The Carolinian [February 9, 2010]

              • •• aro 1n1an
Independent Newspaper if the University if North Carolina at Greensboro -Founded 1919
'
Greensboro, NC I Vol. XC, No. 17 Carolinianonline. com February 9 - February 15, 2010
UNCG
hosts 10th
annual NC
step ~how
Ashley Hilliard
Staff Writer
On the wintery evening of
Feb. 6 at ?p.m. when ali was
quiet on campus, the rhyth­mic
stepping of the Omega Nu
Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta could
be heard in the distance. The
members of the Rho Beta Chap­ter
of Phi Beta Sigma hosted the
lOth Annual NC Challenge Step
Show. Tickets for the show went
on sale January 19th as stu­dents
and Greensboro residents
highly anticipated the affair.
For years, the show has been
an event that sororities and fra­ternities
participate in from all
across the state. The step show
has served as an event for not
only step teams of all types,
but as a big event that engages
the UNC Greensboro com­munity
year after year. Bruce
Blackwell, a member of the Rho
Beta Chapter served as one of
SEE STEP SHOW, PAGE 4
C> INSIDE
Super Bowr ad causes
stir, UNCG has history
all around, Abstinence­only
sex education
preaching the wrong
message Opinions
Two Oscar nominees
come to the Carousel,
Citizen Cope brings the
blues to Greensboro,
~ew music review A&E
Spring sports preview,
Greensboro Coliseum
starting for feel like
home, Lady Spartans
fall Aat Sports
A noob tries Dungeons
& Dragons, Jersey
Shore misrepr-esents the
Garden State, -
Features
DIRECTORY
News
Opinions
A&E
Sports
Features
2-4
5-7
8-10,19
10-13,18
14-16
Christopher Boyette
Senior Reporter
On a cold morning in 1960 four college freshman from the all-black Agricultural
and Technical College of North Carolina sat down at a lunch counter at the F.W.
Woolworth store in downtown Greensboro and ordered food. They did not expect to
be served because much of Greensboro was, as much of the southern United States,
racially segregated. F. W. Woolworth Co. was a national chain of five and dime stores,
kind oflike an early Wal-Mart, complete with a food court. Their policy on segrega­tion
reflected community standards at the time, and the four teenage students did not
receive service at the luncheonette. Quietly, they kept their seats at the counter in a
silent protest that would be a pivotal point in the Civil Rights Movement. Fifty years
later, on a similarly cold morning, one barely noticed the eight inches of snow that
fell on Greensboro several days before. The streets of downtown were cleared and
closed to automobile traffic. On South Elin Street people of different ages, races, and
walks of life filled the street and crowded in front of a stage by the old building with
a red sign across the front. In gold letters it reads, "F.W. Woolworth Co:'. They were
there to honor those sit-in protests, 50 years ago and to celebrate the transformation
of the long closed five and dime store into the International Civil Rights Center and
Museum.
The Greensboro Four, as Joseph A; McNeil, Ezell A. Blair Jr. (who now goes by Ji­breel
Khazan), Franklin E. McCain, and David L. Richmond came to be known, had
no idea that when they sat down at that lunch counter they would become a central
- part of the greatest sociopolitical movement of the century, but they knew what they
were doing. The four young men who kept their seats that day sat at that lunch coun­ter
to make a statement about the way the country dealt with race. They sat down to
stand up for basic rights that today many take for granted because it seems so absurd
now that they would be denied, rights that are now legally granted to all people.
These students were not asking for special treatment or trying to do anything strange
or outrageous beyond asking to purchase a sandwich at a lunch counter, and eat it
sitting down. At Woolworth's, black people were allowed to order food, but had to
eat it standing up away from the counter. It is this kind of discrimination that epito­mizes
the Jim Crow laws. A lot of the time, the segregation seems arbitrary and the
Chancellor
explains
delayed
class- ·
cancelation
John Boschini
Editor-In-Chief
Greensboro's winter weath­er
woes continued Jan. 29th
when an overnight snow storm
dumped eight inches of snow and
ice on the city. Subsequent days
saw the temperature rarely reach
above freezing and Chancellor
Brady delayed UNCG until noon
for the following Monday.
"But upon arriving at campus
I decided that, despite the hard
work of the UNCG grounds
crew, I did not feel it was safe for
classes to open'' said Brady. The
call to cancel school was made at
approximately 11:25 a.m., only
35 minutes before some students
were due to their first class.
Brady and North Carolina
A&T Chancellor Harold L. Mar­tin
were both delayed getting to
campus due to their attendance
obligc;ttions at the opening of the
Woolworth Civil Rights museum
in Downtown Greensboro .. "It
was a really difficult situation on
Monday and the exact same thing
happened at A&T, who were de­layed
until noon and then made
the decision to cancel classes;'
said Brady. '
Both Brady's Twitter page and
the university relation's face­book
page were flooded with
disgruntled students who had
already made the trip to school
only to find out that there were
SEE CHANCELLOR, PAGE 4
First African-American students honored with
distinguished professorsh-ips in the pe~forming arts
Michael Cassaza
Staff Writer
·The UNCG as we know it to­day
has an abundantly diverse
student population, and is well
known for its gender and racial
acceptance. That mentality has
grown from roots of the Uni­versities
conception, being one
of the first schools to open its
application process and arms
to woman, eventually produc­ing
some of the first African­American
female graduates in
1960. This honor was achieved
by JoAnne Smart Drane and
Bettye Davis Tillman Sanders,
in a decreasingly typical four
year span. To memorialize this
triumph UNCG has decided to
create a professorship in ·their
name providing for the School
of Performing Arts. This five
year term will be called the
"Smart-Tillman Distinguished
Professorship in the School of
Music, Theatre and Dance:'
:After graduation both wom­an
realized lives of scholarship
and philanthropy. Sanders, who
died eight years after graduat­tng,
taught social studies at the
high school and junior-senior
high school level. Drane earnd
her master's degree at Duke
University and became a pub­lic
school official in Raleigh.
She served as vice president of
the UNCG Alumni Association
from 1990 to 1992 the UNCG
Board of Trustees from 1996 to
2004, is a member of the board
of directors of Strengthen­ing
the Black Family, Inc., and
in 2004, she was named to the
YWCA Academy of Women for
her commitment to improv­ing
the quality of education _in
North Carolina.
"JoAnne Drane and Bettye
Tillman are part of this univer­sity's
history, and JoAnne has
lived a life of service to educa­tion
and to UNCG, including
two terms as a member of the
Board of Trustees;' Chancel­lor
Linda P. Brady said. "One of
the Students First Campaign's
priorities was the creation of
endowed professorships so that
our students can learn from the
brightest faculty. It's entirely fit­ting
that we ·name this profes­sorship
for JoAnne and Bettye:'
This well funded, $1 mil­lion
dollar, endowment will
be an excellent addition to the
renowned music and theater
program for which UNCG has
formed a positive reputation.
Current and future students will
benefit from the reward given to
the holder of the staff position,
by being a part of a performing
arts program that is simply not
just growing but has the· finical
support to foster new ideas and
carry out pupil ambition. It will
serve as a constant reminder
that overcoming adversity is
possible, and encourage those
students who are yet to break
ground and create history.
The endowment is being cre­ated
with funds from the C.D.
Spangler Foundation, the N.C.
Distinguished Professorship
SEE PROFESSORSHIP, PAGE 4