Daytona
Chartering ceremony set for Pan-Hellenic Council See page 3
EE FR
GEORGE E. CURRY: Yes, mental illness PRESORTED affects African-Americans too See pageSTANDARD 4
U.S. POSTAGE PAID Permit #189 Daytona Beach, FL
B-CU freshman named MEAC’s volleyball rookie of the week See page 5
East Central Florida’s Black Voice
YEAR 38 NO. 41
www.daytonatimes.com www.daytonatimes.com
OCTOBER 10 - OCTOBER 16, 2013
Activist sparks question again over fire chief job
PEOPLE SPEAK
Interim chief doesn’t meet minimum qualifications to hold the position
Process questioned again
BY JAMES HARPER DAYTONA TIMES harperjames59@yahoo.com
Questions still are being raised about why Daytona Beach City Manager Jim Chisholm has not hired a permanent fire chief. The Daytona Times also has learned that Interim Fire Chief Dru Driscoll does not meet minimum qualifications to hold the job. However, Chisholm has allowed him to apply for the position.
“I’m concerned why we have not hired a fire chief. People are asking why and when is it going to happen,” said Johnson directly to the city manager and the members of the commission to hushed silence. “I hope you are not planning on slipping someone in the back door like you did with (Police Chief Mike) Chitwood. We need to diversify our workforce. We had an African-American fire chief and y’all got rid of him,” she asserted. “I would like to see an African-American in that job,” concluded Johnson who also told the commission she went to the human resources department and learned the job required at least a bachelor’s degree.
ty-three people applied – 24 from Florida and 29 from out of state.
Dru Driscoll
Marjorie Johnson
Larry Stoney
It’s been five months since Daytona Beach stopped taking applications to replace Fire Chief Jim Bland who retired earlier this year. The Daytona Beach Fire Chief’s job opening ran from March 27 to May 3. Fif-
Last month, Daytona Beach Public Information Officer Susan Cerbone told the Times that finalists had not been selected, which was noted in an article on Sept. 5. When asked why Chisholm hasn’t narrowed the list down to a group of finalists, Cerbone said she was told “the selection process is the city manager’s prerogative.” The issue over Chisholm not hiring a fire chief was raised during the Oct. 2 city commission meeting by community activist and former NAACP president Marjorie Johnson.
Please see chief, Page 2
Bessie Marshall, popular coach, educator will be eulogized Saturday BY JAMES HARPER DAYTONA TIMES harperjames59@yahoo.com
Funeral services for popular coach and teacher Bessie Carol Murphy Marshall will take place at 1 p.m. Oct. 12 at Gertrude Heyn Memorial Chapel on Bethune-Cookman University’s campus. Marshall died Oct. 3 at HalifaxHealth Medical Center. She was 76. Marshall retired as an educator with the Volusia County Public Schools. Her teaching career began in Palmetto and she continued at Lincoln Park Academy in Fort Pierce. She taught physical education, coached basBessie Carol ketball and cheerleadMurphy ing, and taught dance Marshall at Southwestern High School for six years. Due to integration in 1970, she was assigned to New Smyrna Beach High School during the 1970-1971 school year.
Avid B-CU supporter Her career continued at Spruce Creek High School, where she was dean of students and the girls basketball coach. She also taught at Campbell Middle School, eventually retiring at Mainland High. She had a dance group known as the Bessie Marshall dancers. She maintained a close relationship with the dancers throughout her life. Marshall was a member of the Bethune-Cookman University booster club and an avid supporter of the BCU Wildcats. She traveled extensively in support of them with the Edward “Creamy’’ Hayes group. She was a member of the B-CU Alumni Association, Texas Woman’s University Alumni Association and the NAACP.
Dr. Hakim Lucas, Bethune-Cookman’s Vice President of Institutional Advancement, is shown at a reception about the festival with Daisy Grimes, B-CU’s Community Liaison, and Evelyn Bethune, granddaughter of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, right.
Plans under way for 2014 Bethune festival
B-CU founder’s family to host week of forums, concerts and other events FROM STAFF REPORTS
Members of the Bethune family held a press conference on Oct. 4 to announce the creation of the Mary McLeod Bethune Cultural Heritage Arts Festival to
be held in Daytona Beach April 6-13, 2014. Bethune-Cookman University will participate in the festival with activities focused on “five blessings’’ – education, civic engagement, business, health and wellness, and faith, said Dr. Evelyn Bethune, granddaughter of Mary McLeod Bethune. In addition, the weeklong event will include an awards gala, an R&B and jazz concert, authors’ forum, book sales, a
Black film festival and a gospel concert, among many other events to be held throughout the city. “We see this growing into one of the biggest festivals in the southeast region,” Bethune said. “We are glad to have the participation of the Mary McLeod Bethune Legacy Preservation Institute, Inc. to make this a true testament to my grandmother’s legacy.” Please see FESTIVAL, Page 2
Please see MARSHALL, Page 2
Music fraternity ordered to suspend activities at B-CU BY JAMES HARPER DAYTONA TIMES harperjames59@yahoo.com
Members of the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity perform during an event on campus.
Bethune-Cookman University has ordered Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America to suspend all activities on and off campus, including meetings, practices, and involvement in events and programs. Pi Gamma, the local chapter of the music fraternity, is named in a lawsuit connected to the death of B-CU student and marching band member Marcus Thomas. The 19-year-old died in a car accident on Feb. 10, 2012. According to witness accounts given to police, Thomas and several other students had just left
a fraternity leader’s off-campus apartment.
Mom alleges hazing On behalf of her son, Marcus Thomas, Michelle Thomas also is suing Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America, B-CU employee Lamar D. Bryant, and Marcus Allen, a B-CU student and “big brother’’ to the pledges. Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America is a fraternity for music students. Michelle Thomas’ complaint alleges that hazing activities were conducted both on and off campus. Darryl Lewis, who is with the law firm of Searcy, Denny, Scarola, Barnhart & Shipley out of Mi-
ami, is representing Mrs. Thomas. Upon being contacted by the Daytona Times this week about the action of the school against the fraternity, Lewis said B-CU “is merely acting to protect its reputation and money.”
Lawyer: B-CU could do more “The school should have and could have easily protected its students and the community by fixing the school’s well-known long-existing culture of severe hazing. But, they did nothing to stop it,” Lewis said. “Severe hazing endangers not Please see SINFONIA, Page 2