Longview News-Journal from Longview, Texas • Page 5

East Texas 5A SUNDAY, October 24, News-Journal Tradition Fuels racist rumors in all-while town Experts claim racism alive, though denied in America I IK I r- By Suzanne Gamboa Cox News Service When racism drove four black families from an all-white housing complex in Vidor this summer, the state and nation got a glimpse of a problem that many keeps on going like a locomotive down the track with no one doing anything to stop it," he said. There are some tools in place to stop the locomotive. Major fair housing and anti- discrimnation laws have been in effect almost 30 years, but there is I A 1 TV 1 IB little enforcement 111 of the legislation, experts said. 3 TVmcrlas Maaspv white Americans deny exists, a national race relations expert said. Although Vidor is an extreme it was once a Ku Klux Klan stronghold and continues to be almost all white the feelings the families encountered are "V'.

and Nancy Denton, authors of "American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of By Suzanne Gamboa Cox News Service GRAND SALINE The stories have been told and retold, either repeated as gossip or passed down like a family heirloom. They tell why this town people living about 70 miles east of Dallas on Texas 80 has remained a white community for centuries. It all began during the Civil War, the story goes. Or maybe it was in the 1940s. Signs were posted on both sides of town with a stern warning to African-American "visitors: "Niggers: Don't let the sun go down on you in Grand Saline." Everyone talks about what happened to one man or was it three? who didn't heed the warning.

He was hung in Pole-town, named for its lynching pole. Others were hung from a wooden railroad bridge. Although the stories probably ire apocryphal, some say they Serve the same purpose as the Signs. "There's people who won't put foot in this town," said Oscar Rogers, an African Ameri-can who has run the print shop the town's newspaper for 14 Rogers returns to his home 20 miles west in Wills every night. "I've lived here all my life," said Chamber of Commerce secretary Terrie Savallo, 26, who is Iwhite.

"And there were always rumors that people in Grand Saline don't like blacks." She emphasizes that they were rumors. Some residents blame African Americans for believing the old stories. "We're not a racist town," said "-a white shop owner who has Hived in town since 1917. He Says he remembers no warning igns posted at the city limits. "I Jiave numerous good black customers who live out of town and come here to shop, and some are good friends.

are no blacks here because they choose not to live Cox News Service ABOVE: Grand Saline police chief Stanley Tull does not deny that bigotry exists in the town, but he believes its perpetuated by actions of a small group. AT RIGHT: Stories about this bridge on the west side of Grand Saline have been told for years. Legend has it blacks were hanged from it, but details remain unclear. The Underclass," believe such segregation is the principal factor behind urban poverty and a primary cause of racial inequality. "We remain a segregated' society, and for that reason many of the problems we observe, the racial disadvantages, have not been alleviated," said Massey, a University of Chicago sociology professor.

The problem of segregated cities and communities has been overlooked so long that Americans have come to accept as normal blacks and whites living in separate communities, said Denton, a sociology professor at State University in New York. She is skeptical of those who argue that African Americans choose to live in all-black communities. Feagin said that if the United States does not address its racial problems, they could destroy the country. He pointed to ethnic warfare in the former Yugoslavia as an example. "How long are African Americans to wait for society to be truly desegregated?" he asked.

not uncommon, experts said. "There are lots of white adult Americans who believe exactly the way people in Vidor do," said Joe Feagin, a University of Florida sociology professor. "Many white Americans are afraid of their black neighbors." The failed integration of Vidor and the murder of Bill Simpson in Beaumont hours after he left Vidor drew widespread attention and a quick response from U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros, who seized control of the local housing authority. But what occurred in Vidor is neither isolated nor rare, Feagin said.

"Unfortunately, racism seems to be fairly permanent in this country, and we are not making much progress in changing it," Feagin said. Every day, landlords refuse to rent apartments to black Americans, real estate agents steer black Americans from white neighborhoods, and lenders refuse to invest in black neighborhoods. "Cases like Vidor are lightning rods, but it's the everyday discrimination in housing that 1 rW'h: I ill who here," said the man, all-white Texas town it is under court order to integrate its public housing complexes. Vidor, a community of 10,935 near Beaumont that once was a Ku Klux Klan headquarters, received national attention this year during racial hostilities surrounding its desegregation attempts. Linda Beeler, executive director of Grand Saline's public housing authority, said she has tried to encourage African See Grand Saline, 4A In fact, public housing officials can remember only one black man who tried to live here during the past decade.

Curtis Jones of Odessa was approved for federally subsidized housing. Officials are unsure of the year; there is no date on his application. He stayed only one night, returning his keys the next day with a letter saying, "My wife didn't want me to stay." That's a problem for Grand Saline because, like the city of Vidor another virtually wouldn't give his name. Such reassurances crumble when someone like Gary Smith speaks. Smith, a high school senior, insists his town is racist and he likes it that way.

Coupled with the tales of lynchings that still permeate the community, Smith's words are difficult to dismiss. "Truthfully, I don't think a black family would last in Grand "Saline very long," said Smith, 18. ii WSiD1 Sift ElXi! QSfiiTslMiSi) SJSSlteSl mi i -w III Hi I II .111 th II I Ii Ii iv i i' I i.