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Klansmen get Black children Bar white couple 11 1985 economy upto must develop from ado/ towards 40 years positive image biracial 1 on Paste 1 Page 2 Pagel II * 3 VOLUME 14 NUMBER 30 > 11985 /X 7) **><3 r 63h <R| - / u 7 era M ■' WW /*. r ..< • ,/' W«« Z>- z gt -e T7 W> Vi * v Xadfc C>ludbfß *^Z/ V V«W& Z <fe 1 I Z Br .' /j \ flßn' r4K7®M» zZ r if' w J- \, / fX fl Jr Zsf 7 h~/ ' $ 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. fL f ■Bt ■Pt ■r' urn —*• - 1 * F J| HBBtvf 1 / Jr IB g WK J i !® ; flB V Kk ■L&' "" ■ w Ji/J? ■*•»*. ■* ■ -vKiBK • Wil V *fZ9t, w V './> fc.g>' 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