DATE: Thursday, May 22, 1997                TAG: 9705220486

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY WARREN FISKE, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   51 lines

BLACK CAUCUS LEADER, STOLLE TRADE CHARGES OVER CAMPAIGN FLIER

The chairman of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus on Wednesday accused Republican attorney general hopeful Kenneth W. Stolle of ``pandering to the racist element'' in his campaign literature.

``Your campaign's tactics - and the narrow view of the world they advocate - is outrageous, unethical and sad,'' Del. Jerrauld C. Jones, D-Norfolk, wrote in a letter to Stolle, a state senator from Virginia Beach.

Jones said he wrote the letter on behalf of the 14-member black caucus, all Democrats.

Stolle accused Jones of waging a publicity stunt as media attention begins to focus on the four-way June 10 Republican primary for attorney general. ``It's unfortunate that Jerrauld Jones, a Democrat, would try to inject himself in a Republican primary,'' he said.

The dispute centers on a recently distributed flier in which Stolle criticized one of his GOP foes - state Sen. Mark Earley of Chesapeake - for introducing a bill that would ``require teaching of a politically correct, multi-ethnic version of Virginia and American history.''

Stolle was referring to a 1990 bill introduced by Earley and four black legislators that would require public school studies to include ``the contributions of African-Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans and Hispanics and other Spanish surnamed citizens to the culture, history and heritage of Virginia and the United States.''

The bill was killed that year in the Senate Education and Health Committee, a panel dominated by Democrats.

Jones was authorized to write Stolle at a meeting of the black caucus in Williamsburg Tuesday night.

``We find it appalling and sad that you feel that to teach our children in public schools any history other than that of white males is dangerous,'' Jones wrote.

Jones accused Stolle of using racial ``scare tactics'' that ``reek of a '90s form of Massive Resistance that you seem only too willing to embrace.''

Stolle said he believes minorities ``played a very valuable role in our history,'' and said he was not trying to whitewash instruction. ``All I'm saying is that history is history and it should be studied that way,'' he said. ``We don't need politically correct politicians telling us what history should be.''

Stolle noted that Democrats helped kill the 1990 bill. ``I don't remember members of the black caucus ever raising the matter against Democrats,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Jerrauld C. Jones

Kenneth W. Stolle

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