CASH CUTLINES
RALPH CAMPBELL JR.
TROUBLED LEADER - Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association President Daniel Coleman, seen here listening to Wake School Board member John Tedesco at last September’s RWCA meeting, is expecting to face a wave of discontent from his membership the next time they meet. [Cash Michaels Photo]
KUSHNER ANNOUNCES DISTRICT 6 SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDACY - Christine Kushner, long-time schools advocate, writer and policy analyst has announced that she will run for the Wake School Board District 6 seat currently held by Dr. Carolyn Morrison. My goal is to bring thoughtful and practical leadership to the Board of Education,” Kushner said. She has served in numerous policy and volunteer leadership positions with Wake Public Schools for the past 11 years, including working to lower the achievement gap.
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REPUBLICANS LEGISLATE TO BLOCK NC OBAMA VOTE
By Cash Michaels
Editor
The June 5th New York Times editorial page headline rhetorically said it all.
“THEY WANT TO MAKE VOTING HARDER?”
“It is the latest element of a well-coordinated effort by Republican state legislators across the country to disenfranchise voters who tend to support Democrats, particularly minorities and young people,” the newspaper’s opinion page opined.
The Times could have been talking about any number of Republican-led states where laws requiring voter identification are sprouting up like weeds on an abandoned property. But “the Gray Old Lady,” as the Times is affectionately known, was speaking primarily of North Carolina.
“Mr. Obama won North Carolina, for example, by less than 15,000 votes,” The Times editorial went on. “That state has had early voting since 2000, and in 2008, more ballots were cast before Election Day than on it. Mr. Obama won those early votes by a comfortable margin. So it is no coincidence that the North Carolina House passed a measure — along party lines — that would cut the early voting period by a week, reducing it to a week and a half before the election. The Senate is preparing a similar bill, which we hope Gov. Beverly Perdue, a Democrat, will veto if it reaches her.”
The Times continued, “Republicans said the measure would save money, a claim as phony as saying widespread fraud necessitates ID cards. The North Carolina elections board, and many county boards, said it would actually cost more money, because they would have to open more voting sites and have less flexibility allocating staff members.”
“Black lawmakers called it what it is,” The Times stated, “a modern whiff of Jim Crow.”
And yet, despite the fact that everyone from the NCNAACP, the Democratic Party, and now, even the New York Times over 500 miles away, are seeing behind their political curtain, the Republican-led NC General Assembly is forging forward to doing everything it can to “Obama-proof” the state for the 2012 general elections.
As the state House moved to pass the GOP voter ID bill this week - which would require voters to present one of eight forms of identification at the polling place - the NC Senate had already passed a bill that would eliminate straight party ticket voting.
Republican sponsors of the “Vote for the Person, not the Party Act,” say can now go through the ballot, and choose to vote for anybody they want.
Democrats countered that voters have that right and ability to do that now anyway, and forty percent choose not to do it.
But Republicans are hoping that the average Democratic voter, not knowing all of the candidates, will either only vote for those they know, cutting down the number of party votes for lesser known Democrats. Depending on where certain candidates are located on the ballot, Democrats will be forced to read the whole ballot.
That could add to the time spent voting in Democratic voting districts, thus adding to the long lines that many experienced during the 2008 presidential election.
The result - voters leaving the lines and not voting at all.
“The move to eliminate straight-ticket voting would make voting lines longer, create greater confusion by voters, and could potentially hinder opportunities for African-Americans to be elected in down-ballot races because of greater voter drop-off,” Adam Sotak, Organizing Director for Democracy North Carolina, told The Carolinian.
And with the Republicans seeking to cut the current One Stop/Early Voting period down by a week with no Sunday voting (to stop black churches from bringing vans filled with voters to the polls right after church service), making the process of voting now more difficult with confusing ballots and voter ID just adds more barriers for communities of color, observers say.
Those observers and voting advocates, like Adam Sotak of Democracy NC, add that Republican claims to reducing voter fraud are specious at best.
“We know from our research that voter fraud is extremely rare and furthermore, HB-351 (the voter ID bill) will do nothing to reduce fraud." Sotak said. "It only makes voting more difficult for people who don't have a government-issued photo ID. That's all it does - target people without a government photo ID. And the data for North Carolina clearly shows that they are disproportionately low-income, people of color, seniors and women. Unfortunately, the result is a very partisan piece of legislation. It's very sad. The people of North Carolina deserve better than this."
