Department 01
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,,0unt Street
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RALEIGH, N.C.,
THURSDAY,
JANUARY 9,1992
VOL. 51, NO. 14
N.C.'s Semi-Week(y\
DEDICATED TO THE SPIRIT OF JESUS CHRIST
JINGLE COPY QC
IN RALEIGH
■LSEWHERE 300
Dr. James Wingate Of Greens
Boro Named New VP OfN. C.
Community Colleges
SeePage 10
U.S. Education Department.
Clears Duke University Of
Discrimination
See Page 5
Bush Concessions On Rights
Fuels Racial Tensions In U.S.
BYDOUGBANDOW
An Analysis
The specter of racism is rising
across our land. But national lead
ers such as President Bush, instead
of attempting to defuse racial ten
sions, are inflaming them by pan
dering to the self-serving civil rights
Miss Black
College Sues
The Pageant
LITTLETON, Colo. (AP)—A 22
year-old Aurora woman who was
dethroned as Miss Black Colorado
USA has filed a lawsuit against the
pageant claiming it owes her
$13,000 in prize money and other
damages.
The suit, filed in Arapahoe County
District Court by Cameo Diggs, also
asked the court to grant an injunc
tion barring the pageant from pre
senting anyone else as Miss Black
Colorado USA for 1991-92.
Diggs was crowned Miss Black
Colorado USAlast June. State direc
tor Teresa Hailey stripped her of the
title five months later for allegedly
violating pageant rules. Hailey said
Diggs missed two appearances and
was late in several others.
Diggs, however, blamed problems
on what she said was Hailey’s inep
titude. She said Hailey consistently
scheduled appearances that Diggs
couldn’t possibly reach on time, be
cause of conflicts with her work
schedule.
In November 1991, shortly after
dethroning Diggs, Hailey filed suit
in Aurora small-claims court, saying
Diggs had refused to return her
.crown and sash, valued at $400.
At a mid-November press confer
ence announcing the coronation of
Lynn-Marie Kelley as the new Miss
Black Colorado USA, Hailey prom
ised to drop the suit against Diggs,
She has not done so.
Hailey said Friday she decided to
pursue the suit after learning that
“Cameo is still parading around in
the crown and sash, saying she’s
Miss Black Colorado. I would be
willing to let bygones be bygones if
she’d just shut up.”
Diggs’lawyer, Lionel Menin, said
he filed the suit as a last resort.
“I didn’t want to file a counter
suit—I wanted to give Teresa a
chance to withdraw her complaint,”
he said.
Diggs’ suit alleges that Hailey
promised Diggs more than $10,000
in scholarship money, cash, appear
ance fees and prizes, but came up
with only $1,800, including the sash
and crown. In addition, the suit
claims, Diggs spent more than
$2,000 of her own money to enter the
pageant and to make appearances
for which she was never reimbursed.
lobby.
The rise of David Duke, who cap
tured more than 618,000 votes in his
unsuccessful campaign for governor
in Louisiana, is evidence enough of
the fact that white-collar as well as
blue-collar workers are mad and
GETTING READY FOR MLK DAY —
Members of the Community Choir, which
is preparing to perform on Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr.’s national holiday, go
African American Parent’s Ed.
Summit To Stress Involvement
BY DAVID L. SAWYER
Staff Writer
An educational summit designed
to bring parents together to recog
nize the scope and commonality of
problems facing Wake County
schools will explore issues vital to
the African-American community.
The African-American Parents’
Educational summit at North Caro
lina State University Jan. 10 and 11
will focus on maximizing the poten
tial of African-American youth
through parental involvement.
MAKE UNCF PRESENTATION-Top Teens President, David Mallette, 1, presents
a check ter $250 to Gail Paschal on the United Negro College Fund Telethon on
December 28. The Raleigh Chapter of Top Teens of America was organized in
May, 1989. In their two and a half years ol existence they have contributed a
total of $750 to the UNCF.
k
t
won’t take it any more. Although
their anger reaches beyond race to
high taxes and high-living public
officials, for example, their candi
date in Louisiana was a blatant
racist. In a different way, David
Dinkins’ election as mayor of New
Wake County School Board mem
ber Harriet Webster will preside
during the opening general session
at 6 p.m. Jan. 10, with greetings by
Dr. Larry K. Monteith, chancellor,
N.C. State University, and Dr.
