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| VOLUME 18 No. 882
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Mandela and Tiger: African Summit |
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United States golfer Tiger Woods, left, meets with South African President Nelson Mandela,
right, on Monday in Johannesburg, South Africa. Woods is in South Africa so take part in the
Million Dollar Golf Challenge at Sun City starting Thursday. (AP Photo / Cobus Bodenstein)
Does little Johnny yearn for pierced body parts?
Learn bow its done safely. See 10A.
INSIDE
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ENational/International .................. 2A
BLocal/Regional News .................... 3A
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EEditorial/0pini0n...................... BA-9A
MARTbeat/TV listings ............... 18-6 B
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mClassifieds/Employment...... 108-118
Brooklyn teacher caught up
in “nappy hair” controversy
®White teacher was
threatened with bodily
harm and temporarily
removed from a class
room where she used
the book Nappy Hair
written by a black
scholar. Parents ob
jected to the use of the
book saying it was
racially insensitive.
M
By Judie Glave B
ASSOCIATED PRESS Writer
NEW YORK
A Brooklyn teacher is trying to
decide whether she wants to con
tinue working at school where she
says dozens of residents screamed
racial epithets at her for using a
book called Nappy Hair.
“I don’t want to teach in an area
where people in the community
think they can come out and
threaten a teacher,” Ruth
Sherman said Wednesday, after
school officials said she could re
turn to work at P.S. 75 despite the
TMWMr whois
meeting at District 32 offices in
Brooklyn. Under the union con
tract, teachers can requesta trans
fer if they have been threatened.
R L
DECECEMBER 3 -9, 1998
TR
b\ A '
Nappy Hair was written by
Carolivia Herron, a black au
thor who says she has received
some negative feedback about
the book from other blacks.
cials had to sneak her out of the
school after one woman lunged at
her and threatened: “You'd just
better watch it.”
The term nappy is sometimes
considered aderogatory term used
to describe a black person’s hair.
The Bushwick neighborhood, and
her students, are mostly black
and Hispanic.
The critically acclaimed
children's book at the center of
the flap was written by black au
thor Carolivia Herron, an associ
ate English professor at Califor
nia State University, Chico. The
author, reached in California, said
the teacher used the book exactly
City pulls plug on
Bethlehem funding
By Frederick Benjamin Sr.
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
% AUGUSTA
+ In September of 1995, Leamon
Grier was in the forefront of lob
bying for the passage of the “one
percent sales tax.” It was the first
time that such a tax had ear
marked specificimprovements for
the black community. The perks
were added to entice the black
community to support the tax —
it did and the measure passed a
county-wide referendum. The
Bethlehem Community Center
(BCC) — headed by Grier — was
awarded $587,000 for building
renovations and playground im
provements. Now, after a delay of
three years, the center learned
this week that the deal is off and
the center won't get a nickel.
On Tuesday, the city-county
commission voted 6-1 to rescind
the contract with BCC over a le
gal technicality.
+ According to Mr. Wall, the
BCC’s money has been on hold
) there is no unambiguous
| &a}ntho land which houses
He BCC building and playground
tually belongs to the BCC and
not-its traditional trustees, the
Methodist Church. Although Mr.
Grier has produced deeds stating
that the property belongs to the
Bethlehem Community Center,
Mr. Wall is uncomfortable with
language in the documents which
states, “(the property) is to be
maintained and disposed of for
benefit of the United Methodist
Church and subject to usage and
discipline of the United Method
ist Church.”
According to Grier, the techni
cality is a “slave clause” and
racial diversity and teach chil
dren to be proud of who they atel
Miss Sherman, who is teaching‘
full-time at P.S. 75 for the first
time this year, said she read the‘
book to her class in September to
get them ready for a new team
approach to reading.
“In order to do that success
fully, the kids have to like each
other and respect each other,” she
said. “That was the whole point of
the lesson, for them to realize and
appreciate the differences in each
of us.”
She said the children loved
watching their 6-foot-tall, blond,
green-eyed teacher acting out the
story, which is told in a gospel
like call and response style. “They
had fun with it,” she said.
No one complained until last
week when one parent saw sev
eral photocopied pages in her
daughter’s folder at a parent
teacher conference.
