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Freedom at Last:
Cannon Released
By Victoria Eckenrode
Senior Writer
GREENSBORO - The triumphant
smiles and colorful banners filling the
small church suggested a festive occa
sion. For Kwame Cannon, it was a
homecoming celebration for his first day
of freedom in more than a decade.
Wednesday morning Cannon left the
gates of the Randolph Correctional
Center behind and, by afternoon, stood
among the packed pews of the Faith
Community Church to thank those who
helped him gain his freedom.
“I would like to give God the credit
for giving (Gov. Jim) Hunt the compas
sion and courage to release me and giv
ing me a second chance at my free
dom," he said. “I’m happy to be home."
Cannon, sentenced to two fife terms
in 1986 for six counts of first-degree bur
glary, received a commutation from
Hunt last week. But before the gover
nor’s long-awaited decision came years
of grassroots organizing and protesting
to demand Cannon’s release.
Last April, his supporters organized a
march from Greensboro to Raleigh to
call attention to his sentence, which they
felt was overly harsh and lengthy. “I
think it’s appropriate and fitting that one
year after the Greensboro to Raleigh
Survival March, Kwame Cannon is
returning to his family and his home,”
the Rev. Nelson Johnson said.
During the past year, support for
Cannon’s release escalated to the point
NCCU Students; Housekeepers Rally for Funding
By Cate Doty
Assistant State & National Editor
DURHAM - Plagued by a broken
microphone and a single crackling
amplifier, students and housekeepers at
N.C. Central University struggled
Wednesday to rally student awareness
for the school’s funding deficits.
Attendance for Speakout ’99,
designed to address the underfunding of
historically black colleges and universi
ties, left organizers and speakers frus
trated, as the bowl-like field surrounded
by residence halls remained nearly
empty for the duration of the event.
“Where are the students?” said Troy
Merritt, the newly-elected student lead
N.C. Work First
Changes Role
Of State's Aid
The program focuses on immediate job
placement and providing recipients with
skills training designed to last a lifetime.
By Cate Doty
Assistant State & National Editor
For decades, collecting a monthly welfare check was rou
tine for thousands of impoverished N.C. residents. But Gov.
Jim Hunt’s welfare reform efforts have made employment the
new way of fife for welfare recipients.
“Welfare should have served as a bridge to self-sufficiency,
not a lifestyle,” said Lois Neilsen,
spokeswoman for the N.C. Department
of Health and Human Services. “It was
a check for the poor.”
North Carolina’s Work First, a state
and federally funded program that pro
vides job placement services for welfare
clients, was instituted by Hunt in August
1995.
Those receiving benefits have two years from the time they
quality for the program to find a job and get off welfare. The
program provides rigorous short-term job training and imme
diate job placement programs. After two years, welfare recip
ients have the option to ask for an extension of time and ben
efits.
The initial effects of the Work First program statewide have
been astounding, Neilsen said. Since the program’s August
1995 inception, 46 percent of the 113,000 families on welfare
in that year have since left the system. As of March 1, there
where Greensboro Mayor Carolyn
Allen, numerous city officials and more
than a thousand community members
kept pressure on Hunt to review the
contested sentence.
Nelson said the community members
succeeded because they pulled togeth
er despite varied backgrounds.
“It does take a whole village to raise
a child, but we come as living evidence
today that over 13 years we have
demonstrated it takes a whole village ...
to reclaim our children,” he said.
Cannon’s friends and supporters cel
ebrated his release but said his victory
was not the end of the struggle for racial
equality in America’s courts.
“Kwame has come to symbolize the
plight of thousands,” Nelson said. “It is
clear that while we rejoice, our work is
not yet done. We will redouble our
efforts to seek justice throughout the
entire criminal justice system.”
Supporters announced plans to cre
ate a Kwame Cannon Celebration and
Recommitment Program and a Kwame
Cannon Prison Justice Fund to counter
racially inequities in the justice system.
Willena Cannon, Kwame Cannon’s
mother, said she was not ready to end
her advocacy. “My son is home, but my
fight is not over,” she said.
After the speeches, Kwame Cannon
circulated through the crowd embracing
people who swarmed to congratulate
him. In the background, a small gospel
choir belted out a spiritual hymn.
Slipping away from the spotlight of
ership coordinator at NCCU. “It takes
more than just one man to get things
going.”