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RWCA PRESIDENT DEFENDS MAVERICK STYLE
By Cash Michaels
editor
Editor’s note - In recent months, members of the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association have raised serious questions about the direction of the esteemed civic organization, and the leadership of its president. In this week’s Part 2 of The Carolinian’s examination, we look at those questions, including if the RWCA is being crippled as an effective community organ for progress.
When the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association (RWCA) celebrated its 75th anniversary four years ago, members were brimming with pride, excitement and anticipation. The legacy of the powerful civic and political predominately-black organization, harkening back to 1932 when it was originally founded as the Negro Citizens Committee, was one of accomplishment and vision.
Members, including then-RWCA Pres. Daniel Coleman, envisioned the work continuing beyond political endorsements into education, health care and economic development.
"Until the day when we look at the population and don't see subsets, the role of the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association will continue, Coleman was quoted as saying.
Fast-forward to today, however, and several RWCA members say they envision something very different.
Many of them tell The Carolinian they want their president out, and they want to vote him out now. But Coleman, they say, hasn’t held an RWCA meeting in over three months because he knows a significant portion of the membership will try to make the move when he does.
As reported last week, The Carolinian asked Pres. Coleman for an interview to balance the record, and even offered to submit written questions in advance. Coleman declined, choosing instead to submit an off-topic letter touting his leadership.
Members who’ve spoken to The Carolinian over the past several months not only point to allegations of irregularities with the organization’s finances and leadership structure, but also accuse Coleman of using the prestige of the RWCA to further his own political agenda.
They also allege that Coleman is misrepresenting the RWCA position on several issues.
For instance, despite his strong backing of President Barack Obama, Coleman turned many a head in the African-American community on April 15, 2010 when he spoke at a right-wing anti-Obama Tea Party rally in Raleigh, and said that Americans should, “pay for your own healthcare,” a clear stab at the president’s health care policy.
But it’s been the GOP-led Wake School Board’s neighborhood schools policy, which the RWCA opposes, that has caused the most tension between Coleman and his membership.
Since the Republican-led majority took over the Wake School Board in 2009, Coleman has been vocal, and at times, even forceful in his denunciation of the old student socioeconomic diversity policy that for the past ten years had delivered stellar achievement grades overall, and with it, national attention for the school system.
"We have to ask ourselves where is the benefit of an assignment policy based on economic diversity when the end result produces the worst scores in the system?" he wrote in a Sept. 2010 email to RWCA members. Coleman was referencing how black students, particularly those being bused from Southeast Raleigh to outlying schools in the county to prevent the occurrence of inner city high poverty schools, were not performing academically as well as their white counterparts bused into magnet schools in Southeast Raleigh.
Wake’s black and Hispanic students actually were doing very well on state end-of-grade tests from 2000-2005, before growth distracted school officials thereafter, and that academic progress plummeted. Republican school board candidates seized on that to win the majority in 2009, even though there has been significant incremental progress independent of their elections that they refuse to acknowledge
In a Sept. 2010 N&O letter to the editor, a defensive Coleman, siding with the Republicans, strengthened his call for neighborhood schools, even though he knew it was directly contrary to the majority will of the RWCA membership.
“How do you handle the data when it shows that the child from Southeast Raleigh, whether educated there or in the county at large, scores at the bottom of the charts?,” he wrote. “How do we examine this without being called re-segregationist or Uncle Toms?”
Attorney Irving Joyner, head of the NCNAACP’s Legal Redress Committee, didn’t waste time setting Coleman straight.
“It is clear that he misapprehends the distinctions associated between disparity in academic achievement for minority students and the need for diversity in assignments,” Joyner wrote in a letter to News & Observer education reporter T. Keung Hui.
“It is shocking that Dan Coleman is so out-of-touch with the thoughts and feelings of the African American community and the academic needs of our students,” said Calla Wright, president of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African-American Children, in a Sept 3rd press release.
“Anyone familiar with the decades of national research knows that student achievement falls as a school’s poverty level rises. Yet in essence, Mr. Coleman is making the claim that resegregating our schools will improve student achievement. No reasonable person believes that segregation is good for academic achievement—or for anything else.”
