TUESDAY
Anger And Racism
Actor Lou Gossett says offers did not come
after he won an Oscar in “An Officer and a
Gentleman.” He blames anger and racism
and a personal bout with depression.
Pflflt 11
Negro League Years
Jackie Robinson became famous as an
outstanding player, but many members of the
Negro League remain unknown as vital
makers of baseball history.
PagalO
This Week
In 1938 Walter White, a' committed
lobbist, was appointed national
secretary of the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, the nation’s oldest
civil rights organization. His tenure
| would last 24 years in the
organization founded by W. E. B.
| DuBois and supporters in 1909.
RO LIN I AN
RALI
VOL. 01, NO. 77
TUESDAY, AUGUST 18,1992
o
N.C.'s Semi-Weekly
DEDICATED TO THE SPIRIT OF JESUS CHRIST
SINGLE COPY
IN RALEIGH
ELSEWHERE 30c
HAPPY TO BE AUVE-As he and mlt mother toft Wake Medical Center taet
Friday, S-year-otd Dwayne Bento min Powed of Newark, N.J. teds reporters that
InTs doi| O.K. after being shot In the tower hip on St. Augustine’s Codoge’s
eampes. Pewefs mother, Mrs. Jessie Hewed, sent her son to Raleigh to get away
from crime to Newark. She said she was happy to now take Dwayne heme. (Photo
hg Cask Mtehaab)
New Jersey Youth
Heads Home After
Shooting At Game
BY CASH MICHAELS
SUR Writer
Being iM and then being nude a big fuss over by strangers and
the nied'a wasn’t exactly what ^-year-old Dwayne Benjamin Howell
ha*~’ Ms summer vacation away from his native
"" * yet paitled look on bis face when be
'harge exit of Wake Medical Ceater
‘ all who gathered to greet him that
aliie just how lucky he is to be
finally wears off.
Soy known to his family and
•he entire community last
>e was the unintended,
vmnasium on St.
tat an argument
tored basketball
Blacks Say Expensive Civic Center
Would Have Few Community Benefits
BY CASH MICHAELS
Staff Writer
There is excitement in the air
•round Raleigh City Hall. The
prospect of building a new $95 mil
lion dollar dvic and convention
| center downtown means finally
' putting the capital city on the map
| when it come to attracting first
class large conferences, and the
tens of millions of dollars that
come with them annually. All citi
tans have to do is approve a high
ticket bond referendum, and the
bidding can begin.
But then travel a few blocks into
America’s
Southern
Black Face
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP>—The
Emmett T^ill murder trial. The
Montgomery bus boycott. Martin
Luther King Jr.’s rise to national
prominence. It’s all there in Ernest
Withers’ rusting file cabinets.
Stacks of aging photos and nega
tives put a face on America’s
search for black civil rights in the
1950s and '60s.
It’s all there because Withers
was there. And he had his camera
with him.
Withers, 69, has photographed
black Southern life for more than
40 years, and his files hold thou
sands upon thousands of pictures
and negatives,
There are happy couples at their
weddings. Smiling children at pa
rades. A dead teen-ager’s brutal
ised body. Smug white men acquit
ted of murder.
“I have been the recorder of his
tory and feel good about that,”
Withers said at the modest studio
where he still plies the craft he
began learning as a teen-ager with
(See BLACK FACE, P.2)
ederal Charges
King Beating
Hooks, the NAACP’s
irector/CEO, following
ement recently, that a
d jury in Los Angeles had
ie officers on federal
violating Mr. King’s civil
3 trial in Simi Valley, Ca.,
the officers were found not guilty on
April 29 by a predominantly white
jury of all charges except one against
a single officer, Lawrence Powell.
Here, the Jury was deadlocked and
Powell faces retrial on Oct. 19 for
excessive use of force.
The acquittals touched off violence
in Los Angeles that left more than 45
people dead and damage estimated at
9800 million.
Specifically the federal indictment
charges the three officers who beat
King during an arrest in March 1991,
with violating his Fourth Amendment
protection against unreasonable
arrest.
It accuses their sergeant of
depriving King of his 14th
Amendment due process rights by
failing to restrain the officers. Each
of the officers faces a maximum
penalty of 10 years in prison and a
$250,000 fine if convicted.
In his statement, Dr. Hooks said:
“Justice was not served in Simi
Valley last April. Our hope for jutice
now lies in the federal court where
the officers involved have been
indicted under civil rights statues.
“In the past we have experienced
numerous occasions where, when
local systems of justice faltered, ther
was recourse to the federal courts.
“We are hopeful that in this
flagrant incident of police abuse that
those whose faith in the judicial
system was shaken by the
imcomprehensible verdicts rendered
earlier, will find reason to once again
believe in that system.”
The U. S. Justice Department
began a Federal civil rights
investigation after the beating of Mr.
King on March 3, 1991, that was
videotaped by an amateur
cameraman and widely shown on
television.
southeast Raleigh, where there is
frustration, not excitement, per
meating the atmosphere. There is
little industry, few jobs, and mini
mum meaningful growth for the
indigenous population there, com
pared to the rest of the city.
