Atlanta's Black Mayor Bill Campbell Declared 'Fight to the Death' for Racial Quotas and Racial Set-Asides
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Since 1999 no fewer than 10 of Campbell's former city officials have been convicted on a range of criminal charges. According to the Washington Post: "[Campbell] was indicted two years after leaving office, snared in a federal corruption probe that has led to the convictions of 10 other former city officials and contractors. Federal prosecutors charged that Campbell ran Atlanta with a "what's-in-it-for-me" attitude and regarded contractors who wanted to do business with the city as 'human ATMs.' "Prosecutors said he took more than $160,000 in cash, campaign contributions, junkets and home improvements in exchange for city contracts, and spent it on gambling trips to Mississippi River casinos and other getaways with his mistresses. He took so much money, they said, that he withdrew a mere $69 from his personal bank accounts one year. "[Campbell's defense attorneys] countered that Campbell's extra money came from his gambling winnings and speaking engagements, and that Campbell's subordinates had used his name without his knowledge to enrich themselves. [This doesn't even pass the straight face test. Editor.] "[In March 2006] A federal jury found former mayor Bill Campbell guilty of tax evasion, but cleared him of charges he lined his pockets with payoffs as he guided Atlanta through a period of robust development in the 1990s. "Campbell, 52, could get up to nine years in prison and $300,000 in fines. However, legal experts have said it's doubtful he will get the maximum sentence. He also could lose his law license in Florida, where he moved to practice after leaving office." Last Known Link:
Campbell also exhibited classic symptoms of delusions of grandeur when in the summer of 2000 he "...resumed his tirade on two local radio stations with largely black audiences, saying that federal authorities were hounding him just as they did the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s. He called the investigators 'forces of evil.' " [Empahsis added. Quoted from the Washington Post 09/29/00]. The reality is that Campbell's two-term, corrupt mayoralty of Atlanta bore absolutely no reseblance to the late, great Marthin Luther King's vision. Background &
News Archives: From News Accounts 1999 - 2000 when the FBI investigation began On Wed., Oct. 4, 2000 the Washington Post reported: "Critics ... say the mayor [Campbell] has done what he always does when he finds himself in a difficult position -- play the race card. They say that his pattern of launching vitriolic attacks has only hurt his credibility and embarrassed a business-minded city that boasts it is 'too busy to hate.' "The mayor can make a racial issue out of a lima bean," said Dick Yarbrough, a retired BellSouth executive and newspaper columnist who wrote a critical book about Atlanta's 1996 Summer Olympics, "And They Called Them Games." "In the summer of 1999, Campbell lashed out in similar fashion at the Southeastern Legal Foundation, a conservative public-interest law firm that has taken the city to federal court over its minority contracting programs. [Campbell] likened the organization to the Ku Klux Klan and urged his supporters to picket not only its offices, but also the homes of its officials. Campbell recently said that the federal probe is due in part to his heated defense of Atlanta's affirmative action policies [otherwise known as racial quotas. Editor]. "That doesn't pass the straight-face test," said foundation president Matt Glavin. "The local office of the FBI is headed by an African American, the U.S. attorney is African American. Janet Reno, Bill Clinton, all support affirmative action. Why would these people go after Bill Campbell because of his position?" Excerpted from the
Washington Post story Wed., Oct. 4, 2000
Sept. 29, 2000: The Washington Post wrote: "When Bill Campbell--mayor of this image-conscious city for nearly seven controversial years--decided to let loose recently on the federal probe into possible corruption at city hall and his gambling habits, even some longtime Campbell-watchers were shocked at his choice of words. "In a televised speech Sept. 19, Campbell described the FBI investigation into his public and personal activities as "an inquisition," comparing the agency to "the KGB in communist Russia." The next day, he resumed his tirade on two local radio stations with largely black audiences, saying that federal authorities were hounding him just as they did the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s. He called the investigators "forces of evil." "By bringing race into the equation, Campbell also has been accused by some critics of polarizing this predominantly black city where complex racial issues usually have been dealt with subtly and with maximum attention to how things looked to the rest of the world. "Atlanta strip-club owner Michael Childs and former Campbell aide Dewey Clark, who lived in a basement apartment of the mayor's house for six years, have