Wright concluded, “Mr. Coleman and others who share his views simply wish to condemn our most vulnerable children to a second-class education.”
And even Coleman’s longtime friends, like Raleigh businessman Bruce Lightner - who once made a motion at a September 2010 RWCA meeting for a vote of no confidence in Pres. Coleman, have had to read the riot act to him.
“…[B] e forewarned, it is now a matter of public record that you have been secretly meeting with Wake County Republican officials, even found it politically expedient to speak at a recent Raleigh Tea Party Rally and are perceived to have become the black community's confidant to [Wake School Board Chairman] Ron Margiotta and John Tedesco,” Lightner continued. “If this is how you want to roll ... more power to you. But as I hope you would expect ... I would be the first to call your hand if you try to chump off this community.”
When the NCNAACP made national headlines last July by marching in downtown Raleigh for student diversity, and then having four prominent members, including NCNAACP Pres. Rev. William Barber, arrested and taken to jail, unlike other black Raleigh leaders, Coleman was far from sympathetic.
“Begging white people to send their children into the inner city, offering them more than we offer those we send out only re-enforces the 3/5's doctrine, the manifest destiny and white man's burden concepts that memorializes the blacks are not equal to whites,” Coleman wrote in an email then, furthering his crusade against the magnet schools program.
Coleman may have his staunchest critics in the African-American community, but in the broader community and Republican circles, he’s lauded for standing alone.
“I applaud Dan Coleman, president of the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association, for his courageous criticism of the Wake County socioeconomic diversity policy,” wrote Paul Kretzschmar of Raleigh in a Sept. 2010 letter to the editor of the News & Observer. “He knows he will be criticized by the Wake diversity leadership.”
Conservative blogs have also heralded Coleman’s singular stand against student diversity.
Last March in an email to RWCA members announcing the cancellation of the first of three subsequent meetings, Coleman wrote, “ I have enjoyed my two terms that may or may not be the constitutional limit of my service, and feel the RWCA has made great strides in representing the broader community’s interests.”
Members tell The Carolinian, however, that the interests of the African-American community is why they joined, and with crucial local school board elections coming this fall, what they need is clear, decisive leadership now so that RWCA can properly fulfill it role.
With Coleman canceling the last three meetings, they say, it may be too late.
For his part, Coleman has informed his members that any new election of officers won’t be held until this November. Because the first Nominating Committee chair, Michael Leach, refused to share his panel’s list of recommendations with the president last April (Coleman was not re-nominated for president on that slate) because he insisted that it be presented to the body first, Coleman appointed a new Nominating Committee chair to start the process again.
That has created more controversy. Though there is now a second report, the new Nominating Committee chair hadn’t been able to attend regular meetings in months before the cancellations, understandably because of family obligations, raising more questions.
Several RWCA members tell The Carolinian that they fully expect there to be a meeting June 16th, the third Thursday of the month as is custom. According to the RWCA Constitution, ten members present constitutes a meeting, and they say they will come, even if Coleman sends out a last minute notice of cancellation.
If it happens, it would be the first RWCA meeting held in over 90 days.
But what they can accomplish is not clear. The RWCA Constitution doesn’t provide a specific chapter and verse which allows for the immediate removal of any sitting RWCA officer, which some say would be embarrassing if one were ever criminally charged.
The agenda of that meeting, per a May 16th email from Coleman to membership, is “to be dedicated to the new WCPSS Assignment plan.” But expect there to be a battle over which report from which Nominating Committee should be ultimately heard, even though Coleman has said he wants it tabled until November.
With word that Coleman has started his own political action committee apart from RWCA’s M-PAC, through which he can endorse the candidates he chooses, and tensions high about his continued support for the Republicans on the Wake Public School Board, expect another rousing RWCA meeting like the one last September when Wake School Board member John Tedesco spoke, member say.
That is, if there is one.
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CASH IN THE APPLE
By Cash Michaels
DENZEL PILOTS “THE FLIGHT” - Let’s see, he’s done a movie about an out-of-control New York City subway train in “The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3”, and an out-of-control freight train in “Unstoppable.”
Now, megastar Denzel Washington is, once again, slated to star in another film about a runaway transportation vehicle, this time a jetliner.
