Wisconsin State Journal from Madison, Wisconsin • 15

Features Editor: Chris Juwik, 252-6180 1C LJ Tuesday, February 3, 1998 Win tickets to Civic Center's "Frog Toad'Vsee Page 2C. Wisconsin State Journal i GEORGE HESSELBERG COMMENTARY Hilton Hanna, right, with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1961. A In this case, check wasn't in the mail I A jr mmrnmmmmmmmmmmmmmimmmmrm-iri tttnrirwiMiri- i mm wif iknmmuimmmisuummmmmmamim rrtf nrrim mm 'it mmmr tmmm fti ifrWiiiniiiiiiii' lm-t- -frT rnr SI African Americans have played large role in Madison history Rev.

Joseph Washington The Rev. Washington was pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church for almost 40 years, from 1927 to 1965. He was the son of a slave and during his years of For six weeks, from December through January, a divorced woman we will call Andrea was homeless in Madison and she didn't know it Andrea's ex-husband didn't know it, either. He pays Andrea $31.62 a week in child support Andrea's address for child-support checks has not changed for at least the past two years. Andrea, however, became homeless in the eyes of the system that digests and regurgitates those child-support checks.

Over the years, Andrea, like most spouses who receive such support, has become used to occasional delays, so when a check did not show up one week in December, she chalked it up to the vagaries of the system. But another week, and another week, and another went by with no check. The money was being paid in by her husband, but was not being paid out to her. When her attempts to call the authorities became an exercise in digital frustration, the answer she got from the system was that the checks had all been sent Where did they go? After the last message that her check was sent on a Wednesday, she waited one week then called again, asking for more particulars. She was told that because the computer lists her as homeless, the checks were sent to the Dane County Human Services Department on Aberg Avenue.

"They told me there must be some reason why my checks are being sent there and they gave me this number to call." A half-dozen calls later, she set out for the Human Services office. She was told there was no way her checks were there. She was given a telephone number to call By that time, Andrea had made enough calls, talked to enough people. She had taken off work to go track down her checks. "I said I was not going to leave.

Then she said, 'Wait a and finally she rummaged around and found the checks," Andrea said. At first, Andrea said, the woman at the Human Services office wouldn't give her the checks, because Andrea had to get them from her social worker, as homeless people do. That would have taken a long time, since Andrea is not homeless and does not have a social worker. "They were telling me I bad a social worker and I kept saying I didn't" Andrea said. After providing positive identification, she got the six checks.

She was told the checks were being held by a child-care assistance worker, she said. A week earlier, that same worker had sent Andrea a letter, correctly addressed to her home, closing her child-care assistance case and not mentioning the checks. Andrea wonders if anyone else pseudo-homeless is waiting for checks that are piled up at the wrong address. Was she the victim of a midnight interface between statewide computer systems that track the child-support network and portions of the new welfare program? "Generally, some addresses are changed overnight by this interface, then they are updated. We have to use the addresses we get and we get wrong addresses all the time," a court official said.

The Dane County Department of Human Services, after being asked about Andrea's case, decided to investigate. Charity Eleson. department spokesperson, said a problem was indeed discovered with the interface between the statewide child-support computer system and the system that tracks welfare programs. When Andrea's address respired" Dec. 1, that system picked up an inaccurate address from the other system.

"It is systemic; it has happened id other cases," said Eleson. promising to press the matter with state officials. Left unexplained was why the address expired, and why the six checks didn't alert anyone at the Aberg Avenue office that something was amiss. Andrea has been assured that she is no longer technologically homeless. Because she missed six child-support checks during December and January, however, she borrowed moiiey for food.

And for rent It is not that great a stretch to say that for Andrea, the system nearly had a self-fulfilling prophecy. Angie Halbleib Ex-Mddleton star Halbleib knows how sports help girls By Edward M. Eveld Kansas City Star Long before her days as a University of Kansas basketball star, young Angie Halbleib looked to the boys in her neighborhood to test her sports mettle. Lucky for her she had a big brother who was into sports, she says. Not many girls got involved in basketball, hockey and soccer when she was growing up, says Halbleib, who starred for Middle-ton High School before going on to Kansas.

The basketball greats on television were all men. In fifth grade, Halbleib was invited to play on the girls basketball team, but she was reluctant "I didn't think the girls were any good," she says. Halbleib is 22. But the two-time Academic atKUhas seen the It's her day Thursday is National Girls and Women in Sports Day. For information, call the Women's Sports Foundation, (800) 227-3988.