accused Campbell of accepting bribes in exchange for his alleged assurances to protect the liquor license at one of Childs's businesses, Club Nikki VIP, according to the Journal-Constitution. Childs and Clark allege that Campbell reneged on his pledge; the license subsequently was revoked. "Critics ... say the mayor has done what he always does when he finds himself in a difficult position -- play the race card. They say that his pattern of launching vitriolic attacks has only hurt his credibility and embarrassed a business-minded city that boasts it is "too busy to hate. "The mayor can make a racial issue out of a lima bean," said Dick Yarbrough, a retired BellSouth executive and newspaper columnist who wrote a critical book about Atlanta's 1996 Summer Olympics, "And They Called Them Games." "In the summer of 1999, Campbell lashed out in similar fashion at the Southeastern Legal Foundation, a conservative public-interest law firm that has taken the city to federal court over its minority contracting programs. He likened the organization to the Ku Klux Klan and urged his supporters to picket not only its offices, but also the homes of its officials. Campbell recently said that the federal probe is due in part to his heated defense of Atlanta's affirmative action policies. "That doesn't pass the straight-face test," said foundation president Matt Glavin. "The local office of the FBI is headed by an African American, the U.S. attorney is African American. Janet Reno, Bill Clinton, all support affirmative action. Why would these people go after Bill Campbell because of his position?" It is hard to believe that presidential hopeful Al Gore ever considered appointing an anti-white bigot like Mayor Campbell to a cabinet position if Gore were elected. Fortunately, the heat of the FBI investigation into Campbell's mafia-style tactics seemed to have quashed Gore's interest in the mayor. Black conspiracy theorists like Atlanta's Rev. Timothy McDonald believe that the FBI investigation is part of a plot to discourage black voters from going to the polls in November [2000]. If black voters stay away from the polls, McDonald posited, that would enhance the chances of George W. Bush getting elected. (Based on the Washington Post story Wed., Oct. 4, 2000, page A03, by Sue Anne Pressley) Last Known Link: Feds now looking to City Hall
Minority contracts, fund-raising being investigated by FBI (ATLANTA) "A Journal-Constitution investigation last year into the compliance office found that millions of dollars in contracts intended to create opportunities for minority businesses were passed through minority front companies to white-owned businesses that actually did the work... "[Now the] federal investigators who this week won convictions against three people on corruption charges involving Fulton County contracts are also focusing on minority contracting and political fund-raising in the city of Atlanta. The investigators have questioned several people, including Fred B. Prewitt, owner of FBP Contractors, a minority contracting firm, and Bill Turner of Cherokee County, formerly with Bill Harbert Construction Co. of Birmingham...The FBI would not confirm whether it is investigating corruption in City Hall...Glenda Blum Minkin, director of the Mayor's Office of Communications, said she didn't know about any federal investigation involving the city or any officials...'Given the atmosphere, we expect these kinds of inquiries, and we expect them to include other governments, including ours.' [said Minkin] "... Prewitt...a political fund-raiser for Campbell, confirmed he, too, was questioned by the FBI. 'Yeah, I've talked to them. Not about contracts, though, I guess because I don't have any,' Prewitt said...Prewitt's company as the only minority firm among three sellers of $430,000 worth of equipment and pumps for the Hemphill Water Treatment Plant. But Prewitt's company did not provide any equipment for the city project, according to representatives of the two white-owned businesses that did supply the equipment..." (Excerpted from The Atlanta Journal-Consitution, 06/10/00 article by Richard Whitt and Julie B. Hairston) Last known link Battle over Atlanta Set-Asides: Atlanta moves for dismissal
of white businesses' suit against racial quotas "The city of Atlanta on Friday asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by four white business owners who claim they suffered discrimination as a result of the city's affirmative action contracting program, said City Attorney Susan Pease Langford. "The 23-page document is the city's first response to the Aug. 26 lawsuit funded by the Southeastern Legal Foundation. "The foundation, which has worked to strike down similar programs in other cities, claims Atlanta's program violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution by creating [discriminatory, race-based] business opportunities for blacks, women and other minorities at the expense of whites. "The city, however, claims its program fits the standard for such affirmative action programs established by the U.S. Supreme