Robert Wentz, superintendent,
Wake County Schools. Dr. Jane
Hammond, associate superinten
dent of Wake County Schools, will
offer a statistical profile of the public
school system.
Four vignettes composing a panel
of parents who have had concerns
with the atmosphere, communica
tions, curricula and the lack of trust
with the school system will explore
issues vital to the African-American
community with moderator Dr.
Lawrence M. Clark, associate pro
vost, NCSU.
The panel, including Dr. Wentz;
Inmate Witnessing Barry Incident
Moved To NC Following Complaint
PETERSBURG, Va. (AP>—An
inmate who complained that a
woman performed oral sex on Mar
ion Barry in front of more than 20
people in a prison visiting room said
Saturday the former Washington
mayor made a veiled threat against
him.
However, Barry’s attorney says
the allegations are untrue.
The inmate, Floyd Robertson, said
Barry had confronted him about the
charge.
“He said that if I complained,
there would be repercussions,”
Robertson said in a telephone inter
view with the Associated Press. “It
sounded like a threat to me.”
Two days after the complaint at
the minimum-security Petersburg
prison in Virginia, Robertson was
*
York City helped polarize that city
along racial lines. Mob violence—
white vs. black, black vs. Korean and
Jew—now flares occasionally.
Across the nation, legitimate con
cerns coexist with nauseating ra
(See BUSH’S QUOTA, P. 2)
through their paces at Martin Street
Baptist Church recently. A full day of
events is set for Jan. 20 commemorating
Dr. King’s life. (Photo by James Giles)
Dr. Asa Hilliard, psychologist, Geor
gia State University; Rev. Hardy R.
Watkins, parent; Ms. Ruth Ann
Morton, teacher; and Del Burns,
principal, will welcome reaction and
audience participation in the dia
logue.
“What I want to do is encourage
citizens to attend the general ses
sion and to be able to relate some
concerns they might have about
their children in the school system,”
Ms. Webster said. “It is my hope that
this is just the beginning of improv
ing communication with the school
system and parents.”
An overview of workshop sessions
will be held Jan. 11 with William
McNeal, associate superintendent,
Wake County Schools, and Ms. Risa
(SeeSUMMIT, P.2)
moved to another prison.
“I assume the warden was looking
out for me, that it was for my own
protection,” he said from the federal
prison in Butner.
But Barry’s lawyer, Kenneth
Mundy, on Saturday denied the al
leged sexual encounter. He called
Robertson “a malcontent prisoner
with a grudge” and said the allega
tions were “totally groundless. We
deny them.”
Mundy also said prison authori
ties had declined to tell him whether
they were investigating Barry.
“But we have information, second
hand, that there is no official inves
tigation going on,” he said.
However, a government source
who asked not to be identified by
name said that officials were inves
J
Dr. John Fleming NAACP
Jubilee Day Speaker
BY ALLIE M. PEEBLES
Dr. John W. Fleming, professor
emeritus of Shaw University, will be
the speaker on Sunday, Jan. 12,
when the Raleigh-Apex branch of
the NAACP will celebrate Jubilee
Day. Jubilee Day is a celebration of
the Emancipation Proclamation and
the concept of freedom.
The meeting will be held at 3 p.m.
at Tupper Memorial Baptist
Church, 501 S. Blount St., Raleigh.
Music will be furnished by the T.W.
Douglas memorial Choir.
Dr. Fleming received his
bachelor’s degree from Shaw Uni
versity. He received his master’s in
divinity from Oberlin Seminary in
Ohio and the doctorate from Van
derbilt University. For years, Flem
ing taught in the Shaw University
Divinity School.
The renowned minister has
served as pastor of several
churches, and is best known as a
writer, lecturer, philosopher and
civil rights acti vist. Likewise, he is a
well-known educator and adminis
trator.
