7A
NEWS/ The Charlotte Post
Thursday, May 15, 1997
Gadhafi visit slammed by archbishop
Continued from page 6A
Libya.
The U.N. Security Council
imposed the ban to force the
surrender of two Libyans
wanted in the 1988 bombing
of Pan Am Flight 103. over
Lockerbie, Scotland, v;hich
killed 270 people.
Eager to flout American
attempts to isolated Gadhafi,
Abacha refused a U.S. request
to detain the aircraft on which
Gadhafi flew. He also awarded America,
the Libyan leader Nigeria’s
highest honor, calling him a
true African leader.
Gadhafi told a crowd of
50,000 Nigerians that he
wanted to show off Islam’s
strength against Europe and
Voting district changes blocked by court
By Richard Carelli
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - The
Supreme Court made it hard
er Monday for federal officials
to block proposed changes in
state and local election sys
tems that might hurt the
political clout of blacks and
other minority voters.
Lawyers disagreed, however,
about the practical impact of
the court’s 7-2 decision in a
case from Bossier Parish, La.,
where until recently no black
ever had served on a 12-mem-
ber school board.
The court said Justice
Department lawyers have
used too stringent a legal
standard in deciding whether
to give initial approval of elec
tion-system changes in states
and communities, mostly in
the South, required to obtain
such permission.
The Louisiana case focused
on two parts of the federal
Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The law’s Section 5 requires
state or local governments to
show that any proposed elec
tion change does not leave
minority voters worse off than
they were.
The act’s Section 2, which
applies nationwide, is more
stringent. It prohibits any vot
ing practice that would dilute
minority voting strength.
At issue was whether Justice
Department lawyers can
reject a practice under Section
5 just because it violates
Section 2. Justice Sandra Day
O’Connor, writing for the
court, said they cannot.
Michael Garvin, a lav?yer for
Bossier Parish, said the ruling
“puts an end to the Justice
Department’s power to force
state and local governments to
racially gerrymander in favor
of minorities.”
He said administration
lawyers have been applying
the more stringent legal stan
dard “to engage in affirmative
action in behalf of minority
voters” by withholding
approval of any proposed
change that does not maxi
mize minority voting power.
For example, he said, an
electoral system featuring one
majority-black district might
fail to get federal approval
just because a redistricting
plan could have been drawn
featuring two such districts.
But Laughlin McDonald of
the American Civil Liberties
Union said the court’s rejec
tion of merging the voting
law's two sections “is not
much of a setback.”
He noted the justices ruled
that evidence that a proposed
change would dilute minori
ties’ voting power still can be
a factor in deciding whether
there exists a discriminatory
purpose — a violation of
Section 5.
The justices set aside the
decision of a three-judge court
in Louisiana and told the
lower court to restudy a
Bossier Parish school board
voting plan that included no
majority-black districts.
S.C. parents sue sehools over painted face
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHARLESTON, S.C. - Nina
Campbell’s family has filed a
civil rights lawsuit, saying the
child was branded and humili
ated when a kindergarten
teacher scrawled “Where are
my glasses?” on her face.
The suit, filed Thursday,
alleges Nina was “branded
and forced to serve against
her will and in a condition of
involuntary servitude as a
messenger carrying a humili
ating message.”
It said the girl was “embar
rassed and humiliated, was
forcibly touched and branded
and as a result was caused to
seek medical treatment and
care as well as psychological
treatment.”
The suit doesn’t specify dam
ages, but seeks an amount “to
equal or exceed” the minimum
in federal court for actual
damages, which is $50,000.
Nina’s teacher, Phyllis
Adelsflugel, wrote the mes
sage on the child’s face last
November in an incident that
attracted nationwide atten
tion.
She is named as a defendant
in the suit, along with
Charleston County and the
county school district and
Mitchell Cohen, the principal
of Pepperhill Elementary
School. Nina has since trans
ferred to another school.
After the incident, Mrs.
Adelsflugel was suspended for
20 days without pay and
required to take sensitivity
training, provide a written
apology and refrain from
marking on any student’s face.
Spokeswoman Toby Smith
said the district would have
no comment. Mrs.
Adelsflugel’s attorney, Denna
McRackin, said she had not
seen the suit, Cohen said he
was not aware of the suit and
had no comment.
The suit also alleges inva
sion of privacy, reckless use of
force, negligence and malprac
tice, intentional infliction of
emotional distress, false
imprisonment, unlawful civil
battery and a violation of the
state tort claims act.