Court. "The lawsuit was filed by Lee General Contractors of Conyers, Nichols & Associates Inc. of Marietta, Continental Pipe Services Inc. of Marietta and Peachtree Mechanical Inc. of Fayetteville. "The city claims the four plaintiffs lack the legal standing to file the lawsuit, because the city's Equal Business Opportunity (EBO) program requires all companies--whether they are majority or minority-owned--to meet the same standards of subcontracting up to 34 percent of city contracts to minority and women-owned firms. "Mason Barge, one of three attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the case, had not seen the city's response, which was filed late Friday. But Barge defended the lawsuit as legitimate. "The precedent for the case law clearly provides these plaintiffs have standing to bring the complaint," Barge said. "Although I haven't seen the motion (to dismiss) I'm confident it will be denied." "Atlanta requires companies to guarantee a [very significant] share of work they do for the city go to minority and female-owned firms [regardless of the minority firms' qualifications]. The city sets goals for each contract, requiring as much as 34 percent participation by firms on a list of 1,000 companies registered with the EBO program. [Atlanta requires no similar "percentage guarantee" of city contracts for white-owned businesses who seek to do business with the city.] "Opponents claim the program is a de-facto quota system that discriminates against white-owned firms, encourages political patronage and corruption, and drives up costs to taxpayers." (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (posted 10/16/99) by Carlos Campos) Last Known Link: Pickets protest legal challenge to
anti-white racial quotas "Supporters of [Atlanta's racial and gender quotas and set-aside programs] have loudly promised to take their struggle to the streets. On Saturday, 60 of them did, staging a march and protest against a northwest Atlanta bakery. "We sent a powerful message," said Lou Walker, president of the Georgia Black Chamber of Commerce. "We're not going back. You fight us, we'll fight you." "The march, organized by the Georgia Black Chamber of Commerce, began on the Morehouse College campus and wound its way 15 minutes later to a bakery off Northside Drive owned by Flowers Industries. "Flowers' products have been the target of a boycott organized by the chamber because the bakery's chairman and chief executive, Amos McMullian, was a member of the board of trustees of the Southeastern Legal Foundation [which vigorously advocates race-blind city contracting policies, and] which is funding a lawsuit agains the city's [race-based and gender-based] contracting program. McMullian resigned from the board in July, citing the economic pressure on his firm." [So much for fair and equal treatment without regard to race, eh?] "The lawsuit, filed in federal court last month on behalf of four white plaintiffs, claims the program is discriminatory to non-minorities. "Most of Saturday's protestors were affiliated with a variety of [discriminatory race-based and gender-based] special-interest groups, including the Georgia Black Chamber of Commerce, the National Organization for Women, the Atlanta Labor Council and other union groups. "Walker said Saturday's protest and march is only the first of a planned series aimed at putting pressure on the board members of the Southeastern Legal Foundation to [discontinue their opposition to discriminatory race-based and gender-based contracting and hiring policies]." (Based on the Atlanta-Journal Constitution story 09/12/99 by Carlos Campos) Last Known Link: Southeastern Legal Files Suit
Against Atlanta's Racial Quotas Original Washington Post Headline: "Affirmative Action Plan Challenged; Group Sues Atlanta On Contract Policy" -- "A conservative legal foundation yesterday filed a federal lawsuit challenging the city of Atlanta's policy of setting aside one-third of its contracts for minority and female-owned firms, jeopardizing an affirmative action program long hailed by minority business advocates as a national model. "The lawsuit, filed in Atlanta by the Southeastern Legal Foundation, calls the city's minority and female business enterprise program 'illegal and unconstitutional' because it considers race and gender as factors in awarding contracts. "'We are filing the lawsuit because the city of Atlanta is breaking the law,' said Matthew J. Glavin, president of the Atlanta-based foundation. 'The city has a program that provides benefits to one group of people over another group of people because of the color of their skin, their ethnic heritage or their gender.' "Glavin ... says that the time has passed for Atlanta's set-aside programs. Pointing out that Atlanta has had black mayors and a majority-black City Council since the 1970s, he said there is little chance that the city discriminates in awarding public contracts." (Washington Post 08/27/99 page A10 by Michael A. Fletcher) Last Known Link (Dead): Conservative foundation sues, but
