NEWSLETTER OF THE

LOUISIANA COUNCIL BATON ROUGE COUNCIL

ON HUMAN RELATIONS ON HUMAN RELATIONS

Volume 40, Issue 3 Volume 39, Issue 3

Paul Y. Burns, Interim Editor Third Quarter 2004

Board Opposes Electronic Voting Without a Paper Trail

The LCHR Board of Directors met July 17 at the home of Doris and Overton White in Plaisance, adopting Eva Baham=s motion opposing electronic voting without a paper trail. Dr. Baham wrote me after the meeting, listing nine websites on electronic voting and pointing out that by going to the Google search engine even more material can be found. One of the websites is http://www.verifiedvoting.org/ .

Treasurer Paul Burns reported that during the past three months LCHR’s income was $781, and its expenditures were $378, leaving a checking account balance July 15, 2004 of $779. LCHR also has a money market certificate in Liberty Bank & Trust valued at $1,713.

In late July LCHR received a donation of $500 in memory of Kathleen Burns, a member who joined LCHR along with her husband Paul in 1965. This generous gift will bring our checking account balance to more than $1,000, a level not achieved since 1997!

The Board re-elected its current officers for another year: Joseph Dennis, Lafayette, President; Thelma Deamer, Baton Rouge, Vice President; Paul Y. Burns, Baton Rouge, Treasurer; Patricia Rickels, Lafayette, Corresponding Secretary; Leslie Burris, Baton Rouge, Membership Secretary. Burns averred that he would serve only until the January Board meeting.

Non-officer Board members are Shirley Burris, Joseph McCarty, John V. White, Barbara Conner, Rose Mae and Bernard Broussard, Peter Bonhomme, Doris White, James E. Cross, Anthony Navarre, Huel D. Perkins, Rogers J. Newman, Eileen Shieber, William Kellner, Eva Baham, Ted Hayes, Elnur Musa, Richard Haymaker, Kathleen Sparrow, and John Mikell.

The Board=s next quarterly meeting was set for 10:30 a.m. October 30 at the home of Anthony Navarre, 216 Portland Ave., Lafayette.

ULL Celebrates 50^th Anniversary of Racial Integration

Three LCHR members: Joe Dennis, Marion Overton White, and Patricia Rickels, spoke on a University of Louisiana-Lafayette civil rights panel September 11 at a symposium commemorating the desegregation of Southwestern Louisiana Institute, now ULL. Another panelist, Shawn Wilson, is currently the first black president of the ULL Alumni Association. Dennis, LCHR president, commented “…racism, it’s still there. We have too many white people, well-to-do white people, who have not a clue to what’s going on in the black community.” White is a long-time civil rights attorney in the Opelousas area. Rickels, LCHR board of directors’ secretary, joined the faculty a year after the university had its first black graduate. She and her late husband and fellow English professor Milton Rickels worked for racial justice many years.

Another speaker at the two-day symposium, ULL alumnus Michael Wade, is working on a book about desegregation of the state’s colleges, focusing on the desegregation of ULL. Wade is a history professor at Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. The symposium organizer, Prof. Michael Martin, pointed out that few historians know about the university’s integration in 1954.

Muslims, Jews, Christians Work Together as Volunteers for a Food Bank

On July 31 nine Baton Rouge teenagers, three Muslims, three Jews, and three Christians, picked 200 pounds of peas working together on a trip to Napoleonville. The purpose of the trip, sponsored by the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank, was to encourage dialogue among youth of various faiths. One of the youths commented that the community came together, the Food Bank was helped, and she met persons of other faiths. That is good news.

This worthy project was within the purposes of the Council on Human Relations. In the 1960s the Baton Rouge Council had two projects to encourage interfaith understanding. One was an invitation from a Jewish Synagogue, led by Rabbi Marvin Reznikoff, to Council members to join Synagogue members in a Hanukkah Service, which brought black and white Christians together with Jews for a novel experience, which I found highly educational and inspirational. The other was a 1969 project in which two- or three-person teams of mixed religious preferences visited a Sunday morning worship service. The B.R. Council=s recent interfaith project, Abraham=s Salon, was described in our 2^nd quarter newsletter.

David Duke Attacks Jews

Yes, Duke, released last spring from a year and a half in prison, is still the neo-Nazi I remember from his student days at LSU, spewing venom. That=s the bad news. At a meeting May 29 in Kenner, Duke attacked Jews in his speech at a meeting of leading international figures in the anti-Semitic and Holocaust denial movement. Duke now has a ANew Orleans Protocol,@ which includes advising his followers to volunteer as Little League coaches to access impressionable children. Also to join organizations such as the American Red Cross to legitimize their hate-filled ideas. Duke=s aide claimed that more than 580,000 copies of his book Jewish Supremacism have been sold worldwide.

