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VOLUME 79 - NUMBER 24
•- DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA — SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 2001
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913
PRICE:30 CENTS
election VICTORIES!
See Durham Committee Report
Page 3
NAACP LDF Files Suit
Against Florida
Voting Officials over
Illegal Procedures
Former New York City Mayor David Dinkins ack
nowledges the audience at the Human Relations forum
held at Hillside High School. (Photo by Lawson)
Census Shows Wide Racial
Disparity in Prisons
In Connecticut
By Diane Scarponi
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - Al (he Church Street South public hous
ing project, two children play with a yellow puff of insulation. Skinny
old men sit in the shade of the squat, cement buildings.
Lorraine Stanley, a resident of 13 years, takes a drag from a cigarette.
She recalls a decade ago when a drug gang called the Jurgle Brothers ter
rorized the neighborhood. Police evenmally busted up the gang, and now
a police substation in the neighborhood keeps crime down,
"Things have gotten a whole lot better," Stanley said.
Connecticut's war on drugs has made the streets safer. But it has ex-
aticd [\ price on minority families: One in I 1 black men in Connecticut
between the ages of 18 and 64 is behind bars. .
Although ihc.se black men make up less than 3 percent ol Connecticut’s
luial population, they account for 47 percent of male inmates in that age
bracket in the slate’s prisons, halfway houses and local jails, Census
2(XK} reported.
Similar racial imbalance can be seen around the country. Final figures
Irum the census are not yet available, but the U.S. Department ol Justice
reported that 12 percent of all black men between the ages ot 20 and 34
were locked up last year.
This trend exists to a lesser extent among Hispanic men. Nationally and
Connecticut, about 4 percent of young Hispanic men are in prison or
jiill.
Less than I percent of Connecticut’s white men between the ages of 18
iind 64 arc locked up, compared with about 2 percent nationaliy.
A eoinhinalion of drug laws, poverty and racial bias has put a large
lumber of minorities behind bars, experts said.
1 don’t think anyone intended it to be this way, but it you were trying
to design a system to incarcerate as many African-American and Latino
as possible, I don’t think you could have designed a belter system,
'’Uid stale Rep. Michael Lawlor. co-chairman of the Connecticut Legisla-
'tJfc s Judiciary Committee.
Lorn the late 1980s to mid-1990s, violent drug gangs prowled the
•'''reels ol New Haven and other impoverished cities around the country.
In Hartlord. a 7-ycar-old girl was killed in a botched gang hit as she sat
ber lather’s car. A young man was shot to death by a gang member be-
Qu.se the victim unwittingly wore a rival gang’s colors.
Outraged cili/.cns demanded action. Lawmakers and police delivered.
Federal agents and state police, using racketeering laws, herded up the
^ungsicrs and sent them to prison. Police departments added to their
’'"nks, with the goal of sweeping the streets clean ot drug dealers. The
built 11 new prisons to hold them all.
Anyone caught selling half a gram of crack cocaine - less than I/50th
nl an ounce - faced a two-year prison term, the same penally for sale of a
'^hole ounce of powdered cocaine.
A mandatory, three-year prison term was passed tor anyone selling .
within 1,500 feet of a school, day care center or public housing
project. In densely settled New Haven, that meant virtually everywhere
except the Yale University golf course and the Tweed-New Haven air-
Pon runway.
(Continued On Page 2)
Black Farmers Say Fight With
Government Is Over Discrimination
RALEIGH (AP) - A $1 billion
agreement directing the U.S. Agri
culture Department to compensate
black farmers who suffered lending
discrimination was hailed in 1999
as a civil rights watershed.
More than two years after the
consent decree was signed, only
about half of the more than 21,000
fanners who filed claims have got
ten their checks of at least $50,000
dollars.
Some farmers have been told they
are approved for payment but have
waited more than a year for their
checks. Some legal experts also
contend the settlement did little to
solve the problem of discrimination
against black farmers when it com
es to USDA loans.
"I’m ashamed my name is on this
case, considering the way it has
turned out," said Timothy Pigford,
49, a former Columbus County
farmer who was the lead plaintiff.
Pigford received a settlement
payment but is still battling the
USDA over past loans the agency
is still trying to collect.
Of more than 1,430 cases filed by
North Carolina farmers, a little
more than half have been paid .so
far, 90 are waiting for checks and
20 have had their cases put on hold.
The remaining claims in North
Carolina either have been denied or
still are being processed.
About 8,300 black fanriei>’ L '
had their claims denied by court-
appointed judges; about 40 percent.
One reason the denials have been
so high is that the settlement re
quires individual farmers to pro
duce specific evidence they were
turned down for a federal loan
while a similarly situated white
farmer was approved.
"The individual farmers are natu
rally having a hard lime obtaining
that kind of evidence for their
cases," said Jerry Pennick, director
of the land assistance fund at the
Federation of Southern Coopera
tives, an Atlanta group working
with black farmers in the case.
"You are talking about discrimina
tion that occurred under the radar
for decades."
One expert on class-action law
suits said the requirement appears
onerous.
