Morgan City man charged with stealing vehicle driven in fatal crash
October 6, 2009
James "Jim" Templet
October 8, 2009When a customer charged earlier this year that a Houma-based bank treated minorities looking to start businesses unfairly, South Louisiana Bank President Chuck Weaver immediately called the Terrebonne National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the parish’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
He sought an independent investigation to ensure objectivity, according to NAACP President Jerome Boykin.
“Who would have ever thought that a banker like me could have written a letter to the NAACP about the treatment of a customer?” Weaver asked. “I’ve learned from this situation that this is a partnership.”
“Chuck is always willing to help out anyone, minorities included, in starting their projects,” Boykin said. “At the conclusion of the investigation, we found no evidence that would lead us to believe there was any kind of discrimination in that incident.”
For his effort, Weaver was awarded the Terrebonne NAACP Presidential Award at Saturday’s 27th annual NAACP banquet at the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center. A record 1,000-plus people attended.
“That’s a big bird,” he said when Boykin presented him with a commemorative bald eagle sculpture.
The Terrebonne NAACP presented its first Minority Business of the Year honor to Community Funeral Home. CEO James Matthews Sr. was given the award – a crystal urn – from Anthony Herques of MAX Foods, which has McDonald’s franchises in the area.
Community Funeral Home opened its doors in 1971. It is located on South Hollywood Road.
“On behalf of the board of directors and staff, we want to say thank you,” Matthews said. “The Minority Business of the Year award – wow! And to MAX Foods, well, ‘I’m lovin’ it!'”
Actress and author Denise Nicholas – the event’s keynote speaker – made a return appearance. The TV star got her acting start in an integrated theatre troupe in the 1960s that toured churches in Louisiana and Mississippi. Guards were often posted at the doors to watch for members of the Ku Klux Klan, she told the crowd.
Best known for her roles in “Room 222” and as Harriet DeLong on “In the Heat of the Night,” Nicholas said she treasures her years in the Bayou State.
“I discovered myself here,” she said. “I carved out my soul here. And I ate everything I could find in New Orleans.”
The move from the touring troupe to TV, she said, “was the normal progression of events. It took me a while to realize that I was one of the few persons of color on television, and that I along with others, needed to do more work in the civil rights movement, to get persons of color on television.”
She learned working alongside co-star and boss Carroll O’Connor, best known as Archie Bunker from TV’s “All in the Family,” who hired Nicholas to write seven episodes of “In the Heat of the Night.” The scripts, she said, had to give insight to viewers that his character wasn’t the bigot portrayed in the show.
“I miss him to this day,” Nicholas said. “I was the only black writer affiliated with that show. He supported me so much. In fact, he’s one of the reasons I left acting and pursued writing with a vengeance.”
Her first novel, “Freshwater Road,” is a fictional account of life in the theatre troupe. It was listed as a top book in 2005 by the Washington Post, Detroit Free Press, Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Newsday and the Chicago Tribune. The novel also won the Zora Neal Hurston/Richard Wright Award for debut fiction and the American Library Association’s Black Caucus Award the following year.
“The struggle is never over,” Nicholas said. “We must maintain constant vigilance. There are always those who want to turn back the clock.”
The Terrebonne NAACP also awarded 25 high school graduates $25,000 collectively in scholarships. Since the banquet’s start 27 years ago, more than $300,000 in awards have been given, Boykin said.
This year’s recipients are:
Cierra Bonvillain, of Terrebonne High, who will attend Xavier University of Louisiana; Porschia Brown, Vandebilt, Xavier University of Louisiana; Demetrius Boyd, South Terrebonne, Northwestern State; Essence Burns, South Terrebonne, Clark Atlanta University; Kara Celestine, Vandebilt, Xavier University of Louisiana; Dominique C. Dillard, Terrebonne, LSU; Toni B. Dion, Ellender, Southern University; Eric Garcia, Vandebilt, LSU; Brad Hebert, Terrebonne, Nicholls State; Jaora Johnson, Vandebilt, LSU; Kenneesha A’ Johnson, Terrebonne, Southeastern University; Kimberly Landry, H.L. Bourgeois, Nicholls State; Daniel Leblanc, Vandebilt, Nicholls State; Quy Luony, Terrebonne, Nicholls State; Michael J. Matis, Vandebilt, University of Louisiana at Monroe; Clarence McGuire, Terrebonne, University of Louisiana; Gerald Nixon Jr., Terrebonne, Southeastern University; Delisa R. Smith, Ellender, University of Louisiana-Lafayette; Dexter Smith, Vandebilt, Southern University Baton Rouge; Margaret Smith, Terrebonne, Nicholls State; Gabrielle Di’ Ruffin, Terrebonne, Nicholls State; Elizabeth N. Wallis, Vandebilt, Xavier University of Louisiana; Dimara Westley, Ellender, University of Louisiana-Lafayette; and Sarah J. Zeringue, H.L. Bourgeois, Nicholls State.
