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| The Deadly Triangle |
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REDISTRICTING BLOODBATH
Majority
black senate
districts
dismantled
By Joan Kirchner
-Associated Press Writer
= ATLANTA
(AP) In the name of justice, Georgia lawmak
<rs moved swiftly last week to dismantle a dozen
Jblack legislative districts.
~ White Democraticleaders defended the action
zas necessary to avoid a legal challenge to the
districts. Black Democrats and Republicans
cried foul, accusing the leadership of trying to
boost their own re-election chances at the ex
pense of other lawmakers.
“It's a natural fallout that
these black districts evapo
rate. When you draw them in
a natural way that is com
- pact and makes sense, they
naturally come out white.”
— House Reapportionment Chair
man Tommy Smith, D-Alma.
“They are making a terrible mistake,” said
Sen. David Scott, D-Atlanta, the chief redis
tricting negotiator for the black caucus.
“You cannot be the architect of dismantling
black majority districts, then turn around and
expect those people you've killed off'to vote for
you later.”
The Legislature is meeting in a special ses
sion to redraw congressional districts in com
pliance with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that
declared Georgia’s 11th District illegal.
| See BLACK DISTRICTS, page 3
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B State General
Assembly must
complete congress
ional redistricting
plan by October 15.
By Rhonda Y. Maree
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
Because five white men have
a gripe with a black congress
woman, Georgia’s congression
al face is under the knife and
the fate of thousands of people
isin jeopardy, accordingtoU.S.
Rep. Cynthia McKinney.
In front of Augusta’s federal
courthouse Tuesday during a
hearing determining whowould
redraw congressional lines and
how long they would have to do
it, Ms. McKinney blasted the
ruling against her majority
black 11th District.
A three-panel judge declared
it unconstitutional last year,
Team that used racist sign
forluck avoids punishment
B All-white team
and coaches
reprimanded for
scratching symbol
in the dirt before
games.
WOODBRIDGE, Va.
(AP) The Prince William
School Board has voted not to
punish members of a high school
baseball team who used a Ku
Klux Klan symbol for good luck.
Investigators at Brentsville
District High School spent a
month probing the state cham
pions’ use of a symbol called
“the well,” a circle divided into
quarters by a cross. The symbol
is used in a riddle in which a
person draws the design and
asks: “What’s this?” The an
swer is: “The last thing a black
man sees after they drop him
down a well.”
The drawing looks like four
hooded Klansmen looking down
a hole. It also resembles the
Your local fnewspa‘per sponsored by your local grocer.
AUGUST 24 - 30,1995 VOL. XIV NO. 714
and the U.S. Supreme Court,
saying race can’t be the pre
dominant factor in drawing
political lines, affirmed the rul
ing in June.
Judges J.L. Edmondson,
Avant Edenfield and Dudley
Bowen gave lawmakers, who
have been in special session
since August 14, until October
15toredraw congressional elec
tion boundaries.
But Ms. McKinney said cre
ating a majority-black district
like hers and two others in the
Without a district like
the 11th many people
will suffer, according
to Rep. McKinney.
state doesn’t ensure office for a
black person.
“It doesn’t mean that a black
person is going to be elected,
but I guarantee you that who
ever is elected by each of those
constituencies will be sensitive
Celtic cross used by the Klan
and other white supremacist
groups. Team members
scratched the symbol in the dirt
The drawing looks like four
hooded Klansmen looking
down a hole. It also resem
bles the Celtic cross used by
the Klan and other white
supremacist groups. Team
members scratched the
symbol in the dirt before
games for good luck.
before games for good luck.
The eight-member School
Board on Wednesday ordered
multicultural training for all
students, faculty and staff at
11th District Con
gresswoman
Cynthia McKinney
(L), outside of the
federal courthouse
in Augusta, hud
dles with Keysville
Mayor Emma
Gresham (R).
Quinton Gresham
looks on.
Photo by Jimmy Carter
to the needs of those people,”
she said.
According to Ms. McKinney,
many people will suffer asthey
have in the past without dis
tricts like hers.