Washington is signing on to star as the pilot of a crippled airliner in “The Flight.” Washington just finished filming the CIA spy thriller, “Safe House.”
LOOK FOR “SALT” II - If you saw Angelina Jolie in the 2010 spy thriller, “Salt,” then I know you had to wonder what happened to the CIA double agent t the end of the film when she through herself out of the helicopter over the water after killing a fellow Soviet spy.
Well now you’ll find out. The Huffington Post is reporting that there will be a sequel to “Salt” and Jolie will return. Director Phillip Noyce, however, has said that they’ll have to find someone else to helm the sequel. The script is being written now, so if approved, look for it to gio before cameras by next year, and come out in theaters by 2013.
“BOND 23” FOR BLACK ACTRESS? - Last week it was announced that actor Daniel Craig will finally have his martini “shakened, and not stirred” as Agent 007 James Bond again, as his third film as the world’s most famous spy goes before the cameras again soon.
The working title for the film is “Bond 23,” simply referring to the fact that there have been 22 007 thrillers before it. But now there’s more breaking news that a British black actress, Naomie Harris, has interviewed to costar in the flick as Craig’s new “Bond girl.” The last African-American to hold that title (notice I didn’t say honor) was Halle Berry in 2002’s “Die Another Day” with Pierce Brosnan as Bond,
So who is Harris, and where have we seen her before?
As the black witch in The Pirates of the Carribbean films, and yes, there is beauty under all of the ugly makeup they put homegirl in. If she could pull that role off, then wearing a bikini with 007 on the beach can’t be all that hard.
We wish Naomie well, and hope she lives in the film to go off with James into the sunset, like Halle did.
NBA FINALS PART DEUX - Last week, at the risk of turning this into a sports column, I ruminated about just how good the NBA playoffs, and ultimately the NBA Finals have been. The action, the plays, the personalities…it’s the way professional of basketball of old used to be when Michael, Magic and Larry used to rule the roost.
But from a media standpoint, what has really been impressive, besides the play of the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks, is the excitement of having these games on television. When you have greats like Miami’s LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, and Dallas’ Dirk Nowitski and Shawn Marion playing their hearts out for that championship, it makes the most exciting television imaginable.
I mean, I’m even sharing the games with my eight-year old daughter, KaLa, and she’s loving it!
Given the quality and talent of both teams, I have no doubt that this series may go the full seven games, and that’s good. That means the drama and excitement isn’t contrived or manufactured.
That’s the way television, and particularly sports television, used to be. That’s why that poor skier falling down that hill at the opening of ABC’s Wide World of Sports years ago (“The thrill of victory, an the agony of defeat”) was probably one of the most iconic figures in all of sports television history.
Let’s face it, there are no more Ali-Frazier fights, “Broadway” Joe Namath and the NY Jets have long been history, and the only time Michael Jordan touches a basketball these days is when he’s handing it to one of his lowly Bobcat players.
The Mavs and the Heat are giving us real excitement, something to look forward to. I pray that the series goes seven games.
We may not see another one of these for a long, long time.
P.S. - I’m pulling for D. Wade and the Heat. All respect to Dallas, but Wade is the closest to Jordan today we’ll ever see.
WEINER-GATE - By now you’ve seen and read about the disgrace of NY Congressman Anthony Weiner, who tearfully admitted this week (finally) that he’s been conducting inappropriate relationships online with women for three years - both before and after his marriage. It all blew up in his face when a picture of a man’s bulging shorts was sent from his Twitter account, and he began lying to the media about whether it was him, and whether he actually sent the picture.
On Monday in NY, Weiner fessed up after a week of appearing on talk show after talk show trying to spin the truth.
Weiner’s mistake was that he thought he was smarter than everybody else, and that because he had such good relations with the media, thought they would take his “I dunno” line, and forget about it.
Dead wrong, Congressman. A good reporter, and especially a good political reporter, can smell a lying politician a mile away.
No one in the press was buying Weiner’s canard about somebody hacking into his Twitter account to send a lewd photo to a young woman that might be him. And the more they asked him to tell it straight, the more he lied, until Weiner had no choice, finally, to tell the truth.
The moment he realized he mistakenly placed that picture on his Twitter account where tens of thousands of his Twitter followers could see it, Weiner had to realize that the gig was up, and best to fess up. The hacked account line couldn’t work because, as a member of Congress, that would require him to report the crime to the Capital Police or FBI.
