TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/081489/08148900.032

Text File | 1990-09-17 | 4KB | 68 lines

NATION, Page 30

Texas Time Machine

A generation late, civil rights protests arrive in Dallas


    Dallas summers are usually notable for their scorching heat
and blinding sun. This season the city is being treated to a
spectacle that seems a throwback to an earlier age: small bands of
angry civil rights demonstrators marching, rallying and disrupting
public gatherings in an effort to gain a greater voice at city
hall.

    The immediate focus of the protests is a plan for restructuring
the city council, put forward by Mayor Annette Strauss and the city
council, that will be voted on in a special election this weekend.
But black and Hispanic leaders say something more fundamental is
also taking place. The civil rights movement that swept the South
a generation ago somehow bypassed Dallas. Now, fueled by population
shifts that have made blacks, Hispanics and Asians nearly half the
population, the movement has finally arrived. Vows County
Commissioner John Wiley Price, a black: "We're not going to sit
back and let an Anglo minority continue to control most of the
power."

    Such sentiments are a far cry from the compliant attitudes of
black leaders 20 years ago. To preserve racial harmony, the ruling
white establishment offered token gains and piecemeal concessions.
But the price for blacks was a slow pace toward integration. The
city remains a bastion of housing segregation, with most blacks
living south of the downtown business district and most whites to
the north. Black leaders are pressing for more seats on the
eleven-member city council, where, despite their 30% share of the
population, they hold but two positions; Hispanics (16%) and Asians
(2%) have none.

    Strauss concedes that minorities are underrepresented on the
city council, which has eight members chosen from single-member
districts and two others (plus the mayor) elected from the city at
large. She and the council have proposed a system of ten single
districts, with four other members to be picked from large areas
of the city.

    This so-called quadrant plan has enraged nonwhite opponents,
who contend that at-large voting is stacked against minorities
because of the higher costs of mounting campaigns. Charges black
Councilman Al Lipscomb: "It's a scheme to preserve Anglo business
and political power." He and others contend that Strauss, who was
twice elected with heavy black and Hispanic support, sold out to
the Anglo establishment and then conspired to keep a minority
proposal for all single-member districts off the ballot.

    Strauss insists that having some broad, citywide perspective
on the council is essential, "in contrast to having people that are
singularly concerned about their own districts." The mayor's
supporters are also counting on splits among minorities. Some
Hispanics, for example, see no great benefits to more single
districts because their population is not concentrated in any
particular neighborhood.

    With the backing of the Establishment and a $150,000 war chest
that is ten times the size of the opposition's, Strauss's forces
seem likely to win. If not, she warns, Dallas could be in for a
period of uncertainty that it cannot afford. The city is confronted
with a shrinking tax base and a looming budget shortfall. "There's
a need for change to ensure fair government," says Strauss. "If we
don't do this, there's a pretty good chance the courts will do it
for us." In fact, a federal trial set for September seems to
guarantee a prolonged period of discord. Two unsuccessful black
office seekers are demanding exactly what minority activists could
not get on the ballot: a system of all single-member districts.