National
Black Groups, Angered, Call for
Protests Over Killing of Hani
JOHANNESBURG, South
Africa (AP) ? Blacks angered by
the assassination of popular black
leader Chris Hani threw stpnes and
shot at police and journalists in a
Johannesburg township this week,
but the country generally was calm.
Leaders of black groups
urged their followers to refrain
from violence. They called for
widespread demonstrations and a
one-day strike in Johannesburg this
week to protest Hani's killing.
In New York, The U.N.
Security Council condemned the
assassination and said it under
scored the urgent need for negotia
tions on a n on racial South Africa.
Council President Jamsheed
K.A. Marker, the ambassador of
Pakistan, said in a statement read
aloud in a public meeting: ^Nego
tiations leading to nonracial
democracy must not be held
hostage by the perpetrators of vio
lence."
Police, meanwhile, said they
found a suspected "hit list" of
politicians and several guns in the
home of the white man suspected
in Saturday's killing. A white
extremist group confirmed the sus
pect was a member, but there was
no claim of responsibility for the
killing.
Violence erupted in the
Katlehong black township outside
Johannesburg after a protest rally
by about 1,500 people. Small
groups of youths broke off and
burned a house and several vehi
cles, then threw stories at police
and journalists. Shots also were
fired, but no injuries were reported.
A man fired a pistol at three
news vehicles approaching a burn
ing truck. One bullet hit a car, and
all sped to safety;
Police Warrtttrtt Officer Andy
Pieke said officers fired rubber bul
lets to disperse a mob at one point.
Most of the shooting, including
bursts of automatic gunfire,
appeared to be in the air.
Protests occurred in a few
other areas, but most parts of South
Africa had little reaction to the
killing of Hani, the Communist
Party leader whose militant opposi
tion to white minority rule won
him wide respect from blacks.
Hani, 50, also an ANC offi
cial, was perhaps the most popular
ANC leader after its president. Nel
son Mandela. His killing triggered
fears of an angry backlash that
could threaten talks between black
and white leaders on ending
apartheid, but government and
ANC leaders said they were deter
mined to press ahead with talks.
The African National Con
gress, the white-led government
and other groups appealed for pro
testers to remain peaceful.
Two whites were burned to
death Sunday in a black township
near Cape Town and another white
injured in the attack died in a hos
pital Monday. Police said those
killings appeared related to control
of area bars.
An ANC statement on Mon
day condemned revenge violence
against whites and called for resi
dents of black townships to allow
journalists to work freely.
The ANC and its allies out
lined plans for demonstrations
Tuesday, urged blacks to stay away
from work in Johannesburg on
Wednesday and set protest marches
Saturday in the Johannesburg area.
Memorial services also were
scheduled for Wednesday in cities
and towns throughout the country.
vkWe will not allow the
assassination of Hani to become
just another statistic/' the allied
groups said, calling for an indepen
dent investigation by a special
commission and the international
community.
Police Brig. Frans Malherbe
said Hani was shot with a pistol
stolen by right-wing white extrem
ists from a military installation in
1990.
Police arrested Januzu Jakub
Wallus, 40, an immigrant from
mi Mi : _j
Nelson Mandela
Poland, shortly after Hani's killing.
The alleged murder weapon was
found in his car, police said.
Wallus was to be formally
charged Tuesday.
Police said a list of politi
cians and other people, and
addresses was found in Wallus'
apartment, but refused to give any
of the names. People on the list
were warned and offered police
protection, officials said. Several
weapons also were found, police
said.
The Afrikaner Resistance
Movement, a small right-wing
white group, confirmed Wallus had
been a member since 1986, the
South African Broadcasting Corp.
reported.
Eugene TerreBlanche, the
group's leader, was quoted as say
ing Hani was not killed because of
his skin color, but because of his
role in the Communist Party. The
report did not say TerreBlanche
claimed his group was involved,
and earlier in the day he con
demned the killing.
Wallus was a fanatical anti
communist who left Poland before
the fall of that country's Commu
nist regime, according to reports.
He was described as a loner. .
Small white extremist
groups have vowed to fight black
rule, but they have rarely carried
out any attacks despite repeated
threats. ~ ?
Clergy Wants Violence Avoided
If Officers Cleared in King Trial
ST. LOUIS (AP) ? The
police chief and area clergy mem
bers are bracing for the possibility
of trouble if the four Los Angeles
police officers accused of beating
Rodney King are acquitted.
Chief Clarence Harmon
called an "emergency meeting"
with clergy this week to discuss
ways to keep the peace if the offi
cers are found innocent in their fed
eral trial in Los Angeles.
Riots that caused more than
50 deaths empted in Los Angeles a
year ago after the officers were
acquitted on state assault charges.
St. Louis encountered a few
minor incidents in the aftermath of
the verdict, but no serious injuries
were reported.
Among the strategies dis
cussed this week were emergency
curfews, which could include clos
ing taverns and liquor stores; the use
of television cameras to discourage
violent acts; and cleaning up poten
Rodney King
tial "hot spots" where angry crowds
might form.
"If there are no bricks or bot
tles around, then none can be
thrown," Lt. Eugene Reese said.
Officials said jury will likely
a verdict by this weekend.
"It's very wise of the chief to
call for this," said the Rev. Samuel
Bradford, pastor of the Tri-Union
African Methodist Episcopal
Church. "He understands the power
of the clergy in the African-Ameri
can community. . . . This is a good
beginning."
The Rev. Ronald Packnett,
pastor of Central Baptist Church,
agreed.
"There's too much violence
in tfieTtreets and not enough moral
leadership," he said. "It's impera
tive that the religious provide direc
tion and hope for the children."
