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SKI 107 years of editorial freedom
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Endorsement Ignored Official's Request
By Kimberly Grabiner
and Lucas Fenske
Staff Writers
“It’s a thrill to help you become the next
president.”
With those words, Gov. Jim Hunt official
ly endorsed Democratic front-runner A1
Gore for the U.S. presidency at a Raleigh
school last week, apparently ignoring a
request by school officials.
The Feb. 16 endorsement by Hunt and
Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., at Broughton
High School violated the wishes of Wake
County School Superintendent Jim Surratt.
Stella Shelton, Wake County Schools
spokeswoman, said Surratt spoke with Hunt
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fA will be passed to us,,
WVfc. 1 By Rudy Kleysteuber
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1r Ij For college students today, diversity is
\ / _•* / an intrinsic part of their reality, from the I
/***- end of apartheid in South Africa to Ellen
.jam f. / / coming out of the closet. i
(Xsjfc**' Am Most students have spent the majority of
/‘ if l^e ' r a^°*escence during a time when j
i 1/ | “multiculturalism" has become a —ABy
]£? if; I movement as well as a buzz word.
j§: f Pluralism and diversity have 12
j yr mr jf /; been a part of local life as well. In
-.jiM*'S / I j the 19905, Chapel Hill elected its \
■ A / first female mayor, and Carrboro ®
f If I IV elected North Carolina’s first V 8
tytqKMfr 1j \ V openly gay mayor. Two years ago, m
X t\ CNC elected its first black
jwF® itfjwiillbii. female student body presi
-1 \ % * dent, and The Daily Tar
v Heel was run by its first UIVGI!
, V# 'v't' black editor.
JC \ ' \V? Assistant to the Chancellor 1
.✓ASjpV ; •/ f \ftk\Svk and Director for the UNC
.—/ ! y ]V Office of Minority
DTH/ILLUSTRATION BY I AMES PHARR
DTH/ILLUSTRATION BY JAMES PHARR
Students
Cite Errors
In Election
Students from two former
campaigns compiled a list
of nine possible code
violations during elections.
By Katie Abel
University Editor
Several former campaign members
have called for a fairer election process,
alleging that a series of violations by the
Elections Board jeopardized the legiti
macy of student votes.
But campaigners said Tuesday that
although they had cited several serious
violations in conflict with the Student
Code, they would not seek court action
to invalidate elections results.
Students from the campaigns of for
mer student body president candidate
Erica Smiley and former Carolina
Athletic Association co-president candi
dates Adam Walters and Michael
Songer introduced more than nine vio
lations committed by the Elections
See ELECTIONS BOARD, Page 11
over the phone before Gore’s visit. Both
Hunt and Edwards asked to attend the event.
Surratt agreed, but requested that they
both refrain from endorsing Gore’s presi
dential campaign, Shelton said.
“The scandal is that Hunt and Edwards
endorsed Gore while he was on our campus,”
she said. “They’ve been asked from the get
go not to endorse on campus.”
She said she did not know if Surratt con
tacted Edwards with a similar request.
Gore’s appearance and the controversy
suixounding his endorsers caused uneasiness
among local officials.
Tad Boggs, spokesman for Hunt, said
Surratt did have a conversation with Hunt
and Gore’s campaign officials, but that he
THEM
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<: FLIP SCHUIKE ARCHIVES
In 1955, Alabama seamstress Rosa Parks sparked
a U.S. civil rights movement. See story Page 10.
Gossip is news running ahead of itself in a red satin dress.
Liz Smith
Thursday, February 24, 2000
Volume 107, Issue 160
was unaware of what they discussed.
Mike Briggs, press secretary for Edwards,
also said he was unaware of Surratt’s request.
“I never heard that, and the senator never
heard that,” he said.
Briggs said Hunt and Edwards discussed
possibly endorsing Gore prior to the visit but
attended the forum to talk about education.
After complaints from Broughton students
that their concerns were overlooked because
Gore only answered four questions, Hunt
and Edwards returned to the school Monday
to further discuss education. “An interest in
continuing the education forum from (Gore’s
visit) prompted their return,” Boggs said.
But state Republican Party officials per
ceived a different motivation for their return.
iSTI RRI NGthe
•MELTING POT
For the next nine weeks, The Daily Tar Heel will examine the
most pressing issues facing our generation. The 21st century torch
will be passed to us, and these are the forces that will keep it burning.
hen m 01
#
OAD
How the Movement Has Evolved
By Elizabeth Breyer
Staff Writer
The presence of one gentle woman sent rip
ples through the future since the fateful day
when she refused to tender her seat on an
Alabama bus, sparking a civil rights move-
ment which continues to be
reshaped even today.
Despite high-profile racial
incidents such as the Los
Angeles riots, the OJ.
Simpson verdict and sever
al highly publicized hale-
crime cases, officials say racial
tension continues to become
less political and more focused
upon economic disparities.
Many credit Rosa Parks as the catalyst to
this new stage of race relations, one marked by
a consciousness of civil rights and a struggle for
equality even as the focus has moved into an
entirely new realm of concern.
