Black Leaders Plot Strategy to Stop Resegregation
Black leaders have settled on a strategy to try to overturn the school board’s resegregation plan. They’ve decided to wait until after the Aug. 7 elections to give the new school board the chance to change the plan. If the board refuses, then a lawsuit is certain, a source tells Pith.
Parents already have come forward to serve as potential plaintiffs, and the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund is compiling a file on the case. Among the documents in the file: Pedro Garcia’s “smoking gun” memos.
The NAACP is holding strategy sessions weekly with prominent black ministers and attorneys.
“Everybody in the meetings understands that, if the new school board doesn’t change this or doesn’t overturn it, then really the reason we’re meeting is to prepare for a lawsuit,” the source says. “There’s no question they will sue.”
The role of Mayor Karl Dean in all this is uncertain. Black leaders hope he'll urge the new school board to undo the rezoning plan, but the mayor hasn't committed yet.
"I get the clear impression that Dean’s not happy that a large part of the community is upset about this," our source says. "I think he understands that regardless of whether there’s a lawsuit, it’s not good for the community to be split. We’re hoping he gets in there to knock some heads together or gives out some milk and cookies or whatever it’s going to take to get everybody moving in the same direction."
