The contours of the emerging debate in Paris, Texas are painfully typical.  The problem is as broad as America and as old as recorded history.

 Below, I have posted an editorial from Mary Madewell, managing editor of the Paris News followed by a Dallas Morning News article by Richard Abshire.  Since Madewell makes repeated reference to Abshire’s piece I thought it would be helpful to place them side-by-side.

Few would deny that Paris, Texas has a tragic history of racial violence.   More than most southern towns, Paris has been associated with Jim Crow era lynchings. 

But does this history have any relevance in 2009?

Racial tensions in Paris rose when a student was sentenced to up to seven years in juvenile prison for pushing a teachers aid.  Many considered the sentence disproportionate to the alleged crime and the story drew coverage from Howard Witt of the Chicago Tribune. 

When a white female student accused of arson was given a probated sentence, the Cotton case was back in the news.  Then the white student’s probation was revoked and, while in a Texas Youth Commission facility, the young woman was sexually assaulted by a prison employee. 

Tragically, this was just one example of an unaccountable and largely unmonitored juvenile justice system.  Sweeping reforms have been enacted in recent years and Will Harrell, once an outspoken critic of the TYC, has been appointed as the system’s ombudsman. 

That’s why I argue the systemic, structural nature of the problem.

Paris might have returned to normal but for the dragging death of Brandon McClelland, a black Paris resident.  Two white defendants have been charged with intentionally running over their erstwhile drinking buddy and running him over with their truck.

Some black residents call it a hate crime.

Others, pointing to the long history of close association between the victim and his alleged assailants, claim that racial hatred had nothing to do with McClelland’s death.

When local activists put out the call for help the only enthusiastic takers were the Nation of Islam (NOI) and the New Black Panther Party (NBPP).  Although both groups enjoy a measure of support within the black community, many blacks (and virtually all whites) find them intimidating and divisive. 

Many point to the fact that the NOI and the NBPP are listed as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a designation  largely inspired by antisemitic statements from the likes of Louis Farakan that have never been retracted. 

In addition, neither organization has renounced the use of violence–a problem for civil rights organizations like Friends of Justice who subscribe to the tradition of Christian non-violence practiced by Martin Luther King Jr. and the early civil rights movement.

But I repeat, the NOI and the NBPP came to Paris while organizations like the NAACP preferred to monitor the situation.  The ambiguity of the facts in Paris deterred many mainstream activists from getting involved.

Friends of Justice knows how frustrating it can be when no one anwers a call for help. 

And notice how infrequently names like Brenda Cherry and the Rev. Fred Stovall appear in media accounts.  The media is drawn to high-profile groups and individuals with name recognition.  That’s just the way the game is played.  In the advocacy world, you dance with them what brung ya.  Politics, as they say, makes strange bedfellows.  Make no mistake, community organizing is a species of politics.

In recent months, the Reverend Kenneth Rogers of St. Paul Baptist Church has become the most vocal critic of outside groups like the NOI and the NBPP.  In the editorial below, editor Mary Madewell presents brother Rogers as proof positive that Paris can take care of its own problems without the interference of outside agitators like the NOI, the NBPP or the Chicago Tribune.

I wonder if Ms. Madewell sees Carmalita Pope Freeman of the Department of Justice as an unwanted outsider.  I doubt it.

So the problem isn’t outsiders, per se; it’s outsiders who lend credence to the views of local civil rights advocates like Brenda Cherry that bother the Paris News editor.

Controversial groups are problematic for moderate black leaders like Rev. Rogers.  He doesn’t want to be associated with organizations that scare the hell out of white folks.  Rev. Rogers has to live in Paris and he has gradually constructed a fragile network of relationships with black and white leaders in the community that is jeopardized by high profile visitors. 

In Tulia we learned that there is hell to pay when the outsiders go home.  And they always do.

Mary Madewell has examined her own heart and she honestly doesn’t see herself as a racist.  By championing Rev. Rogers, the Paris journalist is trying to show that her problem isn’t black folks, as such.  Madewell doesn’t like extremists of the left or of the right.

This “a pox on both their houses” approach has been used by white newspaper editors since the Supreme Court’s then-controversial Brown vs. Board of Education ruling placed the issue of civil rights on the American front burner.  Read the Little Rock newspapers from 1959 and you will see editorial opinion split between those backing the stand of Governor Faubus and those rejecting “extremists on both sides.”

This was essentially the moderate approach H.M. Baggarly, editor of the Tulia Herald during the civil rights years.  Extremism of every kind is the problem.  Racism, whether practiced by whites or blacks, should be denounced.  (While researching my soon-to-be-released book on Tulia I read every column Baggarly wrote between 1950 and the early 1980s.)

This anti-extremist line of argument fits hand-in-glove with the proposition that our town (or state) can solve its own problems without interference from “outside agitators”; the assumption being that if rednecks and race baiters would close up shop there would be no race problem.

