\
THE County TIMES-NEWS
A Combination of
Vol. LXXVIl, No. 33
THE ROANOKE-CHOWAN TIMES
Jackson, N. C.
EstabUshed 1892 THE NORTHAMPTON COUNTY NEWS — Established 1926
THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 1968 Rich Square, N. C.
14 Pages
4th Fatality
COUNTY COORDINATOR Mrs. Georgia
Pierce of Woodland was one of the speak
ers at the third annual Poor People's Con
ference held in Ahoskie on August 3.
Hertford County coordinator, the Rev.
Leon Vaughan; Mrs. Alice Ballance, Ber
tie County coordinator; and the Rev. S. P.
Petteway, of the Southern Christian Lead
ership Conference, were on the platform
to hear Mrs. Pierce.
GASTON - The fourth fatality
for Northampton County was re
corded early Tuesday when Levi
Rufus Jones, 65, was killed in a
two-car accident on N.C. 48 here
in front of Ashley Smith’s Gro
cery.
Jones was operating a 1963
Volkswagen north on N.C. 48 at
the time of the accident. He and a
passenger in his car, Glenn Gur
ley, 60, also of Roanoke Rapids,
were thrown from the car. Jones
was pronounced dead upon ar
rival at Roanoke Rapids Hospi
tal.
According to State Trooper Ray
Evans, the investigating officer,
the Jones car made a left turn
in the face of a 1959 Ford that
was traveling south along the
highway at the time. The Ford
was operated by Simon Peter
Johnson, 51, of Garysburg.
Gurley is in Roanoke Rapids
Hospital, but not in serious con
dition.
Both cars were estimated to
be total losses. There were no
charges.
Borf Burgw/n Renamed To
Three-Year ABC Board Term
JACKSON — Bart Burgwyn,
chairman-manager of the North
ampton County ABC system, was
renamed Monday to an additional
three-year term as a member of
the ABC store system.
The reappointment was
made at a joint meeting of the
Northampton County Board of
Commissioners, Board of Health
and Board of Education. It was
unanimous. Burgwyn is expected
to be reappointed as ABC chair
man-manager at the next meet
ing of that three-member board.
In addition to being reappointed
for a new three-year term, the
joint boards voted to increase
Burgwyn’s salary by $400 per
year, bringing it to $5,200. At the
same time, the boards agreed,
upon Burgwyn’s recommenda
tion, to jump travel allowance of
the other two ABC board mem
bers from $15 to $20 per month.
Guy Revelle, who acted as chair
man of the joint session, said
Burgwyn’s salary raise was on
the assumption he will be
renamed as full-time chairman-
manager of the liquor store sys
tem.
After his reappointment, Bur
gwyn gave a brief history of the
county store system and turned
over to the county a check in the
amount of $15,449.79, profits for
the quarter ending June 30.
Burgwyn told the joint boards
that in 1966 sales were $345,000
with a 9.7 per cent profit of
$34,000 and no payment to the
county; in 1967 sales were
$596,000 for a 9.8 per centprofit
with $58,000 and a payment tome
county of $23,000. In 1968, sales
were $709,000 with a 10.2 per
cent profit of $72,000 and a total
of $72,000 presented to the coun
ty.
The joint boards session ended
after action was taken on Bur
gwyn’s reappointment. Because
of the necessity of having not less
than a total of 12 members of the
three boards present when any
action is taken, it was necessary
for 11 to wait almost an hour be
fore the 12th man could be
rounded up. When Clifton Parker
of Woodland, board of education
member showed up, the action
was quickly disposed of and the
joint meeting ended.
Earlier in the day, the com
missioners voted to call on the
State Highway Commission to
speed up action on a signal light
erection at the railroad crossing
in Margarettsville. Another item
on which early action was to be
asked is scheduled work on rural
paved road 1214.
As a final action, the board
approved the disbursement of
$200 to provide uniforms for the
sheriff’s department office dep
uty.
This was followed by the an
nouncement by Chairman Rev
elle that the board will skip its
third Monday of the month meet
ing since members at that time
will be attending the N. C. Asso
ciation of CountyCommissioners
meeting in Asheville.
