Massive March On Washington
U. S. Homeless
Demanu*.^ c.mJ To
An advocate for the homeless has
issued a national call to demand an
end to the lack of affordable housing
by urging millions to participate in a
massive march from the Pentagon to
the Capitol in Washington, D.C
Homeless advocate Mitch Snyder,
on a three-month tour of the country
says a crisis threatens the nation, af
fecting every segment of society and
citisens must demand the creation of
affordable housing. “Power concedes
nothing without a demand. It never
has, and it never will," Snyder con
tends.
Snyder plans to meet Triangle-area
housing and homeless activists April
f-'~. ..—
27 to discuss the coining national
March on Washington scheduled for
Oct. 7.
The national march, under the ban
ner “Housing Now,” is intended to
flood Washington, D.C. with hundreds
of thousands of peaceful
demonstrators from across the coun
try to deliver a simple message to
Congress and the Bush administra
tion: end homelessness through the
creation of affordable housing now.
Feeder marches and caravans will
begin in mid-September in Roanoke,
Va., New York and California. The
October rally will follow three days of
lobbying, religious observances, and
demonstrations.
Snyder is on a three-month tour of
the nation to meet with local activists
and leaders in more than 100 cities.
“We expect to see broad-based sup
port from all sectors of our society
and all parts of the United States
represented in Washington this fall,"
Snyder stated.
The Raleigh meeting will be held at
Fairmont United Methodist Church
at 10 a.m. Concerned citizens are in
vited to attend. A press conference
will precede the meeting.
Members of the Community for
Creative Non-Violence of
Washington, D.C. and Snyder have
issued this national call to action:
“A decent and affordable home is
but a distant dream for many of our
people. For millions, home is a box, a
street corner or a cot. These are our
nation’s homeless. They live, suffer,
and die in our midst. For millions of •
others, home is a place that costs too
much, is too crowded, or is unsafe.
We are far from meeting our national
commitment to decent homes for all.
“A crisis threatens our nation; it
affects every segment of our society.
“Since 1961, budget authority for all
federal housing assistance programs
has been cut by more than 75
percent—from $32 billion to less than
$8 billion a year. Substandard and ex
pensive housing are the norm for the
poor. Millions live doubled-up or
worse, while millions more face the
loss of their housing from expiring
federal subsidies or property conver
sions. After 50 years of struggle, only
one out of every four eligible poor
renters actually receives a federal
housing subsidy.
(See HOMELESS. P. 2)
INSIDE
AFRICA^
In the aftermath of armed clashes
between South African troops and
fighters of the South West Africa
People’s Organization in Namibia,
evidence has surfaced about a “hit
list” targeting prominent SWAPO
supporters.
This information was revealed at a
news conference in which
SWAPO Foreign Secretary Theo-Ben
Gurirab offered an assessment of the
current situation in Namibia. He
blamed South Africa for a
“premeditated and orchestrated
ambush” against SWAPO guerrillas
aimed at “establishing a pretext” to
scuttle United Nations Resolution 435
which set up the Namibian
independence plan.
Gurirab also renewed SWAPO’s
charge that the bloodshed was caused
by the failure of the UN to adequately
deploy the multinational force which
is to oversee the 12-month
independence process.
The SWAPO leader was joined by
Ralston Deffenbaugh of the Lutheran
Office for World Community and
Jennifer Davis of the American
Committee on Africa. They urged full
implementation of Resolution 435 and
decried South African attacks on
civilians.
The SWAPO news agency
NAMPA also reports that civilians
have been killed by “South Africans
and their local paramilitary
auxiliaries [which] are conducting a
scorched earth policy with orders to
kill everything that moves, including
animals.”
NAMPA stated that troops are
moving from village to village in a
search for SWAPO fighters,
“throwing grenades in houses and
gunning down those who flee.' ’
At the news conference,
Deffenbaugh echoed concerns of the
Council of Churches in Namibia
(See INSIDE AFRICA, P. 2)
Women Around
World Honor
Black Woman
RICHMOND, Va. (AP)-Lt. Gov.
L. Douglas Wilder has a desktop
statue of Mickey Mouse, a gift from a
Disneyland trip, in his office two
blocks from Virginia's Executive
Mansion, where he hopes to live as
governor.
