Untitled Document

News Release
Congressman Bob Etheridge
North Carolina

February 25, 2004

Contact: Sara Lang
Phone: (202) 225-4531

Etheridge Honors Two Who Made a Difference in Wake County

WASHINGTON- Today U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-Lillington) honored two of Wake County's finest - Wake Schools Superintendent Bill McNeal and the late John Wesley Winters, Sr., Raleigh's first black city council member.

Etheridge today spoke on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in honor of McNeal, who was recently named the 2004 National Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators, and in recognition of Forbes magazine naming the Wake County School System third in the nation on its "Top Ten List for The Best Education in the Biggest Cities." Etheridge's remarks follow.

"Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate my good friend Bill McNeal on being named the National Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators. I have worked with Bill for many years, and no one is more deserving of this award.

"Since the year 2000, Bill has served with distinction as the Superintendent of Wake County Public Schools in my Congressional District in North Carolina. Wake County is a diverse community and one of the fastest growing school systems in the country.

"Bill has demonstrated outstanding leadership in raising academic performance by reaching out to all elements of the community and bringing folks together behind a shared vision of educational excellence. Just this week Forbes magazine named Wake County Schools Number Three in its ranking of the one hundred best big city school districts. Wake County is now a showcase for successful education reform through bold leadership.

"At a time when schools across the country are facing budget cuts and struggling to comply with the President's No Child Left Behind unfunded mandates, Bill McNeal's accomplishments are proof once again that the real leadership in education reform is taking place every day in our nation's schools. I call on all my colleagues in Congress to join me in commending Bill McNeal for this hard earned recognition.

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I yield back the balance of my time."

Etheridge also honored the legacy of Winters, who recently passed away, in a statement in the Congressional Record. Winters was a builder, land developer, civic leader, and a pioneer in improving race relations in Raleigh and the state. Etheridge's statement follows.

"Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remember a great North Carolinian, John Wesley Winters, Sr.

"North Carolina and its capital city, Raleigh, lost one of its most outstanding citizens with the death of John Wesley Winters, Sr. on February 15. Mr. Winters was a builder, land developer, civic leader, and a pioneer in improving race relations in his city and state. He was a loyal Democrat and an innovative champion for human rights.

"Mr. Winters worked as a milkman and airport skycap in his youth, saving his money with the goal of becoming a builder for Southeast Raleigh's African-American community. In 1957, he opened his home-building company and began building homes. Each year brought more houses. In the early 1960's he developed Biltmore Hills as a neighborhood of affordable homes for middle class African-American families. He named the streets of the subdivision for famous African-Americans, including (Ralph) Bunche and (Ella) Fitzgerald drives and (Roy) Campanella Lane. He later developed Madonna Acres, an upper level development near St. Augustine's College and Wintershaven, an apartment complex for senior citizens.

"Elected to the Raleigh City Council in 1961, only a year after the Greensboro drug store sit-ins launched the civil rights movement in North Carolina, Mr. Winters was thrust into a key leadership role in Raleigh and Wake County. His was the voice on the City Council raised to help the city respond to the civil rights revolution. Quiet-spoken, diplomatic, determined, he was a tower of strength for both whites and blacks as the city responded to the demands for equal rights. When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. visited Raleigh in 1961, it was Mr. Winters who was asked to pick him up at the airport and drive him to the speech. Former Governor James B. Hunt called Mr. Winters "the best bridge-builder between the races that has ever come along in North Carolina." Governor Hunt was later to appointment Mr. Winters to the North Carolina Utilities Commission.

"In 1974, Mr. Winters and Mr. Fred Alexander of Charlotte were elected to the North Carolina State Senate. They were the first two African-Americans elected to that body since Reconstruction. With quiet determination and hard work, Mr. Winters quickly became a leader in the State Senate, forming life-long friendships with North Carolina's political leaders. He was a friend of governors, senators, congressmen, and presidents. Governor Terry Sanford, whose term as governor corresponded with the civil rights protests, was a personal friend and sought Mr. Winters' advice.

"Mr. Winters is survived by his wife of 63 years, Marie, by seven children, Frances, John Jr., Donna, Naomi, Rebecca, Roland, and Seannea, by a brother, Joseph Winters of Raleigh, by a sister, Delores Scotto of Port Charlotte, Florida, by eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

"His courage and his leadership will be missed in Raleigh, Wake County, and North Carolina. If God charges each of us that we leave the world a better place than we found it on our birth, John Winters succeeded admirably. He lived, as the Chinese proverb says, "in interesting times." We can only thank God that a Kind Providence saw fit to place us on the same highway of life with John Winters-and made him our friend."