In Raleigh’s black community,
the air crackles with anything but
excitement when you ask the aver
age southeast resident about sup
porting the new multi-million dol
lar city project. But while it may
only be a few blocks away, to many
black citizens, it might as well be
worlds apart
So when the City Council for
mally approved a resolution to
place a bond referendum to cover
the cost of construction on the No
vember 3rd ballot last Wednesday,
not only African-Americans, but
tax weary white citizens, were dis
turbed that another expensive
public project was looming in the
wings, with little or no perceived
benefits.
“Again, the African-American
voter is asked to dine at a dinner
table at which he is served an
empty plate. In the past, we were
served a menu of broken prom
ises,’ said Melvin Whitley, repre
senting the Raleigh East Commu
nity organization. Whitley was one
of a majority of citizens, black and
white, who went before the city
council at last Wednesday’s public
hearing, opposing the bond issue.
"We continue to leave the tax
supported table with a bitter taste
and an empty stomach...,” Whitley
concluded. "It is not enough to be
called a diner and set a table with
others whose plates are filled with
prosperity and a sense of security,
while the southeast Raleigh com
(See BLACKS, P. 2)
OPPOSITION-Former city councilman and state senator
John W. Winters (Pictured at Podium) and the Wake
County Taxpayer’s Association said no to a new $95
mlion convention center in downtown Raleigh Wednesday
night. The city council voted unanimously to put the bond
issue before the voters in the Nov. 3rd general election. If
approved, design and construction wM begin in spring
1993. (Photo by James 6Nes)
Black Voter Support To Decide
$95 Million Civic Center Issue
BY CASH MICHAELS
Stair Writer
You may not feel it now, but by
Election Day in November there
will be no doubt; Raleigh’s African
American citizen will be expected
to not only support, but provide
the margin of victory for the $95
million bond referendum to build a
new, and controversial civic and
convention center. The question
is...will they do it?
A confluence of factors already
put into place may give city ad
ministrators and civic supporters
better than a 50/50 chance to suc
ceed, and it’s all based on a simple,
but tried and true philosophy! Get
out the black vote, and you’ll win!
Factor #1—Even before the
Raleigh City Council decided to
approve putting the bond referen
dum before the people, it had been
■ ■---'
determined that November 3rd,
Election Day, would be the date to
do it. Why? Because this year, it is
also a presidential election day,
and history has shown that more
voters come out during a presiden
tial election than for statewide or
local contests. The referendum
thus gets the benefit of a built-in
maximum voter turn-out. But this
is even more the case in terms of
the black community, for unless
people become totally disillusioned
by November, the black vote is ex
pected to turn out. And if it keeps
to historical form, the black vote
this election day may provide the
margin for victory once again for
something or someone that has
been promised to be advantageous
for them.
Factor #2—History is on the
side of bond referendum propo
-
COMM UNI TY CAL END A R
COMMUNITY MEETINGS
U. S. Rep. David Price will hold three community meetings in Raleigh
beginning August 24 at Enloe High School at 7:30 p.m.; August 31 at
Sanderson High School at 7:30 p.m. and September 3 at Athens Drive High
School at7:30 p.m.
YEAR ROUND EDUCATION
The issue of year-round education is not on the Wake County Board of
Education agenda for the August 17 meeting. The board on that date will
consider items which will be heard at the facilities, legislative, personnel,
policy and program committee meetings this month. Year-round education is
not on the agenda for any of those committee meetings.
PERSONAL GROWTH
Support group for six weeks covers variety topics from fatigue to anger,
self-esteem to intimacy beginning August 20 at 6:30 p.m. at the Women's
Center, 128 E. Hargett Street.
(See CALENDAR, P. 2)
nents. Whenever one has been
placed before the African-Ameri
can community, it haa been sup
ported. Why? Because of the prom
ise of more jobs, or better schools,
or better opportunities. Part of the
approved resolution called for a 7
1/2 to 10 percent “minority/woman
owned business participation” in
all phases of the project, specifi
cally in the design, construction
and contract concessions. District
C City Councilman Ralph
Campbell Jr. pushed hard for this
addition to the resolution, and told
the CAROLINIAN that he feels it
would guarantee the African
American community would bene
fit from the project.
So if history is a guide, pushing
the benefits hard and strong in the
black community, combined with
an election day voter well, passage
of the $95 million dollar bond ref
erendum should be a lead pipe
cinch, particularly if the black vote
provides the margin in a close,
heated general campaign.
But if the bond referendum fails
in the black community, it will be
because many African-Americans
have taken stock of history, found
the benefits of their community
lacking, and are in no mood to en
dorse a gravy train for anybody
else.
Melvin Whitley, head of the
Raleigh East Community Organi
zation, told the City Council at the
Aug. 12th public hearing that
black voters have been supporting
bond referendums and other fiscal
initiatives in Raleigh for the last
30 years, only to be later victim
ized by a “menu of broken prom
ises.” Those broken promises in
cluded greater use of file Memorial
Auditorium for the community if it
supported the restoration effort,
greater use of the civic center for
(See BLACK VOTERS, P. 2)