[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 56 (Thursday, April 22, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E756-E757]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            EXPOSING RACISM

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 22, 1999

  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, in my continuing efforts to 
document and expose racism in America, I submit the following articles 
into the Congressional Record.

                [From the New York Times, Feb. 24, 1999]

 47 Percent in Poll View Legal System as Unfair to Poor and Minorities

                         (By Linda Greenhouse)

       Washington--Despite having only a minimal knowledge of the 
     legal system, nearly half of the public thinks it treats 
     minorities and the poor unfairly, a survey conducted for the 
     American Bar Association indicates.
       In the months before William H. Rehnquist raised his public 
     profile by presiding over the Senate impeachment trial, only 
     17 percent could identify him as Chief Justice of the United 
     States. More than one-third of those responding held the 
     mistaken belief that in a criminal trial, it is up to the 
     defendant to prove his innocence.
       But a surprising 96 percent knew that a criminal defendant 
     who is found not guilty can still be sued in a civil trial. 
     The survey report, made public by the bar association today, 
     speculated that widespread knowledge of this ``relatively 
     obscure concept'' might be attributed to the intense coverage 
     of O.J. Simpson's consecutive criminal and civil trials.
       While most people believe that ``the justice system needs a 
     complete overhaul'' and that ``we would be better off with 
     fewer lawyers,'' the public still agrees by a strong 
     majority, 8 out of 10, that ``in spite of its problems, the 
     American justice system is still the best in the world,'' 
     according to the survey.
       But of the 1,000 adults polled by telephone in August, 47 
     percent said they believed that the courts did not ``treat 
     all ethnic and racial groups the same.'' Thirty-nine percent 
     said there was equitable treatment of minorities and 14 
     percent had no opinion. Also, 90 percent of respondents said 
     affluent people and corporations had an unfair advantage in 
     court.
       The bar group's president, Philip S. Anderson, who 
     commissioned the survey, said in a statement that while he 
     was cheered by the results showing public confidence in the 
     system, he was disturbed by the indication that substantial 
     numbers of people discerned racial unfairness in the behavior 
     of courts and law-enforcement authorities.
       ``We are concerned that the current perception of bias will 
     eventually erode confidence in our system of justice,'' 
     Anderson said in remarks prepared for delivery on Wednesday 
     at the National Press Club.
       The results of the nationwide telephone survey are to be 
     presented and discussed at a bar association symposium here 
     later this week on ``public understanding and perceptions of 
     the American justice system.''
       An independent research firm in Chicago, M/A/R/C Research, 
     conducted the survey, which had a margin of sampling error of 
     plus or minus three percentage points.
       The news media fared badly in public confidence, in fact 
     worse than any other institution. Eight percent of the people 
     had strong confidence in the news media, while 60 percent 
     expressed slight or no confidence. The Supreme Court, by 
     contrast, was at the top of the list, with 50 percent of the 
     people expressing strong confidence in it. Compared with a 
     similar survey conducted in 1978, public confidence in all 
     levels of the judicial system has increased, while confidence 
     in doctors, organized religion, public schools and Congress, 
     as well as the news media, has declined. A majority rejected 
     the statement that ``the courts are just puppets of the 
     political system.''
       Anderson, the bar group's president, urged the Supreme 
     Court to enhance public understanding of the law by allowing 
     television cameras into its argument sessions.
       ``One television camera in the Supreme court will educate 
     more people more effectively in one morning than the 
     traditional methods can reach in one year,'' he said.
       Some of the survey's results appeared certain to warm the 
     hearts of the American Bar Association's 400,000 members. Of 
     people who had used a lawyer within the past five years, 
     three-quarters were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with 
     the quality of service, with 53 percent in the ``very 
     satisfied'' category.
       Most people agreed that ``it would be easy to get a lawyer 
     if I needed one,'' while at the same time expressing the view 
     that ``it costs too much to go to court'' and ``it takes 
     courts too long'' to do their job.
                                  ____


