North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 01/08/1997

The It's Wednesday January 8th. Tonight explore the treasures of the city of supple rest in North Carolina now. Good evening I'm Marina try a very pleasant Wednesday

evening to you. Thanks for joining us for tonight's edition of North Carolina now. Many of our nation's most talented riders have ties to our state. To learn more about an organization which is in many ways responsible for cultivating the talent of budding authors and poets as well as supporting well-published veterans. Also tonight a cultural exchange program between our state and Israel has netted an exquisite exhibit of ancient artifacts which is now on display at the North Carolina Museum of Art. Later on the program we'll take you there. But first the U.S. Agriculture Department is focusing its concern on a segment of North Carolina's farming community. The plight of African-American farmers was the topic of a forum held today at the Hao effects agriculture center. The meeting on minority farm issues which was attended by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman and First District Congresswoman Eva Clayton comes in the wake of a lawsuit filed by several black farmers against the U.S. Agriculture Department. The African-American farmers allege that racial discrimination within the Agriculture Department and in

the farm loan practices is fueling a decline in the number of minority farmers just down the road a bit from where the meeting took place this afternoon. Is the town of Tillery a community that exemplifies the problems facing black farmers. Robin mini reports we got in 1947 January. With that you have. And 20 the 30. Above all else. Seventy seven year old Matthew Grant is a farmer. So is his son Richard. I've been family dad in Titanic except two and a half years in service. We were up around a thousand to eleven hundred acres in the 60s and early 70s and then after I got out of service I started farming on my own and with him. But in 1976 after three declared farm disaster years the grants among many others fell behind on their loans. The Farmers

Home Administration a government agency moved to foreclose for 20 years while their equipment sits idle and their farm sink into disrepair. Matthew and Richard have fought to keep their property when they can on their own to heal you know foreclosure when we lost our way ally or I would create a means to produce crops. The grants are not alone according to many experts. Minority farmers are on the road to extinction. Minority farmers said losing your farms in the loo at the ready. Three point to five times the rate of white farmers African-American farmers in particular their numbers have dropped from nine hundred and seventy thousand one thousand twenty to approximately 20000 as of today. That's right the United States in North Carolina.

The statistics are equally appalling. The U.S. Department of Commerce reports that during the 10 year period from 1978 through 1987 the number of black operated farms dropped by 55 percent. Cary Grant knows these statistics by heart. He knows what they mean to his brother and father and he knows what they mean to the predominantly African-American population of Tillery. The small farm town in eastern North Carolina where he and his family live. So if you're going to distribute in the Weldon area and she's going to distribute it. Scott she usually does. As director of a small nonprofit organization called Concerned Citizens of Tillery. Gary has spearheaded efforts to stem the loss of black owned farmland in Tillery. He's also worked to document the history of this African-American farming community. I think it's important that the people in this community be validated. I think that it is important that African-Americans in this country be validated that the real history and struggle of what has actually happened here and be

validated so that we all share in the rich history that is the history of this country. Teller a share of that history is remarkable for more than a century. The land was dominated by plantations African-Americans work the soil first as slaves then after the Civil War as sharecroppers in 1935 Tillery became a part of one of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal experiments in 100 rural areas across the country impoverished farm families were given free access to land in an effort to break their dependency on large landowners Tillery was one of only eight projects that included African-Americans. It was an opportunity for African-Americans to own property to actually not be dependent on the large white plantation owners to for their livelihood. It afforded them an opportunity to be independent. It afforded them an opportunity to set direction for their own. Lives at its peak the Tillery resettlement farms spread over

