Marcia M. Anderson has the obvious focus, drive, and charisma to be successful in any field she chooses. She chose the Army Reserve. Today, she is the first Black woman to hold the rank of Brigadier General in the Wisconsin Army Reserve.

 Brig. Gen Marcia Anderson

“The people I serve with do it because of a feeling that is hard to define, for most of us.” Anderson says. “It is something we need to do for our community, our friends, [and] our family. This is how I do my public service.”
Anderson began her 30-year military career almost accidentally. Unable to take a required college class because it conflicted with her job, she chose the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). When she completed the program and was offered the option to join the Army Reserve, she committed.
Andersoncouldn’t stop studying and learning. Her academic career includes a law degree from Rutgers University School of Law and a masters degree in strategic studies from the United States Army War College.
Anderson radiates efficiency and enthusiasm as she discusses her Reserve work. Her command approach is to solicit input. “Just because I have the most senior rank doesn’t mean I’m the smartest person in the room,” she says. “We have to ask for debate. The old way [of giving and taking orders] won’t cut it.”
From the time she received her commission in 1979 from the ROTC program at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., Anderson’s specialty has been training. She was appointed acting assistant Division commander-Operations for the 95th Division’s institutional training in Topeka, Kan., in June 2006. Her current duties include command of the Regional Support Group West, Training Support Division-West, which supports training and mobilization of reservists throughout the western United States.
Anderson holds many awards, including three Meritorious Service medals, the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Achievement Medal, and the National Defense Service Medal. She has volunteered for frontline duty but has not yet been called up.
Confirmed by the Senate, Anderson took her brigadier general rank effective March 15. She toured bases, attended meetings, and became acquainted with senior leaders. “It is still a shock to me,” she says of the promotion, which required a great deal of study, experience, and work to achieve. Although she carries the rank, she won’t have a brigadier general post until enough brigadier generals retire and a post becomes available.
Anderson keeps personal priorities in sight as well. “I tell my military staff that there are certain commitments that are inviolate,” she says. The brigadier general likes, for example, to make sure that she gets in a round or two of golf with her husband, Amos Anderson.
“I am the ‘big picture’ person,” says Anderson. This strength allows her to work a civilian job as Bankruptcy Court clerk while traveling for her military duties. “I plan ahead,” she says. And, most important, she adds: “I have a great military staff. I trust them to do their jobs.”
The modern army outfits its officers with Blackberry organizers and maintains contact. “It is a constant bombardment of information,” Anderson says. The virtually instant communication leads to more open decision making. “It does allow you to find out about things earlier and get things done sooner,” she said. 
“We really are in the middle of a conflict. It might not always feel like a war, but it really is. We have to do certain things,” she says. The Army Reserve was intended to supplement shortages in the standing army, to actually be a reserve force, but it was historically underutilized until the Iraq War. Troop shortages cause a demand for reservists, putting more pressure on Reserve training units.
“The Reserve is being used, for the first time, in the way we should have been for years,” says Anderson. “But it is adding stress to families. It is a stress on employers, big or small.”
In April, Anderson accepted Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle’s nomination to serve on the Wisconsin Board of Veterans Affairs until May 2013. The Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs provides Wisconsin veterans, their families, and their survivors with health, educational, economic, and social assistance. A seven-member, part-time citizens’ board directs and supervises the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“We are just seeing the tip of the iceberg with veterans of my era,” Anderson said. “We’re going to face different challenges, with post-traumatic stress syndrome and traumatic brain injuries. We don’t know how these injuries will impact people five, 10, 20 years from now. It is important to be ahead of that wave. Those folks are going to exhibit medical and maybe mental conditions that we aren’t currently prepared to support, either on the state or federal level.”
Undeterred by the difficulty of her work, Anderson says, “I was very fortunate. I had role models in my civilian work and in the military who showed me it is important to do what is right, to speak out, even if it is uncomfortable.”

by A. David Dahmer
(Photos by Rose Johnson-Brown, Rojo Designs)

Friendship Chapter No. 2, Order of the Eastern Star, held its seventh annual “Mothers Full of Grace” awards ceremony May 2 at the Candlewood Suites in Fitchburg.
The 2008 awardees were Lois McKnight, Michelle DeBose, Fabu Carter-Brisco, Lilada Gee, Linda Ward, Linda Hancock, Vurtis Williams, Coralia Harn, and Mother Jackie Wright.