'Sins’ Of America Voiced
Crowd Decorous As
White Race Assailed
Labor Survey Forms Total
Encourages Seaboard Unit
SEABOARD ~ As of Thursday obtained a site for a prospect
morning, more than 400 labor through options and purchase and
survey forms put out by the Sea- are conducting a labor availabil-
board Development Corporation ity survey for the prospect who
had been returned, according to is reportedfairly sure of com-
Bill Howell, the new industrial ing if the survey is good.”
N’ampton County Subdivision
Ordinance Goes Into Effect
AHOSKIE - About the only
thing the speakers appeared to
be agreed on was that the black
man is his own worst enemy.
Those speakersincludedNegro
leaders who ranged from Hosea
Williams, top Southern Christian
Leadership Conference planner
introduced as “Mr. Civil Rights
of Today,” who preached non
violence, to the Rev. Melvin
Creecy of Rich square, who dis
agreed with Williams on non
violence, and dentist Reginald
Hawkins of Raleigh, recently
convicted of malpractice in con
nection with his care of under
privileged children in the anti
poverty program; who said he
had seen me -‘world plan for
1968” and:
“They plan to kill every white
policeman in this country , , .
poison the water supply . . . take
over Washington , . . disrupt the
very strategy of this country,”
Anyway you looked at it, the
third annual meeting of the Peo
ple’s Program on Poverty at the
New Ahoskie Baptist Church Sat
urday, which ran from around
10 a.m. to 4 p.m., was quite a
session.
It began with attendance at
possibly 200, with the number
stepped up to a possible 300 by
noon and the late afternoon at
tendance nearing 500 for what it
had been announced would be the
speech by Williams. But Williams
had spoken for the better part of
an hour right at noon, with the
air-conditioning cut off by his
request, and was long gone,
AS for the disruption of the
cooling system, one out-of-town
Negro visitor coolly described
it as “his messianic complex.”
From the start, Saturday’s
was a responsive audience. But
there was none of the droves of
the hungry poor who somehow the
general public had been led to
expect by advance notices.
Rather, it was an expectant group,
a few people with children, all
weli-dressed, expressing ap“
proval consistently throughout
the day with such audible remarks
as “tell it like it is,” “that’s
right,” with enthusiasm in the
proper places and no evidence of
any wild “un-self-control” or
lack of judgment.
Mostly the story heard from the
podium was the oft-repeated one
with the usual cliches as to their
being unity in strength, with the
middle-class black man held up
side by side with the white for
criticism.
HAWKINS SPEAKS
For example, the audience was
told that “you spend more money
on your hair-straightening
cremGS,” in offoit to -he
white man, “than it costs to run
PPOP,” followed by criticism
of the black’s efforts to mimic
whites, with Hawkins at the mi-
.crophone with a brag that “young
white people, especially females,
like to come around me. I don’t
know why,” And the business of
“we’re black and beautiful upsets
the power structure.”
Too, Hawkins used his place in
the sun to strike back at his
recent malpractice conviction by
the N. C. Board of General Dental
Examiners whom he labeled as
“bigots” trying to get rid of
him. He would, he assured the
audience, make them pay a “mil
lion dollars for every hour” they
spent talking about him going to
school, (Hawkins and two others
convicted of malpractice have
been told their licenses will be
suspended unless they enroll in
He predicted 400,000 Negro
registrations in North Carolina
by November and “ifwe don’t de
termine then who will be gover
nor, there won’t be a governor.”
He said they should take every
welfare program and throw it in
the Atlantic, that all the money
goes for is to pay “for the big
jobs the white folks got.”
He said the reason “they don’t
want the People’s Program on
Poverty” is because it is “a
threat to the power structure.”
Too, he promised his audience
that if members “know of any
worthwhile project that needs to
start as a business venture, send
it to me. I know where the money
relations director for North
ampton County Industrial Rela
tions Commission.
The Seaboard group is com
posed of local citizens who have
organized to work with industrial
prospects in their area. They
currently have raised funds to
provide a building for lease,
Officers for the corporation
are Merrell Gay, president; C.
