Apartheid. USA 1988

December 31, 1987:

The New York Times takes Mayor Edward Koch to task for his sharp denunciation of a black priest, Father Lawrence Lucas in what the mayor considered a slur on New York Jews. ‘While justified to defend himself’, commented the Times, ‘Mr Koch fueled the fire by denouncing the “vile rhetoric” on the part of some of the militant leaders in the minority community.’ Even in normal times such sputter-

[p. 154]

ing would be unacceptable. In the wake of the Howard Beach case, it is intolerable. The freezing weather ought to be considered a blessing: without it, New York could well become a racial tinderbox... New Yorkers of all races have a right to expect leadership from those who would lead. And leadership begins with a civil tongue.’

In the meantime, amid the crisis in Keysville, Georgia over a democratic election for a town government, a Federal Judge in Atlanta, Owen Forrester, ordered an election rejecting the argument of a state judge, that the town's boundaries were too indistinct to hold a legal election. In Washington, the Justice Department announced that it would send two Federal observers to monitor Keysville's lone polling place ‘to determine whether minorities are able to vote without interference.’^194.

194. The New York Times, from a report by Associated Press