The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • C4

hate white said, people have to have a seat at the Just because for black people mean anti anything else. I love America. I love all its citizens Jews, blacks, whites, Arabs and But McKinney is feeling his age. He is thinner, and he sometimes needs help standing and walking. Last year, he had four surgeries to correct a stomach problem, repair an aneurysm in his leg, remove his appendix and treat colon cancer.

health is McKinney said. not worried about it. I got a clean bill of health the last For the runoff, McKinney has been depending on volunteers and legislative allies Reps. Tyrone Brooks (D- Atlanta), Sharon Beasley- Teague (D-Atlanta) and others to cover at least portions of the district with fliers and yard signs. McKinney said his daughter also is working for him in the runoff campaign, but he say how.

What little energy he had, McKinney devoted this summer to campaigning for his controversial daughter, putting little into his own race. made Cynthia his priority and not said Brooks, a longtime friend. that cost him to some History of service McKinney was born Feb. 23, 1927. He grew up in Atlanta at his house while his mother, Ann Turner Lewis, sang jazz in New York with the likes of Duke Ellington.

McKinney carries his name, though he only once met the man, a saxophone player. McKinney was 10 at the time. The black great- grandfather was a white South Georgia land owner, and McKinney still has title to 250 acres of the original property in Wilcox County. He was drafted to fight in World War II, and when he returned from Europe, he was arrested in Florence, S.C., with 50 other black soldiers because one tried to drink from a water fountain reserved for whites. had a profound effect on he said.

He married twice, having two sons, James and Gerald, with his first wife. Cynthia McKinney is the only child of his 50-year-long marriage to Leola, a Grady Hospital nurse who is now retired. In 1948, he was the ninth black officer hired on the Atlanta Police Department and spent much of his police career demonstrating against discriminatory practices of the force, sometimes walking alone while carrying a hand- lettered protest sign back and forth along the sidewalk in front of City Hall. He resigned from the force in 1969, just a few years short of earning a pension. Over the years, McKinney filed lawsuits accusing the state of discriminatory hiring and complaining that the ranks of state judges and prosecutors lacked African- Americans.

He was the named plaintiff in a lawsuit brought after white supremacists assaulted civil rights marchers in Forsyth County in 1987. He was elected to the Legislature 30 years ago. As a black urban representative in a Legislature dominated by rural whites, he was far from influential. But even within the city of power structure, McKinney often found himself at odds with the political elite. McKinney has had a long- running feud with former Mayor Maynard Jackson, going back to the 1981 race.

While McKinney has a reputation as a foe of whites and Jews, in that contest he supported Sidney Marcus, a white Jewish liberal, over Andrew Young, who had been endorsed by Jackson. In the Legislature, his accomplishments have received little notice. He is most proud of a local bill that allowed Sunday liquor-by-the- drink sales in Atlanta. made us an international McKinney said. But in recent years, he has become better known for his ugly rhetoric and confrontations.

He once struck a gay rights activist after a heated public meeting at City Hall on the topic of domestic partnerships, providing fodder for the perception that he is anti-gay. McKinney said he confronted the woman because she had grabbed a pregnant friend of his. A white Republican legislator accused McKinney of pulling a penknife on him during an argument on the House floor. A judge refused to have McKinney charged. In 1994, a federal judge fined McKinney $500 for contempt for challenging a black Republican congressman to fight.

Gary Franks of Connecticut had testified that the district Cynthia McKinney then represented was unfairly drawn. In 1996, Billy McKinney called his Republican election opponent, John Mitnick, a And on Election Day in 2000, a Republican member of the DeKalb Board of Elections said McKinney grabbed her lapel during an exchange of words at a polling place as his daughter shouted through a bullhorn. A judge dismissed the criminal charges the elections board member sought. At the same time, friends say there is a side to McKinney that gets little attention. second he can be abrasive and have that mean streak come Brooks said.

the next minute friendly and McKinney took over the daily job of raising his grandson while his daughter was in Washington. Every day, until the boy left for boarding school in Italy two years ago, McKinney drove his grandson to a private school in Druid Hills and attended all his soccer matches. GOP voters blamed new district helped make him vulnerable at the polls, but he agreed to its new design last year. Fulton County black voters loyal to him, as well as friendly Democrats in Cobb County, were siphoned out to boost other Democratic chances. Cobb Republicans and Paces Ferry and Buckhead neighborhoods were added.