Weiner couldn’t because then the truth would have come out, and he would have been prosecuted for filing a false police report.
So he trapped himself, when all he had to do is come clean, and take his licks.
Now, Weiner has done clear damage to his reputation. He tried to outsmart honesty. He thought he could slide by the media.
Let this be a lesson. Honesty can be very painful, but it is never as painful as trying to coverup the truth.
PALIN’S POOR HISTORY - Look, if former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin came to town, you can bet the farm that you wouldn’t see my over-half-century backside anywhere near a media horde covering her. Palin is dumb (though I do give her credit in knowing how to take the money from people who are even dumber, like Fox News, for instance).
We all recall during the 2008 campaign, when she was John McCain’s vice presidential pick on the GOP ticket, how then-CBS News anchor Katie Couric and ABC anchor Charlie Gibson asked her some simple questions she couldn’t crack a decent for.
When the public saw just how dense she was, her polls dropped dramatically, and the bounce that the McCain campaign got was over.
So fast forward to last week’s Palin family “One Nation” bus tour, Palin’s way of grabbing headlines from other Republican candidates while she determines whether to actually run for president or not.
It was at a restaurant where a Boston TV crew asked Palin a benign question about her trip, and she turns it into a doctoral treatise on the legend of Paul Revere, the colonial patriot to road through the countryside to earn that the British troops were coming, and folks needed to take up arms in defense.
Palin’s version was …let’s say …different:
“[Revere] warned the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms, by ringing those bells and making sure as he was riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free.”
When Palin’s strange (and wrong) version of one of the most famous stories in American history was challenged on Fox News Sunday, this was her response when she was accurately told that she messed the Revere up:
“You know what? I didn't mess up about Paul Revere. Here is what Paul Revere did. He warned the Americans that the British were coming, the British were coming, and they were going to try take our arms and we got to make sure that we were protecting ourselves and shoring up all of ammunitions and our firearms so that they couldn't take it. But remember that the British had already been there, many soldiers for seven years in that area. And part of Paul Revere's ride -- and it wasn't just one ride -- he was a courier, he was a messenger. Part of his ride was to warn the British that we're already there. That, hey, you're not going to succeed. You're not going to take American arms. You are not going to beat our own well-armed persons, individual, private militia that we have. He did warn the British. And in a shout-out, gotcha type of question that was asked of me, I answered candidly. And I know my American history.”
No you don’t, Sarah Sorry. Every historian worth their salt (which in your case, would include any third-grader), says Revere wasn’t warning the British. He was captured by the British, who put a gun to his head and forced him to reveal where the armed Americans were.
Problem is by the time Revere talked, the American colonialists were already ready to deal with the British.
That’s a far cry from Sorry Sarah’s version of Revere riding to find the British so he could give them some phony brag about getting their butts beat.
Here’s the problem though, Palin isn’t the only right-wing politician looking to rewrite history to serve their purpose.
In Texas, the state Board of Education has mandated certain changes in the state’s teaching of American history, downplaying the civil rights movement.
In Virginia during its Confederate Day, the state portrayed slavery as a good thing before the hue and cry made them change their line of lying.
And, of course, one of the reasons why Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour isn’t running for president is because, according to him, racism wasn’t that bad in his state back in the 50’s and 60’s.
So Palin is not alone in her attempts to rewrite the truth. Luckily, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll that 64 percent of Americans surveyed say they would not vote for Palin for president.
For me and mine, that’s fine.
That’s why it’s extraordinarily important that, as a people, we know our history. Ignorance is a weapon, and an effective one, that can only work against us.
Make sure you tune in every Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m. for my talk radio show, ''Make It Happen'' on Power 750 WAUG-AM, or online at www.Power750.com. And read more about my thoughts and opinions exclusively at my new blog, ‘The Cash Roc” (http://thecashroc.blogspot.com/2011/01/cash-roc-begins.html). I promise it will be interesting.”
Cash in the Apple - honored as the Best Column Writing of 2006 by the National Newspaper Publishers Association, by Cash Michaels, honored this year as well by NNPA for Best Feature Story Journalist of 2009.
Until next week, keep a smile on your face, GOD in your heart, and The Carolinian your life. Bye, bye.