I’m not sure the good people of Paris need our help; but they certainly deserve our close attention. 

Paris is America. 

If you don’t believe that go to this reprint of Richard Abshire’s story and check out the comments at the bottom of the page.  Read two or three and you will get the picture.  White folks denounce slavery and Jim Crow atrocities but reject the suggestion that America (or their town) has a contemporary race problem worthy of mention.  Ergo, if the rednecks and racebaiters would die and go to hell the rest of us would be fine.

You will also see posts from black readers denouncing white ignorance and insensitivity.  The race problem, these readers say, is systemic and structural.  It doesn’t matter that white folks no longer look down on their black neighbors with Jim Crow contempt.  If an uneven playing field makes it hard for black boys and girls to get a good education, land a good job, or live in the nicer parts of town we’ve got a problem.

As I have noted before, whites tend individualize and minimize the problem while blacks focus on systemic issues.

This is why you can’t sit down with black and white residents of any community, be they ever s0 well-intentioned, and expect to have a productive conversation about race.

Read through the New Testament book of Ephesians some time.  It’s a short book–just a few pages.  The Apostle Paul is talking about the “dividing wall of hostility” separating Jewish and gentile Christians. 

Ephesians is the “anger” book.  Paul tells the Christians in Ephesus to “be angry but sin not” and tells them, “don’t let the sun go down on your anger.” 

It is no accident that a book intended to break through the “dividing wall of hostility” between Jew and Gentile should highlight anger management.  Given the tragic history between longsuffering Jews and their Gentile oppressors the two groups could hardly sit down in the same room without sparks flying.  Paul couldn’t tell his readers to eschew anger–that wasn’t realistic.  Instead, he told them how to invest their anger in the reconciling and healing work of Christ. 

Paul gets a lot of bad press over his (generally misinterpreted) comments about women–but his fight for racial reconciliation comes straight from the heart of Jesus.

You can see where I’m going with this.  The historic relationship between black and white Americans could hardly be more troubling.  Injustice, oppression, gross prejudice and, on many occasions, the most appalling forms of sadistic cruelty have been the order of the day.  Whites easily forget the past or downplay its significance.  Black people experience the outrages of history as fresh and open wounds. 

This explains why the ambiguous events unfolding in Paris, Texas have exposed a dividing wall of hostility between black and white residents.  You can’t get anywhere by discussing the merits and demerits of the Cotton case or whether poor Brandon McClelland’s death qualifies as a hate crime.  Only when we move behind these issues and talk about the relationship between historic injustice and the systemic imbalances that continue to oppress poor people of color can we expect to get anywhere.

In this sense, black accusations of Jim Crow racism and white denials of culpability are equally misplaced.  The fact that a few rednecks are exploiting a volatile situation by displaying racist symbols doesn’t tell you much about normal white folks in Paris, Texas.  The fact that some black radicals are playing the race card doesn’t tell you much about how most black residents are thinking and feeling.

Nonetheless, strip away the extreme gestures and accusations on both sides and the dividing wall of hostility remains.

I don’t know the Rev. Kenneth Rogers, but I suspect he is much more concerned about the dividing wall of racial hostility in his community than his reported words would suggest.  Perhaps he has concluded that the issues run too deep to be addressed.  He may feel that gradual progress and mutual tolerance is the best that can be hoped for under the circumstances.  He may long for genuine racial reconciliation rooted in the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth while knowing it isn’t likely to emerge from the current environment.

In other words, I suspect Mary Madewell and Kenneth Rogers have been drawn together by convenience more than by mutual conviction.  Scratch beneath the surface and you will likely find deep and abiding differences between these two well-intentioned people.  They are united by a shared longing for normalcy.  They know they can get along okay so long as no one troubles the waters by hanging nooses, playing the race card or calling for a serious conversation about race.

Make no mistake, if the people of Paris, Texas were completely candid and open with one another the dividing wall of hostility separating local residents along racial lines would become obvious.  This is precisely why pragmatists on both sides of the racial divide are retreating into a “can’t we get along?” posture.  They don’t see how an intense discussion of racial relations can make things better; but they know things can get a whole lot worse.

When Attorney General Eric Holder called us a “nation of cowards” he had it exactly right.  We don’t want to talk about race for the same reason momma don’t want nobody talking politics or religion at the family reunion–it never ends well.

When members of the NOI or the NBPP talk as if we’re still living in 1959 or even 1979, no one will take them seriously.  The positive changes in America are too obvious to support this kind of argument.  But suspicions are also raised when well-meaning residents of either race tell us that, with the exception of a few nut-jobs on both sides, relations between the races are terrific. 

It ain’t that simple.