Black farmers "are being asked to
prove something that happened
years ago when the information
isn’t readily available," said
Thomas Metzloff, a Duke Univer
sity law professor who has worked
on a number of big class-action
suits, including the Daikon Shield
contraceptive case.
While the discrimination con
tinued, more black farmers were
forced off the land.
In the early 1900s there were
nearly 1 million black farmers
nationwide; now there are less than
18,000. Black farmers represent
less than 1 percent of active farm
ers today.
USDA officials say the agency is
doing its best to make reparations.
"It hasn’t been perfect, but I don’t
think there is anybody at USDA
who thinks this process isn’t work
ing as well as it can under the cir
cumstances," said J. Michael Kelly,
the agency’s acting general
counsel.
The settlement grew out of a law
suit filed in August 1997 on behalf
of black farmers, primarily from
the South, who alleged discrimina
tion in the handling of government
loan applications.
USDA officials and Alexander
Pires, the lead Washington lawyer
representing the farmers, signed the
consent decree just before the case
went to trial.
The agency acknowledged
liability for past discrimination and
agreed to a settlement. Farmers
who filed discrimination com
plaints between 1981 and 1996
could accept $50,(X)0 in tax-free
payments, plus debt relief and other
financial benefits, or seek more
money in further legal proceedings.
In May, Pires’ 14-member firm
and several others missed a dead
line for processing the claims. Pires
told the court his firm has been
overwhelmed by the volume of the
claims it has had to process, as well
as thousands of appeals.
U.S. District Court- Judge Paul
Friedman extended the deadline to
Sept. 15, but he also imposed a
schedule ot stiff fines should the
lawyers miss any future deadlines.
Friedman also asked about a
dozen big Washington law firms to
take on stanc of the most compli
cated claims without charging fees.
The law firms agreed to handle
about 100 of the most-complicated
cases.
At the level where loans are ap
proved, little has changed.
Unlike most government pro
grams, USDA loans are ad
ministered by nearly 3,000 county
offices scattered across the country.
Decisions including those involv
ing farm loans arc made by com
mittees elected by the county’s
farmers. The committees hire a lo-
(Coniinued On Page 3)
The Legislative Black Caucus held its annual conference in the Research Triangle
Park. On hand for the event from left to right are: Senator Frank Ballance, Ms. Delilah
B. Blanks, Rep. Bob Etheridge, and Utilitj' Commissioner Ralph Hunt. (Photo by Law-
son)
Baptists Ignore Heat, Traffic to
Enjoy Fellowship at Convention
By Paul Nowell
CHARLOTTE (AP) - Ignoring temporal
problems such as 90-degree temperatures
and long traffic jams, thousands of delegates
gathered at the National Baptist Convention
USA to attend classes on everything from
gospel hymns to teaching Sunday school.
"We get a lot of information here that we
can bring back, to our churches," Belva
Armour, an associate minister from
Memphis, Tenn., said outside a lunchtime
gospel music service. "But we're hear most
ly to share God’s word."
The Nashville-based convention has about
33,000 churches and up to 8 million mem
bers, making it the country’s largest black
religious group.
Some .30,000 people were expected to at
tend its 96th annual Congress of Christian
Education, according to the Charlotte Con
vention and Visitors Bureau.
The Congress is a school with 250 classes
covering everything from how lo preach to
how to deal with those who have AIDS.
"We have a lot of good fellowship with
other pastors and delegates," said Rev. H.T.
Frazier, pastor of St. Thomas Baptist Church
in .lackson, Mi.ss. "This meeting is for the
teaching process."
He attended the convention with his .son-
in-law, ,Iohn Patrick, an assistant dean at the
Birmingham Theological Seminary in
Birmingham, Ala.
"This is the teaching wing of the Con
gress," Patrick said as he looked at the sea of
delegates walking down the corridors on
their way to other workshops or to lunch. "In
September we have our business meetings."
Delegates cheerfully put up with long foot
lines inside the convention center and traffic
jams outside on the streets. Many stayed in
hotels an hour’s drive outside the city be
cause of the sheer number of visitors to
Charlotte. Hotels as far away as Salisbury
were full and restaurants and shops were
reporting brisk business.
The convention was expected to pump
$9.5 million into the area's economy, offi
cials said.
After the morning sessions ended, some
delegates went downstairs to a large hall
where scores of vendors had set up booths to
sell clothing, books and religious items.
Others went to a large ballroom to sing
along with the Rev. Haywood Robinson of
Calvary Baptist Church in Baltimore, who
led them in prayer and a .selection of gospel
hymns and spirituals.
In an adjacent meeting room, the Rev.
P.W. Harris, pastor of Mount Zion Baptist
Church in East Moline, III., was .setting up a.
workshop for some of the teen-age
delegates, using his book "The Sonship of
Jesus" as a Bible study tool.
"Isn't it interesting that the most popular
book in the world is a mystery to most of its
owners?" he said. "We all know stories from
the Bible, but few of us know their context.
If we belter understand the teachings of the
Bible, its lessons will be more easily avail
able to us for use in oui' daily lives."
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