PRINCEVILLE, NC — Residents, friends and supporters of the City _ of Princeville — the oldest Ameri- can town chartered by blacks that Leadership Conference — as a birthday gift. After sin ing the national Ne- gro anthem, “Lift Every Voice and g Photo: Jim Rouse Rev. Joseph Lowery shown here with Princeville’s Mayor, Priscilla Everette-Oates| was settled in 1865 and incorpo- rated in 1885, gathered inside St. Luke Church af Christ to celebrate 120 years of history and to hear the Keynote speaker, Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery — one of the original founders of the Southern Christian Poverty worsening HIV By Paul Simao, Reuters ATLANTA - Poverty, unemploy- ment and other socioeconomic fac- tors are helping to fuel a growing HIV problem among black women, a U.S. study released on Thursday suggests. Black men and women account for a majority of the estimated 40,000 new HIV infections that are diagnosed in the United States each year. The new HIV infection rate Jackson lea By Jennifer Cunningham: Rav. Jesse Jackson, Sr. NEWYORK - During the latter part of january when Rev. Jesse L. Jack- son, along with a host of promi- nent politicians, business leaders and community activists, kicked off the 8th Annual Rainbow/PUSH Wall Street Conference in Midtown Manhattan in an effort to fight for racial economic reform. “When Jackie Robinson came to play baseball in 1947 the issue was playing,” said Jackson, who has said that African Americans must Pitt County By Susie Clemons M-Voice News GREENVILLE, NC- In 1981, Bethel native, Dr. Ruby L. Perkins already a 14 year veteran English pro- fessor, at the nation’s oldest histori- cally Black Colleges, Cheyney State a _ ee Dr. Ruby 'L. P. College located 25 miles south of Philadelphia, PA, realized that “lit- cracy required a diet of reading”. Elizabeth City State, Howard, Cheyney, and Temple Universities nu and gave rise to the coat of a colors which Perkins was des- tined to wear. Therefote, is it any wonder that Perkins, in addition to Sing,” and introductions of the towns elected officials, Lowery took the pulpit. “Congrats on the courage and preservation on rising from a wa- tery grave to a mountain of hope,” said Lowery, 83. “You all represent among black women is about 18 times that of white women. The study published by the Cen- ters for Disease Control and Preven- tion found that black women infected with the AIDS virus are more likely to be unemployed and willing to trade _ sex for drugs or money than uninfected black women. The study was based on a small group of black women in North Carolina who were diagnosed with ding fight fo gain access to capital. “Now the is- sue is development.” rt Bonita Parker, national direc- tor of the Rainbow/PUSH Coali- tion agreed. “We can sing, we can dance, we can wear the baggy pants, but now we need to step up to more management roles,” said Parker. € time, they argue, is now. With the development of major ur- ban areas across America, Jackson said that contracts and loans should be extended to blacks to develop minority-owned enterprises. Of the four goals of the civil rights move- ment, which included end- ing legal sla- very, ending legal segrega- tion, and se- curing the right to vote, the fourth- teaching financial literacy and elimi- nating predatory lending-is the most important. “As we come together this year, seeking participation in America’s economic engine, we must be ever more vigilant in protecting the rights we have gained, even the right to vote,” said Jackson. “At the same time, we must extend the gains Native Reflects her duties as professor, would develop (LIPS) Literacy is Peoples’ Survival and its companion project (RIBS) Read. ing is Black Survival literacy reading programs. Each is monumental in that they exemplified the expanse of Perkins’s desire to provide access to literagy to those in need of its life long benefits, as well as to promote literacy | as the foundation of sustainable com- munities, especially Black communi- ties. And those acts of giving back to the community also evolved into suc- cessful fund-raisers during the early 90's, Imagine these fundraiser, as moments Frozen in time with Perkins holding center stage, in a fluffin hap- hazard colors, tattered dress and in- fectious speech in bringing toslife the outrageously funny tales of the late Jackie “Moms” Mabley. Out of this period arose yet another medium through which she could teach her English students lessons in effective speaking. Add to Perkins growing list of lit- erary achievements, that of Director/ Playwright of the successful West Chester Community Players, whose repertoire included storytelling, son and dance in celebration of Women's history. However, it is her collection of Black Memorabilia, rare objets d’ arts, r Serving