A scattered group of about 25 stu
dents and members of the press gath
ered in front of a small, rickety stage to
address campus issues ranging from
housekeeping to crime. Citing a lengthy
history of underfunding, Durham City
Council member Ty Cox discussed not
only structural problems on campus but
the need for student activism.
“As long as I have been involved with
Central, there has always been an
inequity in funding compared to larger
UNC-system schools like UNC-Chapel
Hill and N.C. State,” said Cox, a 1995
NCCU graduate. “When the roofs on
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• ■ ■ - : ■
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-
working
BBS
A four-part series on
new developments in
government aid to the
N.C. underprivileged
DTH/DAVID SANDIER
Charlene Bethea-Chambers (top) and Stephanie
Gattis are students at the Skills Development Center.
were 56,866 families in the Work First program.
Welfare officials say the differences in approaches have
made the biggest difference for clients. Work First represent
ed a change from the old welfare programs in its assistance tac
tics, said Dan Hudgins, director of the Durham County
Department of Social Services.
“One major change was that public assistance before Work
First was like Social Security - it was an entitlement," Hudgins
said. “Now work is an expectation for all households receiv
ing welfare.”
Before the Work First reform effort, welfare’s focus was on
See WORK FIRST, Page 2
Freedom is the right to one's dignity as a man.
Archibald MacLeish
Thursday, April 1, 1999
Volume 107, Issue 23
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DTH CARA B RICKMAN
Kwame Cannon hugs a friend after his press conference Wednesday afternoon. Gov. Jim Hunt released Cannon
from an Asheboro prison after he served 13 years of a double life sentence for burglary.
the media and the excitement of his sup
porters, Kwame Cannon eventually
returned to a simpler setting.
As the crowd filtered out, he found
buildings are leaking, students need to
speak out against these problems.”
Students complained about the lack
of technology and the peeling paint on
their broken residence hall windows.
But senior Anthony Leake’s greatest
concern was the burgeoning problem of
campus crime.
“There’ve been three armed rob
beries this month on campus,” Leake
said. “We’ve got slack police who would
rather look up girls’ skirts than answer
emergency calls. They’re not trained
well, and we need the funding for com
petent officers.”
Leake said that while Chancellor
Julius Chambers recently received a
new parking space, nine out of 10 library
his way to the church’s basketball court,
joking with his younger brother about
playing a game later that day. “It’s most
important right now for me is to take my
computers available to students were in
need of repair. This, combined with the
collapsed roof of a nearby building, he
said, emphasized the need for greater
funding.
“Our tuition has gone up, but we
haven’t seen any of it, particularly in the
area of technology,” Leake said. “We’re
being robbed at knifepoint and robbed
by administrators.”
NCCU housekeepers, plagued by the
continuing debate over privatization of
services, spoke out against the lack of
money for plant and property’ services.
Sylvester Keech, caretaker for the biolo
gy building, said he often paid out of his
own pocket for basic supplies like floor
wax. “You ain’t got nothing to work
Human Rights Week
To Focus on Activism
By Amy Anderson
Staff Writer
While world leaders speak against
what they describe as ethnic cleansing
atrocities in Kosovo, a set of Campus Y
programs next week will talk about
human rights concerns closer to home.
Sponsored by the Campus Y,
Human Rights Week will feature speak
ers, discussions and films for students to
leant about human rights in the United
States and worldwide.
“During Human Rights Week, we are
going to focus on student activism,” said
Jennifer Betowt, chairwoman of Globe,
a Campus Y committee that deals with
Week on Rights
Monday, April 5
4 P-m. to 5 pj.: 'Sweat Behind the label:
UNC and the Anti-Sweatshop Movement,” film
and cfccusson. Union 211.
4 p,m. to 7 p.m. ‘Music For justice and
Peace’ featuring Samadhi Manifest, Dave
lippman, The Raging Grannies and David
Rovics. Polk Place.
5 pan. to &30 p.m : Dinner discussion with
Chai ling.
7 p.m. to ft3o p.m.: Keynote speaker Chai
ling, commander-in-chief at Tiananmen
Square. 100 Hamilton Hall
9 fxm. to until Reception with Chat ting
SOUVCE CAM PUS Y
life slow, to take it one day at a time.”
