The News and Observer from Raleigh, North Carolina • 23

3 Raleigh Man Convicted of Covering Tag Slogan Associated Press Despite the state attorney general's advice to drop such cases, a Raleigh man has been convicted in district court in Smithfield for putting tape over the "First in Freedom" slogan on his 1975 North Carolina auto license plate. The North Carolina Civil Liberties Union is sponsoring Walter Williams III in his appeal of the conviction. The CLU contends that citizens have the right to tape over the slogan to show disagreement as part of the free speech guaran- tee in the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. In an opinion issued April 14, Atty.

Gen. Rufus L. Edmisten advised the district attorney in Durham County to drop a similar case because of the constitutional question. Williams, 32, was arrested last month in Smithfield on charges of taping over the slogan and of driving 47 miles per hour in a 35 mph zone. He was convicted Thursday and fined $10 plus costs even after his attorney showed the court a copy of Edmisten's opinion.

black, said a white Smithfield policeJudges, in most cases, defer to rul- man stopped him and asked about the ings of the N.C. attorney general in tape. After Williams explained that he their decisions. They are not required didn't believe North Carolina offers to follow the advice of the rulings, how- equal freedom for blacks, the officer ever. gave him ticket and added the District Court Judge W.

Pope Lyon speeding charge, Williams said. said Monday that the attorney general's Williams said that while he was exopinion "left some questions. It was plaining why he taped the slogan, "He sort of nebulous. The statute says you told me if I didn't like the slogan I ought can't deface it (the license tag) and I to move." The officer was laughing thought it was therefore a violation." he drove away, Williams said. In a telephone interview, Williams, a Williams, an illustrator at the Re- Staff photo by Gene Furs HEEWACK! Holly Skleris of Durham, a far cry from the practice at Wrightsville Beach.

Pity the poor bully who tries to proverbial 98-pound weakling, gets in some surfside karate kick sand in HER face. Bogue Banks Island Road Plans Delayed TRENTON U.S. Judge John D. Larkins Jr. Monday restrained state highway officials from work on proposed improvements on the Bogue Banks highway in Carteret County, ruling that an environmental impact statement for the project is inadequate.

Larkins granted a preliminary injunction requested by several Bogue Banks property owners and environmental organizations who contend that the impact statement does not meet federal regulations. He ruled that: a new statement is required and took under advisement contentions that highway officials have violated federal air and noise pollution standards. The project, planned by the state and approved for federal funding, calls for widening and straightening two state roads which link Atlantic Beach and the Bogue Sound Bridge. Under the proposal, the new paved shoulders in a 100-foot right-ofway. Two relocations, a bypass around Salter Path and elimination of two right angle turns at Emerald Isle, are proposed.

The plaintiffs, including the Conservation Council of North Carolina and the League of Women Voters, charged that the work would cause destruction of protective vegetation and harm the island's environment. In his 23-page order, Larkins agreed with three of five allegations against the environmental impact statement. He rejected arguments that the N.C. Mutual Opposes Sickle Cell Bias Ban By RICK NICHOLS Staff Writer The nation's leading blackoperated insurance firm, North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Co. of Durham, is opposing legislation that would prohibit health and life insurers from discriminating against people who carry the trait for sickle cell anemia a debilitating blood disease that primarily afflicts blacks.

Sponsors of the bills, which have already passed the North Carolina House and are awaiting action in the Senate, say blacks are often fearful to be tested for the trait because they're worried about higher insurance rates and job discrimination. But a spokesman for N. C. Mutual explained Monday that "we don't want the legislature to get in the habit of telling us who to insure." It has been estimated that about 120,000 blacks in North Carolina have the dormant, carrier-stage of sickle cell anemia a trait that usually causes few health problems. But if two people with the trait have children, there is one chance in that the offspring will have the actual disease.

The bills would not require insurers to write policies for people with the disease itself. Screening North Carolina is currently planning a statewide screening program to detect carriers and catch the disease in its early stages, according, to J. P. Green, doctor who heads the Governor's Council on Sickle Cell Anemia. "But there's a fear of getting tested," observed Rep.

H. M. Michaux, D-Durham, one of the sponsors of the bills. "We want to get these people to come in so they can get some professional genetic counseling. We want to be able to tell them 'The law will protect Harnett to Vote On Water Bonds DUNN Residents of Harnett County will vote Tuesday on a bond issue for a county water system.

