NATION AND WORLD
University Daily Kansan, November 15, 1984 Page 13
Woman wants racial status corrected
By United Press International
NEW ORLEANS — The fair-skinned family of a Louisiana woman who wants her birth certificate changed to say she is white instead of black could have been lynched if it had tried to "pass" for white in the 1930s, her lawyer said yesterday.
But in these "enlightened times," said lawyer Brian Begue, the state should be willing to change the birth certificate for Susie Guillory Phipps because she considers herself white.
Arguing before a panel of the 4th Louisiana Circuit Court of Appeal two white men and one black woman
Begue said there is no scientific way to determine racial makeup
when chromosomes are genetically dealt like a pack of cards.
When Phipps first filed suit in 1981, Louisiana had a law saying anyone with more than one third-second "black blood" a black great-grandparent—should be considered black. The law has been repealed.
ACCORDING TO EARLIER TESTIMONY, Phipps said the French midwife who delivered her knew by word of mouth the family had a black ancestor, a slave named Margarita, and designated baby Susie as "colored." Phipps and her siblings went through church and school listed as black, but later generations were recorded as white and Phipps' parents were designated white on their death certificates in 1967.
The state, however, still requires a "preponderance of evidence" to make any change in official records, including changes of race, sex, age or name.
Jack Westholz, representing the state Health Department, said Phipps' church and school records from Acada Parish in the 30s and 40s list her as black. Elderly relatives testified at her trial the family was black.
Begue then displayed a leather-
bound family photograph album to
the judges showing a fair-skinned
family.
"I MEAN, LOOK at these people!" he said. "They were victims of the times. People were getting lynched
out in the country for trying to pass white. They had no choice."
Phipps was applying for a passport in 1977 when she noticed her birth certificate contained the designation colored.
"We maintain it is insensitive, unscientific, born in slavery and fostered in Jim Crow," he said.
Begue said the state was on a "foo's errand" to try to keep track of such ancestors and unfairly focuses on blacks.
Westholz said Louisiana still asked for a racial designation on a birth certificate but would accept "what ever the parents say," the race is kept confidential and used only for federal census data, he said.
Pastor sought on child abuse charges
By United Press International
DALLAS, Ore. — An arrest warrant has been issued for the leader of a religious commune where children were dangled from a ceiling by ropes that kept bound in sleeping bags for months. The authorities announced yesterday.
Ariel Sherman, who was described as a "Jim Jones control-like leader who is not questioned by his followers on what he does or why he does it."
The warrant was issued for Pastor
Sherman was sought on two counts of physical abuse of children, Salem Police Lt. Mike Runyon said the case was issued by the Polk County district attorney's office on Monday but not disclosed until yesterday.
Sherman, who disappeared Saturday, was believed to have left the state and was possibly in California, Runvon said.
The reported abuses were described at a three-hour custody hearing Tuesday when a judge temporarily upheld a decision by state social workers to remove 14 children from the commune. Another hearing was scheduled in two weeks.
The children, who ranged in age from 4 to 12, were from seven different families. Their parents attended the hearing but refused to comment on the allegations.
Under court order, the children were taken from the Good Shepherd Tabernacle Commune, run by Sherman, in West Salem, Ore., and put in foster homes. Five children remained at the commune.
NEW YORK — Pablo Picasso's portrait of a woman, "Femme Assie Au Chapeau," one of the last pictures he did in the classic style, sold for almost $4.3 million in an auction Tuesday. The auction of works by the masters brought in a total of $21.3 million at Christie's auction house.
Army says spill posed no danger
By United Press International
WASHINGTON — The Army said yesterday it knew in 1978 of a herbicide spill at a Virginia campground where 32,000 Boy Scouts attended a 1981 jamboree but was not aware of the dangers of dioxin at the time.
Both the Army and the national Center for Disease Control assured the Boy Scouts yesterday that there was no reason to be concerned about the herbicide and its chemical property to dioxin at Fort A.P. Hill, Va.
Army Assistant Secretary Pat Hillier reiterated the Army's position to Seacons' executive director J. L. Tarr in a 45-minute meeting at the Pentagon, and told him the site of the attack would be cleaned up by the end of the year, and jamboree in July said Army spokesman MaJ. Robert Mirelson.
IT WAS NOT until Nov. 5, after final testing of soil samples at the site, that the Army officially informed the Boy Scouts of America of the herbicide spill and told them there was no cause for concern because there was "little contamination," Mirellon said.
Under the supervision of the Environmental Protection Agency, there will be another soil sampling of the site to determine how much of the area will be excavated, including the soil that was used for herbicide Silvex was mixed and spilled, Mireson said. Dioxin formed from the spilled Silvex.
"The contractor will remove the dirt to a hazardous dump site," he said.
The Boy Scouts also are conducting their own testing at the site by an independent laboratory.
Mirelson quoted Tarr as saying he was sure there was no hazard to the Boy Scouts during the 1981 jamboree and that "the parents shouldn't be worried about the kids who were we will use the site in July 1985."
AT THE SAME time, the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta said in a statement that "the chance for harmful dioxin exposure of scouts during the jamboree is exceedingly remote."
Mireelson said a spill of the Silvex on the wooden floor of the shed contaminated a 100 square foot area. The spill was caused by forestry service workers who were moving to another location in 1978. The dangers of herbicides were not known at the time.
"It is our estimate that no harm was done" since the scouts would have had to be exposed to the herbicide for 70 years to incur risk, the statement said. The scouts were there only two weeks.
Mirelson said that amount was not hazardous.
AS PART OF its survey of military installations around the country in 1982, the Defense Department found there was contamination of 228 parts per billion of dioxin that had leaked from the floor of the shed, he said.
The chemical remained close to the surface because of heavy clay-like soil at the site and did not penetrate to water wells 500 feet down, be said.
In Irving, Texas, Scouts' spokesman Raul Chavez said more than 30,000 letters would be sent to families of the boys who attended the course alerting them to the contamination and advenience to not panic.