 Standing: Vurtis Williams, Lilada Gee, Mother Jacqueline Wright, Michelle DeBose, Coralia Harn, and Fabu Carter-Brisco. Sitting: Linda Hancock, Lois McKnight, and Linda Ward.
      These awards are presented annually to African American women who have exemplified through their daily lives the qualities and values that have served as the bedrock of the African American community.

 Members of Friendship Chapter No. 2, Order of the Eastern Star
Deacon Julius Johnson gave the invocation and the benediction at the event and remarks were made by Augustine Tatus, Tara Jackson, Angelina Crawford, and Jeffrey Brown.  The Mother’s Tribute Awards were presented by Roxanne Johnson and Karen Johnson.
 Proceeds from the event help fund scholarships for graduating high school seniors.

RALEIGH (NNPA) — Despite narrowing pre-primary polls, withering negative national headlines, and a relentless assault by his fierce Democratic opponent, North Carolina put Sen. Barack Obama’s historic bid for the presidency firmly back in the driver’s seat May 6 with a commanding 56-42 primary victory over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
”There were those who were saying that North Carolina could be a ‘game-changer’. But today, what North Carolina decided is that the only game that needs changing is the one in Washington, D.C.,” the African American candidate, with his beaming wife, Michelle, looking on, said to over 3,000 cheering supporters that evening in North Carolina State University’s Reynolds Coliseum. “I want to thank the people of North Carolina for giving us a victory in a big state,” Obama continued, “a swing state, and a state where we will compete to win if I am the Democratic nominee for president of the United States.”
Winning the lion’s share of North Carolina’s 115 pledged delegates in addition to the popular vote made losing the Indiana primary 51-49 percent in a squeaker to Clinton later that evening easier for the Illinois Democrat to swallow. Obama conceded that Clinton victory early, satisfied that the night was his.

 Celebration at N.C. State in Raleigh

Obama’s impressive North Carolina triumph wounded Sen. Clinton’s claim that she is the surging, most viable Democratic presidential candidate to face presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain in November, despite Obama’s front-runner status and insurmountable pledged delegate lead.
Uncommitted superdelegates, who must make the ultimate decision about whom to declare the Democratic Party nominee before the party convention in August, are hard-pressed now to justify turning their backs on Obama, as Clinton and her supporters have insisted they should. Clinton seemed to be admitting as much during what some suggested was a conciliatory victory speech in Indiana.
Though she had hoped for a decisive victory in the Hoosier State, coupled with either a surprise win in North Carolina — where both her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and state Gov. Mike Easley had campaigned exhaustively — or at least a convincing narrowing of Obama’s 20-point lead there, she was stunningly denied both. While vowing to “work my heart out” running in West Virginia and Kentucky — two of the upcoming six remaining primaries, all of which will conclude June 3 — Clinton’s tone was no longer defiant.
“I want to commend Senator Obama and his supporters on their win in North Carolina,” the New York senator told supporters, as her subdued husband and her daughter, Chelsea, looked on. “We are, in many ways, on the same journey. It’s a journey begun long before we were born. It is a journey by men and women who have been on a mission to perfect our union, who marched and protested, who risked everything they had to build an America that embraces us all.”
As she did with the N.C. Black press a week earlier, Sen. Clinton vowed to work as hard as she could to elect the Democratic nominee in the fall. (See related article above.)
“I know that people are watching this race and they’re wondering. I win, he wins, I win, he wins. It’s so close. And I think that says a lot about how excited and passionate our supporters are and how intent so many Americans are to really taking their country back,” Clinton said.
“But I can assure you, as I have said on many occasions, that no matter what happens, I will work for the nominee of the Democratic Party, because we must win in November.”
While his margin of victory in North Carolina was impressive, the Obama win still betrayed signs of weaknesses.
With the re-emergence of the racial controversy involving his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, plaguing his campaign and threatening to undermine his ability to win a significant percentage of White working-class voters, Obama struggled with that demographic in North Carolina, garnering 36 percent to Clinton’s 59 percent, according to exit polls. The same held true in Indiana, where Sen. Clinton laid claim to that support base.
However, as with Obama’s other primary victories in states with a significant African American population, especially in the South, the Democratic front-runner dominated the senator from New York in that demographic, 91 percent to 6 percent. He also did well with young people, new voters, and educated, progressive Whites.
Thanks to Obama, Democratic voter registration in North Carolina jumped to over 100,000 since January, and early voting figures logged in at almost 500,000. Election officials in that state estimate that over 2 million voters went to the polls May 6, making it one for the history books.
But Obama faces another looming problem — Hillary Clinton voters who vow not to vote for him in November if he is indeed the nominee. Exit polls show that while 45 percent of Clinton voters would support Obama, 38 percent indicated they would vote for Republican John McCain. Pundits are saying that Clinton, who is not expected to be chosen as Obama’s vice presidential running mate, will have to work hard to pull her White working class and White female coalition together with Obama’s supporters to win the White House for him.
But she may not be ready to make that deal just yet.
The Obama victory comes amid yet another attempt by the Clinton campaign to redefine the terms of the game. On May 6, the Clinton campaign suggested that the 2,025 pledged delegate goal for nomination set by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) should actually be 2,208. Clinton’s campaign strategists argue that the pledged delegates She won in the certified Florida and Michigan primaries should count, even though both states’ delegates were disallowed by the DNC because they changed their primary dates without authorization.
While Sen. Obama didn’t campaign in either state, as the DNC had mandated, and actually removed his name from the Michigan ballot, Clinton won both uncontested but disallowed contests. Now the DNC’s Rules Committee must determine a way to seat the Florida and Michigan delegates at the Democratic Convention in Denver in August, and either split the delegates between Clinton and Obama or come up with another formula for pledged delegate distribution that is acceptable to everyone.
DNC Chairman Howard Dean said the 2,025 delegate goal is still in force, even though neither Obama nor Clinton can reach the magic number without the approximately 300 undeclared superdelegates weighing in. Many of them are expected to do just that in coming days, bringing Sen. Clinton’s campaign for the presidency to a halt.