Paris, Texas has a typically American problem with race.  The dividing wall of hostility runs deep and it runs everywhere.  Those of us who call Jesus Lord and Savior (and in the American South, that’s a lot of people) have a unique opportunity to reason together.  That’s why the Apostle Paul pointed Jewish and Gentile Christians to the crucified and risen Christ and cried, “He is our peace!”

I am not suggesting that a Christ-centered conversation in Paris, Texas would be easy or free of rancor–quite the opposite.  But, for Christians at least, that seems the natural place to begin.  It might be wise to defer the conversation until the trial is over–but given the tendency of legal proceedings to drag out forever that might not be realistic.  Besides, with all the publicity this story has engendered, it is unlikely the trial will be held anywhere near Paris.

Because this isn’t really about Paris, Texas, the conversation doesn’t have to begin there.  It could begin in Dallas, or Cleveland or San Jose or Milwaukee.  Christians have an obligation to sit down because the dividing wall of hostility, in our nation, has primarily impacted the Christian family. 

White Christians created the problem; until we understand that we can’t have a serious dialogue. 

But if the dialogue begins with our shared devotion to the Christ we have a precious beginning and (potentially) an ending point (not for nothing do they call him the Alpha and Omega).  He is our peace.

http://www.theparisnews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=b425e5f6f8551271

Outside activists are not helping us here

By Mary Madewell

Published February 28, 2009

but the Rev. Kenneth Rogers and I are in complete agreement that the people of Paris can handle the racial injustices that exist in our community.

“I think it’s fantastic that they care and they want racism and injustice wherever it exists to be eliminated,” the St. Paul Baptist Church pastor was quoted as saying about outside activists by staff writer Richard Abshire in a front page story Saturday in The Dallas Morning News.

“But I think the people from the outside don’t give us enough credit for what we are capable of doing here in Paris,” Rogers said. “Give us some respect.”

The good Reverend has my respect, and not for a moment do I think he will allow injustices to continue here. Once he told me he would rather work through problems using available resources, but if he doesn’t see progress he would be the first in line to march in protest. There will be a handful of agitators here that will label Rogers an “Uncle Tom.” But make no mistake, he’s not selling out to anybody; so don’t even go there.

Rogers told Abshire the ministerial alliance, diversity task force and individual church outreach programs are working on race relations, as well as education and poverty. Rogers often represents the Paris Ministerial Alliance and is an active member of the diversity task force. His church leads the way in programs to reach youth.

Does racism exist here? Sure it does – just like any other place. And, as hard as we try, we’ll never bring the fringe elements of society together. But, we can try.

Take for instance, the situation at Turner Pipe. It’s hard to believe complaints about racial epitaphs – both black and white – went unheeded for months by company officials. It’s my hunch someone waited until what they deemed an opportune time to make allegations so racial controversy would continue and in turn draw national media attention.

“Let’s just keep stirring the pot.”

Surely Turner officials will do a thorough investigation. I’m sure the situation has been taken care of.

In Saturday’s newspaper article, the Rev. James Price (Paris Chapter NAACP president) told Abshire, “I really wish they (outside activists) would stay where they are. We are actively pursuing racial dialogue and harmony. We don’t have any more problems than anyone else.”

Abshire also quoted Price as saying Dallas activists “have their own agendas.”

“I’m from Dallas, and I know they have plenty of things to worry about over there,” he said. “They come up here and spend a few hours and then they leave.”

Of particular concern is the agenda of Olinka Green and her New Black Panther Party of Dallas. At the latest Department of Justice dialogue meeting, she bragged about Paris losing a prospective industry because of past protests in which she was involved. Now there’s a concern. I remember a Nation of Islam leader at a 2007 meeting here during the Shaquanda Cotton incident encouraging residents to bring the town to its knees economically. That kind of thinking is exactly why we don’t need outside activists – with no vested interest in Paris – coming here. Black or white, that kind of thinking is going to hurt everybody.

Rogers is correct in his final assessment in the Abshire piece.

“Certainly there are things we need to work on, in our justice system, in our schools. We don’t deny that,” Rogers said. “Clearly, we need to work on those things, and we are. That’s the good news. We’re working.”

What else can we do?

Mary Madewell is the managing editor of The Paris News.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-parisrift_28tex.ART0.State.Edition1.4aba937.html

Blacks in Paris, Texas, divided by Dallas activists’ efforts in racially charged murder case

12:00 AM CST on Saturday, February 28, 2009
By RICHARD ABSHIRE / The Dallas Morning News
rabshire@dallasnews.com

PARIS, Texas – Dallas-area civil rights activists drawn here last year by the brutal killing of a young black man, who authorities say was run down by two white men, have divided the community they came to help: black Paris residents, some of whom invited the outsiders, and others who’d prefer that they go home.

 “I really wish they would stay where they are,” local NAACP president James Price said. “We are actively pursuing racial dialogue and harmony. We don’t have any more problems than anyone else.”

