Resources, ^
i09 East Jones Street
Raleigh NC 27601
-- £TV 1 y
FEBRUARY 20,1992
VOL. 51.NO. 26
N.C.'s Semi-Weekly
SINGLE COPY <F\ |J
IN RALEIGH
DEDICATED TO THE SPIRIT OF JESUS CHRIST^—xELSEWHERE 300
B
LACK
HISTORY
MONTH
1
See Our Special Salute To Black
History Month, Pages 19-26,
Focusing On Historically Black
Colleges And Universities.
Parent Voices
Cause For
Change At
F.J. Carnage
As a result of parents, community
leaders and concerned citizens
making themselves heard, the
Wake County School Board will
reconsider plans to develop a pro
gram for academically gifted stu
dents at Carnage Middle School.
The board took up the issue at its
meeting last Monday night.
According to Wake District 4
School Board representative Har
riet B. Webster, the board last year
mandated to have an AG program at
Carnage that was to mirror the
program at Ligon [Middle School].
She went on to tell The CARO
LINIAN, “I understand that the
[current] program at Carnage is
meeting the needs of the academi
cally gifted children, as well as those
children who did not qualify for AG
but have the ability to perform. The
parents became concerned because
if the children were going to be
placed into classes according to AG
guidelines as prescribed by the
state, it would eliminate some serv
ices to children who did not have
that tag. That was the basic concern
that the parents had.”
Many parents of students at Car
nage, both black and white, told the
Wake School Board and administra
tors that Ligon “has a school within
a school” where children are not
(See CARNAGE PLAN, P. 2)
NEWS BRIEFS
YMCA HONORS
DIRECTOR
The Gamer Road Family
YMCA’s Adult Achiever of the
Year award was presented
recently to Dorothy Alien
Freeman, executive director
of Wake Opportunities, Inc.
"Ms. Alien-Freeman was
chosen our adult achiever of
the year because she has ex
emplified extraordinary tal
ents and has gone beyond the
call to make sure that people
in the community are
served,” Evelyn Scott, the
YMCA’s black achiever coor
dinator, said.
DETECTIVE STRICKEN ,
Police Det. Jimmy M.
Glover, who suffered an ap
parent heart attack recently, '
was listed in stable condition
this week at Wake Medical '
Center following surgery.
Glover had been the center of
a major controversy last year
after he shot Tony Farrell, a
black man he mistakenly
thought was a robbery sus
pect. Glover suffered an ap
parent heart attack while
working at a computer termi
nal at the police station.
Friends and co-workers said
Glover was haunted by the
shooting.
INJURED BY BOTTLE
BOMB
A suspended Enloe High
School student’s prank back
fired when a homemade
' bottle bomb exploded in his
I hands outside the school.
David Hamman, 17, received
1 cuts and minor bums to his
face and hands in the inci
dent recently. Another stu
dent who was standing
nearby also received minor
injuries but was treated and
released from' Wake Medical
Center. Hamman remained
at Duke University Medical'
Center last week for evalu
ation.
APPOINTED FELLOW
Alphonso Pearson, director
(See NEWS BRIEFS, P. 2)
ft
Rosa Parks Aj^ard Recipient...
WITH HUMBLE EMOTIONS—Dorothy Alien-Freeman (seated left), executive
director of Wake Opprotunities, recently received the Women’s Center’s First
Annual Rosa Parks Award. The award honors the legacy of Rosa Parks, the
Alabama seamstress, who refused to move to the back of a bus 37 years ago and
spurred the vivil rights movement. With tears on her cheeks and a trembling
voice, Alien-Freeman expressed gratitude to her staff, community based
organizations and Saint Augustine's College Gospel Ensemble for rendering, “For
The Good Of Them.” “Only God knows how I made it to this point, and I had no
idea I could be in the class or ballpark with Rosa Parks," said Alien-Freeman.
