The Montgomery Advertiser from Montgomery, Alabama • 1

HIGH LOW VVafieT details, 10A Marlm wins 500, Page ID MOOTGOMERY ADVEffl FEBRUARY 21, 1994 Incorporating The Alabama Journal FINAL EDITION 35C SEE Black leaders question center's commitment through direct mail. The Law Center employs no black attor Pressure: At least five black leaders said they will push the nation's wealthiest civil rights charity to hire more blacks mnmm neys. And ol eight current department heads only one, Mamie Jackson, is black. Ms. Jackson is the mail opera were treated at the center.

Some likened the civil rights charity to a plantation. Morris Dees, a 57-year-old white millionaire who co-founded the center in 1971, has denied the claims. "We try to practice what we preach, so to speak," said Mr. Dees, who makes $136,000 a year at the Law Center. But black leaders were not so quick to dismiss the complaints of the former staffers.

"I don't think it is a situation Please turn to CENTER, 7A (without getting any input from them)," she said. The Law Center, known for suing hate groups and using the courts to expand the rights of blacks, has amassed about $52 million in reserves by marketing its lawsuits in nationwide fund-raising letters, the Montgomery Advertiser reported in a series of articles last week. Three of the center's top executives, who all are white, make more than $125,000 a year. Although the center has built up huge reserves, it still aggressively solicits money nationwide MORRIS DEES AND THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER ham. And the bad part about it is that they are using poor black folks to make the money off of.

I am apalled." Gwen Patton, a Montgomery civil rights activist, agreed. "It's kind of unconscionable-for people to raise money on the misery and the pain of a people black lawyers at the Law Center raises questions about the charity's commitment to civil rights. "(The lack of blacks) draws into question whether the center is really committed to every black person or whether it has just been a money-making thing," said Rep. John Rogers, D-Birming- tions director. The Advertiser series reported that 12 of 13 black former staffers complained of the way blacks Kl sws Iksofo) mm By Greg Jaffa ADVERTISER STAFF WRITER Black leaders from across Alabama said they were shocked and disappointed at the Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center's treatment of blacks.

At least five black leaders, including the chairman of the Alabama Legislature's Black Caucus, said they will push the nation's wealthiest civil rights charity to hire black lawyers and managers and take more cases. Virtually all said the absence of Safety shrouds slaying trial Impact: The trial of Michael F. Griffin is being watched by activists on both sides of the abortion debate arDK Deadline past: The U.N. has achieved 'effective an official said 1 By BUI Kaczor ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER PENSACOLA, Fla. Crowd-control barricades have been installed outside the courthouse and the judge has thrown a cloak of secrecy over jury selection that starts today for the trial of a man accused of shooting abortion doctor David Gunn.

The extraordinary steps are being taken in the trial of Michael F. Griffin, accused of fatally shooting Dr. Gunn last I By Robert H. Reld ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina Bosnian Serbs pulled back enough heavy guns from snowy hills around Sarajevo to stave off immediate airstrikes as a NATO deadline for removal passed. But the Western alliance warned that any movement of weapons back toward Sarajevo or attacks on the battered Bosnian capital would bring retaliation from NATO.

Bosnia's Muslim president, Alija Izetbegov-ic, earlier urged NATO to go into combat for the first time in its history and bomb Serb guns that remained around Sarajevo. But Yasushi Akashi, the U.N.'s senior official in former Yugoslavia charged with making the call on airstrikes, said he saw no immediate need. "I have decided that it is not necessary at this stage for me to request NATO to use air power," he said in a statement released at his Zagreb, Croatia, headquarters. "I am satisfied we have achieved effective compliance with the requirement to remove or place under UNPROFOR (U.N. peacekeepers') control all heavy weapons within the 20 kilometer (12-mile) exclusion zone," Mr.

Akashi's statement said. NATO, after nearly two years of debate over whether to get involved in Bosnia's war, had demanded all heavy weapons pull back that distance from Sarajevo or be placed under U.N. control. Otherwise it would launch airstrikes. NATO Secretary General Manfred Woerner said today that the alliance will follow U.N.

recommendations not to use air power "at this stage" in Bosnia. Mr. Woerner, speaking at alliance headquarters in Brussels, said he had agreed in telephone calls with President Clinton to keep the threat of airstrikes intact in case weapons were moved back toward Sarajevo or the city was attacked. "NATO's resolve to prevent the shelling of Sarajevo does not end today," he said. "We shall continue to verify compliance and will want to make a rapid assessment of this in the coming hours." "All parties should be aware that the ultimatum stands," President Clinton said in a Please turn to NATO, 7A March 10.