Polls will be open from 6:30 a. m. until 7:30 p.m. Election officials said they expected a light voter turnout. If passed, about $4.3 million of the bond issue would be used for construction of a water Beg Your Pardon Because of.

a typographical error in a story in The News and Observer on Saturday, a story indicated that crew leaders of migrant workers did not have to identify facilities they owned or controlled. The story should have said they were "now" required to do so. The Farm Calendar in Monday's The News and Observer erred in reporting the site of the Farmers Home Administration meeting Friday in Raleigh. The meeting will be held at the Sheraton Crabtree, not the Sir Walter Hotel. search Triangle Institute, described himself as "middle class." The father of three said he is working part-time for a bachelor of fine arts degree at N.C.

State University and had attended Boston University for years and the New England School of Arts for two years. "Right now I don't see anything in North Carolina that indicates there's freedom for all of us. There isn't freedom for me or my race," he said, adding that he also objects to North Carolina's having 69 prisoners awaiting execution. That is more than any other state, and most of the prisoners are black. He said he applied the tape when he got his 1975 tags in early February.

He said he didn't know others were also doing it. "I just didn't like the slogan." State officials have cited several historical claims by North Carolina during the Revolutionary War era as grounds for the slogan on the license tags. The News and Observer Tuesddy, May 20, 1975 Raleigh, N.C. Page 17 Ford's Schedule Set For Charlotte Fete From News Dispatches CHARLOTTE President Ford is scheduled to help Charlotte and Mecklenburg County celebrate on Tuesday the 200th anniversary of an event that some historians say never occurred. The White House schedule calls for Ford to arrive in Charlotte about noon for a quick trip to Freedom Park and a speech commemorating the signing of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence on May 20, 1775.

North Carolina's flag carries the date of the reported signing, which predates the declaration signed a year later by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Authenticity of the Mecklenburg document, however, is still debated. Gov. James E. Holshouser Jr.

said Monday he hoped to congratulate Ford on his handling of the rescue of the captured freighter the Mayaguez. "I hope to tell him his action was firm, positive and it came at a time when the morale of our people across the country was low as far as our standing internationally was concerned," Holshouser added. Holshouser will join the President at the Bicentennial observance. In a brief news conference, Holshouser told reporters Ford won't be in North Carolina for any political reasons Tuesday. He said Ford recognizes the signing of the declaration as a historic event.

"The President and the people i in Washington recognize this is one of the first, and may be the first, major Bicentennial events in the South," Hol- Pilot Unhurt In Landing McCLELLANVILLE, S.C. -The pilot of a single engine Cessna 150 escaped injury when the plane crash-landed on U.S. 17 three miles south of here Monday. The pilot, the only person aboard the plane, was identified as Ronald C. Simonsen of Desoto, Tex.

A Highway Patrol spokesman said Simonsen was enroute from Moncks Corner, S.C, to Southport, N.C. when the plane went down about 9:45 a.m. Simonsen was either out of gas or low on fuel, the patrol spokesman said. shouser said. Holshouser said the state's license plate slogan "First in Freedom" is justifiable because "'North Carolina indeed did stand first in the line of American states who declared themselves independent of the British crown." A drama depicting the signing of the Mecklenburg declaration was presented in downtown Charlotte Monday night.

Tradition has it that participants. met on the evening of May 19 and signed the document at 2:05 a.m. the next day. Ford will be speaking from a site near where former Presi- dent Dwight D. Eisenhower spoke 21 years ago in dedicating Freedom Park.

Spokesmen for the sponsoring Charlotte-Mecklenburg Bicentennial Commission predict 75,000 to 100,000 persons will jam the park to hear Ford and to participate in an all-day session of music, religious ceremonies and speechmaking. Evangelist Billy Graham, a Charlotte native, will conduct an interdenominational service at 10:30 a.m. Ford is to speak at a program beginning at 12:15 p.m. Ford is scheduled to leave shortly before 2p.m. May Fuel Bills Clear Hearing statement was deficient because it was prepared by state transportation officials and that the defendants failed to consider the state's Coastal Area Management Act.

He particularly criticized the statement for lack of detail. "Only a glance at the statement prepared for the proposed project on Bogue Island is necessary to see that the statement has very little detailed objective information on which the decision-making agency could base an informed H.M. Michaux Jr. legislation as a precedent," said Michaux. "'The legislature has this authority.