The good news is that the Southern Institute for Education and Research at Tulane University has provided Holocaust Education training to more than 200 teachers in Jefferson Parish alone and has sponsored more than 50 Holocaust survivor presentations in this parish. Since its inception 10 years ago the Institute has trained 3,300 teachers from 750 schools in the Deep South. Its website is Http://SouthernInstitute.info

One of the programs of the Institute, which I support financially, is its ATeams for Interethnic Solutions,@ which is communications training in race and ethnic relations. Information on training workshops can be obtained from Dr. Lance Hill at the Institute, MR Box 1692, 31 McAlister Dr., New Orleans, LA 70118, ph. 504-865-6100, e-mail 20-inst@tulane.edu.

Some good news is that the Southern Poverty Law Center received the Association of Educational Publishers= Distinguished Achievement Award for its publication for higher education, 10 Ways to Fight Hate on Campus. More than 50,000 copies has been distributed to colleges and universities in this country. The Center also received an award for its video Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks.

Improvement in Juvenile Justice?

Governor Blanco seems to have made improving Louisiana=s lousy juvenile justice system a priority. One promising development is the use of a Missouri juvenile justice expert. At Blanco=s request, Mark Steward, director of Missouri=s Division of Youth Services, assessed the state=s prison system for young criminals. Missouri has a juvenile prison system with low rates of violence and of repeat offenses. Louisiana=s rates are high in these two matters and has been directed by the courts to shape up.

In the past legislative session a new juvenile justice agency, the Office of Youth Development, was created, with its own budget and reporting directly to the Governor.

Deacons for Defense and JusticeB40 Years Later

Civil rights historians and those of us who are old and have long memories remember the Deacons for Defense and Justice. The organization began in 1964, consisting of armed black men who protected their communities from white supremacy groups such as the KKK. Most of the men who joined were Baptist deacons, hence the name. Jonesboro, Homer, and Bogalusa had chapters in Louisiana. They employed a different strategy for resisting the evil of racial hate crimes than the nonviolence of Dr. King, but they successfully protected their families because the white supremacy groups feared them. A book has recently been published about the Deacons: The Deacons for Justice: Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement, by Lance Hill. North Carolina. 363 pp. $34.95.

Insurance Redlining Hurts Low-income Persons and People of Color

Many of us get insurance without thinking much about it. Others, mainly low-income families and people of color, are discriminated against by a practice called Aredlining.@ In redlining, insurance companies refuse to write policies in particular geographical areas where these folks live. An example would be zip codes 70802 and 70805 in Baton Rouge. A recent ruling by the California Supreme Court may help ensure equal access to basic insurance by requiring insurers to make their community service statements public. Now the public will be able to assess the levels of discrimination in underserved areas. Insurance companies in every state should provide equal access to insurance.

LSU Enters Sports History Books, On the Good Side!

Congratulations to LSU! The formerly racist institution has broken new ground in hiring Ms. Dana APokey@ Chatman as women=s basketball coach. She is the first black woman to become a head coach at LSU. If you aren=t a sports fan, you may not be aware that Mississippi State University has recently appointed Sylvester Croom as the first black head football coach in Southeastern Conference history. Major congratulations to Mississippi State!

Gender Bias in Media Sports Coverage

Have you noticed how TV and print media downplay or ignore high-school sports for girls? There is gender bias here and it will continue until enough people complain about it. Speak up!

Media Justice Movement

About 40 years ago a few civil rights activists, connecting the racism they saw in the streets to the racism they saw on TV, began to monitor TV in Jackson, MS. They documented that fact that two local stations were failing to serve their substantial (45%) African-American audiences and filed petitions with the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC shafted them (no surprise here), so they went to court and won; the court established the principle that news content must reflect in some fashion the actual diversity of local audiences, and that the public had Astanding@ and could go directly to the FCC.

Currently, people of color are marginalized in the consolidated world of mainstream media. There was a meeting in 2002 called the Highlander Media Justice Gathering, which placed new emphasis of justice in the media. In San Francisco the Third World Majority encourages women and people of color to engage in media work. In Mississippi, the Jackson Advocate, a black-owned, feisty newspaper has had fire bombings because of its reports on racism and local government. A Media Justice Summit meeting has been planned for this year.