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A HOUSE RESOLUTION HONORING THE LIFE AND MEMORY OF RALPH CAMPBELL, JR., FORMER STATE AUDITOR.
Editor’s note - On Wednesday, June 8, 2011, the North Carolina House took time to honor the memory of Ralph Campbell Jr., the first African-American to serve as NC state auditor, and to serve on the NC Council of State.
Sponsored by House representatives H.M. “Mickey” Michaux, Jr., Deborah Ross, Jennifer Weiss and Grier Martin, the resolution as read on the NC House floor read as follows…
Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., was born on December 7, 1946, in Raleigh, North Carolina, to Ralph Campbell, Sr., and June Kay Campbell; and
Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., graduated from J. W. Ligon High School in 1964, earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting from St. Augustine's College in 1968, and furthered his education by attending the graduate program in business at North Carolina Central University; and
Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., served as an SP-4 in the Field Artillery Unit of the United States Army Reserves from 1971 to 1977; and
Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., served as a Field Auditor for the North Carolina Department of Revenue from 1977 to 1986, as a Plan Auditor for the State Health Benefits Office from 1986 to 1990, and as an Administrative Officer for the North Carolina Department of Insurance from 1990 to 1992; and
Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., was elected to the Raleigh City Council in 1985, reelected to three additional terms in 1987, 1989, 1991, and served as Mayor Pro Tem from 1989 to 1991; and
Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., was elected as State Auditor in 1992, becoming the first African-American to be elected to a statewide executive office in North Carolina; and
Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., was reelected State Auditor for two additional terms in 1996 and 2000; and
Whereas, during his tenure as State Auditor, Ralph Campbell, Jr., helped upgrade technology in the State Auditor's Office and completed more than 3,600 audits of various State departments and agencies; and
Whereas, in 2005, Ralph Campbell, Jr., founded R. Campbell and Associates, a firm that specialized in auditing, information systems, and consulting services, and served as the firm's CEO and President; and
Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., later worked with the Government Accounting Office in Washington, D.C.; and
Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., served as a member of several professional organizations, including the National State Auditors Association, as president; the National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers; Southeastern Inter-Governmental Audit Forum, as chair; Association of Certified Fraud Examiners; National Forum for Black Public Administrators; the National Electronic Commerce Coordinating Council; and the Electronic Benefits Transfer Council's Fraud and Audit Committee, as chair; and Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., rendered distinguished service to many State boards and commissions, including the North Carolina Information Resource Management Commission, serving as chair; the North Carolina Local Government Commission; the North Carolina Capital Planning Commission; the North Carolina Educational Facilities Finance Agency Board; the Public School Administrators Task Force; and Local Government Partnership Council; and
Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., was devoted to his community, serving on the Downtown Raleigh Alliance; the St. Augustine's College Board of Trustees; the Shaw Divinity School Board of Trustees; the North Carolina Black Elected Municipal Officials, as Treasurer; the Triangle J Council of Governments, World Class Region; the Raleigh United Negro College Fund, as co-chair; the North Carolina Black Leadership Caucus, as treasurer; the National League of Cities Human Development Steering Committee; the Wake County Education Foundation; the Wake United Way; and the Occoneechee Council of the Boy Scouts of America; and
Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., was active in several fraternal organizations, including Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Widow's Son Lodge No. 4, and Kabala Temple No. 177; and
Whereas, as a result of his commitment to his community and public service, Ralph Campbell, Jr., was honored with several awards and distinctions, including an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Livingstone College in 2003, the North Carolina Electronics and Information Technologies Association's Award for Public Leadership in Technology in 2000, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Auditor General's Integrity Award in 1995, an Honorary Doctor of Christian Letters from Shaw University Divinity School in 1991, an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from St. Augustine's College in 1990, the State of North Carolina's Order of the Long Leaf Pine in 1985, and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity's Omega Man of the Year in 1984; and
Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., was a member of St. Ambrose Episcopal Church in Raleigh; and
Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., died on January 11, 2011, at the age of 64; and
Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., leaves to mourn his loss two brothers, Bill Campbell and Edwin Campbell; a sister, Mildred Campbell Christmas; and five nieces and nephews; Now, therefore, Be it resolved by the House of Representatives:
SECTION 1. The House of Representatives honors the memory of Ralph Campbell, Jr., and expresses the deep gratitude and appreciation of this State and its citizens for his life and service to North Carolina.
