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

DATE: THURSDAY, February 21, 1991                   TAG: 9102210425
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B/4   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                 LENGTH: Medium

TOWN SUED BECAUSE NO BLACKS ON COUNCIL

The American civil Liberties Union has filed a voting rights lawsuit against Lawrenceville, which has the highest percentage of blacks among Virginia towns but is governed by an all-white council.

"There's a significant black under-representation," said Steve Pershing, legal director for the ACLU. "That has the same effect as a racial gerrymander."

About 60 percent of Lawrenceville's 1,486 residents are black, according to the 1990 census. The town has not elected a black to the council since Reconstruction.

The ACLU charged that the town's at-large electorial system discriminates against blacks. The ACLU also warned other Virginia jurisdictions that they could face similar suits if they don't use this year's redistricting to increase black voting power.

There are 65 Virginia towns with black populations of more than 15 percent, the ACLU said, Among the towns in Western Virginia that could be affected by the lawsuit are Rocky Mount, Glasgow, Altavista, Amherst and Gretna.

The group filed the suit in the U.S. District Court in Richmond on Tuesday on behalf of nine Lawrenceville residents and the Brunswick County League of Progress/Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Lawrenceville Mayor David L. Blount said the town has not been served with the lawsuit.

"I would very much take issue with their allegations that we've intentionally discriminated," Blount said.

The census count in Lawrenceville includes an undetermined number of students at the predominantly black St. Paul's College, said Kent Willis, director of the Virginia ACLU. Without the students, the town has a white majority population.

by CNB