Ticker Tape

Jet, Sept 24, 2001 by Simeon Booker

Confidential: Just what minority group President George W. Bush is anxious to woo for the next presidential election three years away became increasingly clear at his first White House state dinner. The chosen: The nation's Hispanic voters, who hold sway in the major states of Texas, Florida and California and are described by the census polls as the nation's coming lead minority.

The dinner honored Mexico President Vicente Fox and was short on Black guests, the most prominent being retiring Redskins cornerback Darrell Green, in his first-ever appearance at such a function ... Celebrated Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) magazine cover figure is SCLC Vice President Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, hero of many a civil rights demonstration, being presented the Presidential Citizens Medal in the last civil rights action of Bill Clinton's presidency ... Introduction of human rights pacesetters who have made a major impact in the last decade is the highlight of The New Urban Leaders, a book written by Brookings Fellow Joyce A. Ladner. Headliners include Kent Amos and Eugene Rivers, who put achievement above rap ... The name of the nation's senior federal judge, the late James L. Watson, who was named to the U.S. Court of International Trade in 1966 by President Lyndon Johnson, was proposed by Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel for the court's NYC building. Rangel once was a clerk for the late judge ... Reserve October 14 for the Discover Baltimore celebration by the tourism board in Maryland. Invites boast that "Billie Holiday was born here, Count Basie performed here, Justice Marshall was born here and Frederick Douglass found freedom here."