Eastern North Carolina’: Sane SA eee a people who deserve praise. Just three years ago you all were cov- ered in water. The way you've come up and out has set a beautiful ex- ample to America. I respect this town’s perserverance. As black . peo le, we learn how to live thro ardships and use what we got. This is an example of how to turn adver- sity into opportunity.” . Lowery, a native of Alabama, served as president of the Southern ‘Christian Leadership Conference until retiring in 1997. He also led the 1982 march through five states in fa- vor of the Voting Rights Act. Altho this was his first visit to Princeville, he said his wife had been to the town — formerly known as Freedom Hill — after the 1999 flood, “History is important,” Lowery said. “If you don’t know where youve come from, you don’t know where you're going, and if you don't know where you've come fom, you wont know when you're being led” back. History builds a foundation. No other set of people have come so far since slavery,” Lowery’s message didn’t just fo- cus on his experiences of injustices HIV in 2003 and the first half of 2004 and a larger group of uninfected women who were re- cruited at HIV testing sites in 2004. It found that 71 percent of those who were infected did not have a job, compared with 38 percent of those uninfected. More than a third of the HIV- positive women admitted trading sex or money, drugs or other gifts, said researchers with the Atlanta-based we have made to include econammic parity and equity in the boardroom, in the managers’ offices and in the } owners’ boxes,” he added. The conference, titled “Beyond Diversity, Equity and Parity: A New Covenant,” hosred several hundred people, most of whom were minor- ity businesspeople with pledges to work with Jackson’s Organization to address the wealth disparity between blacks and their white counterparts. Jackson said that African- Americans and other minorities have been economi- cally disen- franchised, crippling their path- way to suc- cess. “The wealth gap leads to an opportunity gap,” said Jackson. “Excellence and Art can- not compete with inheritance and access.” Halting the economic misuse of the Black community This economic stagnation, said Jackson, has occurred through unscrupuopus nortgage lending, au- tomotive finance mark-ups for mi- norities, and pension defrauding, equality on on Lessons Learned during the civil rights era or the im- portance of Black History Month. He also spoke on the state of the nation. He said it was time to redi- rect and understand that the United States needs to seek out the evils in its own country. “America is serious. Not seri- ous like a headache, but serious like a heart attack,” he said. “People think we are crazy; we are out of our cotton-pickin’ minds. We're sending smart bums on dumb mis- ~ sions. Our own people are dying searching for weapons of mass de- struction, when (those weapons) are here, too. Forty-four million people in this country are aceat th insurance, and more are trying to live off of minimum wage. Those are weapons of mass destruction right here in our own country.” Friday's celebration of the town is a reminder to the community of where the town is going, said Milton Bullock, a Princeville native and former member of The Plat- ters — one of the top vocal groups of the 1950s. Though Mayor Priscilla Everette-Oates could not say where she sees the town in five among U.S. black women-stud CDC, North Carolina Depattment of Health and University of North Carolina. Only 15 percent of uninfected women had done so. There was also a higher ten- dency for the infected women to be on welfare or some other form of public assistance. “Tt suggests that it’s a lot more difficult for women who are poor to even think of HIV as a health Wall Street He called for an end to these preda- tory lending practices, or charging high interest rates arid fees that are not beneficial to the borrower. Predatory lending companies are five times more likely to be in Black communities than white, and African-Americans are 4.1 times more likely to be victimized by predatory lending. In a breakfast discussion be- tween Jackson and Elliot Spitzer, the New York attorney general, Spitzer, who is a candidate for governor in 2006, said that the fight for racial economic parity is an uphill battle. “Capital flows influence decisions,” said Spitzer. “Everyone fights to maintain the status quo. They have an overwhelming constituency,” he _ added. But Spitzer, who has experience in mutual fund fraud, pledged to track down predatory lending companies and said that his.office would pros- ecute those involve in such schemes. In addition to halting the economic misuse in the Black community Jack- SON wants to see more commercial ventures between Black businesses and mainstream