The woman took the pages
home, copied them and distrib
uted them in the neighborhood
with a note about the teacher,
Miss Sherman said.
The result was a raucous school
meeting on Monday where com
munity members accused her of
being racially insensitive.
* “They would not let me speak,”
she said. “They would not let me
explain the book. They never took
the time to find out anything about
it.”
Miss Sherman was temporarily
should be interpreted as & racist
ploy to control the land in perpe
tuity, but Wall and the commis
sioners won't budge.
Now Grier, an ardent supporter
of the sales tax referendum, is
seeking a grand jury investiga
tion into the manner in which the
sales tax money is being used.
According to Grier, the county
has no right to void a contract
granted as the result of a public
referendum. Furthermore, Mr.
Grier will be asking District At
torney Danny Craig to look closely
at the relationship between City
Attorney Wall and the county com
missioners he sometimes repre
sents in nongovernmental mat
ters. Also, Mr. Grier wishes to
shed light on what he views as
“suspicious” relations between
some of the commissioners and
Mayor defends police who stop
whitesinblack neighborhoods
o JASPER, Ala.
" (AP) Mayor Don Goetz de
fended the Police Department’s
practice of stopping white mo
torists who are seen in mostly
black neighborhoods.
“About 99 percent of the
whites, except for me, of course,
are looking for drugs when they
are over there,” Goetz said in
explaining the traffic stops, re
ported in Sunday editions of the
Daily Mountain Eagle.
Goetz said whites “are under
suspicion” if they are seen in
black areas, and he has no plan
tochangethe department’s prac
“Shopping
while black”
Bln North Carolina biack students
say mall security officers target them.
GREERSBORO
(AP) As the holiday shopping season got under
way, a group of college students talked about taking
their business away from one shopping center.
A group of students at North Carolina A&T Uni
versity, upset with what they call unfair treatment
at Four Seasons Town Centre, are asking fellow
black students to spend their money instead at
black-owned businesses outside the mall.
The president of the school’s Student Govern
ment Association said black students, especially
men, report that they have been approached with
out reason by mall security personnel. Mall officials
instituted a conduct courtesy policy in February
1996. Loitering, yelling, playing radios and threat
ening other people are not allowed. :
“This is just occurring too often,” said SGA Presi
dent Nathan Ingram, a senior.
‘lngram said Wednesday A&T student leaders
want to meet with Koury Corp. officials, who run
the mall, to discuss the situation. Ingram, who said
A&T student leaders have launched a community
boycott of Four Seasons, said a letter has been sent
to a Koury Corp. executive on the matter.
Wendy Keck, the Four Seasons marketing direc
tor, aaldy as of early Wednesday afternoon that she
had not been contacted by nn‘ytone from the school.
Mall security officers don’t target any group,
Keck said. She said the code was adopted because
mall managers want to ensure a “comfortable shop
ping experience” for guests, Keck said.
The written policy has been mailed to area col
leges and universities, high schools and junior high
schools, she said.
“Everyone is welcome to come and shop, but it’s
a shopping center,” said Ron Mack, executive vice
president and general counsel for Koury Corp. “It's
not a place to come and socialize with your friends,
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the Methodist Church.
It is Grier’s feud with the Meth
odist Church that is at the center
of the controversy. From the very
beginning, the relationship was
rocky. Grier, as executive direc
tor, has never received a salary
from the Methodist Church.
Through the decades the center
has been controlled by the
Women’s Division of the General
Board of Global Ministries for the
United Methodist Church. The
Church has backed a new com
munity center operating on the
same property, it no longer recog
nizes the Bethlehem Community
Center. Instead, the program op
erates as the New Hope Commu
nity Center.
Mr. Grier has promised legal
action along with his call for a
grand jury investigation.
tice.
But Councilman Ed White,
who is black and lives in one of
the areas where whites are
stopped, said many whites pass
ing through the Friscoand Coke
Oven sections are on legitimate
business and should not be both
ered by police.
“They might be coming to visit
me at my home,” said White.
White said he had received
complaints about the practice
from two whites who were
stopped: a man who makes
See POLICE, page 3