2B
LIFE/ Vfit Clwrlatte
Thursday, January 8, 2004
Descendants of slaves pursue reparations in Chicago
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHICAGO - Almost 150
years after Andrew Jackson
Hurdle was tom away from
his family and put on the
auction block as a 9-year-old
slave, his daughter is seek
ing justice for him.
Hannah Hurdle-Toomey,
71, of Belleville, signed on as
one of two people from
Illinois named in a class-
action lawsuit seeking repa
rations from 19 companies
that they say benefited from
the slave trade. The other is
Marcelle Porter, a 74-year-
old Chicago woman who said
her great-grandmother was
a slave in North Carolina.
A Jan. 26 hearing is sched
uled in U.S. District Court in
Chicago. Judge Charles
Norgle could dismiss the
lawsuit if he agrees with the
defendants’ argument that
the plaintiffs can’t sue for
something that happened to
their ancestors.
But if the plaintiffs eventu
ally prevail, they said they
wiU use the money to set up
a tmst fund to help the black
community support social
programs, said Lionel Jean-
Baptiste, the lawyer repre
senting the two women from
Illinois.
“It’s not about individuals,
it’s about a broad community
seeking capital to rebuild
our community,” Jean-
Baptiste said after a recent
meeting with dozens of sup
porters of the lawsuit. “We
need a Marshall Plan to help
our community. This is a col
lective remedy.”
The lawsuit was first filed
in U.S. District Court in New
York in 2002 and moved last
year to Chicago. The suit
names companies like the
Lehman Brothers brokerage
firm, Aetna Insurance and
R.J. Reynolds TDbacco.
Lawyers for the companies
named in the lawsuit con
tend that people do not have
the right to sue for some
thing that happened to the
plaintiffs’ ancestors. They
also argue the companies
were not directly responsible
for the plight of slaves.
“Plaintiffs’ grievances are
claimed to arise from the fact
of their inclusion in a racial
group, and are therefore
insufficient to overcome the
problem that they constitute
a 'generalized grievance’
which does not give them
standing to bring this suit,”
the lawyers argued in court
papers filed recently.
Hannah Hurdle-Toomey
said that even if the lawsuit
is dismissed, it will not
diminish the life of her
father - who helped found a
religious college. Like her
father, Hurdle-Toomey was
ordained a Disciples of
Christ minister.
“It’s that independent
streak I inherited from my
father — nobody controls my
mind but me and the Lord,”
she said. "There’s nothing
that the judge could do or
nothing anybody else can do.
... The what-ifs don’t bother
me.”
Hurdle, whose life
stretched well into the 20th
century, had 25 children
with two wives; Hurdle-
Tbomey was his youngest. In
a letter collected in a 1978
family book. Hurdle recalled
his life.
“I am a self-made man,
have never gone to school a
day in my life; got what little
education I have by studying
at night by a pine torch light
a great many times,” Hurdle
wrote. "I was sold off from
my parents. ...I consider
that God has blessed me in
raising my children.”
Researcher gets $1M to study thin people
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DENVER — A Denver
endocrinologist has been
awarded $1 million to study
the psyches and biology of thin
people over the next five years.
For years. Dr. Dan
Bessesen has overfed fat rats,
put them on diets and on
small exercise wheels, and
studied why they repeatedly
gained and lost weight. Wl/at
caught his interest were the
skinny rats. They seemed to
know to eat less.
“The obesity-resistant rats,
they overeat for a day and
they seem to get it. They
reduce their food intake by
the third day,” he said. “And
they reduce their food intake
not only to where it was
before but down lower to
compensate for overeating.
It’s a natural phenomenon.”
He decided to study
whether some people
humans also have something
innate that makes them
prone to remain thin. “If
there is something different
about their metabolism or
their genetics, that would be
interesting to know,”
Bessesen said.
The National Institutes of
Health gave him $1 million
toward his research.
‘We spend so much time
studying obesity, maybe we
ought to study thinness,”
Bessesen said.
His goal is to find about 200
men and women between the
ages of 25 and 35, about half
of whom are obese and half of
whom are thin and what he
calls “weight stable.”
Bessesen plans to figure out
how much the study subjects
normally eat and then feed
them 40 percent more for
three days. Then, researchers
wiU watch who does what in
the following days.
Obesity has long been a
popular research topic. Sixty-
five percent of the country’s
adult population is over
weight, said Dr. James HUl,
director of the Clinical
Nutrition Research Unit at
the University of Colorado
Health Sciences Center.
Now scientists are starting
to look at what makes people
skinny, rather than what
might make them fat, he
said. “By knowing early on
who’s susceptible (to obesity),
it allows us to target inter
vention efforts,” HUl said.
The research also could one
day lead to more effective
drugs for obesity, he said.