18000 acres and was home to 200 black families including Garry's. But the legacy has not made it to a second or third generation. And how many of those families are still farming that land. Interesting Lee enough not well of racism as a part of our life it's always played a role in everything that we deal with. Heywood Harrell is an agricultural extension agent for in Sea State University. He works with minority and low income farmers. We work through hardships financial difficulty farm planning future planning in things like that. Howell knows that many black owned farms fail for the same reason some white owned farms fail. But he has also witnessed the insidious role that racism plays in the defeat of many African American farmers. You need equal access to capital. You need opportunities and you need to be treated as is all individual treated. But it

is sad to say that this really haven't happened that way. What's at stake according to David Harris is nothing less than the future stability of many African American communities. When you look at communities it has been the land owners have been the pillars of the communities they have been the political leaders they have been the ones who have been able to stand up to Jim Crow discrimination and leave the church so to speak to make changes in the law. There's also been a persons who have been able to educate their children to become teachers doctors and lawyers. They went two or three years. You would think they did people winning speak Richard grants children will have to find another way to build their future. Their father will not allow them to take up farming think again. And his father the passage of time has done little to soften the determination that got Matthew Grant started with 40 acres and two mules. Black farmers say they're encouraged by the attention being given to their charges of

racism. But they say the true test is whether the efforts to change the fate of African American farmers. Still ahead an archaeological dig results in a beautiful art exhibit. But first let's check out today's statewide headlines with Michel Louis. Hello Matt. Good evening everyone and Internal Revenue Service audit of two University of North Carolina campuses and one university hospital tops our news tonight. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill N.C. Charlotte and you NC hospitals are being asked to open their books to the Internal Revenue Service teams of IRS agents will reportedly look into possible tax violations between 1993 and 1995. The audit will focus on employment and business taxes unrelated to the educational purposes of the university. The IRS has completed 11 such audits of universities across the country. The average bill assessed of those universities five million dollars. An agreement over the Rockefeller family's 11000 acre Robinson County estate has been reached the 30

million dollar deal gives Fort Bragg officials room to expand training space at the base and the Harnett County school system will receive about one million dollars in compensation for some 7000 acres that will have to be removed from its property tax base. Congress appropriated the money for the deal only after North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms won assurances that the Defense Department would compensate The Harnett County school system. The complaints about a North Carolina paper mill of pouring into the Environmental Protection Agency. The letters mostly from eastern Tennessee oppose a wastewater permit for the Champion International Paper Mill in Canton to dump pollutants into the Pigeon River. North Carolina granted the permit which is the toughest in the mills history but still below standards established in the federal Clean Water Act. The EPA which originally sided with champion at North Carolina is now reconsidering whether to allow the variance in the permit standards. The proposal salt water fishing license has some coastal business owners worried. Fishing Pier owners say the extra

expense could keep recreational anglers away and put the peers out of business. Charter boat captains and Pier owners want the state to allow them to pay one annual fee to cover everyone who fishes on their pier or boat. But state officials drawing up a new fisheries management plan recommend that lawmakers reject a blanket license proposal. The new plan will be voted on in the upcoming general assembly session. And now for a look at tomorrow's weather. Our first threat of a widespread winter weather pattern moves in early on Thursday. Temperatures will peak at near freezing in the mountains rising to only the high 30s and low to mid 40s across much of the rest of the state. Freezing rain is forecast to fall in the early morning hours on western North Carolina and as far east as the Triangle. Rainfall is likely throughout the remainder of tomorrow from Boone to Wilmington. In business news Family Dollar Stores inc. reports a strong increase in sales. The discount store chain gains strong first quarter earnings and sales in December broke store records sells for the three months ending November

