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Floyd makes decision
to stay in Chapel Hill
BY BEN BRAZIL
STAFF WRITER
Executive Vice Chancellor Elson
Floyd removed his name from consider
ation for a University of Kentucky-sys
tem post Friday, saying he had too much
left to accomplish at UNC.
; Floyd was a candidate for president
of anew coordination board within the
Kentucky system.
In an April 3 letter
ti> the Kentucky
search committee,
Floyd cited per
sonal and profes
sional reasons for
his decision.
“(Chancellor
Michael Hooker)
and I really have a
full agenda,”
Floyd said
Sunday. “It just
seemed appropri
ate to withdraw
my name.”
Leonard
Hardin, chairman
Executive Vice
Chancellor
ELSON FLOYD
said he was still
committed to UNC
and had no immediate
plans to leave.
of the Kentucky search committee, said
he was not aware Floyd had removed his
name. “He has not officially withdrawn
from our standpoint,” Hardin said.
Floyd said he wanted to finish work
ing on the Carolina Computing
Initiative. The CCI require all incoming
freshmen to have a laptop by 2000.
Officials at the University of
Kentucky system had narrowed their
search for the president of anew coor-
AIN'T GOIN' DOWN TIL THE SUN COMES UP
IP
DTH/JENNIFER GUTHRIE
Country music singer Garth Brooks plays his hit tune 'Rodeo' for a wild
crowd Friday night at the Smith Center. See review. Page 4.
Redistricting
could force
primary delay
■ A three-judge panel
ruled the 12th District was
still unconstitutional.
BY DAN O'BRIEN
STAFF WRITER
The General Assembly received the
burden of redrawing North Carolina’s
12th Congressional District once again
after a federal court declared the fines
unconstitutional
Friday.
A 1996
Supreme Court
ruling declared
districts created
along racial lines
unconstitutional
ELECTIONS
That meant that North Carolina’s
12th District, which snaked from
Durham to Charlotte, was unconstitu
tional.
Last spring, legislators redrew the
congressional districts, making the 12th
dination board to Floyd and one other
candidate. Floyd, who has earned three
degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill and has
wotked in the UNC system for 14 years,
said he also had personal ties to the area.
“This is home for me,” he said. “My
folks live an hour from here.”
Floyd said he was committed to
UNC and had no immediate plans to
leave. “Right now, I don’t know of a sit
uation that’s going to present itself that
would cause me to leave the University.”
Chancellor Michael Hooker said
Floyd’s decision pleased him. “I didn’t
think this was the job for Elson. I think
he’s bigger than the Kentucky job.”
Hooker said Floyd would have had a
coordinating job that isolated him from
hands-on work at campuses.
“(The Kentucky post) wouldn’t have
had the scope or the responsibility that,
say, the chancellor of the University of
Kentucky would have,” Hooker added.
But Hooker also said it was only fair
to expect Floyd to leave the University if
the right job presented itself.
On Saturday, Floyd received the C.
Knox Massey Distinguished Service
Award. The award honors outstanding
contributions by University employees.
Hooker called Floyd his right-hand
man. “I don’t know that I’ve ever
worked with anyone that I enjoyed
working with or felt closer to than I do
Elson.”
Hooker said he and Floyd’s working
relationship changed daily. “Our rela
tionship is like two people who perform
a dance together where you forget the
steps and just respond to the music.”
Redistricting required before primaries
A federal judge ruled that the 12th Congressional District is unconstitutional because race
— “ .“ i—... .... . . .lb s. tu.l rnnm mi I ■—l.
District more geographically compact.
A three-judge panel approved the
new plan last August.
But the attorney who filed the origi
nal suit, Duke University law Professor
Robinson Everett, sued again, contend
ing that the new 12th District still used
race as a main factor.
On Friday, a second three-judge
panel ruled in Everett’s favor.
Rep. Dewey Hill, D-Columbus, said
he was worried about the timing of the
decision.
“I’m a little concerned that the judges
did what they did right before the pri
mary,” Hill said. “The General
Assembly will be drawing anew district
in less than two years anyway because of
the 2000 census.”
Congressional primaries, currently
Monday, April 6,1998
Volume 106, Issue 26
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... DTH/CARA BRKXMAN
K-Mart Workers Unite member Deborah Compton-Holt of Greensboro cheers on a speaker at a rally in Raleigh on Saturday afternoon. The rally was in
honor of the 30th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination as well as a plea to Gov. Jim Hunt to release Kwame Cannon from prison.
Reviving the legacy
RALEIGH Exactly 30 years
after the assassination of Martin
Luther King Jr., protesters took
to the streets in Raleigh on Saturday
with a dream of their very own.
Nearly 800 people gathered in a
fight to free Kwame Cannon, who was
DTO/CARA BRICKMAN
A homeless man from Greensboro prayed Friday after
marching through Durham in Kwame Cannon's honor.
scheduled for May 5, will probably be
postponed until September in fight of
the recent ruling, officials have specu
lated.