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Good Samaritans were apparently the wrong color
By Ed Wiley III
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Three Seattle teens who
came to the rescue of an
elderly Chinese woman were
arrested and jailed, appar
ently because a bystander
felt they were the wrong
color to be good Samaritans.
Rico Ford, Ken Woo and Yi
Ming Lin said they saw an
old woman being robbed on a
Seattle street and tried to
save the day,
“We heard a woman ciy,
like someone cxy and we look
over,” Woo told a CBS news
reporter.
“And this guy was running
olf. We went over there to
help her. Ken chased after
the guy,” Ford chimed in.
The young men’s teachers
and others described them
as “respectful” and “the
nicest kids” around. But a
witness, who said he
watched the incident, told
police that they had mugged
the woman. Without speak
ing to the victim, Police
cuffed them and hauled
them off to jail, where they
spent the night.
“We thought we’d probably
just be cuffed for a while, you
know, handcuffed for a while
until they figured things
out,” Woo said.
The woman spoke no
English, only Chinese, so
rather than having a trans
lator speak to her - which is
standard police practice —
ofiicers took the word of the
bystander.
“The information at the
scene was more than suffi
cient to base an arrest upon,”
Deputy Chief Clark Kimerer
of the Seattle Police
Department told CBS.
Not only did the arrest of the
three brown-skinned boys
bother those who knew them,
but even the respective bail
amounts seemed “color-
coded.” Bail for Rico, the dark
est of the trio, was set at
$25,000; 20,000 for the slight
ly lighter Ken; and $10,000 for
'K Ming, the lightest of the
group.
Seattle eventually did send
a translator to speak to the
victim. Her comments; The
young men had rescued her,
not mugged her.
The city dropped all
charges. As for an apology
and reimbursement for the
thousands in legal fees they
incurred from the ordeal,
they got neither.
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Historic school site nearly finished
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOPEKA, Kan. - As the
50th anniversary of the
landmark Brown vs. Board
of Education case approach
es, work on the former segre
gated elementary school that
plaintiff Linda Brown
attended is nearing comple
tion.
National Park Service staff
began moving this week
from their temporary quar
ters into Monroe School.
“It feels good to be home,”
said LaTbnya Miller, the his
toric site’s spokeswoman and
education director.
Once one of four Tbpeka
elementary schools set aside
for black children, Monroe
Elementary was established
in 1992 as a National
Historic Site in the National
Park Service.
Linda Brown was a stu
dent at the all-black school.
In 1951, her father, Oliver
Brown, tried to emoll the 9-
year-old in an all-white
school that was closer to
their home. . His request was
denied.
The lawsuit that he and
several other black Tbpeka
families filed, along with
three similar suits from
Delaware, South Carolina
and Virginia, resulted in the
landmark decision that over
turned the doctrine of "sepa
rate but equal.”
The Brown v. Board of
Education National Historic
Site will open to the pubUc
on May 17, 2004, the 50th
anniversary of the case.
By Jan. 12, the remaining
sawdust- and scaffolding
should be swept clear on the
first floor. Then, installation
of the audio visual and
media displays will begin.
Miller said the displays
will feature audio recordings
of interviews with original
plaintiffs in the case, video
footage and computer pro
grams to teach visitors about
the historic desegregation
case and race relations in the
United States.
The second floor of the
school wiU house the park
service offices, the Brown
Foundation offices and a
classroom containing 40
high-tech, interactive com
puters, Miller said.
Kids advocate for other children
and themselves
E ver}' child wants a
home.“ says 12
year-old Cronetta. “So
help the children in the
world because everybody
needs a parent."
Cronetta and her broth
er Robert, age 10 are
spokespeople for chil
dren in foster care who
are waiting for adoptive
families in Mecklenburg
neighborhoods. They
know what it feels like to
be waiting - they are
waiting for parents to
adopt them.
"Cronetta is insightful,
engaging, and outgoing
- she has a strong sense
Cronetta and Robert are mo of many children waiting
to be adopted in Mecklenburg County.
of responsibility, appre
ciates guidance, and has
a positive outlook on
life," says long-time
friend Evelyn Dillard.
"Robert has an engaging
smile, pleasant personal
ity and has a special
interest in
music." Both
Cronetta and
Robert sing
in the church choir
together.
"I love my brother, he’s
always been part of my
life,” states Cronetta. "I
want to be adopted into
the same family with
Robert."
If you are interested in
finding out more about
Cronetta and Robert or
other children awaiting
adoption, call Mecklenburg
County Department of
Social Services at 704-
336-KIDS (5437).
Communities for Families 4 Kids
MECKLENBURG COUNTY
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES
YOUTH AND FAMILY SERVKES DIVISION
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