“I believe that, as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil.”
— Robert Kennedy

I want to encourage you to read the recent report released by the State of Black Madison Coalition, titled “The State of Black Madison 2008: Before the Tipping Point.” You can obtain a copy by downloading it off The Madison Times’ Web site. The report provides an objective and statistics-based insight into the conditions affecting Madison’s African American population. The report was sponsored by Urban League of Greater Madison, Asset Builders of America, The Charles Hamilton Houston Institute, 100 Black Men of Madison, Genesis Development Corp., and The Madison Times. 

The report’s findings are disturbing:
• African Americans are incarcerated at more than 13 times the rate for the community at large.
• Thirty-seven percent of Blacks live in poverty, compared to 11 percent of the community as a whole.
• The unemployment rate for Black adults is 2.5 times that of the full community.
• Blacks own less than 1 percent of all businesses, although they make up 5 percent of the population.
• Forty percent of Black students drop out before completing high school.
• Only 2 in 10 Black families own their own homes, while the figure for the entire community is 6 in 10.

The report should serve as the basis for an honest dialogue, not just about race, but on a variety of topics, including education, employment, culture, and economic development. The data provided in the report provides a foundation for a broad community discussion on how we can correct these negative trends.
The challenges facing African Americans in Madison and Dane County are major. Anyone taking exception to this ignores the reality of race and poverty.
But the report is more than a snapshot of the current condition; it is also a starting point to begin corrective action. The urbanization of Madison has placed the city at a unique point in its history. It is my hope that this community will see the report as an opportunity to demonstrate that the combined goodwill and efforts of our city can overcome the negative challenges which have and will come before us.
The report also points to the fact that many of the solutions must come from the African American community as a whole. Dropout and graduation rates are only changeable with the encouragement and support of family and mentors. While the educational system should provide service and assistance, the community must encourage and instill in our youth the need for educational achievement.
The unemployment rate for African Americans in Madison has remained around 10 percent for years, so much so that it is never reported when unemployment data is reported by the media or local government. In a city where the average unemployment rate is around 2 percent, what would be the reaction if the general rate were 10 percent?
You cannot have effective economic development planning without addressing the labor challenges facing populations that are neither White nor highly educated. Job creation which embraces all populations not only creates larger growth in the economy; it also reduces  many other direct and indirect costs related to social services and related spending. 
As the coalition moves forward with the establishment of community forums, I encourage your involvement. Your engagement will design the map for the next course of action. To quote Dr. John Odom’s commentary in the preface to the “State of Black Madison” report: “This study, then, transcends a gathering point for complaints and rather is intended to tip Madison toward social progress for all her citizens, especially her youth.”