The judge has taken the steps to shield jury selection because of concerns INSIDE: At Issue: Slain abortion doctor's son said he worries that the trial will focus on abortion. 2C. ASSOCIATED PRESS Bosnian Serbs hold up a three-fingered salute, the traditional Serbian victory sign, as they welcome a Russian U.N. batalllon Sunday In Pale, some 10 miles northeast of Sarajevo. Serbs celebrate, welcome Russians about the safety of prospective jurors.

The 47-year-old Eufaula, physician was shot three times in the back as he arrived for work at Pensacola Women's Medical Services while an anti-abortion demonstration was being held on the opposite side of the clinic. The trial of Mr. Griffin, 32, a Christian fundamentalist, is being closely watched by activists on both sides of the national abortion debate because of the possi- Please turn to TRIAL, 7A was sufficient compliance to put off any airstrikes. Last-minute movements of trucks hauling guns could be seen on the roads around Mount Trebevic, southeast of Sarajevo. In a live program entitled "Waiting for NATO," local radio broadcast a gathering of Bosnian Serb fighters on Please turn to SERBS, 7A troops in the Bosnian Serb stronghold of Pale.

Serbs and Russians are traditional allies. Bosnian Serbs had been confident that NATO's deadline for them to withdraw heavy guns outside a 12-mile radius around Sarajevo or put them under U.N. control would pass without air-strikes on their remaining guns. As the 1 a.m. deadline passed, top U.N.

and NATO officials said there By Julljana Mojsllovlc ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER PALE, Bosnia-Herzegovina With open fires, nationalist songs and brandy, Bosnian Serbs made a show of their disdain for NATO's airstrike threat Sunday night. Earlier in the day, hundreds of Serbs chanted "Greater Serbia" as they greeted 400 Russian peacekeeping nlnmuiUi i CLASSIFIED 5C.7D ID cards help fight crime in public housing projects COFFEE BREAK 4B COMICS SB CROSSWORD 4B EDITORIAL 8-9 GOVERNMENT 3C HAMLET 10A LIFE IB LOCAL NEWS 1C MOVIES 2B OBITUARIES 4C PICK OF PACK 20 SPORTS 10 TV LOG 3B WEATHER 10A By Carla Crowder ADVERTISER STAFF WRITER A car rolls into Trenholm Court, a downtown Montgomery public housing project. It's got an out-of-county license tag, and the driver is drinking. None of the three inside lives in Trenholm Court, and all of them tell investigators different stories about why they're there. When the driver steps out of the car, he drops a $20 bill.

"He might not have been looking for drugs, but he fit the profile," said Mike George, chief of the Montgomery Housing Authority Investigative Unit, a six-man team started in 1992 to improve safety and living conditions in Montgomery's public housing. The driver passes a sobriety test but is given a written warning for trespassing. Chief George and his officers tell him not to come back. Proving he didn't live in Trenholm Court was easy. He didn't have one of the identification cards issued to residents last year.

The cards, which are about the size of a driver's license, allow investigators to identify who belongs in housing projects and who doesn't. "About 99.9 percent of people who create problems are non-residents," so reducing crime begins with weeding out those who don't belong, said Chief George, who uses the term "housing communities" instead of housing projects because he says the latter carries negative connotations. Complete with a photograph, address and physical description of the bearer, the cards have been issued to residents in eight of Montgomery's nine housing projects. Riverside Heights residents don't have cards yet, but they soon will. Authorities aren't pinning their hopes on the identification cards as a cure-all for public housing crime.

"We're not naive. We understand that some people come back on the property and we do arrest them," Chief George Please turn to CARDS, 7A 4 7 a.m. today to 7 a.m. Tuesday We recycle paper and 1 'J use soy-based 2ii' Inks. ANDY HAILSSTAFF Montgomery Housing Authority Investigator Mark Guest makes Identification cards for Gloria Porter and her children Friday.

The cards allow Investigators to Identify who belongs In housing projects and who doesn't. A Multimedia Newspaper 0 1 994 The Advertiser Co. Vol. 167, No. 52 36 Pages.