Everyone knows that Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston is the most powerful person in Guilford County government.
However, his influence extends outside the county as well and, this week, Black Business Ink magazine – in celebration of its 20th anniversary – is honoring Alston and 99 others from the state at the Black Business Ink 20th Anniversary Power 100 Awards Ceremony at the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Greensboro.
Alston is frequently running county commissioner meetings on Thursday nights. However, at 7 p.m. on June 8, he’ll be recognized at The Power 100 Awards Ceremony, which is meant to honor those who Black Business Ink has chosen as 100 of “the most influential leaders from across North Carolina in a variety of sectors, including educators, healthcare professionals, politicians, clergy, and other professions and organizations.”
The evening – which will be a sort of “Who’s Who” of black leaders in the state – will also be a celebration. There will be music and dance that pay tribute to African American history and African American recording artists. The entertainment will also have a North Carolina focus, including the music of Nina Simone, John Coltrane and Shirley Caesar.
Alston, who’s been a political fixture in Guilford County for over three decades, has served as the president of the state NAACP organization and been a staunch advocate for minority rights on the Board of Commissioners. He was the key force behind Greensboro getting a street named after Martin Luther King Jr., as well as the founder of the parade that travels down that street every January. Alston is also one of the founders of the International Civil Rights Museum in the old Woolworths store in downtown Greensboro.
Alston is a very busy man right now. He and eight other commissioners are busy putting together a new budget for Guilford County that’s expected to be adopted seven days after the Power 100 celebration.
Clowns to the left of me , jokers to the right, here I am….
Not sure how Skip will have time for this. He is so busy trying to squeeze every last property tax dollar out of the Guilford County residents that he can.
All started with a Hot Dog stand!
Up skips a$$ with rocks
All while slowly turning our town into San Greencisco.
Little Portland.
This article makes me afraid…very afraid.
Do we have a special time and place to “celebrate” white leaders? Hispanic leaders? Oriental leaders? Anyone?
Skip Alston was first elected as a county commissioner in 1992. Can anyone say term limits? His biggest claim to fame is arguably the co-founding of the Sit-In Movement Inc. He was able to raise $23M to purchase and renovate the old Woolworth store that closed in 1993 into a civil rights museum. During that time, he was a county commissioner, president of the local NAACP, and manager of St. James Apartments. He was in a position to separate tax money from the Greensboro City Council into his museum project. This was also true of corporations. It would be interesting to know where Alston got the seed money for his nonprofit venture.
The city of Greensboro has given millions of taxpayer money to the museum without input from voters. This is one reason taxpayer money should never be used for nonprofits. GCC members at the time decided that the museum was worth millions of tax dollars. Millions were given to St. James Apartments without any input from the city into how the apartments were managed or how the money was spent.
As far as the NAACP is concerned, it is and has always been an organization for extortion. If the NAACP had to depend on its members and support from the public to exist, it would have closed its doors many, many years ago. Yet, it is giving Alston some type of award. Give Alston credit, he never forgot how he arrived to where he is today, hence the NAACP award.
Within a year ofSkip taking over management of St. James it suddenly was over 1 million in the red and in severe disrepair even with all the money the city gave him to do repairs and keep it running, it was demolished a while later. Anyone happen to notice that the fence around his compound is the same as the one that was around the St. James apartments. Kinda curious