He was recently given the Ralph
Campbell, Sr. Community Service
1991 Recalled As ‘High
Impact Year On City's
African American Residents
BY CASH MICHAELS
Contributing Writer
It was a year of police shootings,
municipal elections and new begin
nings, and through it all, Raleigh’s
African-American community con
tinued its struggle to overcome, and
achieve equity.
In January, in the wake of a con
troversial election between incum
bent Jesse Helms and Democratic
challenger Harvey Gantt which fea
tured charges of racial politics, his
tory was nonetheless made when
Rep. Daniel T. Blue, Jr. (D-Wake)
was officially sworn in as speaker of
the North Carolina House. He be
came the first African-American
legislator this century to do so. Blue
would be credited later in the year
with leading the way in cutting the
state’s billion-dollar budget deficit.
Meanwhile, the world held its
breath as President George Bush
drew a line in the sand and a dead
line of Jan. 15, 1991 (Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr.’s birthday) for the
Iraqi army to leave Kuwait, a
Middle-Eastern country they in
vaded six months earlier. North
Carolina sent the largest contingent
of military personnel, many of whom
were black and from Raleigh. Many
National Guard volunteers, some
mothers and fathers from the same
families, went over to the Persian
Gulf, leaving worried loved ones
behind. The war began a day after
the deadline, and lasted for five
weeks, with very few American lives
lost.
On the evening of Jan. 24, 1991,
WRAL-TV 5 engineer Tony Farrell
was driving home to have dinner
when he saw a man holding a gun on
the car in front of him. Thinking it
was a robbery, Farrell ducked down
tigating the allegations against
Barry.
A prison spokesman said sexual
activity in the visiting room violates
prison rules. Bureau of Prisons offi
cials declined to comment on the
issue.
The popular three-term Washing
ton mayor was convicted last year of
cocaine possession and began serv
ing a six-month term Oct. 26,1991.
Robertson said he had been ques
tioned by the bureau of Prisons’
Special Investigative Service after
he filed a complaint with the warden
at Petersburg.
Robertson said he knew several
other witnesses had also com
plained. He said only one guard was
(SeeMARION BARRY, P 2)
*
DR. JOHN W. FLEMING
Award by the Raleigh-Wake Citi
zens’ Association.
The public is invited to attend this
celebration, and to hear the speaker,
who specializes in African-Ameri
can history.
The Rev. H.B. Pickett, Jr. is presi
dent of the Raleigh-Apex Branch
and Ms. Angela Grimes is program
chairman and vice president.
and drove his car past the man. It
was only after he stopped at the
comer, and was arrested as a rob
bery suspect, that Farrell realize
that not only had he been shot in the
leg, but the man who had shot him
was a Raleigh police officer.
It took almost three months, and
only after a Wake grand jury cleared
the officer of any criminal wrongdo
ing, for Raleigh Police ChiefFreder
ick K. Heineman to formally and
personally apologize to Farrell for
the shooting. The officer, plain
clothes detective J.M. Glover, was
demoted in rank for violating proce
dures, and later admitted in an in
terview that he had “no business in
the area” where he shot Farrell.
Because of this incident, the
(See IN REVIEW, P 2)
NEWS BRIEFS
REDISTRICTING POSING
PROBLEMS
African-Americans in
North Carolina appear di
vided over plans to redraw
the state’s congressional
and legislative districts.
While some support more
African-American majority
districts, others want to
protect the interests of the
state’s Democratic Party.
GE MAY HAVE PLANS
FOR RTP
General Electric Co.,
which last year scrapped
plans to make aircraft en
gine parts at a huge, vacant
factory near Research Tri
angle Park, might use the
plant to make electrical
transformers. GE is consid
ering restarting manufac
ture of large electrical
transformers such as those
used in generating plants.
COMMUNITY FRIENDS
SET MEET
The Triangle Chapter,
Parents and friends of Les
bians and Gays, will meet
Jan. 16 at 7:30 pan. at the
Community United Church
of Christ, 814 Dixie Trail,
Raleigh.
YOUTHFUL DRUG
DEALERS NO SURPRISE
Intances of children deal
ing drugs are becoming less
of a surprise to authorities
(See NEWS BRIEFS, P.2))