Court to Review Rights Ruling

Oh isn’t this just swell! Five “noble” Supreme Court justices by majority vote have decided to reevaluate the Runyon vs. McCrary, involving a case that outlawed racist white academies.

It gets blessings from the likes of such people as Bruce Fein “who welcome the move and said ‘it represents a sea change in attitude’ on the court. ‘It sends a signal to the country that affirmative action and some of the other civil rights laws have gone too far’ ” (Part I, April 26). What nonsense!

I am a registered Republican, conservative by nature and most definitely not a “bleeding heart” for minority causes. I do, however, believe in equal rights for all people and a judicial system that strives to pursue that honorable goal.

I would suggest that before the Supreme Court justices cast any final and deciding vote for a reversal of that case, they review some documentary film footage of the 1960s and civil rights protests in particular. American people, both black and white, were being killed and brutally beaten because they protested the way blacks were told to go to the back of the bus, drink from different water fountains, eat at different restaurants and stay out of all-white schools! Americans were forced to take a long, hard look at how they perceived themselves and what they actually were! It took courageous men and women, both off and on the Supreme Court, both in and out of Congress, to come to the realization that minorities, blacks in particular, deserved a better chance of living the “good life” which has always been the American dream.

And now we have this! A chance for the Reagan Supreme Court to undo all the good that has taken years to accomplish! By even considering to reevaluate the Runyon-McCrary decision, the Supreme Court has put itself in a position which strongly questions its intentions as a protector of equal rights for blacks and other minorities as well. To eventually reverse the decision and put this country back to where we were before the race riots of the ‘60s, would be an incredible injustice to all Americans and an act of insidious racial bigotry that would stand as an egregious black mark against the Supreme Court of the United States for all time.

VERONICA J.

McGRAW-HOGUE

Downey