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

DATE: THURSDAY, May 31, 1990                   TAG: 9005310004
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BATON ROUGE, LA.                                LENGTH: Medium

BLACKS BLAST ANTI-AFFIRMATIVE ACTION BILL

A bill sponsored by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke to ban affirmative action easily passed the Louisiana House, enraging blacks who called it unconstitutional and a racist political ploy.

The bill was designed to help Duke's campaign for the U.S. Senate, state Sen. William Jefferson charged at Wednesday's news conference by the 20-member Black Legislative Caucus.

"It is simply a bill to advance the causes of Mr. David Duke. That's it. We're not going to just play a game that involves David Duke's electoral politics," said Jefferson.

Duke is running as a Republican for the Senate seat now held by Democrat J. Bennett Johnston. The state GOP leadership, however, has endorsed another Republican, state Sen. Ben Bagert.

While Duke basked in Tuesday's 65-36 victory, he acknowledged his bill would have problems "in the liberal Senate."

"The Senate, being the kind of body it is, won't pass it," predicted Jefferson, a power in the upper chamber.

State Rep. C.D. Jones, a black caucus member, told reporters Louisiana' 1.3 million blacks should be concerned only with the intent of the bill, drafted by a former Klan grand wizard whose legislative office once sold pro-Nazi books.

"The bill is in conflict with federal law and therefore is nothing in and of itself," said Jones. "The issue here is the intent of the bill to divide races, the racist intent to set poor people and blacks back 25 years.

"The House vote sends a signal to the nation that it's all right to be racist, all right to be a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, that you can draw on that experience to be a member of this body. It sends a signal to corporate America that Louisiana is a place where racism is alive and well."

Gov. Buddy Roemer said he would veto the bill if it got to his desk, but didn't expect it to clear the Senate.

Duke's affirmative action bill got only 36 votes last year but many of those who voted against him in 1989 backed his latest measure.

Affirmative action programs are geared to help minorities overcome past discrimination, said Jones. "Lyndon Johnson, when the Civil Rights Act was passed 25 years ago, said you cannot take people who for years have been shackled, remove the shackles, put them in a race and tell them they can now compete with everybody else evenly."

by CNB