But other local blacks – wary of a history that includes a notorious 1893 lynching and the 2006 jailing of a black teenager who shoved a teacher’s aide – welcome activists such as Olinka Green and her New Black Panther Party of Dallas to the northeast Texas town.

“We wouldn’t have to come into that town if they took care of their business,” said Green, the group’s spokeswoman, who helped organize protests arguing unsuccessfully for authorities to reclassify the September slaying of Brandon McClelland as a hate crime.

Green and others have criticized local black ministers such as the Rev. Kenneth Rogers of St. Paul Baptist Church for not supporting those demonstrations. Rogers says he appreciates the efforts but thinks they’re somewhat misguided.

“I think it’s fantastic that they care and they want racism and injustice wherever it exists to be eliminated,” said Rogers, who was publicly criticized by Green at a courthouse demonstration for not supporting the protests. “But I think the people from outside don’t give us enough credit for what we are capable of doing here in Paris.”

“Give us some respect,” he added.
Invited to town

Members of the New Black Panther Party and Irving NAACP were invited to town of 27,000 by family and friends of McClelland, 24.

“I truly feel that if I hadn’t got outside help to come in and make them really look at it and do a thorough investigation, they would probably have just swept it up under a rug and left it as a hit-and-run,” Jacqueline McClelland, the victim’s mother, said of local authorities.

Brandon McClelland’s mangled body was found on a county road northeast of Paris. Two white men – Shannon Finley and Ryan Crostley, both 27 – are in the county jail awaiting trial this spring on murder charges.

McClelland was last seen drinking with the suspects, who told police that they dropped him off on the roadside after a fight over who was sober enough to drive. That was the last time they saw him, they said.

The death initially looked like a hit-and-run accident, police said. But investigators say they found blood on the undercarriage of Finley’s truck, and witnesses quoted the two suspects as saying that they ran over McClelland on purpose and dragged him “about 40 feet.”

That reminded some of the decade-old murder of James Byrd Jr., who was chained to the bumper of a pickup and dragged three miles outside Jasper, Texas.

Demonstrators backed by some Paris residents accused officials of covering up a hate crime. While the designation wouldn’t increase the potential punishment in the murder case, the activists hoped it would draw attention to the killing and ensure that a lesser sentence wouldn’t be doled out.

The protesters railed against the legal and educational systems in Lamar County, accusing officials of harassment and abuse, unfair prosecutions and sentencing disparities exemplified by the case of Shaquanda Cotton, a black high school student who was sent to a Texas Youth Commission lockup for up to seven years after being convicted of assaulting a teacher’s aide. Cotton was freed after about a year.

Activists have also taken up the cause of a black amputee who was threatened with eviction from his Paris apartment after being charged with assault. And a local factory worker filed a federal complaint last week because a hangman’s noose, Confederate flag and racist graffiti were on display for months at his workplace.

“If we see a situation, we’re going to examine it and see if there’s a need for us there,” said Green of the New Black Panthers. “Now, if the community calls us, then we come also.”

But Price, the Paris NAACP head, says Dallas activists “have their own agendas.”

“I’m from Dallas, and I know they have plenty of things to worry about over there,” he said. “They come up here and spend a few hours and then they leave.”

That leaves local residents to deal with the fallout, Rogers said.

“We’re left in the community with having to mend fences and clean up the mess they’ve left behind and send our kids to school and deal with the repercussions of all the things that are happening,” he said..

Forums on race

Hoping to defuse the tension, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service is hosting a series of community forums on race relations.

At the latest meeting, held Jan. 29, the most heated exchanges of the evening were between Dallas-area activists and their Paris supporters on one side and black Paris residents who asked whether it would make more sense for the outsiders to work for good causes in their own hometowns.

Anthony Bond, founder of the Irving NAACP, said it wasn’t the first time he’s faced resistance from a black community.

“It doesn’t bother me,” he said. “It validates what we’re doing. When I believe I’m right, I don’t care who speaks against me.”

Paris is home to a lot of good people, black and white, Bond said. But too many have sat silent instead of taking a stand against racism.

“Racism is felt,” he said. “And I’ve never felt it as strong as I’ve felt it these last few weeks coming back and forth to Paris.”
‘We’re working’

Paris residents are sensitive to their history, and those active in the city’s ministerial alliance, diversity task force and individual church outreach programs are working on race relations, as well as education and poverty, said Rogers, the pastor at St. Paul Baptist.

Price said the Paris NAACP and other groups are active in housing programs, mentoring youth and working with local officials to build sensitivity on all sides and to increase minority hiring in police, fire and other government agencies.

Rogers said he thinks everybody involved – black and white, local or not – wants to make Paris a great place to live.

“Certainly there are things we need to work on, in our justice system, in our schools. We don’t deny that,” he said. “Clearly, we need to work on those things, and we are.

“That’s the good news. We’re working.”