: LOS ANGELES (AP) - The rival
. load and Crip gan y they have
[oined fo , but for t e ct
purpo e they won't y. A flier
ddre ed to g ng members i
ciJculating on the tree with the
ge "Open season on LAPD."
• The Police Department,
while, . d it i inve tigating
s repo th t gang members
a leading role in I t week'
o . In an unusual gathering of the
au:henemy treet g on Tuesday,
lp and Blood leaders aid the riots
• w t inner-city BI cks cannot
�tinue killing each other.
:. "Up to now, they've been getting
to kill e ch other. We've alway
bien ingled OUL We're against the
lice because they're against us,"
. d a man who identified himself
CIlop, a 27-year-old Crip.
..
"WE'VE BEE tearing each
o er up long enough, " said Kip-Lac,
identifying him elf by hi Crip
oictDame. "What the riots did w
biing us clo e together." Asked
at they're uniting against,
-year-old Spud of the Blood
.... gANgs. A 10
..
J ck on
c II
Juneteenth
protest
.
By UNDRA TORRY
W""',.,on PtMt Sta" Writer
D.C. hadow senator Jesse
L. Jack on recently urged
Americans to make June 19 "a
national day of protest and
healing" and called on Presi­
dent Bush to propose a com­
prehensive plan to rebuild
America's cities and rescue its
youth.
Jacltsonspoke after a hasti­
ly called meeting in
W bington, where more than
200 national political and civil
righ leaders met to map an
agenda to deal with urban un- .
rest.
Jackson charged that the
president is "disconnected, .....
too shielded from American
'reality" and has used the riots
that followed the Rodney O.
Xing vetdict to polarize rather
than heal the nation.
S PROTEST, A10
Alvin Buckl and Bertha Gordon m at orthw rn 'HIgh School for th Detroit Public
School.' annu Sci nc ath matlc. and Technology Confer nc . Thl. Y ar'. th m wa
-Making th Connection ,- and focu d on multicultural ducatlon program In .clenc and
math matlca. (photo by Gordon)
By LEAH UEL
s,."Wtffw
Political and business leaders
from Detroit and Highland Park met
with residents at Highland Park
Community College 1 t Friday. The
meeting wa called by Wayne
County Commi sioner Arthur
Blackwell II in response to the
closing of the Sears store in Highland
Park.
The speakers called upon the
citizens and business community to
come together in order to improve
Detroit and Highland Park. The
general feeling among the speakers
Mock trial jury
says govemor
'endangered lives'
By LEAH UEL
s,." wrn.,
A jury consisting of citizens and
leaden of grass-roots organizations
found Gov. John Engler guilty of
taking measures "which endangered
the lives of women and children" by
cutting programs to meet their needs.
was that Black communities should
stop depending on big business to
sustain them.
Among the peakers was Don
Davis, president of First
Independence Bank.
"1be businesses in tbi area have
an old agenda: if the people in the
area do not look like them, it's time
to not serve them, and that's been the
attitude of all major businesses that
come to this area. The establishment
has not changed. This bas always
been happening."
QA VIS ADDED that one
solution to decayin neighborhoods
and the lack of b inesses was to
involve the Black churches, in
community growth.
"We have to pull together the
churches, the contr ctors, the'
accountants and everybody in this
community and get to doing
something. If the neighborhood is so
blighted that church members can't
live near tbe church, then the church
has to act to improve the
neighborhood. We intend to quietly
but decl lvely tart the economic
development. We don't need
publicity or fanfare, we just need
TERRY KEU-Y
Michigan Citizen
DETROIT-Angered th t oppor­
tunity lipping from their p
with each p ing day, th ational
ociation of African American
Busine e (NAAAB) has decided to
picket the co truction Ite of the
$200 million Vetcra Admini tra­
tion (VA) Ho pital . ing on W rren
Avenue w t of 1-75.
"Our voice ill be h rd, " id
George McCI in, executive director
ofNAAAB.
The group had i larg t turn out
yet, McClain aid of a meting held
May 6, at which orne 40 contractors,
profe ional and working people
agreed that ince all el e h f Bed,
picketing will begin May 14.
There i tremendous community
concernaboutthequicklydi ppear­
ing opportunity this h pital build­
Ing project offers, McClain aid.
NAAAB has a ked Congre man
John Conyers to use the power v il­
able to him as Chair of the H
results. It
Wayne County Commi sioner
Jackie Curry al 0 empha ized
involving the churches in
communi ty improvement.
"In our culture, we'll give to the
churches if we give to no one elae,"
she said. "The churche in tum will
build the e beautiful edifices to hold
services in, and then the pastor will
move out to Southfield, and on't
even put back into the community.
For that, I can't blame whites, I can
S. LEADERS, A10
Commit e on Government Opera-
tio to cl down the co truction
on the V pi, cCl in d.
. him to join
ell," McClain
Conye aide R y Plowden who
h been meeting over th pa t
months with African Ameri n con­
tracto and NAAAB on the' ue of
Black p rticip tion on the VA con-
truction job w unavail ble for
comment nd did not return phone
cal by pres time.
McClain id NAAAB re-
que ted a meeting with VA
Secretary Edward Derwinski inee
ovember.
NAAAB h written to the prime
contractor on the project,
Bateson/Dailey of Te , but again
with no luck.
Bateson/Dailey bas a terrible
record when it com to invovllng
miooritie . constructionjobs,
COlin id. Conyers and the VA
VA, P A·7
I
I
The verdict came at the end of a
mock trial held at the Cathedral
Church of SL Paul's Barth Hall last
Satwday. It was sponsored by the
Metro Times along with
organizations such as Michigan Up
and Out of Poverty, Single Mothers
of Color, and the Southea t
Michigan Hunger Action Coalition.
the, people of Michigan, and Emil y
Hall w the defense attorney for the
governor.
Witnesses spoke of personal
experience with indivuals and
families who had lost income, homes
and resource due to cuts the
governor made in programs.
"Judge" Marian Kramer, DELORES HOWELL,
National President of the Welfare
Rights Union, presided over the trial. president of the All iance for the
Attorney Julie Hurwitz represented Mentally III in Oakland County,
testified that since the organization'
budget was cut, it has had to
eliminate a number of the services it
provides.
"(Engler's) cuts have added to the
homeless problem because we've
had to eliminate the drop-in centers
we once provided, It she said. "We
also cannot always provide
medication for them, and when the
mentally ill are not medicated, their
behavior is unpredictable. We have
al 0 found that many of the mentally
ill ere' getting General !stance
and lost it ith the cu ,but because
of the stigma of mental illness, they
won't apply for the di bility
benefits."
Tammy Ho endove, a
17-ye r-old tudent at Detroit'
Central High School, presented a
tatement on. the homeles ness
situation." e a society have to
Sa GUILTY, A10
I.
'Q:
What do
you think
of the
Rodn y
King,
verdict?
CLARK POWELL (Prin­
.cipal BHHS): "I ful like the
deci ion q �ooable, but
predictable because of here
they had the trial."
GLORY PRE IX: "I'm
upset by the verdict. Clearly
thele' a need for a multi-racial
jury. Hope to ee violence
stopped lIDtil· ue is cleared up."
LOUIS JOSEPH: "Shock­
ing! This causes division between
Ameriams. The President has et
the tone for this to happen. It lets
know e are in danger."