THE BETTER WE KNOW US ...
HIGH POINT—What does a social
worker, a probation officer, and a
Director of Community Affairs have
in common? They are all helpers of
the people in their community. They
help their community with problems
in adjustment, communications and
rehabilitation. One of the three
forestated positions is held, presently,
by this week’s personality, MR. DON
FORNEY. If you know him, then you
know his present position. If you
don’t know him, then read on to find
out more about him.
For those of you who haven’t
guessed which position he presently
holds, Mr. Forney is the Community
Affairs Hirector for WGHP-TV, Chan-
by Miller Carter, Jr.
nei 8 television station in High Point.
Mr. Forney was born in Asheboro,
North Carolina, but now resides in
Greensboro. He also attended col
lege in Greensboro, A&T State Uni
versity, majoring in Sociology.
After graduation in 1960, Mr.
Forney worked, first, in the High
Point area as a social worker. His
second job also was based in High
Point as a Guilford County probation
officer. Later, Mr. Forney went to
another position but always maintain
ed his status and concern for helping
people. His next job venture was that
of Deputy Director of OEO (Office of
Economic Opportunity) and later he
went on to be the Executive Director
of the Model City Commission.
The story Mr. Forney tells about
how he got into television is what he
calls “an accident”. He had worked
part-time with Channel 8 on an
informative talk show hosted by Rev.
Tom Watson. He worked part-time for
approximately two years before he
was asked to take the job of Commun
ity Affairs Director.
Before going to Channel 8, Mr.
Forney had intentions of going to law
school but after a careful examina
tion and study of the court and
criminal system, he found that a
lawyer was not what he wanted to be.
He could not see himself sending
anyone to prison or reform school
with the thought that, that wasn’t the
way to help a person.
Mr. Forney has always felt the need
to work with people which was
displayed in his college study and
through his work after college. He
describes his present employment as
one that fulfills the needs and ac
knowledges the problems of the
community. That’s why he refers to
his work as being the “people busi
ness. ”
As Director of Community Affairs,
Mr. Forney’s job is to identify the
problems of the community and
work a television program (dealing
with that problem) around the situa-
OontinueeNDn’Page 6
lM£JitlBUNAL AID
A VIABLE, VALID REQUIREMENT
RESPONDING TO
BLACK NORTH CAROLINA
r
VOLUME ni. No. 22
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22,1975
$5.00 PER YEAR PRESS RUN 8,500
MEMBER:
North Carolina Black Publishers Association —•
North Carolina Press Association, Inc.
N. C. Black Millionaire Wants More Millionaires
GffiEIKSBORO—“I want aires, 2,000 blacks worth
to make 200 black nullion- $500,000 and another 1,000
worth $300,00 or more.”
Railway Sales Representatives Dudley ^battle cry has
In Competitive Business
ASHEVILLli— Gregg
Lewis, a black Sales Repre
sentative for Southern Rail
way in Asheville, North Caro
lina, considers himself one of
the “young, new breed”
college graduates just getting
his feet wet in the world of
business. He graduated from
Wilberforce University with a
bachelor’s degree in business
management in August, 1972.
He started working for South
ern almost immediately after
graduation.
Southern Railway was one
of many companies Greg
investigated when interview
ing for jobs. “I was impressed
with the areas for employ
ment with Southern,” he
said, “and the advancement
potential was most encour
aging for someone like myself
who doesn’t mind working to
reach a certain goal in life.”
Greg is originally from Colum
bus, Ohio, and part of his
nine months of training with
Southern was done in Cincinn
ati, Ohio. He also spent time
in Southern’s Washington,
D. C. complex. Greg had to
learn the “basics of railroad
ing and what makes Southern
tick and how,” as he put it. .
He was briefed on the general
workings of Southern Rail
way’s entire operation from
laying track to administrative
policy.
