RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Bev Perdue Friday appointed Toni Sa King to the District Court bench for the 12th Judicial District for Cumberland County.  King will fill the vacancy created by the election of Judge Cheri Beasley to the North Carolina Court of Appeals.

“Toni King’s experience in private practice and her commitment to public service in the Cumberland County community have prepared her well for this seat on the bench, “ said Perdue. “I am confident that she has the qualities and character that will best serve the citizens of Cumberland County.”

Since 2000, King has served as a private practitioner in Cumberland County.  She currently is a partner in the firm of Miller, King and Clouse in Fayetteville, NC. She previously was an attorney at the Rogers & Miller Firm in Fayetteville, NC.

King has been a leader in her community having served as a member of numerous civic and professional organizations in Cumberland County.  She has also served as an adjunct professor at Fayetteville State University.

King earned her undergraduate degree from North Carolina Central University in 1996.  She received her law degree from North Carolina Central University School of Law in 2000.

BY MICHAEL PAUL WILLIAMS
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

Johnnie Taylor shook her head, raised her arms and mouthed a silent prayer as the band struck up “Hail to the Chief” for President Barack Obama.

Taylor, 60, recalled her youth as a civil-rights activist who was yanked from a lunch-counter stool during a Woolworth’s sit in. The conflict resolution trainer at the Richmond Peace Education Center sees Obama’s presidency as the product of divine intervention.

“When things like this happen, it’s not by accident. It’s not by history. It’s an ordained event,” she said. “I know man had to vote, but God made this happen.”

Kayla Hill-Jones was born a half-century after Taylor, but bore a psychic load no less onerous. For the Glen Allen Elementary School fourth-grader, yesterday meant this: “That I can accomplish anything, even though I’m black.”

Taylor and Kayla were among three dozen people who watched Obama’s inauguration at Highland Park’s Fire House 15 as they washed down chili, cornbread, tossed salad and brownies with sweet iced tea. The fire station-turned-eatery is run by Boaz & Ruth, a nonprofit that seeks to transform Highland Park, serve as a community bridge and rebuild the lives of formerly incarcerated men and women.

As I listened to a 10-year-old child describe her brave new world, it brought to mind the old one of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Upon telling his young daughter that the Atlanta amusement park Funtown was closed to black children, he could see “ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky.”

Those clouds have hovered over the collective mental sky of African-Americans throughout the nation’s history.

Yesterday, the skies cleared.

The forecast for America is another matter. The nation’s helm has been handed to an African-American during one of the most turbulent times in our nation’s history.

Adria Scharf, director of the Richmond Peace Education Center, described yesterday as “disorienting,” and indeed, there was a magical aura that bordered on surreal. You might say the country has found its bearings after straying wildly off course from the grand ideals charted in its founding.

The journey toward that ideal is far from complete. But perhaps for the first time, many of us understand how King felt in the famous speech that foreshadowed his death. Like him, we don’t know what will happen now. There are difficult days ahead. But that doesn’t matter as much anymore. We’ve been to the mountaintop.

“I’m 50,” said Ruth Cosby, a Boaz & Ruth graduate who supervises its furniture store at Third and Main streets. “I thought I would never see this. I just couldn’t stop crying. I think this is going to unite us as a country, and we’re going to realize Dr. King’s dream.”

If that’s the case, it’s children such as Kayla who stand to inherit a nobler nation.

Kayla’s parents, Stan Jones and Regina Hill, are supporters of Boaz & Ruth. “We wanted her to experience giving instead of receiving — of serving others,” her mother said of Kayla.

Kayla wore a red and blue T-shirt that featured a portrait of the new first family inside the presidential seal.

“She said she wanted to be the first African-American president,” her mother said, chuckling. “I told her she could be the first woman.”

WASHINGTON – New York Republican congressman Peter King told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he is preparing for a run for the New York Senate seat, even if that means facing off against Caroline Kennedy.

“I am seriously considering the race for Hillary Clinton’s seat,” King told The AP. “I’m very serious about it.”
 
The eight-term lawmaker from Long Island said New York’s GOP chairman Joseph Mondello “supports me 100 percent,” and that state Conservative Party chair Michael Long has responded positively.

The son of an NYPD lieutenant, King said he “would genuinely represent the interests of blue-collar conservatives.”

King’s announcement is the latest twist in a political drama over who will succeed Clinton should she be confirmed as President-elect Barack Obama’s secretary of state.

Her successor would be appointed by New York Gov. David Paterson, and about a dozen Democrats are vying for that position. Kennedy’s family has said she is interested in the seat.

Whoever is appointed would hold the job for two years, and run for election in 2010, against King or some other New York Republican.

King said the appointment of Kennedy would not scare him out of the campaign.

“Obviously it would be a challenge to run against Caroline Kennedy. She has the name identification and for all I know she’s a wonderful person. But this is not an anti-Kennedy campaign,” he said. “Nothing in life is easy. If anything, that makes the adrenaline pump a little harder.”

King, 64, is the senior Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee.

“All my life I’ve been involved in New York issues and certainly since Sept. 11. I think I have as great a knowledge as anyone on homeland security and the threats to New York,” he said.

He ran unsuccessfully for state attorney general in 1986, and has flirted with running for statewide office in recent years. He said his decision on whether to enter the Senate race will depend on how much money he can raise, since he estimates it will cost $35 million to $40 million to be competitive.