Barely had word got out of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People's endorsements for the Oct. 6 municipal primary before un-endorsed candidate Darius M. Little had something to say about them.

"I would like to congratulate my friends, Mr. Howard and Mrs. Anne Clement, on obtaining the endorsement," Little said in a prepared news release issued at 11:30 this morning.

But he went on to claim that the Committee's endorsement "doesn't mean as much as in the past."

Thursday night, the Committee came out for incumbent Howard Clement in the Ward 2 race, in which Little is one of four challengers. Newcomer Donald A. Hughes won the Committee's stamp of approval over incumbent Cora Cole-McFadden for the Ward 1 seat.

Little complained that the group's endorsement was decided by 11 Committee members, though there are almost 65,000 black voters registered in Durham. (Actually, 60,380 in the city, according to the Durham County Board of Elections.)

Those numbers show, he said, "It doesn't take a Harvard graduate to figure out that this year's Durham Committee endorsement doesn't mean as much as in the past."

Last month, Little sent Clement an email asking that the council veteran of 26 years drop out of the race in consideration of his age and physical infirmity. Clement has not publicly responded.

The Committee's nod gives Clement a sweep of Durham's three major political action groups. The Friends of Durham and the Durham People's Alliance endorsed his re-election earlier this week.

The influential Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People is inviting the public to its annual meeting, 5:30 p.m. Jan. 25 at Immanuel Temple Seventh Day Adventist Church, 2104 Alston Ave.

Keynote speaker is U.S. Rep. Yvette D. Clark, D-N.Y. State NAACP president William J. Barber will also speak, on a “Historic Thousands on Jones Street” march to be held Feb. 14 in Raleigh.

The Committee is Durham’s oldest political-action committee, founded in 1935.

Chuck Watts, co-chairman of the "A Taste for Durham's Future" committee promoting Durham County's proposed 1 percent sales tax on prepared food, said he is "disappointed and, frankly, not surprised" that the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People came out against the measure.

The Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People is officially and “overwhelmingly” opposed to Durham County’s proposed 1-percent prepared-food tax, committee chairwoman Lavonia Allison said today.

“There was long, long discussion,” Allison said. “Plenty of discussion.”

The political committee of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People is inviting candidates in the Nov. 4 election to come for interviews next week.

Candidates seeking the committee’s endorsement may call its office at 530-1100 or political chairman Chester Jenkins at 688-1682 for appointments.

Seventy-three years’ worth of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People’s records passed into the state of North Carolina’s care Tuesday.

Lavonia Allison, the Committee’s chairwoman since 1997, made the donation to the state archives in a ceremony at N.C. Central University.

“This is a major, major acquisition,” said state archivist Dick Langford.