“(The movement) hasn’t lost steam exactly,
but people have changed, and the focus is a lit
tle different,” said Judith Black, marketing
manager at the National Civil Rights Museum
N.C. Republican Party Political Director
Dan Gurley said guilt prompted their visit.
“They took a roundtable on education and
turned it into a political event,” he said. “It
was a manipulation (of the students).”
Boggs said time restraints imposed by
Gore’s campaign forced the early endorse
ment. “We had to do it within the timelines,”
he said. “That’s just the way it worked.”
But Boggs admitted the educational forum
was a campaign stop paid for by Gore’s cam
paign committee. “(Gore) is a full-time can
didate,” he said. “Everything he does now is
paid for by his campaign."
Bill Cobey, N.C. Republican Party chair-
See WAKE, Page 11
Archie Ervin said diversity - both nationwide and
next door - changed students' perceptions of each
other.
“Students today are much more aw’are of the dif
ferences (between them) in a positive sense,” Ervin
said. “That is due in large measure to the somewhat
übiquitous efforts of getting more people to be
aware of the differences ... that contribute to
our collective development as a society.”
But some say the nation’s younger
generation has an even deeper rela
tionship with diversity. Chuck Stone,
the Waller Spearman Professor in the
School of Journalism and Mass
Communication, said the key was
the college generation’s open attitude.
“I think the question really is how
your generation has affected diversity,"
Stone said. “I think your generation has
taken the lead in it. Nobody’s prodding
your generation to do this. Your genera
tion has practiced diversity without any-
Diversity
body ordering it or facilitating it."
Turmoil and Tension
By the year 2050, some census projections esti
mate that populations of both Asians and Pacific
Islanders and people of Hispanic origin will more
than double in the U.S., while non-Hispanic white
populations will shrink by more than one fourth.
AHEAD
A * Looking
Bacli
Facing
ial A five-part series examining turning
ne points in black history I
?d and their effects on society today. <
TO®
DTH FILE PHOTO
Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., and Gov. Jim Hunt both
endorsed Al Gore at Broughton High School last week.
in Memphis, Tenn. “The same ideals are still in
place - just because time has passed doesn’t
mean we stop wanting fair treatment.”
History Professor J. Wayne Flynt of Auburn
University in Alabama said statistics regarding
voter turnout and legislative representation
suggested that blacks had made enormous
strides in the political arena.
Alabama, traditionally
considered a conservative
southern state, now has a 26
percent black population
and a 25 percent black leg
islature, he said.
A number of prominent
black leaders such as Sen.
Carol Moseley-Braun, D-111.
and Supreme Court Justice
Clarence Thomas have also brought blacks to
the forefront in America.
Emory Folmar, the former mayor of
Montgomery, Ala., credited Parks with giving
ordinary people the courage to take a political
stance and to become involved. “(Rosa Parks)
was a pioneer. She had incredible quiet
See ROSA PARKS, Page 10
News/Features/Arts/Sports
Business/Adverti sing
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
C 2000 DTH Publishing Corp.
All rights reserved.
But the nation’s changing racial makeup and shift
toward diversity has not come without a backlash.
Conflict across ethnic, religious and economic lines
has also marked the experiences of college students.
In 1992, the world watched riots raging in Los
Angeles after a jury chose not to convict four white
policemen of beating Rodney King. Three years
later, the OJ. Simpson verdict again highlighted the
country’s racial polarization.
Richard Cramer, a sociology professor who has
done research in race and ethnic relations, said that
even today, North Carolina had its share of racial
tensions. Cramer pointed out antagonism surround
ing the increasing population of Hispanic residents
in the state, which manifested themselves in the
Saturday visit of former Klansman David Duke to
Siler City, where he spoke out against immigration.
“Not very many people are willing to show that they
have any support for that kind of idea,” Cramer said.
The tensions of diversity have also been evident
in the increasing prominence of hate crimes.
“You would think that with all this talk of diver
sity ... you would definitely not have a resurgence
of hate crimes," said Shay Stevens, president of
UNC’s chapter of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People.
“It definitely speaks to us, telling us that we have
a long way to go.”
See DIVERSITY, Page 11
Carolina, Speak Out!
A weekly DTH online poll
Should the S.C legislature get
rid of the Confederate flag?
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l t)' www.unc.edu/dth
J to cast your vote.
&T£ I
H N f
UNC Jazzes It Up
The UNC Jazz Festival is back in full
swing this year. Performances started
Wednesday and will liven up Hill Hall
Auditorium again tonight with UNC
bands and guest artists. See Page 11.
Bridging the Gap
The DTH is now accepting applica
tions for its Resident Council, a board
which aims to facilitate dialogue
between the paper and our community.
The board will meet a few times a
semester. For information, contact
Ginny Sciabbarrasi at 962-4086.
Today’s Weather
Sunny;
High 60s.
Friday: Sunny;
Low 70s.
962-0245
962-1163