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By DON SCHANCHE Jr.
Associated Press Writer
ATLANTA (AP) — At sunrise
Tuesday, July 3 hundreds of people
—most tapping the ground with
white canes and a few making the
trip on roller blades — marched en
masse from a downtown hotel to a
city park more than half a mile
away to make a point: Blind peo
ple can do what other people do.
The early morning event, organ
ized by the National Federation of
the Blind, was billed as a civil
rights march.
“We are here to march for inde
pendence for blind people across
America,” said parade marshal
Larry Streeter, a school principal
from Raleigh, N.C. “We’re here to
change what it means to be blind
and let the world know we are
indeed able people who have many
talents.”
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Program for aspiring law students
¢ ®
seeks to boost minority lawyers
GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) —~Twenty college students from
across the state are giving up a month of summer vacation to
learn about law school as part of a program aimed at increasing
the number of minority attorneys. :
The Road to Law School Academy, part of a program run by
the American Bar Association’s Council on Legal Education
Opportunities, is intended to help minority college students
learn about the law school experience.
While the program has been offered in other states, this sum
mer marks its first time in North Carolina, said Denise Baker,
associate dean for the College of Arts and Sciences at the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro, which is hosting the
program.
The Coundil on Legal Education Opportunities chose North
Carolina after it found that minority attorneys are underrepre
sented in the state, Baker said.
Students invited to participate are from UNC Greensboro,
North Carolina A&T University, Winston-Salem State
University and North Carolina Central University.
“I really feel like I can make a difference in the court system,”
said Kareri Thompson, a 21-year-old junior at North Carolina
AT participating in the program. “African Americans are not
widely represented, if you look at lawyers and judges, and I want
to help change that.”
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Photo by Gene Biythe
Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga.,, second from right, participates in the National Federation
of the Blind march in Atlanta, Tuesday, July 3, 2007. The event was billed as a civil
rights march for the independence for biind people across America. Joining Lewis
are Anil Lewis, left, President of the Georgia Federation for the Blind, and Thelma
Godwin, right, a member of the Georgia organization.
AUGUSTA FOCUS
Black Caucus Foundation head
questions ‘racial targeting’
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The
head of the North Carolina
Legislative ~ Black Caucus
Foundation says the group’s
scholarship program may be a
political target because of “racial
targeting.”
In a letter to media outlets,
Rep. Alma Adams defended the
foundation’s practices and ques
tioned the motives of Joe
Sinsheimer, a Democrat who has
criticized the foundation for
handing out scholarship money
to relatives of five lawmakers.
“What's up, anyway, when a
registered white Democrat
viciously artacks black
Democratic legislators,” wrote
Adams, D-Guilford. “His scruti
ny appears racially directed.”
Sinsheimer also has filed com
plaints against black Reps. Mary
McAllister, D-Cumberland, and
Thomas Wright, D-New
Hanover. L
But he also ran a Web
site dedicated to removing
former House Speaker Jim
Black, who is white, and
has been _critical of other
white officials, including
Democratic Reps. Jim
Harrell and Nelson Cole,
and state Ultilities
Commissioner Bill
Culpepper.
“Good government
needs to be colorblind,”
Sinsheimer said. “If I find
people that I believe have
violated the law, I'm going
Two of the main goals: jobs and
education.
“The blind have a 70 percent
unemployment rate, and we have a
10 percent rate of being taught to
read and write Braille in our
schools in this country,” said NFB
president Marc Maurer, a lawyer
from Maryland.
The NFB also has pushed for
accessibility in other areas. In
June, the group won an agreement
with the nation’s largest nonbank
owner of automated teller
machines to improve access for
blind people at ATMs in malls, gas
stations and pharmacies.
Maurer said the NFB -founded
in 1940 and now with more than
50,000 members — decided to
incorporate a march into this
year’s annual convention in
Atlanta because the city was the
See Atlanta, page 8
to continue to file complaints
whether they are white legisla
tors or African-American legisla
tors.”
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