Volusia to name ballfield after baseball coach SEE PAGE 2 YEAR 41 NO. 44
EE FR
JULIANNE MALVEAUX: AFTER THE ELECTION, IT’S THE ‘STATE OF THE BLACK WORLD’ PAGE 4
NEW ART EXHIBIT ON DISPLAY AT GOLDEN CENTER SEE PAGE 8
East Central Florida’s Black Voice NOVEMBER 3 - NOVEMBER 9, 2016
www.daytonatimes.com
‘THE DICKERSON CENTER AND DAYTONA BEACH MAKE PRESIDENTS’ Clinton visits city as race tightens BY ANDREAS BUTLER DAYTONA TIMES
As the 2016 presidential campaign suddenly tightened up last week with the revelation that the FBI would reopen its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s misuse of classified emails, the campaign made a last-minute detour to Daytona Beach to energize Florida’s Black voters. The focus was clear. Clinton’s campaign got last-minute approval from the city to stage an event at the Ralph Robinson Gymnasium at the John H. Dickerson Center located on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., in the heart of Daytona Beach’s Black community. After the Secret Service swept and secured the building on Friday night, the Clinton advance team worked through the night with carpenters and other workers to reconfigure the Dickerson Center’s limited space to accommodate a political rally that was televised worldwide.
Dickerson history
KIM GIBSON / THE DAYTONA TIMES
Hillary Clinton takes the time for a selfie at a Bethune-Cookman homecoming tailgate party on Saturday.
PHOTOS BY CHARLES W. CHERRY II / THE DAYTONA TIMES
Area residents pile into the Dickerson Center for a Clinton rally.
The presidential candidate addresses the crowd at the Dickerson Center.
The gym is named after the late Ralph Robinson, a youth coach and mentor who worked in the building as a custodian when it was known as Campbell Elementary, an all-Black neighborhood school. The building itself is named after the late John H. Dickerson, one of the principals of Campbell Elementary before it was shut down as a consequence of the court-ordered racial desegregation of Volusia County’s public school system. The facility was boarded up for until community pressure forced the school board to convey it to the City of Daytona Beach, which recognized its historical significance and refurbished it, upgraded it, and renamed it. Since then, the Dickerson Center has been part of daily life in Black Daytona, serving as the site for funeral repasts, class reunion dances, wedding receptions, town hall meetings, and other events. See CITY, Page 6
John Lewis tells students: ‘Everything is on the line’ Civil rights icon urges Blacks to vote during rally with B-CU students BY ANDREAS BUTLER DAYTONA TIMES
DUANE C. FERNANDEZ SR./HARDNOTTSPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
U.S. Rep John Lewis marches with Bethune-Cookman students, community leaders and others on Tuesday to Daytona Beach City Island Regional Library, an early voting site.
ALSO INSIDE
When Bethune-Cookman University students marched to the Daytona Beach City Island Regional Library on Tuesday to vote, one of the country’s greatest civil rights leaders marched right along with them. Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, who risked his life as a young man for voting rights for Blacks, was among the more than 400 students and area community leaders who participated in the march and rally at the library, one of the city’s early voting sites.
‘We must vote’ At a rally outside of the library, Lewis spoke about the importance of voting and what it took to get that right. “There are forces that want to take things back to the old days of segregation and old ways of doing things. We are not moving backward, we are moving forward,’’ he said. Lewis added, “We must vote. We can’t stay at home. Everything is on the line. The future of this nation, the future of our world. We deserve to know what is in our food, water and air. Everything we do has something to do with the vote.” Along with Lewis, actress Aja Naomi King of ABC’s “How to Get Away with Murder’’ and U.S. Senate Patrick Murphy were in attendance.
Students respond Kelly Elysee was one of the hundreds
ELECTION 2016: HOWARD, NNPA POLL SURVEYS THOUSANDS OF BLACK VOTERS | PAGE 5 SPORTS: FIVE AREA HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL TEAMS HEADED TO PLAYOFFS | PAGE 7
See LEWIS, Page 2