
          The Cold Hard Truth
          By 
            Chestnut, J.L., Jr.J.L. Chestnut, Jr.
          Vol. 11, No. 1, 1989, pp. 24
          
          My wife looked sternly across the dinner table one night recently
and quietly reminded me of the flak I received 12 years ago from
certain blacks and whites concerning the lawsuit that brought forth
the election of three black county commissioners in Dallas County,
Alabama, in January. Vivian has a long memory.
          I simply nodded but wisely did not explain who paid for the
litigation during the long interim the government "cooled its heels."
Initially, even the Carter Administration opposed that litigation and
remained uninvolved for more than a year.
          I did not file the lawsuit out of hatred or a jaded desire for
revenge, though there was ample ground for both. But, I understood
then and now that many white leaders have been reared in an atmosphere
that is almost racially poisonous. That atmosphere has polluted and
tainted generation after generation.
          I have never known Dallas County to be without a double
standard--one for blacks and another for whites. This has been the
case 80 long that whites often don't realize the extent of their
insensitivity.
          Respectable conservative whites have organized charitable projects
to welcome Vietnamese orphans from this nation's recent international
disaster in Vietnam. But, you will not live long enough to see African
refugees from the ravages of colonialism welcomed in America.
          After the recent special election, a newspaper in Selma naively
called for a "responsible" county commission to avoid a battle or
"race war" over the chairmanship of that group. Meanwhile, some were
meeting secretly trying to insure white control of a predominantly
black commission.
          Such actions are not regarded as racist because of the double
standard in Dallas County. Black efforts, however, to counter these
efforts are viewed as racist. In similar vein, I was told 12 years ago
that the all-white make-up of the commission was not racist, but my
efforts to add blacks was racist.
          Naturally, certain low-profile, officious and undistinguished
blacks agreed with that double standard and denounced me. One of those
black critics has a large and beautiful pencil sketch of Martin Luther
King hanging over her lovely fireplace. The picture cost more than
some houses.
          When Martin wee risking his life in the streets of Selma, this
critic called him everything except a child of God and publicly
invited him to go home to Atlanta. Now, after Martin is dead and
buried, she hangs his picture in her home.
          This black critic is also a member of the little group who secretly
tells the white editor of the Selma newspaper how much they disapprove
of my weekly column.
          Peace.
          
            J. L. Chestnut is an Alabama trial lawyer and
writer.
          
        