It also alleged the-defen
dants later defended
Adelsflugel’s actions “in fur
therance of the school policy to
embarrass and humiliate a
black child.” Nina is black,
and Mrs. Adelsflugel is white.
The school board last month
refused to settle a claim at the
district's insurance policy
lim.it, which board officials
later said was $1 million.
The family’s attorney, Gary
Ling, said he did not realize
the limit was that much and
said the Campbells were not
seeking that kind of money.
Paratrooper spared death in 2 murders
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WILMINGTON, N.C. - A
former Army paratrooper was
spared the death penalty and
sentenced to life in prison
Monday in the slaying of a
black couple gunned down in
what prosecutors say was a
skinhead initiation rite.
The jury took 1 1/2 hours to
decide on the penalty for 23-
year-old Malcolm Wright, one
of three white soldiers from
Fort Bragg charged in the
case.
The 1995 slayings prompted
an Army investigation of
racism in the ranks.
Wright was found guilty
May 2 of murder in the deaths
of Jackie Burden and Michael
James, who were shot at ran
dom on a Fayetteville street.
A fellow Fort Bragg skin
head, James Burmeister, 21,
was convicted as the trigger-
man in March and also got life
in prison instead of the death
penalty.
Prosecutors said Burmeister
killed to earn a spider web
tattoo like the one Wright has
on his left elbow. The tattoo
was a sign among neo-Nazi
skinheads at Fort Bragg that
the wearer had killed a black
or a homosexual.
Anita Stroud radiothon
IN BRIEF
The ninth annual Anita
Stroud Radithon will be
broadcast May 31.
The radiothon, which raises
money for the Anita Stroud
Foundation’s educational pro
grams, will be held at the
Excelsior Club from 10 a.m-4
p.m.
• The NAACP Legal Defense
& Educational Fund will spon
sor a four-person captain’s
choice golf tournament at
Charles T. Myers Golf Course,
7817 Harrisburg Road..
For more information, call
Isaac Applewhite at 547-7547.
• Fran Farrer was named
alumnus of the year by the
Charlotte Chapter of Johnson
C. Smith University’s Alumni
Association.
Farrer, advertising manager
at The Post, has been an
active member of the
Charlotte chapter since 1974
and currently serves as
recording secretary, co-chair
of Group III Membership
Committee and the
Scholarship Committee.
Other awardees were:
Calvine Shadd Battle (Richmond chap
ter); Willie DuBose (New York chapter);
Annette Graham (Washington chapter);
Gregg Hankins (New Jersey chapter);
Frances Hansome (Raleigh-Durham chap
ter); Gloria Martin (Charlotte chapter);
Gail McFadden-Roberts (Philadelphia
chapter); Marcellus Penn (Winston-Salem
chapter); Charles Stephenson III
(Metropolitan Columbia chapter) and
Judith Washington (Durham area chapter).
Correction
A photo caption detailing
author Ivan Van Sertima’s visit
to the Afro-American Cultural
Center in last week’s Post omit
ted Bertha Maxw'ell Roddey,
who was also photographed.
Roddey, past president of
Delta Sigma Theta and a co
founder of the Afro Center,
helped welcome Van Sertima,
author of “They Came Before
Columbus,” to Charlotte.
Get into the swing
PHOTO/CALVIN FERGUSON
Senior PGA golfer Bobby Stroble gives Omar Carter a few tips
on his game during a clinic at Sunset Hills Golf Course In
Charlotte. The seniors were in town for the Home Depot
Invitational tournament.
“We want to show Islam’s
power and its ability to chal
lenge and return the insults to
those who voice them,” he
said.
The lower court had
approved the plan, but the
justices said they were unsure
whether it refused to consider
evidence that would be rele
vant in a search for a discrimi
natory purpose.
O’Connor was joined by
Chief Justice William H.
Rehnquist and Justices
Antonin Scalia, Anthony M.
Kennedy and Clarence
Thomas.
Justices Stephen G. Breyer
and Ruth Bader Ginsburg con
curred separately, and
Justices John Paul Stevens
and David H. Souter dissent
ed.
Stevens said the ruling
wrongly allows initial
approval of “a state action
that is in clear violation of fed
eral law.”
Nearly 20 percent of Bossier
Parish's voting-age population
is black but as of 1990 no
black had ever been elected to
the school board. Two blacks
were elected to the board in
1995, however.
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