Chapel Hill Transit employees to perform the Rosa Parks story

The Rosa Parks story comes to life in the one-act play "Why Should I Move?" scheduled to be performed by Chapel Hill Transit employees at 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 4, on a central corridor stage at the University Mall.
The free and public performance is being held in conjunction with Black History Month, an annual celebration of achievements by black Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of African Americans in U.S. history. Rosa Parks was a central figure in Black History, as her courageous act of refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery Alabama bus helped spark the Civil Rights movement.
The play is a reenactment of the day Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus. The play is narrated by "old Rosa" talking to the audience 56 years after the event. Chapel Hill Transit bus operator Michele Sykes plays "old Rosa," and Sheila Neville plays "young Rosa." Other Chapel Hill Transit employees reenact the event as Old Rosa tells the story. Key performers include the bus driver, the white passenger who demanded that Rosa move, and the police officer who arrested her.
In addition to the play, an acapella vocal group of Chapel Hill Transit employees will use song to interpret the mood of the events.
The play was performed initially to celebrate the ideals of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and their connection to the town's values of respect at an employee celebration held at Hargraves Community Center. The University Mall performance was planned jointly by Chapel Hill Transit and the Chapel Hill Public Library. Special thanks is paid to Kathy Williams of UNC-Chapel Hill Playmakers Theater, who assisted town employees in preparing their roles, and to the theater for providing the costumes.

Column: Greeting from Sen. Kinnaird

Dear Friends,
Last week I attended a news conference of the coalition of Partners Against Human Trafficking on the National Day of Human Trafficking Awareness. The campaign runs through Feb. 1, the date the 13th Amendment ending slavery was passed. Information may be found by writing to pathnc@mindspring.com. In addition to bringing to the public’s attention the devastating human trafficking business, they recognized people who have worked to stop this unspeakable activity. The recognition included a young Asheville high school girl who is raising money for a shelter for trafficked teens, the Salvation Army and local groups throughout the state that are providing shelter for rescued victims. Legal Aid provides legal help to keep the victims from being deported back to the country that trafficked them to the U.S.
Human trafficking is the largest criminal enterprise after drug trafficking. In fact, many of the major drug traffickers also deal in human trafficking. This horrific activity that occurs throughout the world, including the United States, preys on young girls and some boys who are then subjected to rape and sexual abuse. North Carolina has both sex and labor trafficking, where Interstate 95/40 is a major route. The press conference emphasized that this is modern-day slavery. Part of the awareness campaign is to stop the buying of the victims, asking, “who is the buyer?”
I was the author of both the criminal statutes on trafficking and services to provide shelter, sustenance and legal protection to victims.


I serve on the Joint Legislative Oversight Commission on Crime Control and Public Safety. One of the recurring questions is how to measure workload to determine pay for our court personnel: clerks, judges, district attorneys, etc. Studies on those groups have been done in the past, and this year the Judicial Department Workload Formulas were brought before the committee by the Administrative Office of the Courts to determine Superior Court workload to pay. The report, requested by the General Assembly, looked at workload indicators from the past and a 2007 collaboration with the National Center for State Courts. To determine a formula that is data driven, the report focuses on the most common work performed.
The questions are whether some counties and districts have more judges than they need while others are severely shorthanded. (Of course, this will stop the practice of legislators getting extra judges for their district to satisfy constituents.) Judges will be asked to keep track of their tasks and the time spent on each task for a month. In addition, there is a weighting system as not all cases use the same amount of time to complete. The cases range from traffic, to DWI all the way to sex crimes and first-degree murder. They have assigned the time in minutes, e.g. traffic cases at four to six minutes all the way to 10,172 minutes for first-degree murder.
Using this formula, the budget should have (but didn’t) included the addition of 354 assistant and deputy clerks, 69 additional district court judges, 100 district attorneys and 47.5 victim witness/legal assistants. This study of our court system shows the legislature takes the use of tax-payer money into consideration on a continuing basis.

I am relieved we have left Iraq and now hope we will leave Afghanistan as soon as possible (though not 2014.) The shocking allegations against four Marines that emerged this last week remind me of Rep. Barbara Lee’s (D- CA) statement explaining her vote against the Afghanistan war, “Let us not become the evil that we deplore."
A general, while in no way condoning the acts of the Marines, pointed out that it is a difficult situation when young men are taught to kill, to keep parameters on war-time actions. On this weekend honoring Martin Luther King Jr., we remember that the Rev. King was excoriated for opposing the Vietnam War, but, as the case with so much of his vision, he was proved right. His words inspire us today. “A nation that continues year after year to spend more on military defense than on social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
Let us affirm our beliefs in spiritual uplift.
Ellie

