Association, and
the National Sheriffs
Association."
Conyers reminds: "At one
time in our history, race-
based lynchings were a
national scourge. Nearly
4,000 African-Americans
were tortured and killed
between 1880 and 1930,
and the federal government
was powerless to take
action. Finally, some forty
years ago, after years of fili
buster in the other body, we
finally acted and sent the
signal that race-based
killings would not be toler
ated by the federal govern
ment.”
However, the laws had not
gone far enough, he says.
The current hate crimes
bill would add the following
stipulations, according to a
release from the Judiciary
Please see U.S. HOUSE/7A
A half-century ago, black Charlotteans were relega James B. Dul:e\ibrary^^^^^
law and custom. It took four schoolchildren and 14 charlotte Sc 23216-5302
PHOTO/ERICA SINGLETON
Top photo: Dorothy Counts-Scoggins endured taunts and ^olence in 1957 as the first African American student to desegregate Harding High
School. Woody Cooper, a Harding senior in ‘57, and Counts-Scoggins embrace in their first meeting last Saturday at Irwin Avenue Open
Elementary School, the fcnmer Harding campus. Cooper, who lives in Davidson, is on the left in the top photo.
Year of social upheaval changed Charlotte forever
By Erica Singleton
FOR THE CHARLOTTE POST
On Sept. 4,1957,Dorothy Counts
took the longest walk of her life.
In many ways, it was also
Charlotte’s.
Counts, then 15, was yelled at,
spat on, and had debris thrown at
her by angry whites as she deseg
regated Harding High School.
Photos of that difficult walk were
splashed on newspapers around
the world.
“I had no idea when I left for
school that morning what would
happen,” she said. “They had bar
ricaded the street, so my father
couldn’t drop me off. A family
friend. Dr. (Edwin) Thompkins,
from Johnson C. Smith University,
is the adult pictured walking with
me. The walk from Fifth Street to
the auditorium at Harding was a
long walk that morning.”
A revolution on greens
Seven months before Counts’
(now Counts-Scoggins) walk into
history, a group of black golfers
enjoyed the fruits of victory - win
ning a court battle to play at
Revolution Golf Course.
“This was not a bed of roses by
any means,” said Ray Booton, a
member of the group of golfers,
who with the NAACP from 1951-
1957 fought for the right to equal
access on public facilities in
Charlotte.
Booton, the lone survivor, was in
attendance for the celebration of
the 50th anniversary of
Please see ACTIVISM/6A
This was not
a bed of
roses by any
means.
Ray Booton, one of 14
golfers who won the right to
play Revolution Golf
Course in 1957.
Final graduation
for prep program
By Herbert L. White
herb.wh(Te@fhecharlotteposf.com
A long-running college preparatory program grad
uates into history Saturday.
Love of Learning, founded at Davidson College in
1987 to help African American students prepare for
the academic rigors of college, will host its Tribute to
Education Gala at 10 a.m. at Davidson’s Tyler
Tallaman Auditorium. A limcheon will follow the cer
emony at 11:30 a.m. and a yacht cruise on Lake
Norman will close the celebration.
Former students, parents, staff and the public are
invited.
Love of Learning has graduated nearly 400 stu
dents, said director Yvette Clifton PhD. The program
takes students from their freshman year of high
Please see L0VE/2A
Summit’s goal: Pants
up, self-esteem next
PHOTOAVADE NASH
Blanche Penn, director of Winners Plus Agency, talks during a
press conference Tuesday announcing formation of the Just Pull
‘em Up Summit May 19 at little Rock AME Zion Church. The sum
mit’s goal is to encourage dialogue between African Americans.
By Kristian Coley
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Pulling up pants can pull
up a people.
The Black Political Caucus
of Charlotte Mecklenburg.
Winners Plus Agency, and
the Nation of Islam held a
press conference Tuesday
in efforts to publicize The
Just Pull ‘em Up Summit
May 19 at Little Rock AME
Zion Church.
This summit will focus on
the negative appearance of
black males that feed the
stereotypical "thug look”
with baggy jeans below the
waistline and long t-shirts.
Dwayne Collins, chairman
of the Black Political Caucus,
says he wants the summit to
educate young African
Americans about the origins
of the sagging pants. “The
look came from jail,” he
said, “where the inmates
were not afforded to wear
belts because they could be
used as a weapon, so their
pants would just sag.”
The relationship between
the appearance of young
Please see PANTS/2A
Hoops legends
BYRON
DINKINS and
ANDREA
STINSON find
their calling.
Page 1C
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