Who are insurance companies to hold themselves above everybody else and say they can't be regulated." Michaux said there are at least 16 insurance companies operating in North Carolina that still charge higher premiums for people with sickle cell traits. Green said insurance company representatives were now promising to pass the word about the minimal health effects of sickle cell trait. "But," he added, "if indeed the industry had been responsive in the first place and had conducted research and acted intelligently, there would have been no need for this legislation to begin with." decision; on the contrary, most of its substance is conclusions based on assumptions without supportive data," he wrote. He scored document for insufficient social and economic data and said it does not consider secondary effects of increased development of the island. The judge ruled that alternatives to the proposed action were not adequately discussed, noting that this section of the statement "is exactly pages long." He also said the final statement was not available for hearings on the highway project.

Larkins said the new statement should "adequately reveal the real environmental effects" of: The destruction of large areas of natural sand dunes and vegetation. The increased danger of erosion from normal weather and from heavy storms. The increased levels of automobile traffic and the increase of air and water pollution and noise level. The "intensive" development of the entire island, the increased demand for fresh water and the increased amounts of sewage and solid wastes. The effect of the Salter Path bypass and the state's ability to maintain the area considering its exposure to wind and water.

JERRY ALLEGOOD No major flaws were found in the fuel charge portions of May electric bills sent out by the state's three major power companies, a staff expert of the North Carolina Utilities Commission testified Monday. The testimony by Andrew W. Williams, chief of the electric engineering section of the commission, came at the commission's regular monthly public inquiry into the fuel purchasing practices of Duke Power Carolina Power Light and Virginia Electric Power Co. The one day hearing, held on the third Monday of every month, is also designed to examine whether the fuel escalator charges levied by the companies are accurate. Williams told the commissioners Monday that there was a slight technical error in Vepco's May charges and recommended that small refunds be made on next month's bills.

The commission reached no decision Monday, but is expected to routinely accept the recommendations of its staff. For May, Duke and Vepco fuel charges were down slightly over April. was up slightly. A customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a month would pay a fuel charge in May of $6.31, compared to $6.29 in April. A Duke customer Wake Student IDs Urged The Wake County Board of Education was asked Monday to allow the use of student identification cards on an experimental basis in seven schools.

Students would be asked to pay $2 for the card, which would include a photograph, the student's complete daily class schedule and such other information as campus club memberships, said H. Wayne Bare, assistant superintendent for secondary education. If the experiment is successful, Bare said, the plan would be requested for use in all Wake public schools. The board Story of a Man and a Faded Green Shade W.A. Bobbitt began work in Bobbitt's dry goods store in LITTLETON in 1911 and bought the business in 1927.

I told you about him last fall, about the way time had overrun his store; about how he had just finished patching the tears in the green cloth shade in his street display window. "But the green window shade has worn so thin you can see light through it," I wrote. "And on the outside of the window, where handsome gold letters used to spell out only one gold 'B' remains. All the rest have vanished, leading just a shadow outline of what once was there." Last week I got a note about Mr. Bobbitt from Bill Egerton, of Egerton's grocery in Littleton.

Bill wrote: "I have known him all my life. He used to sell me my Sunday suits for 50 cents down and 25 cents a week. Thought you might like to know that this week he pulled down the faded green shade for the last time." W.A. Bobbitt, who was 91 in April, died May 12. He had run his store until the final 10 days.

I recently received a photo of unique. The Rev. Samuel S. Moore of now sent me a clipping from another double-decker outhouse, By STEVE BERG Staff Writer offered to process the cards for a flat fee of $250 per school plus a $2 charge He said students would be asked to pay the $2 fee but that those who could not afford it would be issued monthly temporary cards at the school system's expense. Asked by board member Samuel S.

Ranzino what would lead any students to want to pay for the card, Bare said the temporary card would not include a photograph but that the photo -card would be desirable for out-of-school uses such as using the same amount would pay $3.85, compared to $4.65 in April. A Vepco customer would pay $9.58 in May compared to $11.44 last month. The fuel charge reflects coal and oil purchased by the companies in March. Industry witnesses said that in general, open market prices for coal have been coming down. But R.

H. Hall assistant manager for fuel purchasing for Duke Power, said the future on the fossil fuel market looks "cloudy." He said his company believes that enforcement of the federal Clean Air Act and a federal law regulating strip mining would remove 200 million tons of coal a year from the market. said that in March it spent $10.9 million on coal, $6.7 million on buying coal under contract and $4.2 million on open market coal. The contract coal averaged $23.65 per ton. The open market coal averaged $25.17 per ton, considerably less than the $40 to $45 was having to pay for coal last fall.