Greg is part of a Sales in personal values and fulfill-
team responsible for South- ment as well as career respons-
em freight customers in the ibility.” He realizes that he is
Asheville area. “Most large a public relations representa-
companies use rail services,” tive for Southern when he
he explained. “Trucks are approaches both present and
more flexible in some in- prospective freight customers,
stances, but rail is more “Many of my customers were
economical since we can accustomed to dealing with
carry more in one shipment more seasoned Sales Rep-
and most times at a cheaper resentatives than I,” he con-
rate.” Boxcars for freight are fessed, “but I mustered all
either 40, 50, 60 or 85 feet the know-how and confi-
long. Greg explained that dence I could and they
rates for freight shipments are accepted me on performance
usually based on tonnage, and not on age, sex or color,
distance and commodity. That’s the way I want it.”
A well-worn freight tariff
(catalogue including price) is Greg’s work is a vital link
a big help to Greg in his Sales in the Southern chain of
work. There is a computer in services. “Sales work is a
the Sales ofHce used in highly competitive and fast
tracing cars shipped by South- moving business,” he said.“I
em’s customers. “Sometimes work to see that my custo-
a car might not reach its mers get the best shipping
destination on time,” Greg arrangements for their needs
said, “and we must track it and their money, and if I
through our networks and continue to do that success-
those of other railroads if the fully, they will keep coming
car must connect with other back to Southern.”
rail lines when it leaves our
tracks.” He admits that his
work is never dull. “There is
always something going on.
There’s never an idle moment
in Sales,” he said.
Greg is looking forward to
advancing to other areas of
work with Southern. “I defi
nitely don’t mind relocating,”
he said, “and I am interested
immm
Greg and his wife, Oiane,
find the Blue Ridge Mountain
city of Asheville, North Caro
lina, quite different from
living in Ohio. They agree
that the experience has been
both trying and refreshing.
“But,” he adds, “we are
young and we have miles to
go from Asheville on.”
SUPPO
become more than an empty
creed; with him it’s a religion.
Already himself one of the
nation’s fastest rising and
most successful black busi
nessmen, Dudley is now into
this thing of wanting to share
his kind of economic success
with blacks across the coun
try.
Dudley, whose cosmetic
firms and 400 door-to-door
salesmen have helped him to
gross over $1 million for each
of the past three years,
said it is the economic plight
of blacks in the U.S. which
caused him to undertake his
self-sufficiency program.
“Blacks don’t know that
they can become self-suffi
cient,” said Dudley, who at
the age of 38 has just about
become that.
“Anybody who is really
willing to make changes can
become a success,” he said,
“and under my plan, every
body will make money
according to his ability.”
What Dudley really wants
to do is to set up distributors
for Fuller products, which
helped to enrich Chicago’s S.
B. Fuller some years ago.
Fuller is generally believed
to have been the first black
businessman to earn millions
of dollars through his cosmet
ics and other business inter
ests.
Dudley maintains that if
his plan is successful, within
10 years he would have
helped to generate “102,200
self-sufficient blacks.”
“Mr. Fuller has been work
ing on this self-sufficiency
program for 40 years,” said
Dudley, “and I want to
continue it.” The Greensboro
businessman is scheduled to
become the president of the
Fuller enterprises some time
next year.
“I am really concerned
about the problems of black
people,” said Dudley. “A
people which buys more than
it sells is in trouble.”
Dudley already has distri
butorships in a half dozen
cities in North Carolina as
well as in Virginia, Washing
ton, D.C., and New York
City. He said he hopes to
become involved in most of
the nation’s largest popula
tion centers.
Dudley’s philosophy is that
door-to-door selling can be a
direct route to a good life for
many blacks.
“There are 3.5 million
people selling door-to-door
and across this nation, and
doing better than ever. This
many people can’t be wrong,”
he said.
He said that his company’s
business has actually been
better during the nation’s
economic slump.
Dudley said door-to-door
selling has an appeal for
economic classes from do
mestics to professionals. He
told this reporter recently of
a dentist who “practices
dentistry and is seeking to
become a branch manager for
us.”
He also talks about high
school and college dropouts
who are now taking home
upwards of $300 per week.
Dudley will spend the next
few years meeting with per
sons interested in improving
their economic lot, that is, in
becoming owners of some
thing.
