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

DATE: TUESDAY, May 4, 1993                   TAG: 9305040193
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: LINCOLNTON, GA.                                LENGTH: Short

GA. BUS-DISCRIMINATION COMPLAINT INVESTIGATED

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating allegations that black students are forced to ride in the back of the bus going to school in a rural county in northeast Georgia.

"One cold morning a few weeks ago, I tried to sit up front with a friend, it being cold and all," said Shamika Banks, 13. "It's cold in the back, the heat don't travel there. But the bus didn't go until I moved to the back."

On some bus routes in Lincoln County, the practice has been going on for years, blacks contend; on other routes, for only a few months.

School officials deny the allegations and blame a new school board member, the Rev. Denise Freeman, for starting the controversy at a board meeting April 6. Freeman is the first black woman to hold public office in the county.

Some of the 40 or so black people at the meeting mentioned seating arrangements and bus routes that allegedly group riders by race. - Associated Press

by CNB