Currently, however, said it is still having to spend 176 per cent more for coal this spring than it spent in the spring of 1973. Since early 1974 the commission has allowed the companies to pass directly on to customers increased costs of buying the coal, oil and natural gas needed to generate power. There is a companion bill pending that would prohibit employers from discriminating against sickle cell carriers. It has no organized opposition. N.

C. Mutual officials said the company has been insuring people with the sickle cell trait "without reservation" or higher rates for about 15 years, but is opposed to the bills as bad precedents. "It's just politicians trying to make political hay," said Dr. Charles Watts, a Durham physician and medical director of N. C.

Mutual. All six black members in the General Assembly are supporting the legislation. Watts joined several other witnesses from the N. C. Association of Insurance Companies last week in testifying against the bills before a Senate subcommittee which will make a final report Wednesday.

According to Watts, the company's main concern is that the legislation would force a change in N. C. Mutual's family policies, which guarantee coverage of unborn children without higher premiums. Children with sickle cell disease have a life expectancy of about 30 to 35 years, he said, and are "uninsurable." Both Green and Michaux disagreed that the bills would require coverage of children with sickle cell anemia. "'We don't see this kind of took no action on the initial request.

Bare said the cards would allow principals to control the activities of students on campus. "In the past, there have been cases where we have had trouble identifying students, espe cially in tense situations," said. "It can show whether or not he has a smoking permit," Bare added. The Wake schools do not now use identification cards. Bare said International Identification Co.

of Miami, I also told you awhile back about the gospel society tract somebody sent me with the story about the avowed atheist in Ohio whose grave has allegedly been full of snakes ever since 1908 when the man was buried. Well, Harold Sykes, 36, who works for Eastern Airlines at Raleigh-Durham Airport, has visited the gravesite. Sykes, who had read the same tract I got, flew up there just to, see for himself. Did he see any snakes? "No, sir," Sykes said. "But I'll tell you what I did see three or four inches of snow on the ground." He went in February.

Folks in North Benton, Ohio, a very small place 25-30 miles from Akron, told Sykes that people stop by from all over the check cashing or movie theater discounts. Bare emphasized that the permanent cards would be good for only one year. In other action, the board approved the expenditure of $57,500 to compensate for specifications left out of drawings for construction of Northwood School. Associate Superintendent Rufus H. Forrest said items were often left out of such drawings but that contingency funds built into contracts USU- plant near Lillington to serve Lillington, Bues Creek, Angier and Coats.

The total cost of the first stage to be completed in two years is $6.5 million with some of the funds coming from previously approved federal and state grants. The second stage of the plan to be completed in five years will cost about $4.6 million, $2.8 million of which will come from the bond issue if passed. The plan calls for drilling deep wells and installation of distribution lines in the Johnsonville, Anderson Creek, Dunn and Erwin areas with linkage of Bunnlevel to the Lillington line. Rally Set NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) A rally in support of Joan Little, the 21-year-old Washington, N.C, black woman accused of killing a white jailer, is scheduled at Vanderbilt University Wednesday.

Betty Mitchell, a member of the Nashville Student Coalition Against Racism, said the rally would focus on racial and sexist issues. She said several other orgnizations Would join in the rally. See STUDENT, Page 20 Jack Aulis 1 country to see the snake-grave. One old-timer said he has seen more snakes around the grave than he could count. But another man, maybe 70, told Sykes he does a lot of coon hunting and parks his truck in that cemetery at all times of the day and night and has never, ever seen a snake around the grave.

So Harold Sykes' trip didn't prove much, he said: "I still don't know whether there's any snakes there or not." And, finally, I have a letter that purports to be from the Rev. Elton Jones of Harrisonburg, Va. For 14 years he has toured the Southeast preaching against the evils of drink, the letter says: have been accompanied by my young friend and assistant, Clyde Lindstrome. Clyde, a young man of good family and excellent background, is a pathetic example of life ruined by excessive indulgence in beer, whisky and women. "Clyde would appear with me at the lectures and sit on the platform wheezing and staring, wretching profusely, picking his making obscene gestures, while I would point him out as an example of what over can do to a person.

"Last year, unfortunately, Clyde died. A mutual friend has given me your name and I wonder if you would be available to 'take Clyde's place on my 1975 tour?" Probably. What's it a two-story outhouse. It is not Rt. 2, NEWTON GROVE, has "Grit" which has a picture of in Gays, Ill..