TUESDAY
J Black Male!
* V
J Activist Dick Gregory Si
^ Need To Love, Support
Other at SCLC Summit.
)? Page 6
V t\
ales
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Another You
First Black Miss America, Vanessa
Williams stars with Richard Pryor and Gene
Wilder in a new comedy, “Another You.”
Page 9
Forgiveness
violet sheds <
FORGIVENESS
Doing an injury puts you below
your enemy; revenging one makes
you even with him; forgiving it sets
vou above him.
Nylic Review
is the fragrance the
on the heel that has
crushed it.
Anonymous
or
RALEIGH, N.C.,
VOL. 50, NO. 71
TUESDAY, JULY 30,1991
N.C.'s Semi-Weekly
DEDICATED TO THE SPIRIT OF JESUS CHRIST
SINGLE COPY QC .
IN RALEIGH
ELSEWHERE 306
jNeu) Education Strategy Aimed At U.S.
national education strategy to
\J help improve children’s readiness for
school has been issued as a challenge
to states and local communities to br
ing together the skills and resources
needed to ensure that all children ar
rive at school each day healthy and
ready to learn.
The U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services secretary, Dr. Louis
W. Sullivan, recently announced the
formation of a working group to help
implement the program promoted by
President George Bush as “America
2000.” Sullivan will coordinate the ef
fort at the request of Secretary of
Education Lamar Alexander.
Joining secretaries Sullivan and
Alexander as expert advisors in the
collaborative effort to achieve the
first national education goal (“By the
year 2000, all children in America will
start school ready to learn”) will be
Gov. Booth Gardner (Washington);
Dr. James Renier, the CEO of
Honeywell and author of the Council
of Economic Development’s Report
on Early Childhood Development;
and Dr. David Hamburg, president of
Carnegie Corp.
In an effort to combat the wide
range of problems which contribute
to a lack of school readiness, in
eluding parental exposure to drugs
and alcohol, lea3 poisoning, absence
of immunizations, poor parenting
skills, child abuse and neglect, and
malnutrition, the newly formed work
ing group will focus its efforts on pro
moting system-wide changes in the
traditional, and often unsuccessful,
ways in which educational, health,
and social services are currently pro
vided to children and their families.
“A child’s education doesn’t de
pend solely on the school,” Secretary
Sullivan said ‘‘The social environ
ment and the communities in which
children grow up are crucial
elements in helping them learn and
prepare for productive lives.”
Earlier this year President Bush
announced ‘‘America 2000,” a na
tional education strategy designed to
transform American education and
achieve the six national eduction
goals agreed to by the president and
the governors in the fall of 1906.
Secretary Alexander was asked by
the president to oversee this Cabinet
wide initiative, which includes forma
tion of the group announced last
week.
Major activities which will be
undertaken by Secretary Sullivan
(See AMERICA 2000, P. 2)
Restoring
Confidence
Of Public
With its adoption of the state’s
1991-93 biennial budget, the North
Carolina General Assembly has
agreed to embark on a major expan
sion of this state’s prison system that
will include the construction of five
new correctional facilities.
State lawmakers have agreed to
issue 9112.5 million in general obliga
tion bonds to finance the construction
of space for an additional 3,296 in
mates. Those bonds will also finance
$9.1 million worth of renovation and
expansion of facilities operated by
the Division of Youth Services,
Department of Human Resources.
“Although this construction
package is somewhat smaller than
the one submitted by Gov. Jim Mar
tin last March, it is, nevertheless, a
major step toward restoring public
confidence in our criminal justice
system,” said state Correction
Secretary Aaron J. Johnson.
“The expansion of our state>
prison capacity is a critical step in
our efforts to make prison a credible
deterrent to crime," Secretary
Johnson said. “Prison expansion also
improves the effectiveness of our
community-based alternatives to in
carceration.”
In a referendum last November,
North Carolina voters gave
lawmakers the authority to issue up
to $200 million in prism construction
bonds. On March 21, Gov. Martin ask
ed the legislature to issue bonds for
the entire amount to finance the con
struction of 5,662 prison beds.