Harmon said some young
people could look at an innocent
verdict in the second trial in Los
Angeles as an excuse for violence.
Longtime civil-rights leader
Dick Gregory said he did not antici
pate problems.
"The element of surprise is
not there this time." he said.
"Before, the acquittal stunned
everyone. Now, people are aware
that the officers might get off."
Anderson, a Superstar of Classical Music, Dies
NEW YORK (AP) ? Her rich
contralto mesmerized the music
world. But it was her quiet dignity
and gTace that shamed a nation of
bigots and swept them into her
thrall.
Marian Anderson, who died
Thursday at age 96, was a rare and
wonderful lesson for all of human
ity.
Anderson was tall in stature,
taller in talent, big of heart and
mighty in spirit. But there was a
quiet reserve and elegant humility
that grabbed you the minute she
extended her hand and smiled.
Hers was a voice that was as
i
smooth and filling as melted choco
late, as deep and shimmering as the
lowest spot in the Atlantic, k was a
voice that liberated the soul and set
it in joyful flight, whether she was
singing German lieder, operatic
arias, spirituals or sacred music.
A superstar in the classical
music world by 1939, Anderson
brought her gift to Washington at
the urging of impresario Sol Hurok.
She had performed at the White
House in 1936, the first African
American ever to do so.
But Hurok wanted the Easter
Sunday concert in 1939 to be held
at Constitution Hall.
The Daughters of the American
Revolution, owners of the building,
refused to allow Anderson 10 sing
there. Why? Because she was
black.
The rebuke shocked the world
? Marian Anderson already had
been decorated by European kings.
In the United States, where the Ku
Klux Klan continued to roam free
and unharmed, blacks still were
lynched and the nation's capital
remained racially segregated.
The concert was switched to
the Lincoln Memorial where 75,000
heard her sing instead of the mere
4,000 Constitution Hall held. Said
Secretary of the Interior Harold L.
Ickes: "In this great auditorium
under the sky, all of us are free. . .
Genius draws no color line."
k
Haitian narcotic agents confiscated 227 pounds of Colombian cocaine intended for an American AiHines flight to
New York. The drugs , displayed in Port-au-Prince , were in a passenger's luggage. Four persons were arrested.
Rep. Ford Reflects on Future After
Acquittal in Bank Fraud Trial
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) ?
Rep. Harold Ford. D-Tenn., spent
his first day in six years free from
the worry of going to prison.
"I'm just trying to put it
behind me and move forward."
Ford said. "I'm just asking God to
give me that strength."
Ford, an 1 8-year congressman
from Memphis, was acquitted last
week of charges he took political
payoffs from two former bankers,
longtime political allies Jake and
C.H. Butcher Jr. He was indicted in
1987.
Ford spent a quiet day at
home while preparing to return to
-Washington. D.C
"I'm just trying to do some
reflecting and thinking about getting
back to work." he said by tele
phone.
Flamboyant and outspoken.
Ford often raises strong emotions
among supporters and detractors
alike. He runs one of the city's most
active political organizations and
has been re-elected three times
while under indictment.
Tennessee's first and only
black member of Congress. Ford
was acquitted by a jury of 1 1 whites
and one black bused to town from a
rural, predominantly white area to
Memphis, which is 55 percent
black.
The acquittal lessened racial
tensions raised by the trial, which
began March 1.
U.S. District Judge Jerome
Turner said the trial showed that
justice does not have to be a victim
to racism. *
"Black people and white peo
ple can judge each other fairly, if
they are just given a chance,"
Turner said.
He criticized Memphis resi
dents who rushed to judge Ford
without hearing the evidence against
him.
"Many people in this commu
nity were willing to assume inno
cence and to find guilt without hav
ing any factual basis whatsoever to
come to those conclusions," Turner
said.
Jerre Moore, a white member
of Ford's jury, said the government
failed to prove allegations that the
congressman took hundreds of thou
sands of dollars in bogus loans from
the Butchers with no intention of
repaying them.
"Everything they presented, we
Went through one piece at a time."
Moore said. "There just wasn't
enough evidence."
Ford said [ie has been investi
gated by federal authorities for 10
years and his family has been under
"Tremendous pressure.
"Over the next days, I'll defide
whether I'm going to stay in the
Congress, decide whether I'm going
to go in the private sector, decide
whether I'm going to run for gover
nor or the U.S. Senate," he said.
The trial. Ford's second on the same
charges, so inflamed some residents
that Mayor W.W. Hercnton, the
city's first elected black mayor,
issued a call for community calm.
"I would certainly hope that
all citizens of Memphis can look
back and then consider this to be a
learning experience," Herenton
said.
City police had prepared for
the possibility of civil unrest follow
ing the trial.
"We were prepared for the
worst, if the worst came, but we
really didn't expect it," Police
Director Melvin Burgess said.
D'Army Bailey, a state court'
judge and former president of the
-National Civil Rights Museum in
Memphis, said apprehension sur
rounding the trial "should be a
wake-up call" to the city.
"There is a lot of work to do
on race relations if anything positive
comes from this beyond the verdict
and the vindication of the judicial
system," Bailey said.
Ford was on trial with two co
defendants, former Butcher lawyers
Karl Schledwitz and Douglas Beaty,
both of whom arc white. They, too,
were acquitted.
Ford's first trial, in 1990, ended
when his Memphis jury of eight
blacks and four whites failed to
reach a verdict. Ford was charged
with one count of conspiracy, three
counts of bank fraud and 14 of mail
fraud. Schledwitz and Beaty each
faced one count of conspiracy and
four of mail fraud.
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