Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 4, 1995 TAG: 9502060035
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: UNION POINT, GA. LENGTH: Medium
Merchants and police figured they could prevent shoplifting by banning 21 likely suspects - all of them black - from their stores.
The police chief says race has nothing to do with it. But the Justice Department has been asked to look into the matter, and a lawsuit seeks to overturn the ban.
``They're branding all young black people as criminals in Union Point,'' Samuel Atkins, the lawyer representing some of the banned shoppers, said Friday.
City officials in this town about 80 miles east of Atlanta wouldn't answer reporters' questions Friday.
One banned shopper was eager to tell his side of the story.
``I work for a living. I don't have to steal,'' said Reginald Howard, 31, of nearby Woodville.
Howard said he works as a carpenter and has never been arrested, and was shocked to learn that his name had been posted at businesses as an unwelcome shopper.
Howard and others who gathered Friday at the Jack of Trades game room and pool hall said young blacks have felt harassed by police. They said they've been accused of loitering but actually have little to do except talk on street corners in a town where the game room is the only entertainment.
Dexter Jackson, a black man who owns the Jack of Trades, said he was approached about the ban but told the police chief he would exclude only people who had stolen from his game room.
``If I banned everybody on that list, I'd be out of business,'' he said.
He said the list has left young blacks upset. ``If something's not done, it's going to blow up.''
Union Point's business district lies mostly along two parallel streets. Logging trucks roar through regularly. A point of pride is a park and fountain behind City Hall.
The biggest employer is the Chipman Union Corp., a hosiery plant in operation since 1884. The 1990 Census counted 995 white residents and 757 blacks.
By Friday, lists of the unwelcome shoppers were not visible in stores. But there was no indication that the ban, which took effect Dec. 7, had been revoked.
Rep. Cynthia McKinney, a black Democrat whose district includes Union Point, issued a statement saying she had asked the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division to investigate. because ``we might have a classic case of segregation-era discrimination on our hands.''
Ozell Sutton, director of the Justice Department's Community Relations Service in Atlanta, said a representative was sent to town Friday. He would not disclose details
Valencia Randolph, who is black, said she disagreed with the ban but supports a merchant's right to expel shoppers ``as long as they're disobeying the rules.''
Mayor Ben Stewart told The Herald Journal, a weekly newspaper in Greensboro, that he initiated the ban because of a rising crime rate, especially among juveniles. He wouldn't comment on Friday.
``I got a list of names of the individuals, and over 90 percent of the merchants in Union Point signed a petition to keep those individuals out of their stores,'' the mayor said at the time. ``I am happy to report that during the Christmas season in 1994 in Union Point, no crimes were reported.''
by CNB