The statue shows Mickey in his
original Steamboat Willie role, before
Walt Disney changed Willie’s name
and turned him into one of America’s
most popular cartoon characters.
Wilder, seeking to become the
nation’s first elected black governor,
also wants to be transformed in the
eye of the Virginia public, his critics
(See BLACK WOMAN, P. 2)
New A&T Research
Facility WiU Aid
N. C. Agriculture
GREENSBORO—A top official of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture said last week that a new $1.7 million research facility at
ART State University “is a center that will be heard fom for many
years and will help many people in the United States."
Dr. John Patrick Jordan, administrator of USDA's Cooperative
State Research Service, was keynote speaker at the dedication of the
Charles Moore Agricultural Research Facility. The facility is the
first phase of a $4 million USDA grant to A&T.
“The challenge,” said Jordan, “is for the state and the industry to
share in this load, so that the funds the USDA has already given and
The Moore facility is the result of
an extensive two-year renovation of a
former elementary school purchased
from the Greensboro Public Schools
and is the first phase of a major
agricultural research project.
the til million we are seeking for the 1890 historically black institu
tions become 122 million.’.’
“The opening of this outstanding research structure will intensify
the significant agricultural studies of our professors and scientists,"
said A&'PChancellor Edward B. Fort. “It will enable us to remain in
the mainstream of efforts to improve the quality of life in this state
through computerized research.”
The Moore facility is the result of an extensive two-year renova
tion of a former elementary school purchased from the Greensboro
Public Schools.
“This is the first phase of a major agricultural research project,”
said Dr. Burleigh Webb, dean of the A&T School of Agriculture.
“Another phase will be an extensive upgrading of the agriculture
school’s Carver Hall."
Webb said the A&T agriculture school is currently in
agricultural research valued at more than 13 million annaally.
He said the economics and social science-related research housed
In the Moore facility will be designed to improve the efficiency of
animal and plant production, to improve human health through pro
per diet and nutrition, and to provide backup information to help pro
mote new agricultural enterprises among the state’s low-income
(See A&T RESEARCH, P. 2)
Reputation For Excellence
Sisters Make Creative Contribution
BY LINDA GILL
Special To The CAROLINIAN
Alpha Theta Omega Chapter of
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority recently
honored four local fashion designers
for their contributions to heritage
Ms. Willie O. Kay, Ms. Mildred O.
Tayor, Ms. Chloe 0. Laws and Ms.
Elisabeth 0. Constant have created
countless things of beauty for which
they will long be remembered.
The Otey Sisters were to fashion
designing in Raleigh what John
Winters, Clarence Lightner and Dan
Blue are to politics and what local
printer Vivian Irving is to business,
just to name a few.
Ms. Willie Otey Kay, the firstborn
of the four surviving sisters, is the
oldest active member of St. Ambrose
Episcopal Church and was the first
woman to serve on the vestry there.
Having been left with five children
to support following the death of her
physician husband in the mid-1920s,
she turned her sewing hobby into a
business in 1927. Ms. Kay earned a
national reputation for excellence
when an article about her work
appeared in McCall's Magazine in
1935. Subsequent articles have also
appeared in the Raleigh Times and
the Charlotte Observer.
In April 1988, as a founding
donor, Ms. Kay donated her daughter
Constance’s wedding gown, a
negligee, and other items from the
bride’s trousseau, along with her own
silver thimble and the dress form she
had used over the years in making
her beautiful creations to the
National Afro-American Museum
and Cultural Center in Wilberforce,
Ohio.
Like their older sister, Ms. Mildred
Otey Taylor, Ms. Chloe Otey Laws
and Ms. Elizabeth Otey Constant also
made outstanding contributions in
the creative arts. Having been reared
in a close-knit family, they worked
separately and together to create
gorgeous, one-of-a-kind gowns. Ms.
Constant, who did not use the sewing
machine, did the hand work and
beading for her three sisters.
Although they specialized in formal
attire, they also fashioned beautiful
children’s clothes, tailored suits and
all other kinds of daytime attire.
They are perhaps best known to us
for the exquisite gowns, many of
which were hand-beaded, that they
designed over the years, especially
for AKA debutantes, the Terpsi
chorean Debutantes, and contestants
in the Miss North Carolina Pageant.
Many of those dresses were later
reworked into wedding gowns that
have become family heritooms.
