Major Activities and Accomplishments 2002 - 2003

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE:
(Joel Armstrong, Staff Attorney)
Segregated minority communities across the United States bear an unjust burden of environmental hazards that lead to birth defects, high rates of cancers; even death. Native American Lands also confront environmental contamination and vital resource depletion. For example, the Lawyers’ Committee:

Filed a Notice of Intent to Sue the U.S. Surface and Mining Commission for allowing Peabody Energy Company to operate coal slurry mining at Black Mesa, the ancient land of the Hopi Tribe and members of the Navajo Nation in Northern Arizona. Peabody is depleting water from the Navajo-Aquifer – the sole source of drinking water that also supplies sacred ceremonial streams, water for crops and wildlife. The mining operations threaten the survival of the Hopi Tribe and Navajo members at Black Mesa.

We also oppose Peabody’s permit application to expand operations at Black Mesa. Worked with the Newtown Florist Club and Concerned Citizens of Black, Cooley, and Jordan Drives to draft a complaint to challenge discriminatory zoning and land-use decisions that segregated African-American communities; sited 16 industrial polluters in and around Newtown (built as “Negro housing’ in 1937); and distributed housing and community development resources inequitably.

Prepared a complaint with the West End Revitalization Association Community Development Corporation in Mebane, NC, which opposes the City’s plans to construct a four-lane by-pass through an historic African-American community without input from neighborhood residents. The by-pass would destroy 30 homes, separate 30 households from the community, and cause the relocation or destruction of a 100 year-old church and a 135 year-old Masonic Lodge. Our clients allege that the City has failed to annex the African-American community while annexing white communities much farther away to avoid providing municipal services.

HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT:
(Cheryl Ziegler, Project Director)
The denial of fair housing and credit opportunities, as well as municipal services often prevent minority citizens from gaining access to homeownership; good jobs and schools; or public funds for rebuilding their neighborhoods. To overcome such barriers, we:

Obtained class certification for families of public housing maintained by the Blakely Housing Authority and City of Blakely, Georgia. The suit challenges the segregation of public housing tenants by race, differential treatment of 350 African-Americans, and acts of retaliation and intimidation for challenging this treatment (King v. City of Blakely Housing Authority).

Extended legal services to mothers and children in a state court case to stop racial harassment at the Glendale Court Apartments in Greenville, North Carolina. The families seek a court order holding the property manager and the Thetford Management Company of Raleigh in violation of the North Carolina Fair Housing Act for unrelenting harassment based on race, color, sex, and familial status; and to ensure that Thetford responds to tenant complaints of discriminatory treatment (Holloway v. Thetford Property Mng.).

Regained possession of a foreign trade zone project and property for the Wynwood Community Economic Development Corporation, which seeks to economically develop a historically Puerto Rican low-income community that borders the predominately African-American community of Overtown in Miami, Florida. The project will generate thousands of much needed jobs for both communities, but the City of Miami has taken actions to obstruct this project. Wynwood seeks $15 million in lost revenue from the City.

Public Accommodations
Filed a lawsuit for a 100-member, African-American family that held a reunion, in July 2001, at the Baytree Plantation in Myrtle Beach, SC. Defendants are the Baytree III Homeowner’s Association and its president, Stuart Jenkins. The suit alleges Mr. Jenkins engaged in racial discrimination by padlocking and chaining the entrance to the pool area, closing it to reunion attendees; and reopening it to guests in all three Baytree complexes and personally inviting white guests to use the pool the day following the reunion. “This incident marked the first time that many of our small children were exposed to overt racism,” said one of the reunion plaintiffs (Turner v. Baytree III Homeowners Assoc).

EDUCATION:
School districts in the U.S. often segregate classrooms by race and ill prepare low-income and minority students for college or careers. To achieve education reform, we:

Monitored implementation of critical-thinking educational course work for poor and African-American students and faculty development programs in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania --Woodland Hills School District (near Pittsburgh). In 2003, the court granted the district unitary status in this model school desegregation case (Hoots v. Pennsylvania). Completed trial in a case for the Thomasville, Georgia chapter of the NAACP and parents of local African-American students. Our clients seek to desegregate schools and classrooms, including students, faculty, and administrators; equal educational facilities, resources, and materials; compensatory instruction for eligible students; and an end to discriminatory discipline practices (NAACP v. City of Thomasville School District).