For information on planning events in Wisconsin, call state coordinator Jo Lindoo, (414) 594-2561. Undoo and other volunteers also plan an annual banquet to honor Wisconsin high school girls involved in sports; for details and a list of area girls being honored, see Page 2C. opportuni- ties for girls and women in sports expand dramatically since her Wisconsin years, from the availability of scholarships to televised women's basketball games. Still, plenty of work remains: to make young girls aware of female not just male sports role models and to educate parents about the benefits of sports for their daughters, not just their sons. Halbleib.

who completed her college basketball career last season, now does radio color commentary for women's basketball at KU. She will participate in the university's "Take a Girl to the Game" program on Saturday, an event tied to this week's National Girls and Women in Sports Day. Girls with Halbleib's talent and drive probably won't be shy about getting involved in sports. But, experts say, girls who would enjoy sports activities and benefit from them don't always get the encouragement they need. "A lot of parents don't know how to be supportive," says Vicki Shelton.

coordinator of athletics for the Kansas City. school district "They're used to dealing with their sons." Amy Perko. associate athletics director at Kansas, points to the health, social and psychological benefits of playing sports as keys for parents and girls to consider. Research has shown that four or more hours of exercise a week can reduce a woman's risk of breast cancer by almost 60 percent, Perko says. And statistics show that high school girls who play sports are much less likely to have an unwanted pregnancy and are 92 percent less likely to be involved in drugs.

Plus. IVrito says, sports participation is associated with higher levels of self-estwm and with character-building traits, such as leadership and teamwork. Halbleib. who plans to teach math and coach high school girls, knows the benefits first-hand. "It's such a ay to build self-confidence, a way for girls to feel good about them Ives rather than through boys." Halbleib says.

They'll be more likely to make better choices." Fite photos Carson Gulley 7 4 A Harry and Velma Hamilton Hazel and Odell Taliaferro city I iMimpamnq j. 71 "1. i-i worked in Chicago, he lived in Madison until after his retirement In 1963, he was one of 10 people honored for distinguished service to Chicago. Hanna, now 91, lives in Alabama today. Harry and Velma Hamilton The Ham i I tons have been part of Madison's history for more than 55 years.

The city even has a middle school named after Velma Hamiltoa Harry Hamilton was a chemist soils scientist an editor and a civic leader in Madison. He was editor ofthe American Journal of Agronomy (agronomy refers to how farm land is managed), and was a president of the Dane County Association for Mental Health and ofthe United World Federalists. He died last year. Velma Hamilton taught and was an administrator at Madison Area Technical College. In 1974.

she was named Wisconsin's Mother ofthe Year. She has been active in the United Church of Christ and YWCA. The Hamiltons, along with Hilton Hanna. were among the people who organized the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter in Madison. In 1968, Harry Hamilton was one of two Madison ians (the other was the Rev.

James Wright) to attend the funeral ofthe Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Carson Gulley Gulley was Madison's first black television star. He was supervising chef for the UW-Madison residence halls and, later, at the Maple Bluff Country Club. He had a cooking show on WMTV from the time the station went on the air in 1953 until he retired from the show in 1962.

His wife, Beatrice, was co-host of the show. Gulley was a popular Madison figure and was considered one of the country's best chefs. During World War IL be trained cooks for the LIS. Navy. In 1954.

the Gulleys built a bouse in Madison's Crestwood community. Some ofthe neighbors objected because ofthe Gulleys' race, but when they took a vote the neighborhood voted 64 to 30 to welcome the new family. By William R. Wineke Wisconsin State Journal As the nation prepares to observe Black History Month, Madison looks to some of the important African Americans in its own history. Although the black population in Madison has, historically, been a small percentage of the total population, it has played a big role in the city's life.

Harry Allison Allison died in 1980 when he was 95 years old. He never had a high-profile job he worked mostly in restaurants and owned a rooming house. But he was educated in Latin and knew how to speak German. When famed jazz musician Duke Ellington came to Madison, he would stay in the Allison home His wife of 65 years, Myra Denning, was the daughter of Charles Denning, one of the first black soldiers to be mustered out of the Union Army at Camp Randall. Dr.

George Lythcott Lythcott came to UW-Madison in 1974 to work as the number two person in the Center for Health Sciences. In 1977, he left to be administrator of the federal Health Services Administra tion, an agency responsible for federal health programs for Indians, migrant workers, health organizations Lythcott and the federal leprosy hospital. He later returned to Madison as a professor of international medicine The important thing about Lythcott in terms of history, however, is that he was one of the doctors who helped make smallpox once a dread disease disappear from the earth. The disease killed millions of people, ended political dynasties and destroyed armies. But Lythcott and his colleagues destroyed it and now no one gets the disease 0 Schedule of events ministry here was particularly interested in the plight of poor people.

During the Great Depression ofthe 1930s, he Washington fe(j hundreds of hungry people, no matter what their color. "Anyone can walk into a church and preach, but to visit people in hospitals and homes and jails, to go to people who are down ana out and bring them the good news, that's what counts," he once said. Washington died in 1986 at the age of 95. Odell Taliaferro Taliaferro made his living at the UW-Madison setting up chemistry demonstrations. He was a popular teacher and almost everyone who went through the chemistry department from 1944 to 1974 knew him.

Taliaferro was active in the Madison chapter ofthe National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 1963, he was in a major way responsible for the enactment of Madison's Equal Opportunities Ordinance, which made it illegal for landlords and real estate agents to discriminate against people because of race Hilton E. Hanna A native ofthe Bahamas. Hanna came to Madison in 1934 to attend the university. He went on to become a powerful labor leader in the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen's union.

When Hanna arrived in Madison, no one would rent him a place to live. He had to live with Harry Allison until he could find a place of his own. Nevertheless, even though be related to Black History MonthPage 3C.