http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/lavonia-allisons-reign-ends/Content?oid=2719979 Comments On: Lavonia Allison's reign ends by Samiha Khanna en-us Copyright 2013 Indy Week. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Indy Week readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Indy Week. pweber@indyweek.com (Indy Week Webmaster) Mon, 20 May 2013 00:00:01 -0400 Mon, 20 May 2013 02:15:00 -0400 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
First sentence of previous post:

"...people have to decide what they are for on the issues before us at any given time."

David McKnight


Posted by David McKnight]]> Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:09:50 -0500 Indy Week
The previously voiced criticism of Dr. Allison notwithstanding, at some point people have to decide what they are for on this issues before us at any given time.

Lavonia Allison's stated positions may have seen by some as strident or otherwise dominating, but there is an irony in Durham African American communty politics dating back four or five decades, including the 1971 "Save Our Schools Charrette" and the civil rights demonstrations of the '60s, and this is that so many cases, nobody was advocating taking away any rights previously enjoyed by certrain segments of the communtiy but rather taking steps to ensure that all these liberties, rights and egalitarian ideals were enjoyed by the entire citizenry.

If there had been better national coverage of the progressive course of race relations and education in Durham and Durham County since the 1950s, then this community's bold actions and shared commitments would have become a positive noted example from which the entire country could have benefitted.

One of the interesting characteristics of Durham's movement for equality and justice has been that because of the historic roles of such educational institutions and economic legacies as North Carolina Central University and Durham's "Black Wall Street" traditions, persons of all ethnic backgrounds and even across partisan political lines could recognize that progressive leaders in the Bull City's black community weren't trting to "take away what others had" but rather wanted to see to it that every child and every person in this city and county had the same access to educational advancement and economic opportunity.

So you have to decide what you're for, then if you do that, if you look at the record, you will see that Dr. Lavonia Allison consistently urged city and county educational and political leaders to "full in the gaps" on the map of educational and economic achievement in this part of the country.

David McKnight
Posted by David McKnight]]> Mon, 12 Dec 2011 09:59:25 -0500 Indy Week Posted by VMac]]> Sat, 10 Dec 2011 14:38:21 -0500 Indy Week
Are we missing the historic significance of Dr. Lavonia Allison's leadership in Durham political and educational policy areas in the last four decades, not only in her guidance of the Durham Committee but also throughout the city?

Surely she helped "set the table" for the tremendous gains in political and educational quality and advancement which have occurred in all areas of the Bull City since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s frequent visits to Durham in the 1950s and '60s, as he often visited the residence of the family of longtime Durham state legislator H.M. (Mickey) Michaux Jr. It's not always easy leading a march to justice and equality: you can try to be as pleasant and accommodating as you can be at certain times, but at other times, you have to lean in and keep the march going forward amidst all the adversity and resistance which can arise.

Just as the blue-collar farmer perched atop his tractor tells his neighbor that what he wants to do on a fine spring day is "get 'er down" in going out to plow his field for planting his crops, so too has Dr. Allison stayed on the field, year after year, actively engaging the entire community in a fundamental reckoning with issues of educational and political opportunity and equality throughout the years and even decades since Dr. King led his final march in the "Bluff City" of Memphis by the Mississippi.
Posted by David McKnight]]> Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:56:26 -0500 Indy Week
I may write more than one comment to post on Independent's online edition in regard to this story. So for starters, may we clarify the following: this is a news story and not an editorial, right?
Posted by David McKnight]]> Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:12:34 -0500 Indy Week