Highway markers tell North Carolina's Civil Rights story

The Civil Rights movement for African Americans in the 1960s called for an end to discrimination in voting, education, accommodations, housing and in other areas. In North Carolina and the nation, blacks turned to public persuasion and to civil disobedience to bring change to their lives and to change the world.
North Carolina was a proving ground for the Civil Rights movement and leaders.
In fact, the immortal words of Martin Luther King Jr. in the "I Have a Dream" speech are known the world over. However, few people know that he used a phrase about a dream in Rocky Mount in November 1962, long before the August 1963 delivery of the speech in the March on Washington. Near the conclusion of the November 1962 speech in Rocky Mount were the lines:
"I have a dream that one day right here in Rocky Mount, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will meet at the table of brotherhood, knowing that one God brought man to the face of the Earth. I have a dream tonight that one day my little daughter and my two sons will grow up in a world not conscious of the color of their skin, but only conscious of the fact that they are members of the human race. . . ."
A North Carolina highway historical marker dedicated in 2007 in Rocky Mount commemorates the King speech given there. It is one of nearly 1,600 of the familiar black and silver markers that dot the roadside to recognize people, places and events in an impressive body of markers statewide that share Tar Heel history on a stick.
Other events from North Carolina's Civil Rights story told in the 106 markers about African American history include the well-known Greensboro sit-ins that came to prominence after four students at the current N.C. Agricultural and Technical State University refused to leave a Woolworth's lunch counter until being served in 1960. The sit-in movement spread across the South
Soon afterwards, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was formed at Shaw University on Easter weekend 1960. About 150 students from 10 states met to plan nonviolent resistance to segregation. The students were the shock troops of the movement and were especially active in summer protests in Mississippi. Several national leaders, including John Lewis and Stokeley Carmichael, rose from its ranks.
The "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement," Ella Baker, organized a meeting that gave birth to SNCC. A highway marker dedicated to her will be erected this spring. She got funding for the conference from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, of which she was a founding member and also an ally of Martin Luther King.
Even before the 1960s, nearly 10,000 workers, mostly African American women, joined a union seeking better working conditions in tobacco warehouses, also known as leaf houses, where cured tobacco was processed for sale to cigarette makers. The 1946 organizing campaign, known as Operation Dixie, eventually included 30 warehouses in North Carolina and Virginia. The first vote was won in Rocky Mount, and 22 of 24 elections in North Carolina were to join the union.
In a 1947 test to the Supreme Court ruling barring racial discrimination in interstate transportation, black and white citizens known as freedom riders left Washington, D.C., on buses. Along the way of the Journey of Reconciliation, they were challenged. In Chapel Hill, four of the riders were arrested after meeting with students from area colleges, and incidents continued for weeks.
In June 1957, a sit-in at the segregated Royal Ice Cream parlor in Durham was one of several that preceded the better known1960 Greensboro sit-in. The significant impact of the Durham sit-in was that a court case resulted that tested if segregated facilities were legal. The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that segregated facilities were legal.
In 1977, Pauli Murray became the first African American female Episcopal priest in the United States. She had long been an activist for African American and women's rights. A lawyer, writer and activist, she also helped to found the National Organization for Women.
The N.C. Department of Cultural Resources and the N.C. Department of Transportation have joint responsibility for the marker program. The N.C. Highway Historical Marker Program is one of the oldest such programs in continuous operation in the United States. More information on the application process, and a searchable list by name or category, are available at N.C. Markers.

For additional information, call (919) 807-7389. The Highway Marker Program is within the Office of Archives and History in the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.

Raleigh radio icon to be recognized at MLK celebration

As a part of the Martin Luther King Prayer Breakfast Celebration at 7 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 16, at the Sheraton Imperial, RTP, special recognition will be given to a Raleigh radio icon, Ray “Dr. Jocko” Henderson. A dynamic personality with a broad following during the 1960’s, Dr. Jocko was huge on WLLE 570 am. He is credited by many observers of that tense time of civil right activities with promoting calm on the streets throughout the total community, black and white.
Mr. Henderson was very involved with local schools at a time when the Capital City had just one black and one white public high school. He visited the campuses, held dances, served as master of ceremonies at many functions involving students at Needham Broughton and J.W. Ligon High Schools. He stressed conversation and not confrontation. He was a measurable calming force at a time when, all across the nation, nerves were on edge and many communities were tinder boxes of potential overreaction to the news of the day. Ray Henderson built bridges between the races and helped Raleigh set a more positive tone and example for the rest of the country.
“Dr. Jocko” was on the air at WLLE (WiLLiE Radio) when other popular disc jockeys called that radio station their on air home. They included Daddy O on the Radio; Big Bill Haywood; Brother James Thomas; Prince Ike Behind the Mike; Jimmy Johnson of JJ’s House Party; and Sweet Bob Rogers. The station’s signal reached to Wallace - Rose Hill in the east and to Walkertown in the west.
Ray Henderson modeled “Dr. Jocko” after Jocko Henderson, a popular DJ in Philadelphia and “Dr. Jive” from WSRC radio in Durham. Henderson was an outstanding athlete as a student at J. W. Ligon High School and carried those talents forward as a college student at St. Augustine College.
Later in his career, he was an executive with Motown Records in Detroit. He hosted a television program in that city, The Scene, which was much like Teenage Frolics on WRAL-TV in Raleigh featuring J.D. Lewis. He was on a first-name basis with every music industry star of that era. He traveled with James Brown as master of ceremonies and toured the nation and world when the Godfather of Soul was at the height of his illustrious career.
Throughout it all, Ray Henderson never forgot his roots and proudly promoted, at every opportunity, his lifelong love of his hometown, Raleigh (third stop on the Night Train). The music of the sixties has its stars, known to all. Just as bright and shining in the firmament is Ray Henderson… the man behind the music.