“As the state economy continues to
rise from the recession, I hope the
General Assembly will give favorable
consideration to issuing the re
mainder of the bonds our state voters
authorized last year,” Secretary
Johnson added.
With the issue of these bonds, five
new prisms will be added to North
Carolina’s prism system: the 909-bed
minimum and medium security
Marion Correctional Institution in
McDowell County, the 500-bed
minimum security Cherry Correc
tional Center in Wayne County, the
(See PRISON, P. 2)
Blacks living In racial isolation
Percentage of black people in each state who live in neighbortibods
that are 90% black or more (based on 1990 census data):
□Less thsn 15%Q 15%to 30% ■ 31% to 45% ■ 4«% and sbove
KRTN Infographics
RECEIVING 6IFTS-Mahogany participants of Wako
County rocoivo gifts and awards for ttwir outstanding
oratorical porformanco at tho closing program of tho Sigma
Tau Omoga chapter of tho Alpha Alpha Kappa Alpha
■ m \ w
I m. m. ■*’ ' ■
Sorority, Inc. ot Cary, from president Robin D. Whitaker.
“Mahogany” is a primary service project for the
community at St. Paul AME Church. Rev. 6regory L.
Edmond is pastor.
House Approves Local Transit,
Airport And Highway Projects
WASHINGTON, DC.-Federal
money may soon be available for the
widening of U.S. 64 between Jordan
Lake and Cary, Fourth District Rep.
David Price announced last week.
The U.S. House of Representatives
agreed last Wednesday to spend $3.2
million next year to widen the 11-mile
stretch—from east of Jordan Lake to
the U.S. 64-U.S. 1 interchange in
Cary—and to straighten out a number
of dangerous curves.
The project is expected to cost $39.6
million over five years, with North
Carolina expected to finance $16.7
million of that. Part of U.S. 64 has
already been widened, and the N.C.
Department of Transportation had
planned to widen this stretch with
state funds. “By providing federal
funds next year, we’re lessening
North Carolina’s financial burden,”
Price said.
The House approved the project as
part of the 1992 spending bill for
federal transportation programs,
which must still be approved by the
Senate. Price, a member ot the
Transportation Appropriations Sub
committee, lobbied for the U.S. 64
project and other North Carolina
transportation projects in the bill.
“To remain economically com
petitive, North Carolina must move
goods and people efficiently,’’ he
said. “I’m pleased that the House is
responding to this challenge by pro
viding funds to upgrade airports,
highways and public transportation
in our state. ’f The transportation
spending bill would also:
• Provide $1 million for North
Carolina to set up a Geographic Infor
mation Syitem, or a statewide en
vironmental database, to improve
planning and environmental design of
highway projects.
• Provide $2.5 million for a
Category III Instrument Landing
System at RDU Airport, which would
increase the capacity of RDU’s run
ways during inclement weather and
help land planes on time.
• Require that a permanent preci
sion radar monitor system be approv
ed for RDU Airport by March 31,1992,
instead of January 1993 as proposed
by the Federal Aviation Administra
tion. This will allow simultaneous lan
dings on two parallel RDU runways
that are now too close together to per
mit landings in inclement weather.
• Provide $750,000 for the Triangle
Transit Authority to examine the
feasibility of a Triangle-wide mass
transit system. The study will iden
tify existing and future transporta
(See HOUSE APPROVES, P. 2)
Inside Africa
Millions Don’t
Know Buthelezi
BY DANIEL MAROLfN ...
Although Chief Mangosuthu G.
Buthelezi, Kwa-Zulu Homeland’s and
Inkatha Freedom Party’s leader, has
often been erroneously and
maliciously portrayed as a “puppet”
of the South African regime, his
political image keeps growing.
A prince of the royal house of the
Zulu nation, he heads his people’s
forced Bantustan, as well as his own
brainchild, the Inkatha Freedom
Party, ANC’s foremost rival for black
leadership in South Africa.
Only a few months ago, Buthelezi
was desperately fighting for a place
in the forthcoming black-white
negotiations to form a new non-racial
and democratic constitution for South
Africa. But his image had been badly
tarnished by his detractors, foes and
rivals who also opposed him for say
ing that sanctions imposed against
South Africa hurt his fellow Africans
by causing unemployment.
