? THE CAROLINA INDIAN VOICE post office box tars PUBLISHED BACH THURSDAY Pembroke, n.c. 3*373 ? ? >w in ' ? ???????? VOLUME 9 NUMBER 43 7 2Sr FEB COPT THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1981 ????n???i???? n i i ?? n ? . ? i ... ??????? LUMBERTON CITY SCHOOLS FOUND "IN VIOLATION" OF 1965 VOTING RIGHTS ACT ...but Judge Earl Brltt and Co. give* them until December 31 to straighten H oat by Bruce Barton RALEIGH-Now get this. In a decision made public Monday a three judge panel of federal judges (including Robeson County's own Earl Britt and Dickson Phillips and Franklin Dupree) found the Lumberton Schools System "in violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act" for illegal annexations into the jurisdiction of the Lumberton City Schools. But, on the other side of the legal coin, they decided not to do anything about it except to gently admonish them (the school sys tem) to clear it (the illegal act) with the U.S. Justice Department before "De cember 31." Soma Background The suit was brought by Lumbee River Legal Services, Inc. (quartered in Pem broke) and the American Civil Liberties Union in behalf of a number of citizens who filed their complaint in federal court last December. They claimed that the annexations known as Lakewood Estates, Barker Ten Mile, Clyburn Pines and Country Club into the Lumberton City Schools in 1967 I and 1969 were in violation of the Voting Rights Act and had been formally objected to by the U.S. Attorney General dn 1975. Since 1975, the Lumberton City Xchool Board has sought on three separate occasions to have the objections removed. The U.S. Attorney General has steadfastly refused to remove his ob jections, the latest refusal being in April, 1981. Julian Pierce, representing Legal Ser vices, and Laughlin McDonald, repre senting the Civil Liberties Union, had argued that the U.S. Attorney General had found that these annexations had a discriminatory purpose in that the school boundary lines were drawn in a con vuluted and meandering fashion to exclude Indians and Blacks in order to permit white students in these annexed areas to attend predominantly white Lumberton City Schools. The defen dants. the Lumberton City School Board, represented by John Campbell and Osborne Lee, conceded that the U.S. Attorney General had objected to the annexations as discriminatory. Judge Phillips stated that the defendants, the Lumberton City School Board, should have received approval from the United States Department of Justice before annexing these areas. The Lumberton City School Board, instead, went ahead and annexed these areas in violation of federal law. Lumbee River Legal Services and the American Civil Liberties Union argued that the annexations should be decreed null and void and that voters residing in the Lakewood Estates, Barker Ten Mile, Clyburn Pines, Country Club areas not be permitted to vote in the Lumberton City School Board elections. Alas, the federal judges (political ap pointees for life) simply decreed that the Lumberton City Schools had until De cember 31 to "pre clear" the illegal annexations with the justice department or they would, at some unspecified time, take some unspecified further action. In the mean time Lumberton will be allowed to hold the school board elections in November as planned. However, the judges did spell out provisions for a special election if the Lumberton Schools do not come into compliance with the 1%S Voting Rights Act by December 31. The reaction of the attorneys in th case seemed to indicate who really who won. Osborne Lee, Jr., one of the attorneys for the Lumberton Schools, was quoted in the Fayetteville Observer as saying, "We think they took the pro position that was put forward by the school board and reacted favorably to it." Julian Pierce, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, simply ex pressed "disappointment" at the ruling and indicated that it would be appealed. An Indian punster had the last word on the matter. "It's like it's always been. The law is written and interpreted to uphold the rights of the "big boys' over the little folk every time." An anology is, 1 suppose, like the story of the thief who takes something from his neighbor and is patted on the back for it if he will return it in due course... after he gets all the good out of it. And, finally, a number of people have ? questioned the propriety of W. Earl Britt, one of the federal judges, parti cipating and, seemingly from a reading of the transcript, taking an active role in the case. Britt, a Robeson County native, was intimately involved in both the infamous "double vote" suit and "Pros pect" suit, both forerunners of this one. Britt represented Robeson County as a defender of double voting and also was' party to questionable annexations by the Fairmont Schools when he served as attorney for that body in the late '60s. Ronnie E. Hart Incumbents returned to LREMC Board of Directors RED 5PRINGS--Eour incumbent di rectors of Lumbee River Electric Mem bership Corporation were re-elected at the 41st Annual Meeting of Members held in Pembroke on Tuesday night, Oct. 20. Elected by acclamation when no chal " lengers registered their opposition were At-Large director Rev. Elias Rogers and District 7 representative Harold Dean Brewer. Winners in the two contested elections were Bradford Oxendine and Marciej Lowery. In the District 3 race, Oxendine defeated challenger R.D. Locklear 270 258. Mrs. Lowery gathered 288 votes to 241 for Frank Jacobs, Jr. to retain her seat representing all of Scotland Countv. In an organizational meeting immedi ately following the elections, J.W. Hunt of Fairmont was elected President of the Board for next year. Bradford Oxendine will be Vice President, Marciea Lowery will serve as Secretary and John Paul Jones is the new treasurer. Some 730 members and more than 1,100 persons attended the meeting, held at the Pembroke State University Performing Arts Center. Lillie Mae Brewington of Route 6, Lumberton won * the grand prize of a S200 credit on her power bill. Lumbee River EMC holds its Annual Meeting each year in October as required by the Bylaws of the rural electric cooperative. um MM h*. Ihm pMi pita* <1 ? MM ??* ? hsv p*?? Ml Amu as LUMC Maff?r. I DEMOCRACY ASSERTS ITSELF AT LREMC ANNUAL MEETING ' f *? \ t O \ Brace Barton shown addressing the members of LBEMC at their usui meeting Tuesday night. by Brace Barton PEMBROKE-Said an annual observ er. "Finally. I saw a little bit of demo cracy in action." He was referring to a motion presented by this writer and adopted by the membership at the aitnuu. meeting of the Lumbee River Electric Membership Corporation Tues day night at PSU's Performing Arts Center. The motion read, "that the mem bership go on record recommending that the board of directors of Lumbee River Electric Membership Corporation open the meetings of the rural electrification co-op to any member who chooses to attend. . subject to the provisions of the Open Meetings Laws of North Carolina." After initial resistance from Bill Crisp, the lawyer representing the co-op and chairing the meeting, the resolution was passed unanimously by the membership. What it means U that the board of directors, if they listen to the consumers who elect them each year. will, at their nest meeting prababtv, erne to open the /ueetMg?\