Still, it was considered a district for an African- American, considering that almost 60 percent of its voters are black. In the primary, support was solid in Fulton, anemic in Cobb. He beat Noel with 2,589 votes to 1,338 in Fulton, but lost Cobb 1,260160. McKinney captured 48.7 percent of the vote, less than the 50-plus percent needed to avoid a runoff. McKinney says he was targeted by Republicans who voting Democratic ballots for his opponent.

a carryover from what happened to McKinney says. Cynthia opponent, Denise Majette, benefited from Republican crossover voting. the reason in a McKinney says. Indeed, some of those who orchestrated the Cynthia McKinney crossover campaign have created a Web site, www.goodbyebilly.com, to do the same to him. While Billy McKinney has done little campaigning in Cobb, he did attend a candidate forum in Vinings before the primary.

He was wearing a McKinney for T-shirt. had chutzpah to come into this lily-white said retiree Sky Rector, who was there. remember the substance of what he said other than he had been in the Legislature a long time, but I remember the McKinney battles health problems, controversy Continued from C1 Billy McKinney was first elected to the Legislature 30 years ago. was friends with the Gores, first family of politics, and they spent days together water-skiing on Center Hill Lake, said mother, Karen Noel Cochran. When Noel was in college, he took time off to work on the first Clinton-Gore presidential campaign.

A photo of Al and Tipper Gore from that 1992 campaign is one of the first things visitors see when they enter his home. Noel graduated from public Brentwood High School. He then attended private Lake Forest College near Chicago, earning a degree in history in 1994 and interning as a reporter one summer at the Tennes- sean newspaper in Nashville. During that period, Noel showed some leanings that might not fit in well in parts of his new district, which is 60 percent black. He became an associate member of Sons of Confederate Veterans in high school, and is still one.

And he wrote an opinion column in the Tennessean arguing that the Nashville Symphony should be allowed to play during a concert near a cemetery containing Confederate war dead. say, give them their Dixie and their flag and give it to me, also. You know, good to know that old times been he wrote. Noel said late last week that he understands why is offensive to some, but think it should be. He supports the new Georgia flag, which minimizes the Confederate emblem that formerly dominated the banner.

does support and honor history, and it is deferential to current he said. Neighborhood activist After college, Noel spent time backpacking in Europe. He flew into Atlanta shortly before the 1996 Olympics and decided to stay. He bought an old home on Bolton Road in west Atlanta and eventually started his own business as a lighting contractor. Although he wrote about politicians at the Tennessean and worked on campaigns, he register to vote in Atlanta until last fall.

But he did start getting active in his low-income neighborhood and think McKinney was doing much to help revitalize the area. got frustrated at the inability of my representative to effect meaningful change in my he said. Trucks rumble down the two-lane road in front of his house on their way to power plants, cargo loading areas and dumps. A funeral parlor- turned-library is next door, and a family grocery and laundry are across the street. Nearby is a run-down apartment complex.

The district is more mixed, running from Vinings, Smyrna and the western end of Buckhead to the I-285 interchange area. Noel, with the look of a yuppie urban pioneer, has run on local issues, like revitalizing low-income neighborhoods, getting his road, Bolton, unlisted as a state trucking route, and improving public transportation, park services and the environment in the district. He has also gotten a lot of unintended help from McKinney. Some people in the district simply want somebody else. know a lot about Billy said Wyoming Robinson, a dental assistant who lives near Bolton Road.

only thing I heard him do lately was when he was on TV with Louis Farrakhan, who I detest. a McKinney remarks a boost Laura Matthews, who works in housekeeping at Crawford Long Hospital, said she supported Noel because the district needs a change. Lewis, Cynthia McKinney and Billy McKinney were the people we counted Matthews said. like Cynthia. I think did what he could have done over Noel also was helped by some of caustic remarks, like those blaming Jews for his defeat.

He would not say how much support gotten from Jewish community, and post-primary contribution reports due for a few more weeks. But he said gotten some contributions from Jews. am not at all concerned about receiving money from Jewish he said. welcome good government. There is no hidden Zionist agenda.

Gentiles, Jews, everybody was outraged by Money has not been the driving force behind his campaign. Noel, with help from his Tennessee family and volunteers, has done it the old- fashioned way, going door to door. In some cases, people are just happy someone is willing to shake their hand and ask for their vote. he first told me what he was doing, I was in his mother said. you have an obligation when you grow up in this country to give back.

proud of what he is CAMPAIGN 2002 Newcomer Noel takes the spotlight Continued from C1 John Noel, with help from his Tennessee family and volunteers, is campaigning for his state House runoff by going door to door. FMAI50908OC4 5 Star 4C 4C RR RR BlueRedYellowBlack BlueRedYellowBlack C4 Sunday, Sept. 8, 2002 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 5 RMAIN0908OC4.