By Lois Romano
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Legendary black historian John Hope Franklin captivated a congressional hearing this week when he eloquently urged members to pass legislation that would clear the way for survivors of the nation's worst race riots to sue for reparations.
The federal courts have ruled that the statute of limitations has expired for the victims and heirs to sue the city of Tulsa and the state of Oklahoma over losses during 1921 race riots that left more than 200 blacks dead and 400 businesses and countless homes in a prosperous black neighborhood torched. At the time, the legal system did not allow the black community any legal remedies.
"There was a code of silence that settled" over Tulsa, said Franklin, in explaining why legal action was not brought sooner. Those who survived, he said, "suffered most of their lives through the trauma."
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) said the issue merits congressional attention because of evidence suggesting that governmental officials deputized and armed the mob. Harvard legal scholar Charles J. Ogletree, who has been representing the victims, noted that "no one has ever been held responsible criminally or civilly for destroying a 42-block area."
Ogletree introduced 104-year-old Otis Clark, a survivor of the riots, and asked the committee to provide justice to the remaining survivors before they die. University of Alabama law professor Alfred L. Brophy called the riots a way of keeping the blacks "in their place." Olivia J. Hooker, six years old during the riots, said her mother told her "your country is shooting at you."
"This was devastating to me," she said at the hearing.
Democrats and Republicans on the Judiciary subcommittee for civil rights seemed sympathetic to the arguments. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) arrived at the hearing with her cab driver, who told her he was interested in the legislation. He got an ovation.
Some members asked whether it would be enough to simply pledge that this would never happen again.
Franklin, 92, who was born in Oklahoma and whose father was in Tulsa at the time of the riots, argued that had the riots not occurred, many descendants might be further "along the road of prosperity."
The prolific and revered educator told of a colossal slight at a private club where he had been celebrating his 1995 White House Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
"A white woman came up to me and said, 'Here, you get my coat,' " he recalled. "What was I doing there except to serve her?
" 'No more' is not good enough."
Just a ColdSenate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) didn't make it to this week's high-stakes conference meeting on the emergency funding legislation for Iraq, saying he was feeling under the weather. At 89 years old, he is the longest-serving member in the Senate, and notices about his health are closely watched. A spokesman said yesterday that Byrd was tired and recovering from a spring cold and was back at work. "He's feeling better every day," said spokesman Tom Gavin.
'It's All About the Math'It was not so long ago that gay activists were on the defensive, with 22 states considering bans on same-sex marriage and Congress considering a constitutional amendment declaring that marriage must be between a man and a woman.
But after working hard -- and spending millions -- in last year's elections, activists are looking at 2007 as a victory year. Joe Solmonese says it is no accident.
When he took over the leadership two years ago of the Human Rights Campaign-- the nation's largest gay rights group -- Solmonese saw a clear opportunity to go on the offensive with the organization's largest-ever electoral effort. "It was time to be tactical and not just stand on the sidewalk" protesting, he said in a recent interview. "We are trying to change the role we play in electoral politics. It's all about the math, and for the first time in a very long time there are people in charge who are committed to moving legislation."
Significantly, a new federal hate-crimes bill is making its way through the Democratic Congress that would for the first time include sexual orientation in the federal criminal code. And this week, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would ban job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation -- was introduced in the House. Both bills have strong Democratic support.
For the first time in the group's 27-year history, the HRC spent or raised millions of dollars on state and congressional elections and mobilized many of its 700,000 members to work in the field.
New Hampshire is expected to pass a bill today legalizing same-sex unions, and yesterday, Iowa's House approved a bill to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
"What it all comes down to is that we're beginning to be perceived as politically potent," Solmonese said.
The ultimate goal, he says, is to legalize same-sex marriage, but he acknowledges that it won't happen by simply demanding it. "There is a more strategic way to move the country in the direction of gay marriage," he said, "and that is to recognize that the American people need to have an initial conversation about the circumstances of having a partner, of being in a relationship for a long time, and having kids . . . the circumstances of our lives."
His goals for the 2008 elections may be a tad more modest than they were in 2006: "We helped a lot of good people get elected -- and we will play a role in holding onto those seats.'
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