North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 01/15/1996

We are Iraq. It's Monday January 15th. Tonight are evergreen. A special edition of North Carolina now in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. Good evening everyone I'm worried about right. Thanks for joining us for this special edition of North Carolina now. Tonight we'd like to pay a special tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The civil rights leader energized the nation with his message and those left a legacy that is still important and timely today.

Tonight we'd like to look back on the life of Martin Luther King Jr. through the eyes of those who knew him best. We also pay tribute tonight to North Carolina men and women who have followed Dr. King's footsteps in setting high goals for themselves and others and then will blast off to the stars with the first African-American woman to travel into space. And we'll meet a Wilmington artist who has left her legacy as a work of art. Well for many of us the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a figure in history. Someone we see and hear only in recordings and in news film but we celebrate his birthday tonight with some North Carolinians who have more personal more vivid memory of the man himself. Michel Louis brings us some of those memories from the people who lived them right. Oh my God man it's a blast. Relaxed. Is immortal words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or from the I Have A

Dream speech. One of the most celebrated speeches in U.S. history but the famous march on Washington D.C. On August 28 1963 was not the first time King uttered those words. He did it nine months earlier in North Carolina. Does the following sound familiar. We will be able to speed up the day when all of God's children black men and white men Jews and Gentiles Catholics and Protestants will be able to join hands and sing and the word Negro spiritual Free at last free at last thank God Almighty we are free at last thank God. It was here at the Booker T Washington high school gym in Rocky Mount where King delivered his oration. The date was November 27 1962. Nancy Joyner was a member of the United choir Guild of Rocky Mount which performed at the event a performance she says she will never forget his cattle and loan.

But a meeting was how proud to be on the quiet zone so that we were able to cover for her North Carolina Central University Chancellor Julius chambers met King in a different way during Dr. King's various times in jail. It was one of several lawyers with the NWA Sepi Legal Defense Fund who represented him. Chambers recalls two of his most memorable cases. Both went to the U.S. Supreme Court at which time that effort came in ashes to demonstrate at the close. And they call it ruling the First Amendment protected. That kind of a speech and assembly the second one was an Alabama. Dr. King and several of his assistants and the question there was

whether one could defy a court injunction even if a court injunction was improper. And the court held that one could know an estimated 200 to 300000 people who were present to hear Dr. King speak in Washington D.C. neither Joyner or Chambers attended the march. But both watched it on television when they may have a somewhat close in this in healing tour goes ahead. Who here in person and our familiar with. I think that he was in his speeches and with this one. It really showed me that he was a great orator. The speech is inspiring and all of that together achieving that objective is something that's going to be very long in the making. And

I knew that in 1963 and I think a lot of the participants in both chambers and Joyner agree that King's dream is yet to be fulfilled. Citing the rise of crime and drugs the lack of national attention to unemployment health care for the poor and elderly education and yes racism. But we do insist that Dr. King's legacy of nonviolence must be passed on to future generations. Somewhere down the line and we have to shelter our young people. And to the degree that we don't make them cowards but make them in their hand to be able to stand and discuss people at a movie with a weapon. I hope all of us or one of the things I think all of us have that kind of leadership ability or so lacking is just the commitment or determination. There's something about it.

Mark I am right. Martin was the. We'd like to thank the Duke University Divinity School for that audio recording of Dr. King's speech at the Booker T Washington High School in Rocky Mount. Well tonight in honor of Dr. King we are showcasing African-Americans who have made a significant impact in history. While there is no way we could possibly mention all of the contributions we didn't want to share with you information about a part of history with which many people are not familiar. Tonight Audrey Cates Bailey and producer David Harvey bring us to the Outer Banks for the story. The old lighthouse has created countless ships making their way down the North Carolina coast and even on this chilly winter day the ocean and sands seem to beckon travelers but the treacherous shells and shifting winds off Cape Hatteras have lured many ships to disaster. In fact these waters

are called the graveyard of the Atlantic. Dad along our coast are the remains of lifesaving stations like this one at chick I'm a comic Oh most of them are gone now but the legends remain of the men who ran the stations always prepared to rescue ships and sailors from the grip of the graveyard. There was one life saving station long gone now on a remote stretch of beach called Pea Island just south of Nags Head on the Outer Banks. The lifesavers of P.I. island were famous not only for their daring rescues but because it was the only coast guard station manned entirely by blacks. Their story is told of a North Carolina Aquarium at Roanoke Island in 1880. Richard Etheridge a black Civil War veteran and surf man was appointed to head the station at PR Island. He assembled an all black crew trained them well and started a long

tradition of black men from the area joining the Coast Guard. The men would walk for miles along the beach and exchange a badge with lifesavers from another station. This badge was logged by Etheridge to confirm the work of his man. The seven man crew was involved in several rescues but probably their most dramatic was in 1896 when a large schooner beat as Newman ran into a hurricane just off PR Island. A black lifesaver sprang into action. Normally the men would fire a small cannon that would run a line from the shore to the boat in distress. But the sea was too angry that night. So Etheridge tied allied to his best swimmers and sent them into the surf when the long night was done. The nine people on the ESM human were safe on the beach. ETHERIDGE died four years later and is buried on the grounds of the aquarium. But the tradition and discipline he instilled in his black lifesavers lived on.

