2005 Nancy Susan Awards Winners

 2005 award in the category of Advocacy

Hilton Dunlap and Bobby Person
For much of their lives, Hilton Dunlap and Bobby Person have fought discrimination and intimidation, and they’ve won. Person sought to rise through the ranks at the correctional center where he worked but was passed over repeatedly in favor of white employees. He complained about racial jokes, but they only increased. Dunlap, working at another correctional center, pointed out mismanagement and favoritism to no avail.

Person’s efforts for fairness resulted in his family being targeted by the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan burned crosses in the Person yard, harassed the family, and threatened to kill Person. Again, when he complained to local authorities, nothing happened. But with his new ally, Dunlap, and with help from the Southern Poverty Law Center, he sued the Klan, won, and in the process bankrupted it.

Their reputations for getting things done spread, and before long people with EEOC complaints and other employment issues came to them for help. For more than two decades, they have been the go-to people in Moore and Hoke counties.

Lately, their attention has been on larger, community-wide issues. Five poor, predominantly African-American communities in Moore County systematically have been excluded from basic services, such as water, sewer, streets, and police protection as larger, white, and more affluent communities annexed up to and, in some cases, around their neighborhoods. Dunlap and Person have brought the communities together, shamed the affluent communities through publicity, including a major article in The New York Times, and put pressure on them to annex and provide the needed services.

2005 award in the category of Personal Service

Betty Anne Ford and Nancy Newell
Betty Anne Ford and Nancy Newell started a program for inner-city children that has grown far beyond their expectations. The seed for Loaves and Fishes began when Ford, then the tennis coach at Peace College, noticed young children who walked past the courts daily, looking for something to do. She began tossing tennis balls to them, thus beginning a summer day camp that turned into a year-round, after-school program.

Loaves and Fishes quickly became the most important part of their lives. Not only was it their careers, but the children, the children’s parents, and volunteers became their family.

Ford and Newell bought a home close to Halifax Court, an inner city Raleigh housing project where most of the Loaves and Fishes children lived. They were undeterred by the violence that often occurred at Halifax Court, often intervening to protect the children and give them safe haven in their home.

Loaves and Fishes developed like the children who participated in it, growing every year to allow students to remain in the program. Some students participated for up to 12 years, and many of them regularly visit, or volunteer, years after “graduation.”

In the process of helping children, Ford and Newell also helped affluent, white volunteers understand the plight of people who live in poverty. They are committed to racial reconciliation and understanding.

2005 award in the category of Race Relations

Deborah Miles
Deborah Miles was deeply moved by the racial violence of the 1960s and, consequently, has devoted her life to helping people understand that diversity is a positive thing. She spends each day building bridges and increasing understanding of diverse cultures, races, ethnic groups, and religions – primarily through The Center for Diversity Education, which she founded in 1995.

Miles had tried earlier to convince school administrators of the value of teaching diversity in schools but failed. Using her background as a teacher, experience as a community organizer, and large network of friends and associates, Miles finally succeeded in 1995. One of the keys to the center’s success is that its programs are developed in compliance with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study, making them immediately usable by teachers.

The center, which began at the Jewish Community Center, is now housed at the University of North Carolina at Asheville.

Thus far, more than 100,000 students and approximately 1,000 teachers have been exposed to its programs. In addition, thousands of adults and other children have seen some of the exhibits in public places, such as shopping malls, hospitals, and colleges. One such program, An Unmarked Trail, focuses on African Americans in Buncombe County’s early history. Another is about western North Carolina’s role in World War II.