Ticker Tape

Jet, July 31, 2000 by Simeon Booker

Confidential: The Republicans missed out in recruiting retired Gen. Colin Powell for a slot on the party presidential ticket but landed him as one of the Philadelphia convention's opening speakers. He will discuss ways to help the nation's children while Condoleeza Rice, the party's favorite policy advisor, will appear on the second night's international program with Sen.

John McCain and Elizabeth Dole. Rep. J.C. Watts, the chairman of the House GOP Committee and the only Black Republican congressman, will dominate the minority delegate slate which includes Washington, D.C.'s John Wilks, New York's Fred Brown, former president of the National Black Republican Council, and Alphonso Jackson, head of a public utility company in Dallas, and closest Black to Governor George W. Bush ... Two hundred million Roy Wilkins self-adhesive U.S. postage stamps will be printed for the January 2001 issuance. The announcement came at the NAACP Convention in Baltimore. It is the newest honor for the former NAACP great ... Traveling across America as a harpist and only Black member of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Arcola Clark was finally recognized at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. A friend, ex-diplomat Bill Davis, sponsored a party for her in the home of Janna Burkette in nearby Clifton, VA. Clark, a Detroiter, joined the orchestra 25 years ago after she was hired on the spot in Vienna after an audition ... As insistent as President Bill Clinton is, he can't change the 15-member, all-White U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, VA. For seven years, he's battled North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms to name a Black to the court which has more Black residents in its district than any other court.