At LSU, the Manship School of Mass Communication (formerly Journalism) has launched a Forum on Race and the Media. The forum has a Website, http://www.lsu.edu/raceandmedia, which has an annotated bibliography on race and media with more than 400 articles.

Speaking of media bias makes me think of what I and many others have discovered. The one TV channel and program that can be counted on for news honesty in the U.S. is the Comedy Channel=s ADaily Show,@ Jon Stewart host, on the Comedy Channel at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. He pokes fun at Democrats and Republicans.

Bias Against Indians?

I mean persons from India, not Native Americans. An LSU student wrote a letter to the editor of the student newspaper recently, stating several instances where he has been given a hard time by other students because of the dark color of his skin. As a white, retired LSU professor I have not been close to Indian and Pakistani students, and I have wondered about racial discrimination against them. Can anyone enlighten me on this subject? I have noticed that some of them have very dark skin.

Voices of Civil Rights Bus Tour Comes to Baton Rouge

Starting in Washington, D.C. and stopping at 39 cities along the route of the 1961 Freedom Rides to Mississippi, this group stopped in Baton Rouge August 26. The tour, a project of the AARP, included interviewers and journalists. Among those who told their stories in video interviews were Baton Rouge Council members James E. Cross, Marjorie Green, Richard Haymaker, and Paul Y. Burns. Storytellers on the program were Johnnie Jones, Sr., Hazel Freeman, Mildred Clark, and Freddy Pitcher. The History Channel did the filming, planning a one-hour documentary to air in February 2005.

Haymaker, BRCHR President, brought the new BRCHR website, www.brchr , to the attention of the project leaders, hoping it will become a link on their website. The BRCHR website has our history posted with many stories. Please log on the Voices website, www.voicesofcivilrigts.org. Tell your story.

Stories will be archived by the prestigious Library of Congress.

Meetings Planned by Baton Rouge Council on Human Relations

The BRCHR is planning to have a presidential forum in collaboration in cooperation with the LSU Wesley Foundation. The date is October 28, Thursday. Time 7 p.m. The Wesley Foundation building is located at 333 Chimes St.

A Baton Rouge Mayor-President forum is planned in collaboration with the Children’s Coalition. Mayor Bobby Simpson, a Republican, and state Sen. Melvin “Kip” Holden, D-Baton Rouge recently won places in the November 2 runoff election. The BRCHR does not endorse candidates, but over its 39-year life it has held many political forums, to which all candidates are invited. The date, time, and place are not yet set.

For more information on the details of these forthcoming BRCHR meetings, contact Phil Woodland, BRCHR’s Immediate Past President, at 336-9801 or jpwood929@aol.com.

, East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President Election Has Racial Aspects

The Mayor-President’s race is of interest to the BRCHR because of its racial aspects. Holden is black, and all previous Mayor-Presidents, including Simpson, have been white. The city of Baton Rouge’s population is majority black, and the E.B.R. Parish is majority white. If the upcoming runoff election is like past elections, Simpson will get a lot of white votes and some black votes; Holden will get a lot of black votes and some white votes. Four years ago Holden ran first in the primary election and Simpson was second. In the runoff, Simpson won, 57% to 43%.

Recently I discovered in listening to a group of white Baton Rouge intellectuals who were interested in the Mayor-President’s race but who knew little of the complicated politics. They did not realize that Zachary and Baker, separate cities which along with Baton Rouge are in E.B.R. Parish, each elects its own Mayor, but Baton Rouge does not elect its Mayor: She or he is elected by the votes of the entire parish and then carries the title of Mayor-President. The “Mayor” title applies to Baton Rouge only; the “President” title means that he or she presides over the parish-wide MetroCouncil.

Dues are Due

Dues are due for the year July 1, 2004 - June 30, 2005. Members of the Baton Rouge Council (a chapter of LCHR) are automatically members of LCHR. Dues are $20 family, $15 individual, $1 student or low income. Members who paid dues after March 1, 2004 are considered to be paid up through June 30, 2005. Contributions over and above dues are appreciated, especially those given in memory of someone who has had a significant impact on human relations.

New members are soughtBthose who agree with our purposes of equality of opportunity and improved human relations.

Baton Rouge area: Make out checks to B.R. Council on Human Relations. Send to: Richard Haymaker, 254 Nelson Dr., Baton Rouge, LA 70808.

Others: Make out checks to LCHR. Send to: Paul Burns, 2137 Cedardale, Baton Rouge, LA 70808.

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