Mrs. Agatha gray remembers well the life of API island life saver. Her husband Lani Clinton Gray served at the station from one thousand eighteen to 1945. They have to just stand watch. No reading no talking no no no she leave. They have to just watch. Back there in my husband's time they didn't have all these things machinery you know that kind of things just to check people in distress. They had to do it for a look at TELL and on patrol. Many familiar Outer Banks names were a part of a life saving service for generations and the collets is a cheaper system. She had seven sons six sons in the Cosco and one in the Air Force and the Pledger to his three sons three sons in the Cosco.

Today Mrs. Grey can view the paintings by James Melvin at the NC aquarium in Manteo. And remember the unsung heroes of the Pea Island life saving station from 1880 to 1949. These men not only rescued lives but brought a sense of pride and dignity to the black communities along the Outer Banks. First go to school and learn all you can. Don't try to do anything pertaining to the city he lived in the point that he was willing to do it. If you would like to see the exhibit on the African American lifesavers you can see it at the North Carolina Aquarium at Roanoke Island it's located in Manteo off Highway 64. The phone number is 9 1 9 4 7 3 3 4 9 3. It's open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.. Astronaut Mae Jemison made history as the

first African-American woman to blast off into space. These days Dr. Jamison has her feet planted firmly on earth but she's teaching a future generation of astronauts to reach for the stars. Recently Michel Louis got a chance to sit down and talk with Jamison as she visited some students in Johnson County. Dr. Jamison thanks for joining us. First of all what brings you to North Carolina. Well today I have the pleasure of being here with Bear corporation who sponsored a program called Making science make sense and it's a national program that beer is sponsoring to do with science literacy and science education and I've been working with them to help bring science literacy more in the forefront. So today we're actually at Smithville Middle School here in North Carolina looking at what do we do with kids how do we maintain their enthusiasm for science and exploring creativity.

Why is science education so important that the lower grade levels. Well this is talk about science education period and where it is. If we didn't have some idea about science and technology I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you. Because when you have a TVs and when have the airplanes that allowed me to come here in a small amount of time I would have the television cameras any of that. So we wouldn't be here involved and that's what science is about. Science seems to be so intimidating. What can parents as well as teachers do to help improve science education with their youngsters. The only reason it's intimidating is because we've been told that it's separate from the rest of our world. You think about it little kids love science. Some people might say maybe maybe not. When children come out of the world they're walking they're trying to figure out what's going on so they go over and pick up a bug and this was this. They ask why is the sky blue How come I'm breathing. All of those questions are science questions and then you see them experiment too right. So they'll try to do something they watch it fall over and 20 times they'll bang the cabinet door to hear what kind of sound it makes

what about if I close it slowly. All those kind of things is what science is about it's about creativity. It's about trying to understand how the world works so each one of us has a natural scientist inside of us. What happened to us older folks is that it was beyond of us by the time we get through school so all of a sudden all our experiments and gathering techniques were told to leave alone because now the teacher wants you to memorize the periodic table. Right. And that's deadly boring work. Being the first African-American woman to go into space as the space shuttle Endeavor lifted off what was going through your mind. I was smiling. I was I was very excited. I mean it wasn't one of those oh I'm making history. I'm smiling because we launch to the second on time the day we were supposed to launch So I'm hitting the guy next to me. Didn't you know my legs were smiling. Because we're happy going into space for me was a very personal experience and there was a

public side of it the personal side of it is that I would have gone into space if there had been a hundred thousand people of every description and gone up and on the other side of that I would have gone up if no one had ever been up and they had never tested the rocket I had my hand up saying I'll go. So there's a very personal side of it that is something I wanted to do so it was a feeling some personal. Reasons I have then there is a public side of it which says finally in this country we're starting to utilize the range of people that we have for their skills and talents and abilities and perhaps we're starting to learn a little bit more and opening up opportunities. And additionally we can present some different images about who does science what a scientist is what that's all about so then we're able to use a full range of our abilities and our resources. Besides this program you seem to be a very busy lady. What other projects are you

working on. Well I'm very interested as you can tell about how science and society interact. And my background is one that was very strong in the technical fields and also in the social sciences. So right now I have a company in Houston and we look at various ways of using advanced technologies in developing countries. One of the areas that we're looking at is solar power use. As well as tele medicine using satellite based telecommunications for health care delivery in West Africa to facilitate it. And we also put together international science camp that looks at science literacy which is why there is such a good match between the work that we're doing with Bear corporation both here in North Carolina and around the United States because we're interested in putting together different types of science curriculum that maintains and utilizes the enthusiasm and motivation students have. And I also am a professor in environmental studies at Dartmouth College. I understand that you have your own school of sorts. Tell me about that.