For example, residents of
Augusta’s Hyde Park and Vir
ginia Subdivision, whoare vic
tims of environmental con
tamination, had received no
help from the government pri
or to Ms. McKinney’s election.
“They have always had a
representative in Congress,
but that representative
didn’t provide them rep
resentation,” she said.
“But because now the peo
ple of Hyde Park and Vir
ginia Subdivision have a
unique and distinct voice rep
resenting them, their concerns
have now been elevated all the
way to the White House.”
She also helped to collect $9
million to relocate a black com-
See REDISTRICTING, page 3
the Nokesville school, about 30
miles southwest of Washington.
The team coach and an assis
tant coach will receive repri
mands but will not be fired, Su
perintendent Edward L. Kelly
said.
“This type of racism will not be
tolerated,” said School Board
chairwoman Lucy Beauchamp.
“However, theinvestigation could
not bear out that the team or the
coaches knew the meaning of the
symbol.”
The Potomac News, which
first reported on the ritual, to
day published a transcript of a
taped interview with assistant
coach Matt Ondrofthat suggests
he knew the meaning of the sym
bol.
“I think that was last year’s
group that told me,” Ondrofsaid
intheJuly9interview, the news
paper said.
According to Kelly’s report on
the investigation, Ondrof said
he never knew the meaning of
the symbol and the newspaper
See KLAN SYMBOL, page 2
MR.BOB HENNEBERGER )
GEORGIA NEWSPAPER f’ BULK RATE &
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In-fighting
among city
officials
unabated
B Mayor charges two council members
with attempting to take over the city.
By Rhonda Y. Maree
Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
A two-member
team with designs
on the mayor’s pow
er is disrupting
Augusta City
Council and pre
venting the leaders
from getting work
done, according to
Mayor Charles A.
DeVaney.
The power-hungry council members are Lee Beard
and Carolyn Usry, Mr. DeVaney said.
“Ever since Mr. Beard got on council it’s been confron
tational since day one,” he said. “Ms. Usry has joined in
with him on occasion «
after occasion.... They w.ant to run all
“Tf‘h]ey Rt ior all of the city of Augusta,
of the city of Augusta, ’ . .
and I'm just not going and I’'m lUSt not going
to let that occur. {0 |et that occur.
That’s not their job.” o
At the end of Mon- That's not their job.”
day’s otherwise mun- — Charles DeVaney
dane meeting, Councilman Lee Beard attracted the
attention of television cameras as he accused Mr.
DeVaney of hassling him and deceiving council.
At the root of this latest controversy is an ordinance
council passed in March, which gave the mayor sole
power to nominate Municipal Court judges.
But according to Mr. Beard and other council mem
bers, they didn’t realize five months ago what they had
passed.
See FEUD, page 3
Assault victim says
police forced him to
finger H. Rap Brown
ATLANTA
(AP) A shooting victim says police and federal agents
pressured him into saying black activist H. Rap Brown
was the attacker, and later threatened to file charges
against him if he changed
his story.
“They asked me did I see
who did it,” William Miles
saidin Thursday’s(Aug.l7)
Atlanta Journal-Constitu
tion. “I said I didn’t see who
did it.”
Brown, who has adopted
the Muslim name Jamil
Abdullah Al-Amin, is the
former leader of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee, which campaigned for civil rights for blacks in
the 19605, and he also had close ties to the militant Black
Panther Party. He once exhorted blacks to arm themselves
because violence is “as American as cherry pie.”
After Al-Amin was charged last week with aggravated
assault, he accused federal law enforcement agents of
targeting him because of his radical past and growing
influence as a Muslim leader.
Maj. William Shannon, commander of the Atlanta Police
Department’s Special Investigations Section, said police
“would never pressure anyone to make a statement that is
not true.”
Ed Goetz, supervisory agent in charge of the FBl'’s
Joint Counterterrorism Task Force, said he could not
comment on an open investigation.
See AL-AMIN, page 2
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“They asked me
did | see who did
it. | said | didn’t
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—aftack victim
William Miles
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