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

DATE: SATURDAY, July 15, 1995                   TAG: 9507170038
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NOKESVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium

TEAM'S USE OF RACIST SYMBOL IGNITES FUROR

A high school baseball team's use of a symbol with racist roots is unfortunate but probably not intended to be offensive, parents and neighbors in this far-flung suburb of Washington, D.C. said.

Black leaders and education officials in Prince William County condemned the state champion baseball team's practice of drawing a symbol called ``the well'' before games.

But longtime residents said there is no history of racial strife in the overwhelmingly white area. They fear news accounts this week about the Brentsville District High School team's custom will unfairly label them racists.

``I think these kids just picked the wrong symbol,'' said Dave Lincoln, a driver for Joe's Pizza in Nokesville. ``I really think this is an open-minded area. I've never perceived a problem with the black-white issue. I think it's been blown out of proportion.''

The symbol, a circle divided into quarters with eight dots drawn near the center, is nearly identical to the Crosswheel, a symbol used by the Ku Klux Klan.

The Potomac News reported the symbol is also used in a riddle in which a person draws the design and asks: ``What's this?'' The answer is: ``The last thing a black man sees after they drop him down a well.'' The drawing looks like four hooded Klansmen looking down a hole.

Members of the Brentsville baseball team said the practice of drawing the symbol in their on-deck circle was a tradition carried on for about five years.

David Cornwell, father of one of the baseball players, said he is confused and disturbed about the controversy.

``I don't think the [boys] realized what it stood for,'' Cornwell said.

Cornwell said players adopted several rituals throughout the season. Some players wore the same undergarments for each game, he said.

``That's all this thing was meant to be - nothing racial,'' Cornwell said. But he also said now that the practice has been publicized, ``it's wrong and should not be allowed to continue.''

All 16 baseball players and both coaches are white and only about 30 of the school's approximately 900 students are black.

Charles Pickett, who is black, said he has never had any trouble with racial issues while living in Nokesville, but he wished the team had been more careful in choosing its good-luck symbol.

``I have a friend on the baseball team and I'd like to ask him, `What are you trying to prove?''' Pickett said. ``If you're going to use a symbol, you should think about how it's going to affect people.''

by CNB