ustxtxb_obs_1987_06_12_50_00019-00000_000.pdf

Pho to by Lou is Du bose 1940s. “‘ Cameron County Commissioners are again squared off with the local Roman Catholic Diocese over the issue of a shelter for Central American refugees. In late May, they passed by a 3-2 vote a resolution opposing the opening of a new, relocated Casa Romero, a temporary home for refugees. The resolution was opposed by Cameron County Judge Jack Gooldsby and Hernan Gonzalez, director of Christian Services for the Diocese of Brownsville. Support for the resolution was encouraged by United We Stand, a Lower Rio Grande Valley anti-refugee group that includes local residents and a large number of “Winter Texans,” refugees from northern and midwestern winters. 1/1 New York Cong. Jack Kemp is so far the . only Republican scheduled to speak before the Lulac convention on June 25-28 in Corpus Christi. Kemp will join Democratic candidates Rev. Jesse Jackson; Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware; Sen. Albert Gore, Jr., of Tennessee; Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois; Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis; and former governor of Arizona, Bruce Babbit. Texas Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, are also scheduled to speak to the convention but thus far have not announced as candidates for the presidency. V In the twilight of the Age of Reagan the most devious plans of Richard Nixon become law and two of the state’s largest dailies endorse them. Both the Dallas Morning News and the Houston Post offered up grateful editorials for the Supreme Court’s 6-3 vote in favor of preventative detention. According to the Morning News the court’s decision will bolster society’s ability to protect itself. The Post agreed with the American Civil Cisneros at the Capitol Liberties Union’s description of the law as a setback for individual rights but argued that the court made the right decision. The federal law that allows judges to deny bail, according to the Post was used about 2,500 times between September of 1985 and last February. Texas Civil Liberties Union Legal Director Jim Harrington described the decision as very disturbing. 1/ Houston Sen. Craig Washington stood up and faced frustrated tort reformers as he waged a 20 minute minifilibuster in the closing minutes of the regular session. Sources on the Senate floor claimed that five other senators were ready to filibuster but Washington’s effort was more than adequate. At 11:47 Washington refused to yield the floor to Sen. Chet Edwards, D-Duncanville, for consideration of House Joint Resolution Three, a bill proposing a constitutional amendment that would create a Texas Growth Fund. The House had deleted from the bill a Washington amendment that would have prohibited investment of Growth Fund money in South African companies. Tort reform passed two days later in the twoday special session but Washington, it seems, has successfully deferred the creation of a new state fund that can buy into South Africa. i/ A rumor is almost official. Rep. Clint Hackney, DHouston, is seriously considering a run against Railroad Commissioner Jim Nugent. Hackney, according to capitol reporter Sam Kinch, would be supported by former commisioner Buddy Temple, should he decide to announce. According to Hackney’s office that he could reach a decision in July, depending .on the length of the special session and the time Hackney might have to talk with potential supports. BOOKS AND THE CULTURE IN 1967 I served on a jury in Montgomery, Alabama, unaware that, until a year before, Alabama had been one of three states that barred women as well as blacks from jury duty. I had never heard of Pauli Murray, a black woman lawyer born in Baltimore in 1910, whose efforts helped remove that barrier and many others. But ten years later \(by then touched by the civil rights and women’s rights movements Judith Paterson teaches journalism at the University of Maryland. Her most recent book is Be Somebody, a biography of women’s rights activist Marguerite Rawalt. Ms. magazine. At 67, she had just become one of the first women the only black woman to become an SONG IN A WEARY THROAT By Pauli Murray Harper & Row, 1987 451 pages, $23.95 ordained Episcopalian priest. The article led me to Proud Shoes, a book Murray had written in 1956 about her roots in a North Carolina family in which black and white blood had mingled for generations. Her threequarters white grandfather had come South after the Civil War to set up schools among the freed slaves. Her grandmother was born of a black slave and a white master and raised like a white child in her aunt Mary Ruffin Smith’s home. Murray grew up black in her grandparents’ home near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, absorbing the double tradition of black activist-educators on one side and white aristocrats on the other. Although her Smith ancestors left much of their wealth and land to the state university, when she applied for admission to the graduate school in 1938 she was turned down because “members of your race are not admitted to the University.” Murray’s posthumously published autobiography, Song in a Weary Throat, picks up where Proud Shoes left off and recounts her tireless struggle to find a way to express her talents within a system that categorized her as inferior On the Road for Human Rights By Judith Paterson THE TEXAS OBSERVER 19