(Photo by James Giles)
Student Gets Two Years For
Bringing BB Gun To School
BY CASH MICHAELS
Contributing Writer
Sixteen-year-old Willie Morris
Barnes is a handsome, bright-eyed,
intelligent young man with a win
ning smile and dreams of becoming
a surgeon one day. But he may never
get the chance because of a youthful
error that has him snared in the
judicial system and may send him to
prison for two years.
On Feb. 4, Willie was convicted in
District Court of three counts of
assault and two counts of verbal
threats. The charges stemmed from
an incident last November when
Willie allegedly brought a broken
BB gun to the Enloe High School
campus.
Though the gun, which had a
broken barrel and firing mecha
ni8in, was never seen by anyone
other than the one friend that Willie
showed it to before going to class,
administrators heard about it and
called Willie out of class.
When questioned, Willie volun
tarilyadmittedbringingthe BB gun
to school, but would not allow offi
cials to search him unless his
mother or the police were called.
When officials did not do either and
started to leave Willie in an office,
the young man, who later said he
was afraid of what would happen
next, ran for the door.
He was grabbed by two of the
administrators and taken to the
ground, where they tried again to
search him. He resisted their at
tempt and got loose and left the
school grounds. A police officer
stopped Willie outside and searched
him, finding nothing (Willie had left
the BB gun in his locker in school).
An administrator then came out,
told the officer that Willie was being
charged with assault and would be
suspended for the rest of the year.
Willie was arrested and taken
downtown.
On Dec. 10, Willie went before a
school appeals board. He had al
ready served a weekend in jail, and
his parents, Mattie Barnes and
stepdad Jim Scales, had his bail
reduced from a $3,000 cash bond to
$1,000. The board upheld the long
term suspension, but Wake Super
intendent Dr. Robert Wentz, after
looking over Willie’s record and
reviewing the facts of the case, de
cided not to suspend Willie, and
One Day Meet’s Theme: “Lost Legacy
Of Black Schools” To City Saturday
From CAKOLJNIAN Staff Reports
When you ask Ms. Docenia Ham
mond about her days at Washington
High School during the ’50s, her
eyes light up, her manner becomes
direct, and her words get as sharp
and sure as the finest blade.
“When you were growing up, eve
rybody told you about Washington
School. You’ve got to go there, you’ve
got to work, and those teachers that
were there, they were also your Sun
day School teachers. They were your
models in the community, and the
community knew itself.”
If ever there was a tribute to a
legacy, a way oflife, Ms. Hammond’s
memories of her days at Washing
ton High is it.
That’s why this Saturday, Feb.
22, in the Fine Arts Building on the
campus of St. Augustine’s College,
many who attended and graduated
from Washington, Ligon, Berry
O’Kelly and many of the other black
high schools that were prominent
here in Raleigh and Wake County,
will gather to share their memories,
and identify some of the values that
helped them learn and grow.
“Lost Legacy—Our Historically
Black High Schools” is a conference
sponsored by the North Carolina
Afro-American Historical and Ge
1
nealogical Society, Inc. The one-day
conference was made possible
through a grant from the N.C.
Humanities Council.
Ms. Linda Simmons-Henry, his
torian and program chairperson,
told The CAROLINIAN that the
conference will feature exhibitions
and presentations by local histori
ans, who will discuss unique aspects
of the black high school as an insti
tution and its contributions to the
African-American community and
the heritage of North Carolina.
“We wanted to document the his
tory of those high schools through
the students, teachers and adminis
trators’ perspectives through oral
history,” she said.
“We wanted to interview to see
what it was actually like to teach
students. What role did the faculty
play in the community, not only in
the classroom but outside the class
room? Who were some of those
teachers who motivated students to
go on to higher education, and how
did they serve as a role model to
those students?”
Ms. Henry says it is important to
look back at the legacy of histori
cally black schools because not
many of them still exist. Many have
1
been renamed because of integra
tion, or closed down. Out of well over
200 that were prominent in the state
from 1930 to 1970, only five still
exist in any form.
