VOLUME 21 NUMBER 28
FREE
OCTOBER 10, 2015
Published Since April 1995 Serving DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale Counties • www.facebook.com/ocgnews
May cancels town hall meeting, DeKalb residents speak out By Joshua Smith
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bout 70 residents turned out on Oct. 8 at the Manuel Maloof Auditorium in Decatur to voice their concerns, some of them holding up signs calling for the resignation of Interim CEO Lee May. The outcry follows a blistering report by former Attorney General Mike Bowers, who was hired by May to root out corruption. Bowers said in his report that the county is corrupt from top to bottom and that includes May. In the report, Bowers called for May’s resignation. May, who has denounced Bowers’ report, was supposed to hold a town hall meeting to give residents a chance to ask questions but he canceled the meeting on the same day it was to be held without an explanation. That didn’t sit well with Viola Davis, a South DeKalb resident who heads the Unhappy Taxpayers watchdog group. Davis was among those who showed up for the meeting and demanded May’s resignation. “Lee May had months to come clean. I begged Lee in the past, please do what’s right. I told Lee a long time ago,
Viola Davis (left) holds a sign demanding that Lee May step down.
you have three babies at home. Those babies need you at home, not in jail,” said Davis. “I take no pride standing here talking about a person I had a lot of pride in. We gave him documents of fraud, of kickbacks in the past. How far do we have to go? I respect Lee May but when you are wrong, you are wrong.” A day before May’s scheduled town
hall, State Sen. Emanuel Jones and State Rep. Fran Millar called for May to resign. DeKalb Commissioner Nancy Jester announced that the town hall would go on without May and allowed residents to voice their concerns. Jester said that she planned to send May a video of the meeting.
“I’m here to listen and take notes and take concerns back to the CEO’s office. I think our CEO in a way disrespected the taxpayers by rescheduling this meeting at the last minute after people made arrangements to be here,” said Jester. “I can not confirm it but I heard that he (Lee May) did not want to be here because he thought there would be a protest. The taxpayers are the bosses. We have to respect them and hear them out.” Jester has said she plans to ask Gov. Nathan Deal for a government overseer to deal with DeKalb County. Deal announced several days ago that wanted the GBI to review the Bowers’ report but Jester said the governor needs to do more. Commissioner Jeff Rader, who was the only other commissioner to attend the meeting Jester held, said he wants the governor to look into the corruption in DeKalb and he plans to propose an ordinance at the Oct. 13 Board of Commissioners’ meeting seeking relief. “This is beyond us now. We need an ordinance so we can get a third party to look into this deeper,” said Rader. Rader also said that May should See DeKalb residents page 9
Stonecrest Library exhibit showcases African American sports giants By Joshua Smith
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mages of African American sports legends such as Tom Molineaux, Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali are part of the latest exhibit recently unveiled at the Stonecrest Library branch in Southeast DeKalb County. The Stonecrest Friends group joined former NBA’s Mike “Stinger” Glenn on Oct. 3 for a ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the exhibit, “From Molineaux to Michael: African Americans in Athletics.” The exhibit includes Glenn’s personal collection of sports memorabilia spanning from the late 1700s to the 1990s and offers a shrine of pictures, framed magazine covers, books and other sports memorabilia. Glenn, whose 10-year career included playing with the Buffalo Braves, New York Knicks, Atlanta Hawks and the Milwaukee Bucks from 1977 to 1987, has spent years collecting memorabilia of notable African American athletes. “This means so much to me. This is a passion that I have dedicated a lot of my time and money to pulling together,” said Glenn, who is now a television analyst for Fox Sports and the Atlanta Hawks. “The importance of sports and the African American athletes like Joe Louis who meant so much to not only their sport but their community, was instilled in me at a very young age and it brings me joy to be able to celebrate these greats with others. I had to bring these greats to the forefront for others to celebrate.” For John Evans, DeKalb County NAACP president, visiting the exhibit at
Former NBA player, Mike Glenn, shows off one of the pieces in exhibit at the Stonecrest Library branch.
the ribbon cutting ceremony was a sweet trip down memory lane. Evans, a former Negro League baseball player, spotted his autograph among several greats on an old picture that is part of the exhibit after DeKalb Commissioner Mereda Davis Johnson pointed it out to Evans. “To see my name on something in the exhibit next to a name like Hank Aaron means a lot,” said Evans, who played for the Indianapolis Clowns and the Birmingham Black Barons. “We were all in it together in those days. It didn’t really matter if we were on the same team or not. We were all like brothers playing for something greater than ourselves.” Evans wasn’t the only sports great who attended the opening day of the exhibit.
Al Attles, the second African American NBA coach to win an NBA championship, and former All-American, NBA player and actor Marvin Roberts, also attended. Stone Mountain Postmaster Craig Eberhart showed up to present Glenn with a framed larger-than-life Wilt Chamberlin stamp display to add to the exhibit. Stonecrest branch manager Steve DeJarnette said he, the Friends group and Glenn have been planning the exhibit since summer. “This kind of exhibit is critical for all of us, especially the youth. When you look at what these athletes went through just to get a chance to play, none of us can make any excuses about anything we are facing,” DeJarnette said.
Tyson Jamison, a 19-year-old athlete who played baseball and football in DeKalb County, agrees. “We don’t have to deal with that level of discrimination that these greats faced. There is a lot to be learned from these exhibit walls,” said Thompson, who is a student at Georgia Perimeter and plans to study sports management and/or Kinesiology, the medical study of movement. “I tore my ACL playing and now I have a different focus. I want to become an expert at the things that go on around the game and make sure players are at their best health when they go out on the field.” In conjunction with the ribbon cutting ceremony, the Mike Glenn Foundation and the Retired Players Association hosted an awards dinner in Stone Mountain where the “Tom Molineaux Awards” were given to Attles, who currently works for the Golden State Warriors; Spencer Haywood, a former ABA and NBA star who fought for the right to play in the NBA; Violet Palmer, the first female referee in the NBA; Ralph Boston, a renowned Olympian who broke Jesse Owens’ 25-year-old record in the long jump; Mel Pender, a former world-record holder for sprinting; and Orrin Hudson, a world chess champion and international motivational speaker. “These athletes and really sports heroes are not just great testaments for the athletic community but they are people who fight for the dignity and equality of all people in sports and in their communities as a whole,” said Glenn, who was inducted See Stonecrest Library Exhibit, page 9