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Klansmen get Black children Bar white couple 11 1985 economy
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VOLUME 14 NUMBER 30
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Klansmen get up to forty years
courts have realized the dancer”
Four Ku Klux Klansmen have
been given federal prison terms
ranging up to 40 years for their in
volvement in racially motivated
beatings in west Georgia.
Ignoring all pleas for leniency
and denying requests for appeal
bonds, U.S. District Judge Charles
A. Moye meted out the stiffest sen
tences possible for the four men.
Forty years and $40,000 in
for Mailon Wood, 54, of
Buchanan, and Kenneth Davis, 39,
of Tallapoosa, each charged on
four counts of civil righty
violations for two beatings.
White couple can 7
adopt biracial baby
DETROIT Karen and Guen
ter Lahr are not permitted to adopt
a 14-month-old girl they have nur
sed back to health from the brink
of death because they are white and
she is racially mixed.
“We couldn’t part with her,”
Mrs. Lahr said this week. “Even
though we are not her biological
parents, we feel we have given her
life. She’s every bit a part of our
family as if I had given birth to
her.”
But the Wayne County Depar
tment of Social Services considers
the baby, named Deanna, Black
and says she must go to a Black
couple who want to adopt her.
Deanna was to have gone to the
Black couple this week, but last
week, the Lahrs went to court and
obtained a temporary restraining
order.
They have another court date
next month, but their attorney said
it still is possible the social services
agency will relent and let the
suburban Roseville couple keep the
child without a legal battle.
Deanna came to the Lahrs as a
foster child Oct. 10, 1983, a month
to the day after she was born with
Down’s Syndrome. There was lit
tle hope then that Deanna would
survive because she had serious
heart problems.
But Deanna had successful open
heart surgery in June and the
couple nursed her back to health.
In July, the Lahrs, who have two
Stye Augusta
Twenty years and $20,000 in
fines for Wood’s brother, Winford
“Billy” Wood, 56, of Mableton,
who was convicted on two counts
for one of the beatings.
Fifteen years and a $30,000 fine
for William Lawrence Deering, 54,
of Buchanan, who was convicted
on three counts of perjury for lying
to a grand jury about the attacks.
Davis and the Wood brothers
also were ordered to pay $1,083 in
restitution to one of the victims to
cover the medical expenses he in
curred because of the assault.
All four have said they* will ap-
children of their own, decided they
wanted to make Deanna their
daughter.
Mrs. Lahr said she and her
husband have cared for about 35
foster children over the past 11
years 25 of them minority
chidren and 10 with physical or
mental handicaps.
They now have three foster
children —two of them biracial
and the other Black.
“It’s going to be very
traumatic for us” to lose Derma,
Mrs. Lahr said. “But we feel that
at least we’ve done everything
possible to keep her. We would
have to live with (an adverse)
decision, but we won’t be happy
with it.”
Macomb County Circuit Judge
Raymond Cashen is scheduled to
hear the Lahr’s plea for an injun
ction that would keep Deanna in
their home until a final decision is
made by social services officials.
Mark Kandel, the couple’s at
torney, said the Lahrs tried twice
to file a petition for adoption and
were told each time they were
ineligible because of their race.
On his advice, the Lahrs tried a
third time and the agency agreed to
send them the appropriate papers.
“There may be some change in
the wind, and maybe they won’t
have to go to court,” Kandel said.
He noted there is nothing in state
law that specifically requires a
Black or biracial child to go only to
a Black family.
> December 22,1984
peal their convictions, and Moye
advised them they could also ask
for a sentence reduction if their
appeals fail.
A fifth defendant in the case,
Kent Adams, 23, of Villa Rica, is
scheduled to be sentenced later.
Moye said at the hearing, “I sen
tence each of you to the maximum
penalty provided by law.” He did
not offer an explanation of his
decision except to note that the
defendants, following their
lawyers’ advice, had refused to
give information to the gover
nment for a presentencing report.
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SOL TH AFRICA PROTESTS EXPANDED IN ATLANTA—SCLC President Joseph E. Lowery announces plans to
escalate the protests against South African Apartheid by demonstrating against Atlanta-based corporations that have business
interests in South Africa and who sell the Krugerrand, a gold coin exported by South Africa. Lowery is joined by members
of the Concerned Black C lergyand several other religious and community organizations who have vowed to support the protests.
The group will protest the sale of the Krugerrand.
(L to R) Rev. Cornelius Henderson, SCLC Board and Concerned Black C lergy; Rev. Timothy McDonald, SCLC Operation
Breadbasket; Unidentified pastor; Dr. Lowery; Rev. Cameron Alexander, SCLC Board & General Missionary Baptist
Convention of Georgia President; Rev. C.T. Vivian, SCLC Board and Chairman of the National Anti-Klan Network.
The maximum sentences are
“indicative of how seriously the
judge viewed these offenses,”
Steve Cowen, the assistant U.S. at
torney who prosecuted the case,
said afterward.
In the incident for which the
Wood brothers and Davis were
convicted, Warren Cokley, a Black
man married to a white woman,
was beaten in his home in February
1983.
Three months earlier, a white
woman who allegedly associated
with Blacks, Peggy Jo French, was
pistol-whipped in her Carroll
Less than 75 percent Advertising
County home. Mailon Wood and
Davis were convicted of ciolating
her civil rights.
Both victims were in the cour
troom, as were the defendants’
families.
Cokley, who also is suing for
damages, said the sentencing
“takes a great deal of the burden
of my shoulders. I’m glad it tur
ned out the way it did. Possibly, it
will serve as a warning to others.”
After watching the proceedings,
the Rev. C.T. Vivian, chairman of
the Anti-Klan Network, said,
“We’re very thankful the Georgia
courts have realized the danger”
that racial hatred poses. “Every
time the Klan has gotten off, it
creates more and more violence. ”
But, Vivian said, “When ever
they get stiff sentences, where it’s
clear the judiciary will not stand
for racial violence, Klan violence
declines.
During the sentencing the
defendants stood virtually
motionless next to their attorneys.
When Moye asked the defendan
ts whether they had anything to say
on their own behalf, Billy Wood
said, “I sure hate all that hap
pened. It was really a stupid
thing.”
30C