Politicians look to Benton Harbor model
BY TERESA KELLY
• "'.""'(:(1 of A ocl.t«J Pre
IWpott by U •• Zag.roll
BBNTON HARBOR-With debate
over enterpri e zones rekindled by
I the Lo Angeles rio , Benton Har-
Propose
'POWER
ZONES'
':If ROBERT W'TROTT
ASSOCIATED PRES WRrrER
MAKING THE DIFFERENCE - Re Ident of a northwe t Detroit community r cently protested
the an ged beating of community r .Ident Mrs. Hicks, who Is Black, by th Arab owner. of
th Mobil 011 Servlc Station located at Schaffer nd Fenkell. Resid nt. hav can d for a
boycott of the station. The Ig� thi young demonstrator carrie y it all. (Photo by Kenn.th
Snodgra.)
re k,
teaming direcdy with urban resi­
dents are more likely to solve
probloms there than if they go
through state and federal govern­
ments.
"By taking this approach,
you're cutting out the inefficient
middleman, t, Malone said Mon­
day. "It's time to try something
different. We should move
S ,POWER, PageA-10
NAACP rallies again t death
penalty for William Andrew
BY MIKE CARTER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
SALT lAKE CITY (AP) -Con­
demned Hi-Fi killer William
Andrews last Monday issued a
statement warning young Blacks
away from drugs and crime while
supporters rallied to protest his im­
pending execution. ...
. About two dozen supporters
appeared at an NAACP-sponsored
gathering 'on the steps of the Capitol
to protest alleged overtones of
racism in the 18-year-<>ld case.
One of his lawyers' wondered
how a since-abandoned Mormon
doctrine excluding Blacks from
Q.
Have
- .. : .'
politiCians
dealt with
city
needs?
, 't.
death.
THE MORMON CHURCH "You need to be careful in
began allowing Blacks to hold the choosing your friends," he said.
priesthood in June 1978, four years "You must stay away from people
aft e r who take drugs or get involved in
r-------------------- And re w s crime, because these people will end
was sen- up pulling you down with them."
tenced to "I never dreamed that I would
death. be involved in causing hurt or pain to
Hawk anyone," he said. Andrews was an
ins read a 19-year-old Hill Air Force Base air­
statement man when he and Pierre Dale'Selby
...._ _' given him robbed the Ogden Hi-Fi Shop in
b y April 1974.
Andrews from his death row cell at .
Utah State Prison Monday. In it, the FIVE VICTIMS were bound
37-year-old inmate thanked those and forced to drink a liquid drain
fighting for his life and urged mem- cleaner, then they were shot. One
bers of the Black community to learn
from his mistakes.
holding the priesthood may have in­
fluenced the all-white jury that con­
demned Andrews - an African
American
to
,A note slipped to the jury
during trial depicted a crude
, drawing of a stick-figure
hanging from a gallow� and
said, hang the nlggers."
"We
can not
avoid how
t hat
doctrine
might
have seeped into somebody's con­
scious and affected them in their
decision on whether somebody
should live or die," said NAACP
ttorney Greg Hawkins of New
York.
Se ,TRIAL, Pag A·5
bor, Mich., h grabbed the nation 1
potlight a politicians curry to
propo their version.
Thi outhwe tern Michigan city
offers a model for th nation of what
to void if urban economic revival
for the residents i the g 1.
- Benton Harbor was d ignated
an enterpri e zone by the tate in
1986, when, i unemployment rate
was bout 40 percent and its percent­
age of re idents on welfare was about
60 percent. Its tax base was eroding
about 5 percent a year while other
citie prospered.
Little h changed .
"We were at the bottom and
going down," aid Bob Jac on,
chairman of the Benton Harbor'
enterpri zone council.
lAC 0, non-re ident, w
th force behind the city receiving
the zone designation. He came under
criticism in t proces forhi refusal
to work with African American b i­
nes es.
And perhap therein lies the
S ZONES, P g A·10
Politician ide with
AACP, ACLU in
redistricting lawsuit
ROSE JACKSON: "No.
They won't face reality. Moving
forward (on race issues) had
stopped before the LA riots."
"
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -Detroit Mayor Coleman Young,
Attorney General Frank Kelley and Secretary of State Richard
Austin are backing claims by the NAACP and the ACLU that
a redi tricting plan hurts African American voters.
They told a three-judge panel they believe the Wayne
County part of the plan violates the federal Voting Rights Act.
That law is designed to protect the political rights and clout of
minority voters.
The federal judges were scheduled to begin a hearing
June 2 on a lawsuit filed by the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People and the American Civil
Liberties Union.
"Reapportionment affords an opportunity every 10 years
- to provide the fairest and most equal representation possible
to all segments of society. We cannot be satisfied with anything
less," Kelley said.
Kelley aides filed two briefs Friday. Kelley's office said
that as secretary of state, Austin "took no position regarding
the merits" of the plan. The plan was adopted April 1 by the
Michigan Supreme Court.
In a separate friend of the court brief, both aid the Wayne
County portion should be changed because it was unconstitu­
tional.
Austin and Kelley said the districts should be redrawn to
break the Wayne-Oakland county line. Failing to do that, as in
the current plan, "packs" Wayne County's Black voters into
separate districts and denies them their right to equal partici­
pation in state government, they said.
Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU in Michi­
gan, said he was astounded by the action of Kelley and Austin,
but applauded it.
"I just don't recall a case in which the state both defended
a lawsuit and the conscience of tate officials and the power of
truth was so compelling that they had to say personally to the
court that what they are called upon to defend has no defense,"
he said.
�NAACP,PI A·IO
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