C. Howell, vice president; and
Henry Ricks, secretary - trea
surer.
Officers of the group urged all
citizens who have an interest in
working for the plant to fill out
(see LABOR, Page 14)
He also demanded “who is
living on welfare if it is not the
big, wealthy farmers,” whom he
described as taking money every
day from the federal government
under the various federal pro
grams. He also described gov
ernment subsidization through
the FHA of such programs for the
wealthy as “golf courses,” and
took a look at the ESEA medical
and dental program under which
he said “the people are supposed
to be able to select their own
doctors . . . but they don’t want
the black doctors to have it,”
He also charged that despite his
malpractice conviction, there had
been “no complaints from the
black patients.”
Answering a question from the
audience from an Edenton man
about whom are the Negroes going
to vote for this fall, Hawkins
JACKSON - On the recommen
dation of the Northampton County
Planning Board, after a public
hearing on July 19, 1968, at which
no opposition was heard, the
county commissioners adopted
the proposed subdivision regula
tions at their meeting at the
courthouse on Monday.
The 22-page ordinance will
regulate, with the exception of
certain single lot sales not in
volving a new road, the division
of land for development and cov
ers all land transfers after the
date of adoption that were not
previously registered with the
clerk.
The purpose is stated as insur
ing the general health, safety and
welfare of the county and to see
that proper provisions for roads
and public utilities is made when
lots are sold for homes or other
purposes outside of the incorpo
rated towns.
Land cannot be transferred for
subdivisions until a preliminary
and final plat are approvedbythe
board.
The county is now trying to get
roads widened in old subdivisions
in Garysburg and other places
so that the state highway system
can be extended to include them.
They were built in such a fashion
as not to meet state standards.
The ordinance spells out road
requirements, minimum size
lots, frontage and other design
standards that must be met for
approval.
An amendment procedure to the
ordinance is included.
The ordinance spells out the
improvements a builder must
provide in order to get county
approval for his subdivision.
Planning Board members are
Chairman William B. Spivey of
Jackson, Howard Simmons of
Woodland, Clifton Manley and
D. Macon Woodard of Conway
and M. N. Carpenter of Mar
garettsville.
The commissioners com
mended the board on its work.
An ordinance had been sug
gested over three years ago to
help see that the land surround
ing the new Gaston Lake was not
underdeveloped. All other coun
ties with land on the lake in Vir
ginia and North Carolina have
adopted similar ordinances.
Complaints had been registered
of inadequate roads and mixed
uses such as trailer camps but
ting on residential homes.
The ordinance applies to the
entire county, but was pushed
for the lake area.
June Report
11,409 R-C 'Needy’
Aided By USDA Food
a reco^ized dental school for assured him they would be told.
100 clinical hours.) “We have our strategy. You will
Hawkins promised a program hear about it in code.”
of “disruptive politics” . . . “if Hawkins left immediately after
we can’t have none of it, they his talk, the last on the late after-
ain’t going to have it either,” program, to “look at the
and “we,” he went on, “are recreational facilities for Wash
going to see to it that Dan Moore ington,” as he said that “all is
and no members of his delegation r^^t right with CADA” (Choanoke
sits in Chicago until the issue of Area Development Association
more Negro representation in the which, as has PPOP, is sponsor
NEW SECRETARY — Phyllis Crawley of Jackson has
joined the Northampton County Industrial Development
office on the third floor of the courthouse in Jackson. She
joins Director Bill Howell in opening this new county de
partment on August 1. She has been working as a typist
for the Halifax Welfare Department and is a 1965 grad-
uote of Northampton County High School. She is the
doughter of Mrs. W. G. Crawley of Jackson. Office hours
for the department will be 8:30 till 5 p.m. Monday
through Friday.
ATLANTA, Ga. - Some 11,409
persons in the four-county Roa-
noke-Chowan area are among
the 156,796 needy in 86 North
Carolina counties who have been
aided by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture food program, it was
reported Friday.
