ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 9, 1996 TAG: 9604090080
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
BLACK MEMBERS hold three of seven City Council seats, the most ever. Depending on the outcome of May's election, they could have a majority.
In terms of the issues they're talking about for their City Council campaigns, Alvin Nash, Jeff Artis and Carroll Swain have many differences. But together, they could alter Roanoke political history.
If all three are elected in May, blacks would outnumber whites 4 to 3 on City Council - something unheard of in a Southern city such as Roanoke, where whites outnumber blacks 3 to 1.
That prospect has tantalized a few black leaders since both political parties made their City Council nominations in January.
Swain, Artis and Nash constitute the largest number of black candidates ever to run for City Council at one time. If elected, they'll join one current black council member, Democratic Vice Mayor William White, who won re-election to a four-year term in 1994.
"I don't think this was coordinated. I think this just happened. I was surprised, myself," said the Rev. Charles T. Green, president of the Roanoke chapter of the NAACP.
Martin Jeffrey, a black activist and applicant for an open seat on the city School Board, notes that the upswing in political activity by blacks isn't limited to the City Council race.
Although blacks make up less than one-quarter of the city's residents, there are three blacks on the seven-member School Board. That could climb to four later this month, when City Council fills two seats that are expiring.
Last fall's Million Man March in Washington, D.C., "created an atmosphere that was more encouraging to people, particularly to black males, to get involved," Jeffrey said.
Swain, Nash and Artis seem to be taking pains not to make race an issue in their campaigns. All say it hasn't come up in discussions with voters, nor among themselves. They aren't campaigning together. And they aren't even from the same political party - Nash and Artis are Republicans; Swain is a Democrat.
"It would be an interesting piece of history if [a black majority] happened. I think it could happen," said Nash, housing director for the local community action agency Total Action Against Poverty. But "I do not want to make this a black-and-white issue. I am trying to get in a position of leadership in this community, period."
"In terms of city services, there is no color line," said Swain, who notes he's as warmly received during door-to-door campaigning in largely white Southwest Roanoke communities as he is in traditionally black neighborhoods.
Onzlee Ware, a black Roanoke lawyer who heads the 6th District Democratic Committee, says race is being downplayed because all three candidates realize they need white votes to win.
Because Roanoke elects council members at large and blacks constitute only 22 percent of all voting-age adults, they can't by themselves vote black candidates into office.
"Let's face it, nobody should be fooled. I don't think any black candidate can win the election without the support of other communities in Roanoke," Ware said. "You can't win without the white vote. You're still going to have to reach out to the other communities and convince them that you deserve their vote."
Ware says it also works the other way. Black voters won't necessarily vote for black candidates who aren't aligned with them on the issues.
"The candidates who address black issues - whether they're black or white - are the ones who are going to get the black votes," he said. At the same time, because blacks vote more cohesively than whites generally do, they can tip the balance in favor of a candidate. So, "this election is going to won by the candidates who can identify black issues," Ware said.
City Council elections in the past 20 years have shown little evidence of racially polarized voting, at least on an overt level.
Roanoke has the distinction of being the first Virginia city to have a popularly elected black mayor, former Mayor Noel Taylor.
In 1980, Wendell Butler, a black dentist, beat five other white City Council candidates to win election as the city's first black vice mayor and its second black council member. He retired after one term, but was appointed this year to fill a vacancy created by John Edwards' election to the state Senate. He will go off council again after the May election fills his seat.
The other blacks who have been elected to council - White and retiring Councilman Mac McCadden - were first elected in 1990 and 1992, respectively.
Frank Parker, a law professor at American University who has waged successful voting-rights cases in Virginia, says he is unaware of any Southern city with a large white majority that has elected a black majority to city council.
From that standpoint, the council race here "is interesting," Parker said. "A black majority is not likely. It could happen, but if past voting patterns in Virginia prevail, it won't."
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshots) Artis, Nash, Swain. color. KEYWORDS: POLITICS CITY COUNCILby CNB