The State & National Editors can be
reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.
with; you do the best with what you
got,” he said.
And flanked by a falling sign bearing
the motto “Truth and Service,” one
NCCU housekeeper and student
expressed his love for the school in con
trast to his disdain for the absent mem
bers of the faculty and administration.
“Where is Chancellor Chambers?”
demanded Ralph Davis, 55, a senior
physical education major. “I have been
here since 1975, and I think we all need
to stick together in our community’ as a
family. But when administrators aren’t
here, we can’t do that.”
The State & National Editors can be
reached at stntdesk@unc. edu.
international issues. “1 am hoping
through all these programs students will
find a niche and then do something.”
Other organizations involved in
Human Rights Week include Students
for Economic Justice, Project Literacy,
UNC Baha’is and the Muslim Student
Association.
Programs sponsored and organized
by these groups include discussions on
the bombings in Iraq, the case of death
row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal and the
South African Reconciliation
Committee. More local issues, such as
the UNC Housekeepers’ rights and
See RIGHTS, Page 2
Tuesday, April 6
4 p-m. to 6 pan.: International women's
issues, panel discussion. Union 212.
5 p.ra. to 7 p,m. 'Elderly Abuse in Today's
Scoety’ discussion with film and guest
speaker. Campus Y basement.
7 p.m to 9 pm.: Mariah Darlington will
speak about the rights of indigenous Chiapas
people of Mexico. Union 226.
7 fun to 9 pm.: ‘lssues in Mental Health
and Mental Illness Today.’ KB Gardner Hall.
7 p.m. to 9 pm.: Reception with Chai Ling.
News/Features/Arts/Sports
Business/ Advertising
962-0245
962-1163
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
C 1999 DTH Publishing Corp.
All rights reserved.
3 Soldiers
Missing in
Macedonia
NATO began ground and air
searches for the patrol of
U.S. troops believed to be
kidnapped by Serb forces.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Three U.S.
Army soldiers were missing in
Macedonia near the Yugoslav border
Wednesday night after possibly being
captured by members of the Serb mili
tary or police while on a reconnaissance
mission, the Pentagon and NATO offi
cials said.
An immediate search and rescue mis
sion was launched, involving ground
and helicopter teams from several
NATO countries and the Allied Rapid
Reaction Corps based in the
Macedonian capital of Skopje, U.S. offi
cials said. Searchers included 80 to 90
soldiers on U.S. Blackhawk, British,
French and Italian helicopters.
The Army team had been on a day
time reconnaissance mission in the
Kumanovo area, about three miles from
the southern Yugoslavia border when
they reported “small arms fire and said
they were surrounded,” according to
NATO.
“No more was heard from the
patrol,” a NATO statement said.
NATO officials did not say who had
the soldiers surrounded, but Col.
Richard Bridges, a Pentagon
spokesman, said it was presumed to be
Serb Army, paramilitary units or per
haps special police forces. “Right now
there’s a ... concentrated ground
search,” he said.
Searchers were unable to find the
missing team’s Humvee vehicle, which
had been traveling on a civilian road
during part of the reconnaissance mis
sion, U.S. officials said.
After more than half a day and half
a night of an intensive search effort, the
Pentagon said U.S. and NATO forces
were facing a difficult terrain.
“The search will continue until we
find them or until we have some idea
where they are,” Bridges said. “It’s pret
ty rough out there.”
Asked if captors might have taken
the soldiers over the border into the
Serbian portion of Yugoslavia, Bridges
refused to speculate. But he said U.S.
search teams were not expected to enter
Yugoslovia, which is under attack.
INSIDE
Pop Meets World
What happens when hip hop meets
traditional Asian dance? This week’s
Diversions delves into the assortment
of dance troupes on campus.
See Page 5.
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Congressman Speaks
Former U.S. senator Lauch Faircloth
spoke to a packed room of College
Republicans and students Wednesday
in the Student Union, addressing issues
from Kosovo to cancer. See Page 10.
Wildcat Tamers
North Carolina's eighth-ranked
baseball team pounded Davidson 11 -6
on Wednesday in its final tune-up for
this weekend’s set with No. 24 N.C.
State. See Page 11.
Today’s Weather
j
Rain;
Lower 70s.
Friday: Becoming sunny,
Mid 70s.