The USDA Consumer and Mar
keting Service report showed that
110,435 persons in 61 counties
received federal surplus com
modities with these including840
in Gates County and 3,739 in
Hertford County with May figures
for the two counties, 845 for
Gates and 3,746 for Hertford.
delegation has been solved.’
Kidnapping, Bad Check
And Divorces Tried
JACKSON - The summer term
of Northampton County Superior
Court started Monday with di
vorce actions being heard first
and was still in session on Thurs
day at press time.
Following the morning action
on divorce cases. Judge Howard
H. Hubbard sentenced James
Jones Jr, of Washington, D. C.,
on five counts of forgery.
Judge Hubbard gave the for
mer Northampton County resi
dent one year in jail, assigned
to work with the Department of
Corrections, suspended on a
three-year probationary period
under the usual conditions and
the following special conditions:
(1) That he pay the court costs
by paying $50 of it immediately
and the balance under the direc
tion of the probation officer; (2)
that he repay the $137,69 im
mediately which was involved in
the forgeries, and that he be
allowed to return to Washington
to his job “upon satisfaction by
the probation officer he had gain
ful employment in Washington.”
The five cases were consoli
dated for trial,
Jones allegedly wrote the five
checks on a friend’s bank ac
count here in Northampton Coun
ty prior to going to Washington.
Before the first day’s session
of the high court ended a jury
was placed in the box for the trial
of Overton Fleetwood on charges
of assaulting an officer.
Divorces granted included the
following:
Eugene Hill Jr. from Shirley
K. Hill; Annie W. Shearin from
Norman A. Shearin; Lucille F.
Ingram from Norman Ingram;
and Ruby j. Floyd from Joseph
Floyd.
In an action on Tuesday, A. W.
(Gus) Wooten of Lumberton, who
was charged with five cases of
false pretense in the misrepre
sentation and sale of grave monu
ments in Northampton County,
was allowed to return the money
taken and have the charges dis
missed in Northampton Superior
Court.
The repayment totaled $1,480
to the five individuals who had
signed and agreed to purchase
grave markers.
Payments were returned to
Mrs, Sarah Gilliam, $383; Mrs.
John M. S. White, $375; Lokie
Johnson, $232; Mrs. J. T. Flythe,
$340 and Travis Flythe, $80.
Wooten is formerly of Ahos
kie . and Edenton, according to
reports.
Overton Autry Fleetwood,
about 37, of Woodland was handed
a one-year and one day to two-
year prison sentence here Tues
day afternoon by Judge Howard
(see KIDNAPPING Page 5)
ing some playgrountis in the four-
county area of Bertie, Northamp
ton, Hertford and Halifax), He
said he wanted to “see with my
own eyes” and also wanted pic
tures of “some of the homes”
as well as the playgrounds.
A defeated candidate for gov
ernor in the primary, Hawkins
said in his opening talk, “I still
feel I’m your governor. I’m look
ing out for your interests.”
HOSEA WILLIAMS
Williams, “mayor of Resur
rection City” and the featured
speaker of the day-long pro
gram, was to have been heard
at 1;45 p.m. with introduction by
Golden Frinks, SCLC state di
rector.
But Williams arrived around
noon during a brief review of
his activities by David Goehring,
head of Radio Corporation of
America’s family development
village at Rich Square, and the
resulting applause drowned
Goehring out for a few seconds,
Williams shortly took the mi-
-crophone, his outfit a pale blue,
one-piece cotton jump suit, ap
parently the SCLC uniform, as
Frinks wore a like outfit in rich
blue with bronze medallion
around his neck, Hawkins wore a
dark suit with yellow turtleneck
sweater and medallion.
Williams described himself as
a veteran of World War II and son
of a sharecropper whose “father
never had a wife” and children
“never had a mother” because
his mother was out fixing the
white man’s breakfast and raising
the white man's children while
her own children had to raise
(see CROWD, Page 4)
Court Ordered Changes
Begin In Northampton
JACKSON - In an attempt to
implement the changes required
in the county school system by the
federal district court under Judge
John D. Larkins Jr., the Board
of Education eliminated the local
school advisory councils which
had been nominally in charge of
teacher approval and adminis
trative school operational policy.