Ms. Taylor’s and Ms. Kay s
creative talents were not limited to
women's and children’s apparel;
they also used the same creative
expertise in making church
vestments for their priests and other
appointments for the St. Augustine’s
College Chapel and Saint Ambrose
Church. Some years ago, Ms. Taylor
traveled to Philadelphia to purchase
authentic clerical fabrics for five sets
of ecclesiastical linens for the College
Chapel, made and donated one
complete set, and donated her labor
for the other four sets that she also
designed and which are still in use
there. Ms. Taylor has also been an
outstanding civic and community
leader and was *-mored in January
1W2 by the Raiugh-Wake Citizens’
Association for that leadership.
All four sisters are members of
long standing of the Links, Inc., a
national organisation of which one of
the purposes is to promote eivic,
cultural and educational activities for
the benefit of its members and the
larger community.
As we travel throughout Raleigh
and the state of North Carolina, we
can see the results of the Otey Sisters'
talents, whether they be in the form
of a christening gown, a debutante
gown, a wedding gown or everyday
attire.
■LACK HERITAGE—TImm craativa woman
t thak cantribuMan la blank harttafa and thn
larts. Standing, Ml la right Mrs. CMaa Olay Laws,
The Carolinian
'
RALEIGH, N.C.
VOL. 48. NO. 41
MONDAY V
APRIL 24, 1989
N.C.'s Semi-Weekls
DEDICATED TO THE SPIRIT OF JESUS CHRIST
SINGLE COPY rt(" ‘
IN RALEIGH
ELSEWHERE 300
Medium Custody Center
Inmates Get New Dorms
State Rep. Frank J. “Trip”
Sizemore, III, chairman of the Cor
rection Subcommittee of the House
Judiciary Committee, will be the
featured speaker at the dedication of
four 50-man dormitories at the Wake
Correctional Center at 2 p.m. on Fri
day, April 28.
These facilities are part of the $29.3
million Emergency Prison Facilities
Development Program of 1987. Under
that program, 2,554 beds and support
facilities are being added to the
state’s prison system in an effort to
make it more constitutionally defen
sible.
The construction at the Wake Cor
rectional Center was completed on a
$4.14 million contract awarded to
L.P. Cox Construction Co. of Sanford.
That contract also includes the con
struction of dormitories at the
Durham, Orange and Sanford correc
tional centers. The company also had
two separate contracts totaling $5
million for dormitory construction at
six other correctional facilities.
The Wake Correctional Center, a
278-inmate, medium-custody, work
release facility, is located at 1000
Rock Quarry Road in Raleigh.
Craggy Prison near Asheville has
been a symbol of North Carolina’s ag
ing and overcrowded prisons for
many years. That symbol will soon be
replaced with another symbol: a
modern correctional facility operated
at constitutionally defensible stan
dards.
Gov. Jim Martin will head the list
of state and local officials who will
participate in the formal dedication
of the new Craggy Prison and the ad
(See DUkms, t*. •/>
TRY THIS—Time two models won displaying apparel tor the woman busy
working on a career when the photographer caught them in downtown Raleigh.
Thoy said they won profiling for Hit or Miss, a woman’s clothing chair. (Photo by
TaHb Sabir-CaNoway) 7
Fundraising Efforts To
Kick-Off Education Day
Nearly 120 volunteers will call on
more than 600 business and industry
leaders on Tuesday, April 25, as part
of “A Day for Wake County Public
Education,’’ sponsored by the Wake
County Education Foundation.
The unique, day-long fundraising
effort kicks off the foundation’s 1989
campaign to raise $200,000 to support
the foundation’s efforts on behalf of
the Wake County Public School
System.
The theme for this year's campaign
is “Don’t Let a Little Money Stand
Between a Kid and a Dream.” April
25 was declared “Public Education
Day" by the Wake County Board of
Commissioners and the mayors of
Apex, Cary, Fuquay-Varina, Garner,
Holly Springs. Knightdale,
Morrisville, Raleigh,
Rolesville, Wake Forest, Wendell and
Zebulon.
“The foundation is dedicated to
supporting our public schools by
going beyond what is provided by tax
dollars,"said Kelly King, chairman
of the 1989 campaign. “The quality of
our children’s education must be
among our highest priorities, a
responsibility that rests not only with
(See EDUCATION DAY. P. 2)
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