But Buthelezi’s comeback has been
swift and dramatic, and his IFP
graduated from the status of a
cultural organization to the largest
black liberation movement in the
land, and boasts a paid membership
of two million soul. That is thrice the
size of ANC’s membership. This,
despite the fact that Inkatha has often
been held suspect by the regime and
frequently harassed and threatened
by the regime’s police. Buthelezi’s
diplomacy prevailed over these set
backs.
Despite government opposition and
black rivalry, Chief Buthelezi’s star
keeps on ascending higher and higher
in the firmament of black political
and national leadership. All, despite
bitter racial animosity of the regime,
blacl($opposition, and even threats of
assassination.
Mangosuthu Buthelezi is a versatile
and dogged fighter. He has been
always persistent and unshifting in
his battle against apartheid. He is a
born leader.
Contrary to wild rumor, he isn’t a
nominee of the regime, but was
nominated by ANC and his own Zulu
nation to lead Kwa Zulu and the black
nation when all blacks were forced to
accept the “Homelands Policy.”
Later, Buthelezi opposed the
regime's “Independent Homelands
Policy” when Kaiser Matanzima,
Lucas Mangope, Patrick Mphepbu
and Lenox Sebe accepted that trump
card of apartheid, and turned the
Transkei, Bophutatswana, Venda and
Ciskei into “Independent
Homelands,” excluding them from
South African citizenship. Buthelezi
saved all of black South Africa from
becoming non-South Africans. Was be
h puppet? Never!
With might and main, Mangosuthu
Buthelezi has assailed every piece of
apartheid discriminatory legislation
from 1960 through 1991, and has never
allowed a day to go by without
fighting the regime who hold his peo
ple down in abject subjugation. And
although he was always at the
regime’s throat, he constantly re
mained among his people in their
liberation struggle.
Together with Nelson Mandela,
Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and
others, he was for many years a
staunch member of ANC. With these
men, he fought many bitter battles
against South Africa’s extreme
racism. And, when Mandela was
finally jailed, he kept in touch with
him by correspondence, and later
fought tooth and nail to have him
released. But, after Mandela’s
release last year, the regime made it
impossible for the two friends to get
together, until very recently.
Feared by white foes and black
(See INSIDE AFRICA, P. 2)
Despite government opposition and black
rivalry, Chief Buthelezi’s star keeps on ascen
ding higher and higher in the firmament of
black political and national leadership. All,
depite bitter animosity of the regime, black
opposition and threats of assassination.
Black Church In Crisis Urged
To Take Lead In War On Drugs
THE BLACK CHURCH AND THE WAR ON DRUGS
Part 1
BY REV. G. WESLEY RANEY
Laodicea United Church of Christ
An Aiulynin
The black church is the stronghold of faith for the
black community. No other institution claims the at
tention and devotion of African-Americans in terms of
mere numbers as does the black church. More than
half of the African-American community has some
identifiable connection to the church. No secret order,
fraternity, sorority, movement, corporate entity,
whatever, approaches numerically the black com
munity’s response and commitment to the black
church.
The innate spirituality of the African mindset has
reuited in the continuous life of the black church.
Within the worship and fellowship ministries of the
church. African-Americans have reaffirmed their
humanity and personhood that have been battered and
oppressed during the day-to-day pilgrimage in wnne
racist America. The African-American church has
sailed the stormy seas of racism, bigotry, discrimina
tion, segregation, economic injustice, political ex
ploitation, and social inequality and has enabled
America’s disinherited and oppressed people of color
to “keep the faith.” It is, indeed, a great miracle of God
that the current black church is still able to sing “the
Lord’s song in a strange land."
In the eyes of many observers, the relevancy of the
black church is being questioned today. Faced with a
multiplicity of problems inherent in our communities,
there are those who ask, “Where is the Mack church?
Why aren’t black preachers involved in community af
fairs?” To be sure, like America in general, the black
church is in a crisis. We are in crisis because the moral
fabric of our community is rapidly coming loose. The
proliferation of drugs, mainly “crack cocaine,” has
(See DRUGS. P. 2)
REV. G. WESLEY RANEY