“All these persons have to
do is contact me in Greens-
u
boro,” he said, “and I will
show them my plan for
success.”
When Dudley talks, this is
no pie in the sky, nor is it a
Rev. Ike Philosophy of just
imagining that you are going
to come into something, ii
is built around a belief in the
American capitalistic system,
a system which Dudley says
blacks can make work for
them.
He often recalls with a
kind of pride, his own rural
Unemployment Continues To Rise
Washington - The unem
ployment rate for blacks re
mained essentially unchanged
at 14.3 percent in September,
the U. S. Labor Department’s
Bureau of Labor Statistics re
ported.
In August, the unemploy
ment rate for blacks was 14.0
percent. For whites, the un
employment rate in Septem
ber was 7.6 percent, the same
as in August. Nationally, the
unemployment and total em
ployment were little changed
in September, while nonagri-
cultural payroll employment
continued to rise.
The unemployment rate was
8.3 percent, little different
from July and August when it
was 8.4 percent, but substant
ially below the recession peak
of 8.9 percent reached in the
second quarter of the year.
Total employment-as mea
sured by the monthly survey
of households-was about un
changed from August to Sept
ember after posting a gain of
one and a half million in the
previous 5-month span. Em
ployment had declined by 2.6
million over the September-
March period.
Since the June low, payroll
employment has risen by
870,000, which has resulted in
a considerable narrowing of
the recent trend differences in
the household and establish
ment series. (Establishment
data have been revised based
on new benchmark levels and
seasonal adjustment factors,
as in past years.)
The number of persons un
employed totaled 7.8 million in
September, seasonally ad
justed, essentially unchanged
from the levels prevailing
since July. The rate of unem
ployment has also shown little
movement over the past 3
months but, at 8.3 percent,
was six-tenths of a percentage
point below the recession peak
registered in the second quar
ter. A year ago, when the
sharp increases in joblessness
first began, the rate was 5.8
percent.
As was the case in August,
the stability in overall jobless
ness masked divergent move
ments among the major labor
force groups. After declining
to 6.6 percent in August, the
jobless rate for adult men
returned to the June-July level
of 7.0 percent. This change
also was reflected in increas
ed joblessness among house
hold heads and married men.
The rate for teenagers, on the
other hand, which had in
creased sharply in August,
declined to 19.3 percent in
September, approximating
the levels prevailing in June
and July. The jobless rate for
adult women continued its
downward drift that has total
ed a full percentage point
from the second quarter high
of 8,5 percent. Unemployment
rates for most of the otner
labor force categories, includ
ing the major industry and
occupational groups, showed
little or no change over the
month.
Although the unemployment
rate for workers covered by
regular state unemployment
insurance programswas un
changed at 5.8 percent in
September, it has dropped
sharply from the peak of 7.0
percent attained in May.
There were 3.9 million per
sons (seasonally adjusted)
claiming regular state U.I.
benefits, but the total number
of unemployed insurance
£laimants is much larger
when the 2.5 million persons
(not seasonally adjusted)
claimi^ benefits under var
ious-special programs, includ
ing the Federal extended ben
efits programs, are taken into
account.
The number of persons un
employed 15 weeks or more
See Page 6
background in tiny Aurora,
N.C.
“I was reared in a poverty-
stricken area with 14 mem
bers of my family living in
three rooms,” said Dudley.
“But 1 wanted a college
education and my parents
encouraged me to work and
earn money to attend
college.”
After completing part of a
year at A&T State University,
Joe left college because of
money problems. A year later
he went to New York and
began selling Fuller products
door to door. When he met
Fuller himself, he quickly
became sold on the merits of
door-to-door selling.
“I remember one time I
almost changed my career
because I wanted to raise
hogs. Mr. Fuller told me to
raise people instead of hogs,”
remembers Dudley.
A big cog in the successful
Dudley wheel is his wife,
Eunice, whom Dudley was
also able to put through
college on his his early
door-to-door sales earnings.
Ccxitinued on Page 6
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