Mayor Urges Robbins to Quit Elks Over Racial Issue

Mayor Tom Bradley called Wednesday for state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana) to send a “powerful message” against racism by resigning immediately from the Van Nuys Elks Lodge, which voted for the second time Tuesday to reject membership applications from two black men.

But Robbins, who sponsored Jules S. Bagneris III and Thomas J. Montgomery for membership, said he will continue trying to win acceptance for the two men into the white-dominated organization.

“I’m not going to walk away and concede the fight to those who would treat Mr. Bagneris and Mr. Montgomery unfairly,” Robbins said.

Rejected along with Bagneris and Montgomery on Tuesday was a Robbins aide, Jack Sheffield, who is white.

Robbins said he and several other lodge members are looking for a loophole in the Elks’ bylaws, which prohibit applicants who have been rejected twice from reapplying to the fraternal organization for six months.

Elks officials, however, said it is against their rules to reconsider membership applications before the six-month period elapses.

Bagneris and Montgomery were first rejected last week when only 35 of the lodge’s 370 members voted. The lodge does not reveal the results of its membership votes, but sources involved in the election said Tuesday’s election drew 53 members, who voted 34-19 to admit the men, just two votes short of the two-thirds necessary for admission.

Bradley was out of town and could not be reached for comment Wednesday, a spokeswoman said. But in a letter to Robbins on City Hall stationery, the mayor thanked Robbins for his efforts to secure membership for Bagneris and Montgomery and said: “It seems to me your only moral alternative is to submit your resignation. . . . Resignation by you and others in the Lodge who abhor discriminatory practices is the most powerful message you can send.”

Support for Robbins

But Bagneris, 29, a Lake View Terrace resident and minister at a church in El Centro, said he does not want Robbins to resign. He hopes to eventually gain admission to the lodge through the efforts of Robbins and other members, Bagneris said. Montgomery, 67, a retired state motor vehicles examiner living in Pacoima, could not be reached for comment.

“When Mayor Bradley ran in 1969 and lost, he didn’t let one defeat cause him to say he wouldn’t run again,” Bagneris said. “I’m not a quitter. I want to see this through to the end.”

The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, as the organization is officially known, recently came under fire for its policies toward racial minorities when two black men tried to join the Lompoc lodge earlier this year. The men were finally admitted to the lodge last week after the Elks national membership decided that lodges would admit new members who could garner a two-thirds vote. Previously, it took only three opposing votes for a prospective member to be rejected.

Elks critics said that in the past the “three-vote blackball” system was used to exclude racial minorities.

(The Associated Press reported that, in the wake of the Lompoc lodge’s acceptance of the two black members, the state attorney general’s office is moving to close a civil rights investigation of the issue there.

(“We have not made the formal closure yet, but I’ve talked to the two men who got in and they seem to be satisfied. It is fair to say we are seriously considering closing the case,” Deputy Atty. Gen. Louis Verdugo told the AP.

(Verdugo said the state had not decided whether to investigate the Van Nuys lodge, the AP reported.)

The rejection of Bagneris and Montgomery has outraged the black community in Los Angeles, said Theodore M. Shaw, western regional counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

“There’s a name for what’s going on here: racism,” Shaw said. “It shouldn’t take this organization this much time to reach a point where it can find qualified black individuals.”

Jose De Sosa, president of the Valley Branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People and the association’s state conference president, joined Bradley in calling for Robbins and other lodge members to resign.

“Much more could be done on the outside,” De Sosa said. “Resigning would make a significant statement that the Elks lodge has to change and adapt to the new concept of judging individuals on their character, not their color.”

Dan Davis, acting exalted ruler of the Van Nuys lodge, said Tuesday after the vote that the lodge should not be considered racist because “the charities we support extend to everyone regardless of who they are or where they come from.”

Robert Verte, secretary to the national organization’s grand exalted ruler, said the organization gave $5.1 million to about 2,000 high school seniors last year for college scholarships. Elks lodges work through local high schools to find eligible candidates who have demonstrated financial need and scholastic aptitude, he said.

The organization also donated funds to the handicapped, to veterans and has a drug awareness education program for elementary school students, he said.