In order to accommodate the
changes required, especially the
closing of the Willis Hare High
School, the board approved the
dividing of two classrooms into
four rooms by partitions and the
moving of five additional mobile
units to Northampton County High
School,
It is estimated the changes will
increase the enrollment there by
200 students making the total en
rollment of 770 exceed the total
for which the building was orig
inally planned. Last year’s
enrollment was approximately
570.
This high school and Gaston
High School will also receive
some students from the Gum-
berry High School. Plans for ac
commodating the Gaston increase
were not announced.
and James F. Bar-
Another 46,361 persons in 23
counties received food under the
food stamp program with these
including Northampton County
with 2,140 participating and Ber
tie County with 4,546 participat
ing. May figures for the two
counties showed a drop from 2,-
284 in Northampton but an in
crease over 4,421 in Bertie.
June’s participation in most
other counties was down for both
food programs with the drop
credited to the seasonal increase
in employment. However, Ruth
erford, Madison, Guilford, Davie
and Clay Counties had slight in
creases under the federal sur
plus food program.
Under the food stamp program,
12 other counties, besides Ber
tie, had an increase, out of the
25 counties participating, with
most increases ranging from half
a dozen to around 100.
But Bladen County upped par
ticipation from 4,067 in May to
4,592 in June,
The USDA report recited that
three additional counties were
scheduled to begin food assis
tance programs in July to bring
to 89 the number of counties
participating out of the 100 in the
state.
The report added:
“In North Carolina, the com
modity distribution program is
administered by the North Caro
lina Department of Agriculture,
and the food stamp program is
administered by the North Car
olina Board of Public Welfare,
both in cooperation with the Con
sumer and Marketing Service.
“Commodities distributed
during June to needy North Car
olina families had an estimated
retail value of about $.9 million.
These foods included canned
chopped meat, cheese, dried
milk, margarine or butter, pea
nut butter, raisins, lard or short
ening, rice, dry beans, rolled
oats, rolled wheat, corn meal,
grits and flour,
“Additional foods, such as
(see NEEDY, Page 12)
Changes must be effected by the
opening day.
The Northampton County Board
of Education approved the fol
lowing teachers:
Kenneth E. Stokes, Miss Jus
tine Foriest, Mrs, Selma V, Ma-
jette, Jesse Lee Long, Mrs. Mary
B, Lewis, Wendell Perry, Robert
( Ckuckle
Transfers To
NCHS Must
Pre-Register
After gaining entrance to the
prospect’s home, the salesman
put on his personality act. “My,
what a lovely home you have,” he
gushed. “And pray tell me, what
is in that beautiful vase on the
mantlepiece?”
“My husband’s ashes,” said
the young wife.
“Oh, I’m sorry. How long has
he been dead?” asked the sales
man.
“He’s not. He’s just too lazy
to find an ashtray,” she replied.
CONWAY — Students who have
been assigned to Northampton
County High School from Willis
Hare High School and all other
transfer students will be required
to pre-register at NCHS during
a three-day registration period
next week, according to P. T.
Jones, principal.
Registration will be held on
Monday, Tuesday and Wednes
day, August 12, 13 and 14. Hours
will be from 9 a.m. to 12 noon
and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Jones stated it is important
for the transfer students to reg
ister during this period.
PUERTO RICO TRIP for three Northamp
ton County delegates will be partly paid
for by money raised at a luncheon sale
held by the women's home demonstration
clubs on the courthouse grounds on Mon
day. Working are Mrs. W. B. Evans of
Rich Square, Mrs. Merrell Gay of Galatia,
Mrs. W. E. Conwell and Mrs. Margaret
Wade of Garysburg and Mrs. Jerry Askew
of Milwaukee. The county council will
sponsor the trip to the National Home
makers Assembly from October 19 to 26
at San Juan. Delegates will be second vice
president for North Carolina, Mrs. M. R.
Parker of Seaboard; district delegate at
large, Mrs. T. T. Stephenson; and state
safety chairman, Mrs. Frank Outland of
Rich Square. Northampton County will be
the only one in the state with three dele
gates.