There's a school named after me in Detroit called the Macy Jamison Academy and it's a magnet school or special school that looks at science from very early on it started with. First it will priests pre-kindergarten kindergarten first and second graders and now they want it added on a third and a fourth grade and each year they'll add on additional grades. What it is looking at how do we build in the science base in students early on in Detroit made a commitment to. Various schools that build in those kinds of bases which they're called academies now do you see yourself as a role model to perhaps help minorities or women to become more involved in space travel. Well I'm not really sure how I'm going to connect those who care about being involved with meth and whether or not how I change and my role model business. I don't think that public figures are role models. I think role models are those people who you learn to pattern your behavior after so those are the folks that were around

most often those of folks we learned how to deal with success or failure how to persevere what foods we eat all of those are the people who are role models what public figures can be or images. And those are the kind of people who sort of help us see what are the range of possibilities. So certainly I hope that I can continue to be one of those images that says that there is a positive range. Our very large range of possibilities who would you consider to be role models or role models have to be those adults that we're around they can sometimes be folks that are even our own age but they're folks that you're around very frequently so you learn how they respond to challenges so they have to be your parents and they have to be. Teachers and principals and folks that you're around very frequently. Now the problem is people say role model they assume it's a positive thing. It just means how you learn to play your role. What advice would you give to someone who's interested in pursuing a career in science or maybe even becoming an astronaut.

Well I think first of all it's just a matter of making up your mind that this is what you're going to do and you do it. It's real simple. It's not necessarily easy but it's simple. You go ahead and you have the courage and the nerve to perhaps be turned down to fail sometimes but really you go ahead and do it. I would add that lots of times when people think about science and technology careers that they think of oh I have to get a Ph.D. right to be a scientist to be involved with technology. The folks who put the space the tiles on the station they're involved in a pretty high tech feel when you say they're usually high school graduates who've done other kinds of things who've gone on and done some little bit of additional training. But that's what they do. They're high school graduates. People who work in biotechnology companies who build semiconductors. They those technicians are high school graduates so we have a range of possibilities of what to do and we can be involved in a technology field. Dr. Mae Jemison thank you very much for joining us.

You're very welcome. And Thanks Michel for that report. Born into poverty in Long Creek North Carolina artist many haven't spent most of her life in Wilmington as a gate keeper at Airlie gardens. It was here that she began selling her artwork to visitors. Many Evans died in 1987 but not before she became a well-known folk artist producer Bill Hannah and reporter Maria Lundberg show us the magical visions of Minnie Evans. Throughout her life many Evans was never able to ask for an explanation for the exotic

images of homework many of her dog dreams or visions. She said The pictures are as strange to me as they are to anyone else Orwell. And now the room where you were you were your work your put it in a mood to be with Big Bird your boy. I've got room. It's great movie. You move. I read thank you so much. You were

so her dreams were her launching point and her surroundings. Nature very much informed her work because she lived outside as a as a worker as a gatekeeper at Airlie gardens and that's where she did the bulk of her most mature work. In the 60s 70s here at the gate house she would sell her pictures for 50 cents or give them away to visitors to the gardens. And it was here that she was discovered by photographer and art student Nina Howell star. She was she was from New York and was and was studying photography and happened to be in the area in the early 60s I believe it was 62 and heard about the beauty of Airlie gardens. It's great it's quite a large tract of land with water and swans and they're in the Tour plantings and star went to Airlie gardens just to tour and Minnie was the gatekeeper and they.

Became friends on side it was just one of those friendships. They were they were kin. From the moment that they saw each other and were through the remainder of their lives. And Naina saw much of the work that she was doing there and said and purchased some and took it to friends of hers in New York and slowly but surely got a clearance for mini's first exhibitions there which were most appropriately in churches the Church of the Epiphany and subsequently after that shows at the Museum of American folk art in the Whitney and 74 when of course she got the attention of private collectors and her her career as an artist just soared to love. And she trusted God.

Whether it was where the next day's meal was coming from or the resolution of the book she would say is so the upper left quadrant wasn't working out so it was to yellow to red to blue. She was into reading that and relying upon him to help sort that out for her. So she said I think she had an incredible aesthetic intuition which was she was so appreciative for her and I believe this was her way of saying thank you. Many Ivan's work has become very well known and highly valued. In addition to the retrospective in Wilmington some of her work is currently on exhibit here at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. And you can also see examples of many of the spectacular work showcased at the St. John's Museum of Art in Wilmington. Well thanks for joining us for this special edition

of North Carolina now you won't want to miss tomorrow night's show. If you're like many people across the state you've probably gotten a headache or two from all the Tar Heel traffic. Well tomorrow night we'll try to untangle those traffic problems with Wake Forest University president Dr. Thomas Hearns. He is also the chairman of the transit 2001 commission. He'll tell us about the future of public transportation in North Carolina. Enjoy your Monday evening Everyone we'll see you back here tomorrow night. Good night.