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VOL 95, NO. 79
Walltown celebrates community’s rebirth By SARABETH REES
drowned out by the excitement inside: the dedication of Twenty-six exuberant young Walltown’s brand-new St. James Baptist Church and voices filled the expansive, immaculate new meeting room Family Life Center, led by PasSunday afternoon. Boys and tor Luther Brooks. Sunday’s dedication ceregirls of all ages swayed back mony at what was until reand forth on the stage, clapping and banging tambourines cently a boarded-up, abanin the well-practiced rhythm of doned school was the latest their celebratory song, “Ezekiel step in the slow, communitydriven renaissance of the Saw a Wheel.” Directly in front of them on Walltown neighborhood. Walltown is not a large stage, perhaps not singing along—but beaming proudly neighborhood. It lies merely between nonetheless, sat President Nan Keohane. Next to her Guess Road and Green Street, Broad Street and were Mayor Nick Tennyson and several other community Buchanan Boulevard —the leaders. Before long, everyone area between Northgate Mall in the room was on their feet, and East Campus. The neighborhood used to dancing and singing with all the energy they could muster. be safe—one of those places Just outside, the whirling where everybody knew everyred and blue lights of a police body else. car racing by flashed through But the crack cocaine boom the windows periodically, but of the late 1980s and early See WALLTOWN on page 6 the shrill sirens were easily
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CHRISTINE PARKINS/THE CHRONICLE
MEMBERS OF A GOSPEL CHOIR raised their voices in praise Sunday at the dedication ofWalltown’s new church and community center, a neighborhood development success story that some say signals the rebirth of the drug-plagued community.
Former Russian prime minister speaks Pro-life rally By JAMES HERRIOTT The Chronicle
The last 10 years have shown that the prime ministry ofRussia may not be the most secure job for promising young academics and politicians. Yegor Gaidar, after serving a short stint as prime minister in 1991 and 1992 and creating a minority political party, embarked on a speaking tour to promote his book, Days of Defeat and Victory. Last week, he delivered the Terry Sanford Distinguished Lecture in a crowded Fleishman Commons and participated in Friday’s roundtable discussion with John Odling-Smee of the International Monetary Fund and Marcelo Solowsky, the chief economist for Europe and Asia for the World Bank. About 75 students and professors attended the discussion. Gaidar’s government was characPRATIK PATEL/THE CHRONICLE terized by rapid economic reform that PRIME FORMER RUSSIAN MINISTER YEGOR served on a GAIDAR, center, panel Friday to discuss was considered “shock therapy” by the past, present and future challenges facing the Russian economy. more conservative politicians. Growlng opposition to the privatization deal with changes in society, there Gaidar recalled that socialism creates and price liberalization promoted by are changes for the good and for the “absolutely enormous distortions that the respected economist led former bad,'’ he explained. He added that could never exist in a market econoPresident Boris Yeltsin to replace just as Russians were incorrectly in- my.” As an example of the misallocaGaidar with Viktor Chernomyrdin. formed that racial oppression and tion of resources, Gaidar said the SoRussia’s difficulties with the military-industrial complex dominat- viet Union produced an excessive transition from a command economy ed the American 1980s, Americans number of harvesters—l 6 times the may seem foreign to those who grew were told an exaggerated, negative number made in the U.S.—but still } under capitalism, Gaidar said. story of the Soviet Union. needed to import grain. Rs extremely difficult to explain to However, just as discrimination ocNow that the Russian economy is People living here in the city of curred in the US., so did vast ineffi- no longer communist, Gaidar said he Durham... [thatl when you have to ciencies in the Russian economy. See GAIDAR on page 7
mourns
Roe vs. Wade The first annual campus protest marked the 27th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. By JAIME LEVY The Chronicle
A group of 40 students shivered on the main quad Friday afternoon as they listened to the story of Loretta Thompson, vice president and communications director for North Carolina Right to Life. Called to mark the 27th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the solemn rally—sponsored by Duke Students for Life—focused on a Christian argument against abortion: “Every life is made by God and every life is precious...,” Thompson said. “It doesn’t matter the color of your skin, it doesn’t matter if you have a disability. God was there when you were conceived.” In her speech, Thompson shared her own story to highlight the painful way many young women are drawn to abortion. When she found out she was pregnant at age 19, she said she could not go
to her parents for advice. “I didn’t want to shame my parents. I didn’t want to cause any more embarrassment to them,” she said. “Instead of See
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