[Cure-news] Racism Rampant at Alabama School

[Ida Hakim]

Racism Rampant at Alabama School


By BY DESIREE HUNTER, APPosted: 2008-05-27 13:50:00Filed Under: Top News

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- A south Alabama town that was the inspiration for 
the setting in Harper Lee's book "To Kill a Mockingbird" is finding 
itself as the backdrop for a real-life legal case involving allegations 
of racism at school.

The parents of several black junior high school students have filed a 
discrimination lawsuit claiming their children are subject to racial 
slurs and punished more harshly than white students at Monroeville 
Junior High School.

The lawsuit says black students at the county's only public junior high 
have been called slurs such as the "N-word," "filthy trash" and "black 
monkey." Their parents also say classes are segregated, with most black 
students being kept out of advanced placement and honors courses.

The action, originally filed in August, was revived this week by the 
American Civil Liberties Union in U.S. Southern District Court on behalf 
of nine students. It names the Monroe County Board of Education, 
Monroeville Junior High principal Lana Wilson, county superintendent 
Dennis Mixon, and the five-member school board.

"I just feel like every student should have the right to a decent 
education regardless of race, creed or color," said Tangelia Yates, a 
parent involved in the lawsuit whose son is an eighth grader. "We need 
to make sure that that happens within the Alabama school system, 
particularly Monroe County."

Monroeville, more than 80 miles southwest of Montgomery, is the hometown 
of "To Kill a Mockingbird" author Harper Lee, whose coming-of-age tale 
discusses racism and injustice in a small Alabama town in the 1930s.

The carefully restored Old Courthouse, which was built in 1903, draws 
sold-out crowds to its auditorium each spring for a two-act adaptation 
of Lee's novel. The courthouse draws tourists who have fallen in love 
with the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, which looks at racism through the 
eyes of a tenacious tomboy named Scout.

Everette Price, an attorney in nearby Brewton, has directed the 
"Mockingbird Players" in their springtime productions since 1994 and 
said it's easy to see why such allegations would be considered more 
egregious in a city with Monroeville's history.