Ray Allen is owner and publisher of The Madison Times.

In America, millions of low-income families struggle each month to obtain a minimally adequate diet. In 2006, 12.6 million children and 22.9 million adults lived in households struggling against hunger, and those numbers are expected to grow amid a weakening economy, rising joblessness, and increasing food prices. It is an outrage that hunger would plague so many people in our rich country, one of the world’s biggest food exporters, where more than enough food is grown and produced to feed every American.
While few Americans actually endure starvation, chronic, mild malnutrition takes its toll on children, damaging their physical, mental, and psychological health. Poorly nourished children often suffer from stunted development and impaired learning. What we need for all of our people is food security: assured access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life without having to resort to skipping meals or cutting back on the quality or quantity of the food families purchase at stores.
The growth of hunger is related to the growth of poverty and stagnant and declining wages among low-income working families. While incomes have fallen, the cost of food, gasoline, housing, and health care have risen dramatically.
The Washington, D.C.-based Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) reports that the cost of food rose 5.1 percent from February 2007 to February 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The percentage hikes in the cost of basic food staples such as milk, eggs, bread, rice, and cheese have reached double digits.
Nutrition supports like Food Stamps are insufficient to address many families’ nutritional needs. As more and more families require assistance to purchase food, those already receiving Food Stamps are finding that they have able to buy fewer groceries due to rising prices. The capacity of food pantries to supplement family food supplies has been stretched to the breaking point.
Vital food-supplement programs supported by the federal government need to be strengthened and fully funded to accommodate the growing need to provide basic nutrition for children in low-income families. Programs with long track records of success are the WIC program (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children), the Food Stamp Program, and the School Lunch and School Breakfast programs. They not only make it possible for millions of children to eat well; they also improve their overall health.
The Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program provides nutritious food packages, nutrition education, and health care referrals. This combination of services has been shown to improve a child’s chances of having a healthy start in life by increasing the likelihood that pregnant women will seek early prenatal care, reducing the rates of infants born pre-term or at low birth weight.
By expanding a family’s food-purchasing power, Food Stamps can lower very young children’s risk of poor health and hospitalization, as well as behavioral and emotional problems. Similarly, children in low-income households who participate in the School Lunch and Breakfast programs have better quality diets overall. They consume more vegetables and milk at lunch and eat fewer sweets and snack foods than other children. The child who receives a nutritious breakfast starts the school day more alert and ready to learn.
As effective as they are, all of these programs are coming up short of providing the nutritional support many low-income families require, and the benefit most families receive is not enough to support a healthy diet through an entire month. In addition, red tape, funding cutbacks, and shifting national policy are denying eligible families access to benefits. For example, about a third of those eligible for Food Stamps do not receive them.
While the Food Stamp program receives strong bipartisan support on Capitol Hill, the federal government has made few policy changes to enhance this program, because of a standoff between Congress and President George W. Bush. Despite calls for aggressive government action, the president has, for three years in a row, proposed cutting Food Stamp eligibility, although Congress has consistently rejected those efforts.
Our nation must end this cruel paradox of hunger in the midst of unbounded plenty. We have both the economic means and the governmental resources to ensure an adequate diet for every person in this country. It is past time to correct and strengthen national nutritional programs, if we are to prevent families in need from being abandoned or left with benefits too thin to allow them to feed their children. Congress and the president must support legislation that will increase funding for nutrition programs, simplify the application process, and amend eligibility guidelines so they are less restrictive.
Hunger must no longer plague American households. More than 60 years ago, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt pledged that the people of our nation would be free from want. Surely that’s a goal we can accomplish, at least when it comes to the nutrition of our children.

Marian Wright Edelman is president and founder of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) and its Action Council, whose mission is to Leave No Child Behind and to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.  For more information about the CDF, go to http://www.childrensdefense.org/.

 Phyllis Coley, publisher of Spectacular Magazine in Durham, and Mason McCullough, poublisher of the Iredell County News, listen to Sen. Clinton as she shares her views on the issues on April 28 during the NC Black Publishers Association’s 2008 NC Black Press Presidential Roundtable.