Many of the former students of
these schools, like Ms. Hammond,
who was the first student to gradu
ate from J.W. Ligon High school in
1954, or Ms. Gertrude Pope, who
attended Berry O’Kelly School dur
ing the ’40s, then transferred to
Washington High, point to the val
ues of family, respect and discipline
as what kept them in line as stu
dents.
They firmly believe ^hat these
values can be instituted for young
people today, despite drugs, media
and peer pressure.
“We also had prayer,” said Ms.
Hammond. “It set the tone for the
day. Every child had to lead devo
tion, which meant every child had to
have some sense of what God was
about.”
Many of the notable citizens who
have graduated from historically
black high schools include Wake
County Sheriff John Baker, Clar
ence Lightner, and John Winters.
The conference begins at 10 a.m.
on Saturday.
transferred him instead to Mary E.
Phillips School to give him a second
chance.
There is no record of Willie being
in trouble with the law before, and
his only disciplinary problems pre
viously had been unexplained ab
sences from school. His parents fur
ther disciplined Willie by taking
away virtually all of his privileges,
and he was made to understand that
bringing a gun, even a broken BB
gun, to school was wrong.
By the superintendent’s actions,
it seemed that the gun and assault
charges had been put into proper
context, and Willie wets seen as a
young man who had simply made a
mistake, and was not a danger to
others.
When the case finally was heard
before District Judge Anne B. Salis
bury on Feb. 4, the administrators
all gave their version of what hap
(See TWO YEARS, P. 2)
Valentine Cheer...
VALENTINE,CHEER—Ms. Charlotte Smith of Ashe Ave. is pictured in Cameron
Village with Valentine gifts from an admirer./Many merchants’s greeting card and
valentine’s gift offerings were nearly depleted late Friday past, as loved ones
wore remembered on Cupid’s Dayl (Photo by James Giles)
a
Jl
Elvia Walker
Replaces
Missing
Irmis Estes
It’s now been five weeks since
West Cary Middle School Principal
Irmis M. Estes disappeared without
a clue from his home on Pleasant
Union Church Road. And the impact
on his family, friends and students
has been disturbing. Not knowing
where he is, or even if he is all right,
hangs like a cloud over the campus
where Estes served and was loved.
In an attempt to restore some
stability to the school, tf>e Wake
County School Board last Morjday
moved to install a permanent re
placement. Ms. Elvis N. Walker,
currently an assistant principal at
Broughton High School in Raleigh,
was named to the post. Though the
appointment is considered perma
nent, the board left open the possi
bility that Estes may be found or
may return until the end of the
school year.
Despite the unusual circuni
stances, many agree that Ms
Walker is the kind of admi ni strati ve
leader that West Cary Middle
School needs right now. Those fa
miliar with her teaching at. Fuquay
High and Ligon Junior High, and
(See ESTES REPLACED, P. 2)
D.C. Mayor
Demands More
Jobs/Contracts
BY LARRY A. STILL
NNPA News Service
Refusing to back down from her
victorious 1991 election theme of
“Yes We Can, Yes We Will,” Wash
ington, D.C. Mayor Sharon Pratt
Kelly urged supporters and critics to
provide an “Honest Deal” for the
capital city by paying more local
taxes, replacing some government
workers with minority contractors
and streamlining the area’s
“bloated bureaucracy.”
“We cannot continue to operate
with millions of dollars leaving the
city every night,” Mayor Kelly said
in reference to district workers liv
ing in the nearby Maryland and Vir
ginia suburban communities with
out paying taxes on services pro
vided in the area where they work
Other metropolitan agencies such
as the airport authority and the
D.C., Maryland, Virginia transit
system provide 32,000 to 50,000 jobs:
in the are without district residents
getting their fair share of the em
ployment or contracts, Mayor Kelly
emphasized to reporters earlier be
fore delivering her first annual re
port to the public.
She also referred to a reported
agreement with Washington Red
(See DC MAYOR, P. 2)