N.C. MLK Jr. Commission calls for Friday bell ringing tribute to Dr. King

Members of the N.C. Martin Luther King Jr. Commission will initiate a statewide bell ringing tribute at 11:55 a.m. Friday on the Bicentennial Plaza near the N.C. Museum of History in downtown Raleigh. The event will precede the annual State Employees’ Dr. Martin Luther King Observance Program, which will get underway at noon at First Baptist Church, 99 N. Salisbury St. in Raleigh.
“Ringing of a replica Liberty Bell proclaims the fundamental importance of freedom in our own lives, in our state, our nation and our world,” said Dr. Dumas A. Harshaw Jr., commission chair. “We will use this occasion to ring out to call attention to the insensitivity, injustice and inequality that curtail freedom and happiness throughout society.”
The commission encourages all residents, churches and organizations to participate in MLK holiday observances by ringing bells at noon Friday in their own communities. The goal is to create a simultaneous bell-ringing tribute throughout the state in memory of the civil rights leader and to affirm that North Carolinians continue to cherish the value of freedom, democracy, diversity and equal opportunity.
“Though our actions are symbolic, they have tremendous potential,” said John Campbell, commission executive director. “Energized by the legacy of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the bell ringing is a statement of personal conviction and community involvement. It provides a moment for both reflection and resolve.”
Friday’s bell-ringing event is one of many observances planned by organizations across North Carolina. Gov. Bev Perdue, who will issue a 2012 MLK Day proclamation, is scheduled to speak at the annual State Employees’ Dr. Martin Luther King Observance Program. Additionally, the 32nd Annual Interfaith Prayer Breakfast will be held at 7 a.m. Jan. 16 at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel in Durham. For additional activities, visit the Human Relations Commission website.
The commission, which promotes among the people of North Carolina an awareness and appreciation of the life and work of Dr. King, was established by the General Assembly in 1993 and is part of the N.C. Human Relations Commission of the N.C. Department of Administration. For information, contact the N.C. Human Relations Commission at (919) 807-4420 or visit the website.

Andrew Young to give UNC’s MLK address

Civil rights activist and statesman Andrew Young will give the 31st annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial lecture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Young—who was an aide to King, a Congressman and a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations—will speak at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17, in Memorial Hall on Cameron Avenue. The free public program will begin with a scholarship presentation. Then Jack Boger, dean, and Wade Edwards, distinguished professor in the School of Law, as well as UNC senior Amber Koonce will engage Young in conversation.
“We’re pleased to bring to Carolina someone who, as a young leader, marched side-by-side with Dr. King and rose through the ranks of the social justice and civil rights movements and beyond,” said Terri Houston, interim chief diversity officer of the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs. “In light of national action groups such as OCCUPY and international movements activated by social media, Ambassador Young will offer provocative thoughts on how the movements of yesterday impact the movements of today while sharing personal stories of his life as Dr. King’s protégée."
The lecture will highlight the 2012 MLK Week Celebration at Carolina. This year’s theme is “The Time is Now: Our Legacy, Our Future.” Visit online for a schedule of activities.
Andrew Jackson Young Jr., 79, was born in New Orleans to a dentist and a school teacher. He graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C., in 1951, then earned a divinity degree from Hartford Theological Seminary in Connecticut. He became pastor of Bethany Congregational Church in Thomasville, Ga., where he immersed himself in the civil rights movement.
Young left Thomasville in 1961 to work for King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference and became executive director. He helped organize voter registration and desegregation campaigns in towns including Albany, Ga.; Birmingham and Selma, Ala.; and Washington, D.C. He was with King when the civil rights leader was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., in 1968.
Young was elected three times to the U.S. House of Representatives, the first African American to win a seat from Georgia since Reconstruction. There, Young championed poor and working-class Americans and opposed efforts to increase military budgets.
He supported the 1976 presidential campaign of Jimmy Carter, and, in 1977, Carter named Young ambassador to the United Nations. Young was forced to resign the post in 1979 after he met with a Palestinian Liberation Organization representative. At that time, the organization was considered a terrorist group, and U.S. officials were officially forbidden to meet with its members.
Young returned to Atlanta and, in 1981, was elected the city’s mayor. Today he is a professor at Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies.
Those planning to attend the Jan. 17 lecture must pick up free tickets at the Memorial Hall box office—(919) 843-3333—which is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays. UNC students who show UNC One Cards may get two tickets per card, two cards allowed per student. Others may get two tickets per person.
For more information about the lecture, call (919) 962-6962 or visit http://www.unc.edu/diversity/mlkweek.htm.