“We did fight the good fight,” Clinton told National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) member The Carolinian she would tell her disheartened supporters if she lost her historic bid to become the first female president of the United States. “And I am proud of the support I have and am very grateful for everyone who worked for me and voted for me.
“But now we have to close ranks and come together, because this is bigger than me, it’s bigger than Senator Obama, [and] it is bigger than any of my supporters or his.”
Sen. Clinton’s extraordinary statement came April 28 as she was still fighting mightily against Obama and her critics to keep her presidential campaign alive past this week’s crucial May 6 primaries in North Carolina and Indiana.
In a separate interview, Sen. Obama, who, despite his substantial lead in the delegate race, could still lose the nomination to Sen. Clinton if a majority of the undecided superdelegates swing her way, agreed that the ultimate goal for all Democrats is to defeat presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain in November.

 Sen. Obama talks about his vision for America April 29 during the NC Black Publishers Association’s 2008 NC Black Press Presidential Roundtable.
“This campaign is not about myself or Senator Clinton,” the Illinois Democrat told The Carolinian April 29. “It’s about the American people and the struggles they’re going through. What I am convinced of is that we cannot afford four more years of the same policies that we’ve seen under George W. Bush, and that’s essentially what John McCain is offering.”
Well aware that he was speaking to Black North Carolina voters, the majority of whom overwhelmingly support Obama but have vowed to sit out the general election if he is denied the Democratic Party’s nomination that they feel he has rightfully earned, Obama said, “We have no choice when it comes to sitting out. We are doing this for our children and our grandchildren.”
Both Clinton and Obama, who are engaged in an all-out battle to convince party superdelegates who would be the most viable candidate in November, made their comments exclusively last week during the first ever two-day North Carolina Black Publishers Association (NCBPA) 2008 NC Black Press Presidential Roundtable.
Sen. Clinton met with publishers and reporters from the 10-member organization — many of whom are NNPA members — April 28 in Greensboro, while Sen. Obama welcomed the group the next day in Winston-Salem.
The sessions were videotaped, with clips posted as of May 1 online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeWIt-EuYNA
The historic Black press roundtables took place prior to N.C. Gov. Mike Easley’s endorsement of Clinton and Sen. Obama’s “angry” denunciation of his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, for the latter’s recent controversial appearance at the National Press Club in Washington.
Clinton’s explicit assurance of post-primary unity came amid recent concerns expressed by House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn [D-S.C.] and other prominent Democrats that her constant attacks against front-runner Obama, coupled with the divisive tone and tenor of the Democratic primary race thus far, may leave the party divided and the eventual nominee damaged in the general election.
“The conduct of this campaign in Indiana and North Carolina could very well be determinative of what we will have after we get a nominee,” Clyburn, the most powerful African American member of Congress, told MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” April 25. He added that Democratic Party unity in November would depend on the second-place finisher’s ability to pull the disparate factions together.
“If Hillary Clinton walks off the playing field, Obama is in trouble,” Clyburn said. “If Obama walks off the playing field with Hillary Clinton as the nominee, Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party would be in trouble.”
That same concern was expressed by former Democratic National Committee Chairman Joe Andrew, a prominent Indiana political figure and superdelegate with close ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton, who shocked the Clinton campaign by formally endorsing Sen. Obama, citing concerns about growing party divisions. ”While I was hopeful that a long, contested primary season would invigorate our party, the polls show that the tone and temperature of the race is now hurting us,” Andrew told reporters last week.
A New York Times/CBS News poll April 30 bore this out.
While over 6 in 10 Obama Democratic primary voters say they could back Hillary Clinton if she were chosen as the party’s nominee, only 49 percent of Clinton’s supporters say they would accept Sen. Obama as the Democratic standard bearer.
Fifty percent would be “dissatisfied,” the Times/CBS poll continued, and nearly a quarter would be “very dissatisfied.”
The growing division has even boiled over on popular political Internet blogs like Daily Kos, where Clinton and Obama supporters rhetorically fight tooth and nail over who the ultimate Democratic Party champion should be.
“The Obama-ites exuded the confidence of those who feel that they embody the future and are the seed bearers of energies and new modalities too long smothered under the thick haunches of the