30th were about four hundred fifty five million dollars. That's up almost 15 percent from the same period last year. Total sales in December for Family Dollar was about two hundred sixty seven million dollars compared to 233 million in December 1995. Midway Airlines has announced it will stop direct flight service from Wilmington to Raleigh January 14th will be the last day these flights are offered. The New Hanover County Airport Director sounds a lack of passengers as the main reason for ending the service. And now for a look at what happened on Wall Street today. Our state has a wealth of renowned writers from poets to novelists money of our

nation's most critically acclaimed writers have ties to North Carolina the literary success is due in part to the North Carolina writers network. The nonprofit organization is home to eighteen hundred writers with more than 60 new members joining its month. It is one of the largest such organizations in the country. Joining me now is Linda Whitney. Hobson The director of the North Carolina writers network was Hobson Welcome to North Carolina now. Thank you. There may be viewers who are watching this program that may not be familiar with what the North Carolina writers network is all about why don't you tell us about your organization and what you do. Well it's a group of writers that was founded in 1982 by writers to help writers writing is sort of a lonely activity but there comes a time when writers need to come out of out of the study and actually work together and get some advice about their work so the mission of the network there are three parts of the mission of the network and that is to serve support and connect writers to one another and this is what really helps is that there are other

there are writers who are already established who can give advice to younger writers. And we have a very diverse group of people we have bestselling authors we have do can you and say professors who teach writing but we also have a prison pen pals program. We have we have a group of writers in the Wake County Mental Health System of something called the Poet's Corner for mental health patients and we also serve writers in retirement homes we bought a typewriter for a 91 year old woman in a nursing home. Our last book was published in 1944 and she wants to continue writing her books and so we're helping her with that. So the network is not just for the accomplished writer as somebody who's been published but maybe somebody who's just starting out that needs a little bit of help in that direction for students. And we have a lot of student scholarships for our Fall Conference. We had 42 scholarships for students and public school teachers this fall at our Fall Conference in Daraa and November 15 through 17. So I really believe in getting scholarships and and we believe in that next generation of students of all kinds.

Do you also help in maybe the business aspect of writing because I know writers are a very talented group of people but they may or may not be particularly savvy in the economics of how to get a contract how to get an agent. Where do you help there. Well we help do a lot of advice giving a lot of consulting over the phone and if people become members of the network it's only $35 a year and for that membership they can call us anytime and ask us those questions and we have a whole library. The thing about the network is it's not just a process which it is of advising giving information giving inspiration giving hope support networking and so on. It's also a place and we have a place on Highway 54 West in Orange County renovated beautiful old school house called the white cross school and that's our library and resource center so the network is a place and in this place we've got a lot of reference books for people. The writer and the law for instance is one book that we have there but we have the Writer's Market We have books and print. And people come out there and use the library for their own to help them know how to get an agent. What

was a copyright How do you get a copyright. Do you need a copyright so they call us on the phone or they come out and use our library we've got spaces to to work in and every day people come there and just use it like a library. Why do you think North Carolina is such a hotbed for authors and poets I mean there it is so Many Here it is it's very special and the thing I think that you find in this is really nothing to say about the surrounding states but it seems to be located in North Carolina and it's a fairly small region for such an interest in art. I think there are a couple of reasons for that one of the reasons is the wonderful teachers that have been here for 100 years and the public high schools and the colleges in the small colleges and these writing programs we have three MFA programs in the state and they're actually fairly recent but what you can really see is that for 100 years teachers in this state have really cared about advising people about their writing whether they're people like

Louis Ruben on the college level at USC or whether their high school teachers this has been very strong. I think another thing that's very important in North Carolina is the background of the people the African-American oral storytelling tradition is very strong here as is the Celtic. Storytelling tradition of Scotch Irish people who have settled North Carolina and people love to sit and tell stories and sometimes it's a one upmanship for who can tell the funniest story about what happened in their little town. So I think people value that I think people value people souls here and the soul is the sum ation of all the stories of all the lives that you have met in of all the life that you have lived. And what better way to do that when you don't you know there's not a lot. Well there wasn't a lot of money here so there weren't a lot of art galleries and so on and so instead of painting or having symphonies the art with storytelling. And I think that we have just we have inherited that legacy at the network and we're here to help riders in whatever everywhere we can quit we're all writers ourselves. And