“We (the House) had worked hard
with the Senate and thought the plan
was agreeable,” Hill said. “It was agree
able to the court then.”
Mike Easley, N.C. attorney general,
said he planned to appeal the court's rul
ing to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Provided Friday’s ruling stands, the
General Assembly, already meeting in
special session to hammer out a child
health care agreement, will have the
politically delicate task of redrawing the
12th district to meet constitutional
requirements.
See REDISTRICTING, Page 2
Injustice never rules forever.
Seneca
sentenced to two life terms for first
degree robbery in 1986.
“Whenever something like this is
going on and a man
who has basically
committed petty bur
glary and gets two
BY VICKY ECKENRODE
STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR
fife sentences, that’s
something to raise
the roof,” said
Kevin Walker, vice
president- elect for
external affairs at
N.C. Agricultural &
Technical
University.
“That’s why we
got a delegation
together—not only
to show support of
Kwame Cannon but
to show support of
the (black) commu
nity.”
The rally was
largely organized by
the April 4th
Survival Coalition,
which Willena
Cannon, Kwame
Cannon’s mother,
established in the
Durhams nabs DTH editorship
BY LEIGH DAVIS
STAFF WRITBI
A committee selected Sharif
Durhams on Saturday to lead The Daily
Tar Heel through its 105th year.
Durhams, a junior journalism and
mass communication and political sci
ence major from Raleigh, will be the
newspaper’s 132nd editor and the first
black student to hold the post.
“I’m definitely excited and ready to
go to work today,” said Durhams, who
received the call informing him of his
selection on a cellular phone while
attending a meeting.
“It’s all kind of surreal. I think me
being the first black editor shows there
are many open-minded people here,” he
said.
“This is definitely a milestone. It
reflects the atmosphere of the paper.”
Durhams said he would be busy get
ting the paper ready for the 1998-99
year. His first act as editor will be to
select a staff and devise a system of
writers.
He wants to begin implementing the
concepts from his platform, which
included more extensive training for
reporters and editors.
Durhams currently serves as univer
sity desk editor.
“Sharif will make an excellent edi
tor. He’s taught me more about
hopes of persuading Gov. Jim Hunt to
reduce her son’s prison sentence.
“This support will help my son get
free, but the exciting
thing about this is
that it’s pulling the
movement together
not only to free Kwame, but a lot of
other Kwames and a lot of other ills in
our society,” Willena Cannon predict
ed, as she beamed across the crowd
that had swarmed the Legislative
Building.
Lisa Ray, a
member of the
coalition, said the
rally represented a
larger issue than
one man’s fate.
“The main reason
I’m here is to take
action myself
instead of just talk
ing about the
injustices that go
“This support will help my
son get free, but the exciting
thing about this is that it's
pulling the movement
together. ...”
WILLENA CANNON
civil rights activist
on,” Ray said. “I’m here in support of
the movement.”
For many speakers, Kwame Cannon
had become an icon of various issues
the black community faced. “We’re
here for Kwame Cannon. Kwame
Cannon —a symbol of the injustice
newswriting than any class could,” said
Andrew Meehan, a junior journalism
and mass communication major from
Raleigh and a university desk reporter
for the DTH.
“He’s demanding, but his demanding
attitude forces you to make your story
better and dig deeper,” Meehan said.
DTH Managing Editor Leslie
See EDITOR, Page 2
Sharif Durhams
News/Feadntt/Ara/Spaiß: 962-0245
Business/Advertising: 962-1163
Chapel Hili, North Carolina
C 1998 DTH Publishing Corp.
Ail rights reserved.
that we as blacks face in the criminal
justice system,” Ingram said.
"These are our problems; these are
our struggles.
“Students are here because we have
acknowledged the struggle that is ours
to continue on the younger genera
tion continuing the struggle, continu
ing the dream and recognizing that we
have to address social justices,” Ingram
said.
Whether the weeklong march that
started in
Greensboro and
ended in the capi
tal city succeeds in
helping Cannon’s
cause or maintain
ing dvil right
activism across
the state remains
to be seen.
But many sup
porters said they
were optimistic in
the message that Saturday’s rally sent.
“I think (Hunt) will hear, and
Kwame Cannon’s sentence will be
somewhat rectified,” said Manuel
Stancil, an elder at the Providence
See RALLY, Page 2
INSIDE
How much do we care?
At a university
known for its '
activism, do
UNC students .fl^H
still devote time
and energy to the x.
causes they believe in? Page 11
♦
A flair for the arts
Carrboro’s newly christened arts fair
proves arts and crafts aren't just for
your grandma anymore. Page 5
#
Today's weather
Mostly sunny;
mid 60s
Tuesday Partly sunny
high 60s
Get involved
If you're interested in making a mark on the
University community, apply to be a desk edi
tor for the 1998-99 Daily Tar Heel.
Contact Editor-select Sharif Durhams at
962-0245 with questions.