mayor pledges 'fight to death' ATLANTA -- "This city, long a national symbol of black economic pride, faces a stiff legal challenge this week to the constitutionality of its affirmative action program, regarded by many African Americans here as the impetus that helped make this a so-called Black Mecca. "The challenge is expected in the form of a lawsuit from the Southeastern Legal Foundation, a 23-year-old, conservative organization that has helped overturn other affirmative action programs across the South. "In some cases, after foundation lawyers announced intended challenges, government entities voluntarily altered their programs to ensure that they were constitutionally sound, says Matt Glavin, president of the foundation. "Not here. When Glavin notified the city this summer that he intended to challenge Atlanta's affirmative action program, he touched off a firestorm of rhetoric that threatened to destroy the city's vaunted boast as "the city too busy to hate." "Mayor Bill Campbell, Atlanta's third black mayor, vowed a "fight to the death" to save affirmative action and compared the legal foundation to the Ku Klux Klan. He led an impassioned rally of 2,000 supporters of the program in late July. Seven members of the legal foundation's board of trustees and its legal advisory board resigned after some black political leaders threatened to lead boycotts of their companies." (USA Today, via Detroit News 08/23/99 by Larry Copeland of USA Today) Last Known Link:
Blacks in Atlanta react angrily to affirmative action challenge (08/18/99
- dead link) ATLANTA (AP) — "A conservative legal foundation that has used lawsuits to get rid of affirmative action programs around the South has trained its sights on Atlanta, the very symbol of black economic achievement [based upon racial quotas and preferences]. "Unlike some of the Southeastern Legal Foundation's previous targets — which surrendered rather than fight — Atlanta's black politicians have angrily defended the system that requires that one-third of the companies doing business with the city be minority- or female-owned. "Mayor Bill Campbell, who [alleges that] as a child was the first black to integrate a North Carolina school system, vowed to "fight to the death'' to keep the [racial] set-aside program. He has likened the [Southeastern Legal] foundation to the Ku Klux Klan. "There will be no compromise, no mediation, no capitulation. We will never stop. We will use all means necessary,'' Campbell said. "We are pulling the sheets off the Southeastern Legal Foundation.'' [emphasis added] "The Atlanta-based [Southeastern Legal] foundation has said it will file a lawsuit next week challenging Atlanta's set-aside program as unconstitutional. "This isn't about race. This is about the city of Atlanta breaking the law,'' said Matt Glavin, the foundation's president. "When you have statutes that grant certain benefits to one group of people because of the color of their skin that are not granted to another group, then you're violating the Fourteenth Amendment.'' (Associated Press via FoxNews 08/18/99) Last Known Link (Dead): [Editor's Note: Matt Glavin, president of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, has recently been forced to hire body guards to protect himself, his wife, and his children from threats issued by Mayor Bill Campbell's "fight to the death" minority lobby in Atlanta. Apparently, black Mayor Bill Campbell believes in violence, intimidation, and extortion as justifiable means of subduing his opponents.] Atlanta's Black Mayor Destroying
Affirmative Action (07/26/99 - no link) "At city hall in Atlanta, the rash and combative African-American mayor, Bill Campbell, is unintentionally conducting a case study in how to destroy support for an affirmative action program. "Denouncing critics of the city's set-aside program as racists and comparing them to the Ku Klux Klan, Campbell is likely to assure the demise of the program he is trying to save. "Going down to defeat after defeat in referendums and courtrooms around the country, affirmative action hardly needs friends like Campbell and his compatriots. Imagine what would have happened if the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., had spoken enthusiastically of hating his opponents, as a Campbell ally did at a recent rally.
"Indeed, if Campbell had kept the city's set-aside program free of corruption and
cronyism, he might be better prepared to face a threatened court challenge [by the
Southeastern Legal Foundation]. But Atlanta's set-aside program has been plagued by
mismanagement, including contracts awarded to sham minority owners, who then turn over
work to established white businesses; bids awarded to politically connected by incompetent
bidders; and bids awarded to wealthy black business owners who no longer need affirmative
action." (The Daily Herald 07/27/99 by Cynthia Tucker)
For More News on the Atlanta Set-Aside Battle, See Also: Atlanta Set-Aside Older News Stories Federal Probe into Atlanta's Corrupt Set-Asides End Atlanta - Black Mayor Bill Campbell Declares War on Whites Page |
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