companies. “Allowing minority-owned businesses to compete in the mar- ketplace will increase dividends for all,” said Jackson. antiques, awe inspiring headlines of history captured on paper and film as well as modern arts detailing the rise of Blacks in America and the handspun legacy of Africa that Perkins holds dearest to heart. Each piece painstakingly selected during her ex- tensive coavels would later debut as the “Mama Day's Parlor” museum col- lection. The “Mama Day's Parlor”, after Pictured from left'to right is Rosa Ward, Mary Cates - President, Vickie, Joyner, Effie Thompson, and Denise Tyson, Minnie Andrews, Mary Raynard, kneeling, Janice Leonard-Peace, Shirley Williams, and Ruby Perkins during an appreciation re-celebration party for the fist annual Valentines Day Scholarship Gala that was held at the Hilton Hotel the following evening. Photo: Jim Rouse Mama Day, the Black matriarch in Gloria Naylor's successful novel so entitled, was first elegantly housed in the A. Foster Student Alumni Center on the campus Cheyney University, during Perkins tenure as professor. ~The catalogue includes a Repub- lican Textbook for Colored Voters, an early NAACP newsletter, slavery items that include a $1500.00 receipt from SEE PITT COUNTY - PAGE 10 te ° Ro. : Minority Communities Since ey: |\Complimentag, Please Take C IUGETAZ Gr aes | Vol. 18. Issue #1 Feb. 17 - 28, ; years, she knows what the foresee- able future holds, such as a medical and dental center that will create 15 new jobs, an African-American , museum and a new recreation park for the community, “We didn’t do this all alone,” Bullock said. “We black ones didn’t Je Wo Pushed By Terri Nelson RICHMOND, VA - Robert R. Merhige Jr., a federal judge whose rulings forcing schools to desegregate made him so unpopular that for a time he required 24-hour protection, has Anniversar come this jway alone. We h good whité ones to help alc some bad black ones and b: ones. But this is a historica, tunity to feflect on the milestones that have shaped our community. Please pay attention, because this is history alive.” _ ion Dies at 86 died. He was 86. Methige died Friday at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center after undergoing open heart surgery days earlier, his son, Mark R. Merhige, said Saturday. Named to the federal bench in 1967 by President Lyndon Johnson, Robert R. Merhige Jr. ordered doz- ens of Virginia’s school systems to de- segregate. After a 1972 decision to consoli- date public school systems in Rich- mond and neighboring counties for the sake of integration, his dog was shot to death, and a guest cottage on his property was destroyed by arson. Last year, Merhige told the Rich- See Desegregation Page 2 Priority when there are so many other issues that they are dealing with,” said Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick,. director of the CDC’s minority HIV/AIDS research initiative and one of the study's authors. Fitzpatrick noted that black women in North Carolina had an HIV infection rate-14' times higher than white women. “I think this mirrors a lot of the epidemic in the rest of the country. This is not unique to North Carolina.” Only heterosexually active black women between the ages of 18 and 40 living in parts of the state with the highest AIDS death rates were included in the study. Those who admitted injecting drugs were excluded. . . Researchers also found worry- ing similarities in sexual behavior among the two groups of women, including high rates of sexually transmitted diseases. The majority of both groups, however, felt that they were unlikely or very unlikely to contract HIV. Philadelphia Mayor John Street spoke about, his Success in using -@ainority contractors to build two new stadiums in the City of Broth- erly Love. Street said he used 19 minority contractors to construct the sprawling $1.2 billion arenas, “I represent a city with a tre- mendous amount of minority and poor people,” said Street.”We need to level the economic playing field.” Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields said that she has established an advisory board that will ensure woman and minority- owned businesses are utilized if the Jets get the official go-ahead to build a new stadium in the ci Minority and woman owned businesses must participate mean- ingfully in the redevelopment of Manhattan's West Side,” said Fields, who is‘widely considered to be a canididate in New York City’s up- coming mayoral race. The conference was not free of controversy. A small group of pro- testers with the organization Black United Fund of New York held a protest outside the Hilton New York Hotel during Spitzer's talk. They allege that he actively worked to dismantle the Northeastern Urban League and “sensationalized the investigation” of fraud at Hale House,