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Profiles of People and Groups in the Video |
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National Organizations on Hate Crime |
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Suggested Reading |
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Hate Crime Facts |
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Please give us your response. Did you like our show? Let us know what you think about Seeking Solutions. |
PROFILES OF PEOPLE AND GROUPS IN THE VIDEO
Hate Crime: MAKING THE KKK PAY FOR VIOLENCE.
Manning, S.C.
The Southern Poverty Law Center of Montgomery, AL. Since its inception in 1971, the Center has been a leading legal force in combating hate groups in the United States. Led by legendary Klan-busting attorney Morris Dees, the Center has won a string of court victories and earned an international reputation for legal prosecution of the KKK and other racist groups. After the burning of black churches in Manning and Greeleyville, S.C., Morris Dees and the Center filed a civil suit against the South Carolina Klan on behalf of Macedonia Baptist Church and won a $37.8 million judgment against the KKK. The Center's web-site: www.splcenter.org.
Reverend Jonathan Mouzon is the pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church, outside Manning, one of two churches destroyed by Ku Klux Klan arsonists in June 1995. As a lifelong resident of Manning, Mouzon knew of the Klan's intimidation tactics from his childhood, but nonetheless persuaded his parishioners to overcome their fears and file a civil lawsuit against the Ku Klux Klan. Represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, local State Senator John Land, and others, the church won a record $37.8 million judgment in July 1998. Since the church burning, Reverend Mouzon has sought to build greater racial harmony by inviting black and white church groups to hold joint picnics and religious services, but white response has been meagre. Later, his life was threatened by the Klan and he found increasing difficulty getting work in the Manning area, which he believes is a direct result of his outspoken activism.
Jesse Young, a lifelong resident of Manning, is a trustee of Macedonia Baptist Church, owner of a local store Young's Country Mart and a former deputy sheriff in Clarendon County. Young knew Klan arsonist Timothy Welch and his family well. He is respected by many blacks and whites in the community. Along with Rev. Mouzon, Young testified during the civil lawsuit against the Klan. He has spoken to the media about the need for more racial progress in Clarendon County. In July 1999, four years after the church fire, Young's store was broken into though nothing was stolen, an act which Young interpreted as a threat by racists angered by his activism. Long optimistic about the future of local race relations, he was despondent after the threats: "I don't think it will ever get better in South Carolina."
Wanda Mitchum, the mother of convicted church arsonist and KKK member Tim Welch, grew up in Clarendon County. Mitchum works occasionally as a machinist and lives with her husband, Aaron Mitchum, her son Richard Welch and her daughter Marsha O'Bannion outside Manning, not far from Macedonia Baptist Church. Since the church fire and subsequent arrest of her son, Mitchum has been an open and outspoken critic of the KKK and has befriended Rev. Mouzon, attending church services at Macedonia on more than one occasion. She reports that she and her family have received repeated telephone threats from the Klan.
State Senator John Land is a long-time attorney and the senior political figure in Clarendon County. A member of the South Carolina legislature since 1976, Land is now Senate Majority Leader. A staunch Democrat, Land has long been a strong advocate of school desegregation and enjoys the wide support among local blacks who comprise a substantial majority of the local voters. Along with his daughter, attorney Ricci Welch, Land represented the Macedonia Baptist Church in its lawsuit against the Klan. Differing with Rev. Mouzon, Jesse Young, and Wanda Mitchum, Land has asserted that good relations have been restored between local blacks and there is little further need for change to improve race relations.
Isaac Holmes, now 70, was elected the first black mayor of the town of Greeleyville, after the Klan burning of Mt. Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church in June 1995. Holmes grew up in Greeleyville, before leaving to join the military service and ultimately settling in Philadelphia, Pa., where he had a business career. He returned to Greeleyville in the early 1980s to retire, but in 1997 was encouraged by some white leaders to run for mayor as a symbol of racial harmony. With amusement, Holmes talks about occupying an office in city hall, where he was not permitted by custom even to enter, as a young man growing up in Greeleyville.
Moses Levy, a high school civics teacher, was the black foreman of the jury that awarded the $37.8 million judgment to Macedonia Baptist Church against the Ku Klux Klan. Levy sees the trial as a sign of significant progress in the county, that blacks 'can now get justice' which is 'a big deal.' But he laments the lack of further effort to move towards greater racial harmony in the community.
Lester Haley, a resident of Clarendon County, served as the Exalted Cyclops of the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. His brother, Arthur, was one of the four Klansmen sentenced to long jail sentences for the fires. Although Lester Haley reported keeping his Klan robe in his home four years after the fires, he claims that the Klan was driven out of active operation by the civil million judgment against it. Haley expressses frustration that poor blacks have people to represent their interests, but that "poor white people don't have anybody to help them. I mean they just throw poor, poor white people in jail and call them racists."
Hate Crime: TEACHING TOLERANCE TO TEENS
San Clemente, CA
San Clemente, California is an affluent beach town, tourist haven, and surfer's idyll that hugs the southern California coastline and was best known historically as the site of Preisdent Nixon's Western White House. Surrounding Orange County has long been white dominated and politically conservative. Along with a changing economy and an influx of Latinos and Asians, there has been a rise in social tensions over the past decade and spasms of hate crimes.
San Clemente High School Tolerance Class. Begun in the Spring of 1994 by English teacher Joe Moros after two violent incidents involving San Clemente High School students, the tolerance class gets students to examine the roots of prejudice, bigotry, discrimination and hate violence. It features guest speakers on topics from racism, to domestic violence, to homophobia, to the Holocaust, as well as readings, class projects and videos on the subject. Each semester 35 - 40 of San Clemente High's 2,000 students sign up for the class. The class includes a diverse group of students, including several campus leaders. Although the class draws only a tiny fraction of the student body, both students and graduates report a significant moderation of the social climate on campus in the five years that the class has been running. For more information see: www.teachtolerance.org
Joe Moros is the San Clemente High School English teacher who created and now teaches the tolerance class. Moved to action following a near-fatal gay-bashing by a San Clemente High student and the death of another high school senior during a fight between Latino and white students, Moros started the class "to stop the hatred and the violence." A former Marine who served in Vietnam, Moros was raised by what he describes as a hateful, abusive father. He wants to do what he can to help young people surrounded by similar hatred. Moros did extensive research and collected broad information in constructing his curriculum, which he is eager to share with other educators. He can be reached through the course web-site listed above.
Steve Raines, is a 22-year-old graduate of San Clemente High School and was one of the first students to sign up for the tolerance class. An avowed white supremacist whose brother, Jeff, was sent to state prison for a gay-bashing incident, Raines says that his goal in taking the class "was to tell people I was prejudiced and why, and not because I thought I needed help. "Raines left the tolerance class espousing the same bigoted views, but below the surface, the values of tolerance taught in the class had taken hold of Raines. Within a year of his graduation, he returned to the school, with an Indian girlfriend on his arm to show Moros that he had shed his prejudiced views. Today, Raines is an outspoken advocate of tolerance, who dates women of color and wants to become a teacher to pass on what he has learned. Moros describes Steve Raines as "my success story."