SECTION 2. The House of Representatives extends its deepest sympathy to the family of Ralph Campbell, Jr., for the loss of a beloved family member.
SECTION 3. The Principal Clerk shall transmit a certified copy of this resolution to the family of Ralph Campbell, Jr.
SECTION 4. This resolution is effective upon adoption.
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NNPA LINKED STORIES
NNPA - Black Youth Aren't Politically Inclined
NNPA - HBCU's Payoff forBlack Students
NNPA - Education Conference Focuses on Black males
NNPA - Geronimo Pratt dies at 63
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STATE NEWS BRIEFS
WAKE HAD THIRD BEST GRADUATION RATE IN THE NATION
According to Education Week magazine, of the fifty largest public school systems in the nation, Wake County has the third best graduation rate in the nation, with Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools coming in a distant 30th. Per the Class of 2008, Wake came in with 78.2 percent, third to only Montgomery County, Maryland with 85.7, and Fairfax County, Va. with 85.1. Charlotte-Mecklenburg lagged at 63.2 percent. More good news. For the first time in history, North Carolina's graduation rate is higher than that national rate. The state’s 72.8 percent graduation rate beat the national rate of 71.7. North Carolina was also third nationwide in graduating African-American students at 72.3 percent, and first in graduating African-American females at 79.5.
DEFIANT GOP GENERAL ASSEMBLY PASSES $19.7 BILLION BUDGET; CHALLENGES PERDUE TO VETO IT
[RALEIGH] The ball is now in Gov. Beverly Perdue’s court as to whether she will veto the Republican-led General Assembly’s $19.7 billion budget. The NC Senate ratified the cost-cutting measure early Saturday after the state House passed it. GOP lawmakers say the bill cuts taxes and spending, but protects the classroom. Perdue, however, called the bill “evil” because it forces local school districts to cut a total $428 million, forcing those districts to layoff teachers and teaching assistants. Perdue will decide whether to veto the bill by next week, but Republicans are counting on five conservative House members to help override that veto.
MIKE MOSELEY. 58, FORMER STATE MENTAL HEALTH DIRECTOR
[KINSTON] Lenoir County is mourning the untimely death of Michael Moseley, a native son who rose to become the first black president of the Lenoir County Chamber of Commerce, and ultimately, the state’s Mental Health director. Moseley, 58, died Monday of a heart attack at Lenoir Memorial Hospital. Friends say Mosley dedicated much of his professional life advocating for those suffering with mental and developmental disabilities. He was the first African-American to serve as director of the Caswell Developmental Center. Moseley was also selected as Lenoir County 2004 Citizen of the Year.
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TRIANGLE NEWS BRIEFS
NCGOP RUNNING ANTI-OBAMA AD BEFORE PRESIDENT’S VISIT MONDAY
Don’t say the NC Republican Party aren’t willing to welcome President Barack Obama to Raleigh on Monday as he comes to talk about the economy. But welcome isn’t a happy one. The NCGOP is running a: 30 second ad on local cable television called “Broken Promises” that bashes Obama for “failing” to reduce the budget deficit and unemployment as promised. Thanks to Obama's budget deficits, we face high unemployment and an uncertain future,” the ad says. “And now he's back, asking us to believe him again.” The ad runs through Tuesday.
ANTI-SCHOOL ACCREDITATION BILL PASSES HOUSE; NOW IN STATE SENATE
The NC House has passed the bill that would lessen in the influence of high school accreditation agencies like AdvancED. If also approved by the NC Senate and made law, state-run colleges, universities and community colleges could no longer honor the accreditation of high schools from outside agencies. That accreditation would have to come from a state agency, and the school district will have to pay for it. The state Board of Education will now be required to do that accreditation. The bill was introduced when GOP-led school boards in Wake and Burke counties were threatened with loss of accreditation by AdvancED.
MARTIN STREET BAPTIST SOCIAL MINISTRY SUMMIT JUNE 18
What is “Social Justice” and how can it help the community? Find out when Martin Street Baptist Church convenes the Social Justice Ministry Summit Saturday, June 18, from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. in its Family Life Center. Learn more about social justice from a community-based and spiritual perspective. For more information call 919-441-5150.