VOTING RIGHTS:
(Jon Greenbaum, Project Director)
In election law cases, we seek to overcome barriers to the meaningful participation of minority citizens in the democratic process. For example, we:

Filed objections to a remedial redistricting plan with four majority-minority districts offered by Albany County, (NY) and accepted by a magistrate of the court. This plan fractures communities of interest and lumps together wholly disparate communities in Districts 2 and 4. We seek court approval of our clients’ proposed remedial plan, which allows minority voters to elect candidates of their choice, and preserves communities of interest by respecting existing community boundaries (Arbor Hill Concerned Citizens Neighborhood Assn; Albany Branch NAACP v. Albany, NY).

Monitored implementation of a settlement resolving complaints about irregularities in Florida’s 2000 general elections, for the national and local NAACP, and 21 individuals, in conjunction with five other civil rights organizations, and a volunteer law firm. As part of the agreements, the State and Hillsborough and Orange Counties are obligated to improve the maintenance of state databases of registered voters; allow provisional balloting for voters wrongfully purged from the registration rolls; and educate poll workers and voters about the balloting process. Five other counties also agreed to settle our clients’ claims (NAACP v. Smith).

Filed a lawsuit for Black voters who challenge Virginia’s 2001 redistricting plan, for diluting African-American voting strength in the 4th Congressional District. In the 1990 District, Blacks comprised 39.4% of the population and came within 3 percentage points of electing their preferred candidate. The new District reduces that strength to only 33.6%, ensuring that African-American voters will be unable to elect a candidate of their choice for the next ten years – five congressional elections (Hall v. Warner).

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION:
Michael Foreman, Project Director
Employment tests that are neither job related nor measure the skills of the test taker can effectively exclude minorities and women from jobs. To overcome these and other barriers to fair employment, we:

Successfully opposed the U.S. Department of Justice's and the City of Buffalo's efforts to dissolve a police hiring consent decree and to dismiss the case. A federal court rejected their claim that the applicant flow order and the appointment of seven African-American candidates to the Police Department for the next academy class constituted unconstitutional race conscious relief. The Lawyers' Committee intervened on behalf of the Afro American Police Association to support 1989 relief in this case (U.S. and Afro-American Police Association v. City of Buffalo).

Preserved an affirmative action consent decree from “reverse discrimination” challenge at the Toledo Police Department. The decree redressed hiring discrimination for African-American and Hispanic job applicants. We are finalizing a proposed settlement agreement to ensure fair testing procedures at the Department (Gonzales v. Galvin).

Reversed a trial judge’s refusal to allow the jury to decide whether the harassment that a single mother experienced during her 18 months of work was severe or pervasive enough to constitute a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The judge threw out the worker’s lawsuit even though he acknowledged that the harassment was a “sustained and ongoing pattern of sexual remarks, and crude sexual jokes.” The appellate court’s reversal of this decision supports the importance of jury trials in employment cases and ensures that the right to jury trial permitted by the Civil Rights Act of 1991 is protected (Puckett v. Town & Country Toyota, Sonic Automotive).

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION:
Helped preserve affirmative action admissions policies at the University of Michigan and its School of Law before the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court held that these schools had a “compelling interest in attaining a diverse student body.” We filed an amicus or “friend of the court brief,” coordinated the amicus filing for the civil rights community, and held moot court for counsel arguing before the high court. (Grutter v. Bollinger).

40TH ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATED
Held a Civil Rights Symposium, The Quest for Equal Justice: Advancing A Dynamic Civil Rights Agenda for Our Times, which focused on current and emerging civil rights issues and strategies to address them. At a Gala Dinner, we presented Senator Edward M. Kennedy with our Beacon of Justice Award; Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, Lifetime Achievement Award; Marc L. Fleischaker, Whitney North Seymour Award. We honored Fannie Mae and its Chairman & CEO Franklin D. Raines and Pepsico and its Chairman and CEO Steven S. Reinemund with our Higginbotham Corporate Leadership Award. The Lawyers’ Committee was established on June 21, 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy.

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