so we have the network to help other writers. And you have talked a little bit earlier about ways that you help writers but you also do a lot for the public as well and you have some projects writers workshops and things like that tell us about some of those projects for the public. Well one that's coming up this spring is the Blumenthal writers and readers series. And this is 12 outreach programs of onsite readings and bias an established writer and an emerging writer in the state. And it will be held at 12 different centers that kick off that will be at the way with Sunday February 23rd at 3 o'clock. And anyone can come and show up and Alan SHAPIRO That will be one of the one of the readers. And he's a very well established poet you NCT. OK well I'll have to stop me there I guess. I know that you have so much else going on with the writers network but unfortunately we're out of time. I want to thank you so much for being here and shedding some light on this very interesting subject. Thank you so much for asking you.

Severus and Galloway is an exhibition currently on display at the North Carolina Museum of Art. The ancient city was the home of many religions and various cultures which makes the vast archaeological finds particularly interesting. Michel Louis narrates this feature produced by Bill Han are students from North Carolina Israel and across the globe are uncovering treasures from the ancient city of Severus.

Once an important city in Roman Palestine it was described as the ornament of all Galilee. Today much of the ancient city is covered in debris and rubbish from conquest and earthquakes but centuries ago Severus was a thriving provincial capital where Jews Romans pagans and later Christians co-existed in relative harmony. An exhibition of the art and artifacts of this ancient city are on display at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. The exhibit is part of the Israel North Carolina cultural exchange being celebrated across the state. In 1996 1997 the governor has established a cooperative relationship with the country of Israel to develop ties and business economics medicine in many areas including culture. So the suffragists exhibition and others in North Carolina this year are part of the cultural exchange between North Carolina. Working with site archaeologist and the Israel Antiquities Authority the

curators have selected of a riot of objects from separatists and other sites to be in the exhibition. Visitors will see sculptures architectural fragments say a jewelry ritual objects and ceramic and glass vessels on site in Israel where Duke University religion professors Eric and Carol Myers they have been working at the site for five years and have supervised hundreds of Duke students who accompany them on the digs each summer. The highlight of the day was the discovery of the colorful mosaic known as the Mona Lisa of Galilee. She's so Renaissance she's so modern She doesn't seem to be 18 years old and you have this quality. You have the shading you have the the the bodice the pearl drop earrings and the the makeup in the eyes and her beautiful lipstick and the way

it's laid on her it's very very modern in its feeling. And I think that's what's attracted people because they resonate with the modernity and Renaissance nature of it which is totally unusual and extraordinary for the answer period. Although this large and valuable work could not be brought to North Carolina an exact replica of the mosaic made in Israel has been commissioned and is on display. As home to Jews and Romans and later to Christians and Arabs Severus bears witness to a wealth of cultural artistic and religious traditions in the Roman and Byzantine periods. Severus was a leading center of Jewish scholarship and culture because of its close proximity to Nazareth separates also offers a valuable insight into the cultural setting in which Christianity took place. Severus is in the northern part of Israel ancient Palestine as it's often referred to in this historical period. It is near the Sea of Galilee so it's near

the city of Tire area's and it is very close to about 4 miles to the west of Galilee. The proximity of sappers to Nasser has really raised a lot of questions about early Christianity in the region of the early Persian period through the Arab and crusader periods have all left their traces on this ancient city. All of these cultures are explored in this exhibition subtitled cross currents of culture. The Severus and gallery exhibit will be on display at the Museum of Art until July. This exhibit along with many others is the result of the Israel North Carolina cultural exchange program being celebrated through 1997. Well that brings to a close tonight's edition of North Carolina now hope you enjoyed it. On tomorrow night's program Davis Miller will be our guest. He's a North Carolina author who's written a book called The

Tao of Muhammad Ali. Also tomorrow as a large segment of our population starts to age. What will it mean for the safety of our highways as older drivers remain behind the wheel. Tomorrow night John basin will explore the ways our state hopes to ensure the safety of older motorists and grab a spoon because tomorrow night Bob Gardner is mixing up some fish to feel then good night.