             Thompson Doesn't Condone Councilman's Actions

       Jackson, MS.--U.S. Congressman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., 
     says he doesn't condone the actions of former City Council 
     President Louis Armstrong, but he warns people not to condemn 
     his longtime friend.
       Armstrong pleaded guilty last week in U.S. District Court 
     to charges of conspiracy to commit extortion and accepting 
     part of a $25,000 bribe to influence a council vote on 
     rezoning a topless bar. He is scheduled to be sentenced May 
     7.
       Artie Armstrong, 30, his eldest son, faces trial March 1 on 
     bribery, extortion and conspiracy charges in the same case.
       ``Nobody really supports individuals doing wrong. As long 
     as the pursuit of the wrongdoers is within the confines of 
     the laws and on balance, then the general public will support 
     it. And I don't know any people that I talk to who support 
     people doing wrong,'' Thompson said.
       ``People sympathize with people who make mistakes. And 
     those people who are Christian hope that the people who do 
     wrong will see the error of their ways and seek some 
     opportunities for redemption.''
       Former state senator Henry J. Kirksey says FBI 
     investigations into alleged corruption by black Jackson City 
     officials and business leaders, like Armstrong and his son, 
     are not based on race.
       The veteran lawmaker who has been active in state and local 
     politics criticized those who are labeling recent FBI 
     investigations as selective prosecution of minorities.
       Kirksey says last week's guilty plea by Armstrong, who is 
     black, to bribery and extortion charges reflects the 
     mentality of some politicians who have risen to power and 
     subsequently abused it in search of the dollar.
       ``They are teaching that to their children--`You get it 
     anyway you can'--and that's why the jails and detention 
     centers are loaded with blacks,'' Kirksey said. ``The problem 
     is there is something wrong at City Hall, and it's not all 
     just Louis Armstrong, either.''
       Councilmen Kenneth Stokes and Robert Williams testified 
     during the December trial of two businessmen charged in the 
     FBI cable investigation that they were never offered any 
     money in exchange for their votes.
       The councilmen have not been charged with wrongdoing. Car 
     salesman Robert Williams, 50, and snack food distributor Roy 
     Dixon, 56, were convicted Dec. 11 of conspiring to extort 
     $150,000 from Time Warner Cable in an attempt to influence 
     the city council's vote on the franchise renewal.
       On Friday, U.S. District Judge Tom S. Lee gave Williams 21 
     months in prison and two years supervised probation.
       U.S. Attorney Brad Pigott said the FBI's investigations 
     centered only on criminal actions of suspects, not their 
     race. He pointed to the guilty pleas of Armstrong and Clinton 
     Moses Jr., a confessed bank robber who on Friday admitted he 
     firebombed the Jackson Advocate and accused Armstrong of 
     hiring him.
       ``From the fact that both of them have every reason to 
     expect to go to prison for having confessed under oath for 
     their criminal conduct, I certainly don't see where the room 
     is to see that they're both just lying so that they can have 
     the chance to go prison,'' Pigott said.
       Moses, who worked in Armstrong's 1997 re-election campaign, 
     told authorities that Armstrong paid him $500 to burn the 
     black weekly newspaper.
       Pigott won't say whether Armstrong will be charged in the 
     Advocate's firebombing.
                                  ____


      School Officials Say Racial Tension a Problem Among Students

       Farmington Hills, MI.--School officials in several Detroit 
     area schools find themselves investigating incidents linked 
     to racial tension--and they're searching for ways to head off 
     violence within school walls.
       Kim Kennedy, who is black, never thought her son, Jeffrey, 
     would have to face the kind of racial attacks she felt 
     growing up in Detroit. Her son attends Walled Lake Western 
     High School, where in January he was involved in a racially 
     motivated fight.
       ``I never thought my children would have to experience what 
     happened to us in the 1960s,'' Ms. Kennedy, 38, of Farmington 
     Hills told The Detroit News for a Thursday story. 
     ``Sometimes, I question whether we made the right decision 
     moving here.''
       Other recent racial incidents in area schools include: 
     Dearborn Edsel Ford High School. On Dec. 2, an altercation 
     between several Arab and non-Arab students escalated into a 
     food fight.
       West Bloomfield High School. Last week, tempers flared 
     between groups of Chaldean-American and African-American 
     students in the school's cafeteria.
       Saline High School. Three white students were charged with 
     felony ethnic intimidation in connection with a Dec. 17, 
     1998, hallway fight with two black students. A preliminary 
     examination is scheduled for March 23.
       Experts say schools can and should take responsibility for 
     helping to solve ethnic and racial tensions--even though the 
     conflict usually begins outside the schools.
       ``Schools must be on top of what is creating the tension, 
     and be proactive, rather than waiting for something to 
     happen,'' University of Michigan education professor Percy 
     Bates said.
       In Walled Lake, about 25 parents attended a ``racial 
     summit'' for parents a week after the Jan. 21 incident 
     involving Kennedy, 14, and several other students. Many of 
     the students--including Kennedy--were suspended and one was 
     expelled.
       ``We promised parents that the administration would meet 
     with them to discuss their

