
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 9, 1990                   TAG: 9003092549
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MALL, NAACP EASE TENSIONS

Executives of Valley View Mall and the Roanoke NAACP met Thursday and resolved to work together on problems of unsupervised young people at the mall and tensions between teens and mall security guards.

"We had a very good meeting," said Evangeline Jeffrey, president of the Roanoke branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She received complaints last month that mall guards were targeting black youths and adults when they dispersed crowds.

After a "very friendly" session Thursday morning with mall manager Joe Marx, Jeffrey said the mall asked her to speak at the guards' monthly seminar.

Marx also called Thursday's meeting "very positive."

"I think they understand a little bit better our approach to teen-agers in general," he said of the NAACP, "and I understand better what their concerns are." Also attending the meeting were another NAACP officer, a member of its advisory board, two Roanoke police officers and the mall's security chief.

"We pretty much decided to try to work together to address the problems the youth of Roanoke . . . not having anything to do," Marx said. He and Jeffrey said they will meet again soon.

The mall had complained that young people sometimes congregate in high numbers on weekend nights, blocking store entrances and annoying shoppers. Jeffrey also had expressed concern about parents allowing their children to roam the mall unsupervised for long periods.

Two 16-year-olds were arrested late last month after a fight inside the mall and the firing of shots in the parking lot. There were no injuries.

Jeffrey said her organization and Marx will be looking for ways to urge parents not to use the mall as a baby-sitting service.

Jeffrey also said Marx asked her to bring future complaints about unfair treatment of blacks directly to him and they will work on them together.

"Maybe there's a happy ending," Marx said. "We're taking a negative thing and turning it into a positive thing. I told Mrs. Jeffrey we probably should have had this meeting and this conversation a long time ago."

by CNB