STATE AFRICAN AMERICAN
MONUMENT DELAYED BY
GOP BUDGET IMPASSE
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
One of the major casualties of the current state budget impasse between Republicans in the NC House, and Republicans in the NC Senate, is of course, the delay in expanding Medicaid to over 600,000 North Carolinians in poverty. Another major casualty is the across the board pay raises for state employees and teachers that is supposedly contained in pending budget proposals.
But there is yet another major casualty of the GOP failure to pass a new state budget that was due on July 1st, and that’s the North Carolina monument honoring African American history. The project awaits funding for its theme and design.
In fact, when the smoke clears after negotiations, there’s no guarantee that the long planned $3 million project will be in the final state budget at all. Approved by the state Historical Commission and the N.C. African American Heritage Commission in 2016, and then included in Gov. Roy Cooper’s proposed budget and the state Senate’s recent budget plan, it could be zeroed out by House conferees in any final compromise.
According to an editorial in last Sunday’s Raleigh News and Observer newspaper titled, “Stop stalling an African American monument at the NC Capitol, Republicans,” State Senate leader Phil Berger, who has supported the building of the monument on the grounds of the State Capitol in the past, “…told reporters last week that the funding for the project may be left out when Republican lawmakers agree on a state budget that is now six weeks overdue.”
Could cost-cutting be the problem? The N&O editorial thought not.
“House Speaker Tim Moore hinted at why. He noted that the North Carolina Freedom Park, a private and state-funded project that commemorates the struggles and achievements of African Americans, is about to open across from the Legislative Building (on August 23rd). The implication is that GOP House lawmakers may think one public acknowledgment of African American history is enough.”
The N&O editorial went on to note that Freedom Park was conceived before the GOP took over the state legislature in 2011, and was paid for by both private and public funding.
Funding for the African American monument was left out of the 2021 two-year state budget that was passed.
Noting that there is now a state budget surplus with “billions in reserve,” the N&O opined editorially that “Republicans now have an opportunity to commemorate the struggles and achievements of African Americans at a time when their party too often panders to white grievance.”
The editorial added that unlike the Confederate monuments that once stood proudly for generations on state property before being pulled down and removed by protestors, the African American monument “would do more than acknowledge the history of African Americans, but draw the GOP closer to its own history as the party of Lincoln.”
The N&O editorial ended by citing, “Now is the time. No more delays. No substitutes elsewhere. Put the monument to African Americans
at the heart of North Carolina’s history.”
Ironically, at the same time a major white newspaper in the state is advocating for a monument to North Carolina’s Black history to be finally erected, the NC Dept. of Natural and Cultural Resources announced that on August 26th, an historical highway marker honoring the life of North Carolina civil rights leader Robert Franklin Williams will be unveiled in his hometown of Monroe in Union County.
Williams, who served as the Union County NAACP leader in the late 1950s, is best known for fearlessly vowing to defend against white supremacists with arms if necessary, and standing up for two young Black boys in 1958 who were arrested, tried and convicted for kissing a young white girl on the cheek while playing a game. The boys were later pardoned by Gov. Luther Hodges.
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CHANCELLOR HAROLD MARTIN SR.
NC A&T CELBRATES
REPORT OF $2.4 BILLION+
ECONOMIC IMPACT
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
NC A&T University Chancellor Harold L. Martin, Sr. has a lot to be proud of.
If a recent report documenting how NC A&T University now has an estimated statewide economic impact of more than $2.4 billion is any indication, Chancellor Martin has turned the nation’s largest historically Black university (HBCU) around from a sad tale of near failure, to one of the greatest educational and economic success stories in history.
“With a documented economic footprint across our state now of more than $2.4 billion and thousands of our graduates contributing to the North Carolina job market each year, our university is fulfilling its land-grant mission in profound, diverse ways,” Chancellor Martin says.
“The outcomes measured in this significant new study provide compelling evidence that investments in North Carolina A&T provide outstanding returns for the people of this state.”
“NC A&T is one of the most powerful drivers of economic prosperity in the region.”
Martin is referring to a recent report released by two associate economics professors at the school’s Willie A. Deese College of Business and Economics, Cephas Naanwaab, Ph.D., and Alfredo Romero, Ph.D.
“While North Carolina A&T’s value to the economy of North Carolina is larger than simply its economic impact, understanding the dollars-and-cents value is an important asset to understanding the university’s value as a whole,” the two economists say.
The numbers are impressive.
In 2022-23, NC A&T University had an enrollment of 13,487 students - an increase of 1600 - the largest student body ever enrolled at an historically Black college or university in history, the school says, making it the nation’s largest HBCU for the past nine years.
Chancellor Martin says the institution plans to add 2,000 more students over the next seven years, and continuing to expand its research programs.
Next, NC A&T’s economic footprint has grown an amazing 63% in the past five years, up from $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2018. The researchers also determined that the home of “Aggie Pride” generated $1.42 billion in added income to North Carolina, an impact equivalent to supporting over 17,300 jobs.
The key ingredients for NC A&T’s sauce of success?
Six areas - alumni impact, university operations spending ($744 million), research expenditures ($157 million), construction spending, visitor expenditures and student spending.
In fiscal year 2022, alumni accounted for $702 million in added income for the state, translating into $1.2 billion for North Carolina. According to Prof. Naanwaab, 42-45% of NC A&T grads reside in North Carolina.
“NC A&T’s greatest economic impact comes from its alumni and the knowledge, creativity, imagination and entrepreneurship they bring to positions around the state,” Chancellor Martin wrote in a recent edition of EdNC.
“U.S. News & World Report agrees,” Martin continued. “In its last three issues of Best Colleges – its well-known annual ranking of America’s higher education campuses – the magazine has ranked new A&T alumni the second-best compensated in the UNC System, earning a median starting salary of nearly $55,000 and trailing only North Carolina State graduates.”
With a documented economic footprint across our state now of more than $2.4 billion and thousands of our graduates contributing to the North Carolina job market each year, our university is fulfilling its land-grant mission in profound, diverse ways,” Chancellor Martin concludes. “The outcomes measured in this significant new study provide compelling evidence that investments in North Carolina A&T provide outstanding returns for the people of this state.”
The story was very different fourteen years ago.
Harold Martin, Sr. was an engineer and former NC A&T professor who returned to the school in 2009 as chancellor, and faced a multitude of serious challenges.
Enrollment was poor, at least 25% of students were on academic probation, and the campus infrastructure was falling apart.
Martin raised standards for admissions and academic performance.
Today, entering student grade point averages at NC A&T hover at 3.8.
According to Todd Simmons, associate vice chancellor for University Relations, NC A&T now recruits a better quality of students from across the country.
“In terms of the quality of the students we graduate year over year, it continues to grow and develop a real national reputation for our university both in the HBCU lane and in the doctoral research university lane as well,” Simmons told NC Newsline.
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