[[Page E757]]

     concerns and to invite them to participate in our 
     initiatives,'' Walled Lake Western High Principal Gary 
     Bredahl told the News.
       ``I hope the African-American students here can sense that 
     we are reaching out to them to create a comfort zone to get 
     them involved in school activities.''
       Experts say students often pick up their parents' feelings 
     about other races, said Juanetta Guthrie of Wayne State 
     University's Center for Peace and Conflict Studies.
       ``We are not born with the mechanism to hate. It's learned, 
     and it can be unlearned,'' Ms. Guthrie said.
       West Bloomfield senior Brad Fayer agrees that parents play 
     a big role in raising their children to be free of biases and 
     bigotry.
       ``If you have open-minded parents they can teach their kids 
     to also be open-minded and fair,'' he said. ``They can also 
     teach equality.''
       So school districts are taking up the challenge to help 
     combat conflicts.
       In Dearborn, fights between Arab and non-Arab students have 
     led to the creation of the Dearborn Community Alliance to 
     establish clearer communication between members of the 
     community.
       ``I see more dialogue,'' Edsel Ford Principal Jeremy Hughes 
     said. ``At one time, the Arab students all sat along one wall 
     in the cafeteria, but now I see more interaction.''
       But Alex Shami, the only Arab American on the Dearborn 
     public school board, said the district still has a long way 
     to go.
       ``I've lived in Dearborn for 24 years,'' Shami said. 
     ``There was tension between Arabs and non-Arabs in the late 
     1970s and then it went down in the 1980s, but it is worse 
     than ever now. I don't like what I see because people seem to 
     be investing more on their prejudices than ever and I am 
     frustrated.''
       In West Bloomfield, school officials say implementing 
     ethnic diversity programs is the key to heading off potential 
     problems.
       ``We have ongoing programs that get several kids from 
     different backgrounds in dialogue,'' said Sharkey Haddad, the 
     district's multicultural program director. ``If you don't 
     already have a program in place, then it's merely a reaction 
     to the problem.''
                                  ____


              Mississippians to Get Chance to Tell History

                           (By Gina Holland)

       Jackson, Miss. (AP)--Mississippi history will be told 
     through personal accounts of everyday residents as part of a 
     project approved by the Legislature just in time for the turn 
     of the century.
       A bill passed by the House Wednesday would put $150,000 
     into a pilot project to collect interviews from residents in 
     five areas of the state. The Senate has already approved the 
     funding.
       The University of Southern Mississippi, which has an oral 
     history department, and the Mississippi Humanities Council 
     would team up with community leaders on the work.
       Residents will be interviewed about stories of their 
     communities, government and civic life, and historical 
     events.
       Still pending in the Legislature is a request for $30,000 
     in continuation funding for an oral history program focusing 
     on the civil rights era.
       Elbert Hilliard, executive director of the Department of 
     Archives and History, said the project will fill gaps in 
     historical archives.
       ``Most of the existing oral history collections are 
     interviews with prominent persons, political leaders, people 
     who have been involved in significant events,'' he said. ``It 
     will expand the scope of these interviews to have a 
     comprehensive approach.''
       Hillard, who expect some of the interviews to involve civil 
     rights events, said he is hopeful the Legislature will also 
     provide money for the civil rights project at USM.
       Under the proposal approved Wednesday, one site will be 
     chosen in each of Mississippi's congressional districts for a 
     pilot program. People will be taught how to conduct 
     interviews. The material will be archived and be made 
     available on the Internet and it could be displayed in the 
     communities.
       Rep. Leonard Morris, D-Batesville, said his two teen-age 
     children. ``have no knowledge of what happened in the 1960s 
     and 1970s.''
       ``You don't want to dwell too much upon the negative part 
     of it, but you also want to be able to do research on what 
     happened and have an accurate documented source,'' said 
     Morris, ``How can you know where you're going if you don't 
     have a good idea of the past?''
       Sen John Horhn, D-Jackson, said he would like to see more 
     work on the civil rights history.
       ``A number of the people who were involved in the movement 
     have passed away, many of them are getting older. It's 
     important we capture their stories,'' said Horhn.
       The funding bill goes to the governor.

       

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