See UNITY/ page 11         tired, old, entrenched way of doing things,” wrote James Wolcott in his piece, “When Democrats Go Post-al” in the June edition of Vanity Fair magazine. “The Hillarions felt a different imperative knocking at the gate of history, the long-overdue prospect of the first woman taking the presidential oath of office.”
“For them,” Wolcott continued, “Hillary’s time had come, she had paid her dues, she had been thoroughly vetted, she had survived hairdos that would have sunk lesser mortals, and she didn’t let a little thing like being loathed by nearly half of the country bum her out and clog her transmission … Democrats have pulled their punches for so long [against the Republicans], “Wolcott adds, “that they know only how to hit themselves in the face …”
On MSNBC, Clyburn warned, “We’re in a very critical point in this process, and if we’re not careful, we could do irreparable harm … We’re trying to do something that’s never been done in this country before.”
That “something” Congressman Clyburn alluded to is the Democratic Party’s effort to elect the first African American or the first female president in the nation’s history, a point that didn’t escape Sen. Clinton in her interview at the NC Black Press Presidential Roundtable. “Whatever differences Sen. Obama and I may have with one another, they pale in comparison with the differences we have with Sen. McCain and the Republican Party,” she said. “There isn’t a person who voted for me or voted for Senator Obama, who did not vote for some reason that Senator McCain does not believe in.
“Maybe they voted for universal health care [or] to get the economy turned around. Maybe they voted for a very aggressive agenda to improve education; maybe they voted to take the tax cuts from the wealthiest Americans and put them back in the hands of middle-class working people. Whatever your reason for voting for either of us, that is a reason to vote for us as Democrats.
“I am going to be so explicit, and I’m going to campaign hard, and I’m going to speak out, because I believe with all of my heart … that the people of this country will be so much better served by a Democratic president whose last name is one of ours,” she added. “We’re going to go to make that case in every part of America.”
As NC Black Press publishers and reporters listened intently, Sen. Clinton said she fully understood the passion and excitement surrounding the possible election of either the first Black or the first female commander in chief.
“I understand, when you enlist people in a cause like this, especially such an historic election where, for women and African Americans, this has never happened before, we have an embarrassment of riches. It is a good problem to have,” Clinton continued. “And so people do feel it in their hearts and souls; and I think that’s great, because we’ve brought millions of people into this process.”
Adding that even some Republicans have vowed to support either her or Sen. Obama, whoever is nominated, Clinton said both candidates, regardless of how contentious they’ve been, “have done such a great service [for] our party, and we will do a great service to our country. That’s means people have to look very clearly at what the choice will be, and if they look at that choice … Senator McCain is a good man; he has served our country with distinction and great honor; but his ideas are wrong for America … We’re going to say that from the mountaintops to the valleys, and I think people will hear it.”
Sen. Obama acknowledged that while he and his feisty Democratic rival are indeed in a tough battle, “some of these divisions are overstated.”
 ”We’re in the middle of a nomination battle right now,” he said. “November is an eternity away. I think when you go through a convention and folks are making speeches, people are seen unifying together to talk about the principles behind the Democratic Party, I think that will go a long way toward the healing … This is not a cult of personality; this is not about one particular candidate. I think this is about the need for all of us to get engaged in the political process in ways we haven’t for a very long time.”
Sen. Obama later told the NC Black Press Presidential Roundtable that if, by some chance, he should lose the Democratic Party nomination, he will remain loyal to the party and not mount an independent bid for the presidency.
During the two-day sessions, both Obama and Clinton reaffirmed their support for universal healthcare, though they differ on the method of delivery; commitment to bringing rising gas prices down for the American consumer; and determination to find ways to jump-start the faltering U.S. economy.
The NC Black Publishers Association (NCBPA) member newspapers include The Carolinian of Raleigh, The Wilmington Journal, The Carolina Times of Durham, The Fayetteville Press, The Iredell County News of Statesville, The Carolina Peacemaker of Greensboro, The Winston-Salem Chronicle, The Minority Voice of Greenville, and Greater Diversity News of Wilmington. Spectacular Magazine of Durham is currently an honorary member.
NCBPA President Ernie Pitt, publisher of the Winston-Salem Chronicle, lauded both Democratic candidates for recognizing the importance of the Black press and for sharing their views with North Carolina’s leading African American newspapers.