Apartheid. USA 1988

January 5, 1988:

Congress, attaching special significance to the financial plight of black colleges and universities, has increased the amount of Federal aid to those schools by about 50 percent this year, to 73.1 million dollars. The action gained little attention in the 604 billion dollars catch-all spending bill that became law on December 22. But lawmakers, Congressional experts and lobbyists for colleges say it's Congress's strongest statement to date on behalf of black colleges.^196.

Early on Christmas night, Loyal Garner Jr (34) and a truck-driver for the Sabine Parish, the county government in Louisiana, said goodbye to his wife and six children in Florien, Louisiana, close to Hemphill, Texas. He hopped in his pick-up truck and headed with two companions to retrieve a friend's automobile just across the border into Texas. Two days later, he was dead. His swollen, bloodied features almost unrecognizable after a night in the Sabine County jail in Hemphill, East Texas, a town of about 1 500 people. Mr Garner had been stopped by local police officers not long after entering Texas and charged with driving while intoxicated. The officers said he refused to take a breath test and was taken to the county jail. Mr Garner's two

196. The New York Times, from a report by Julie Johnson

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companions, Alton Maxie and his brother Johnnie, both also black, were arrested as well and charged with public intoxication. Alton Maxie said the men began banging on their jail cells more than a half hour after their arrest, asking to be allowed to place a call to their families. Mr Maxie said two officers appeared and asked who was beating on the cells. When Mr Garner said it was he, the officers entered the cell and began beating him, Mr Maxie told the New York Times. He said Mr Garner was then dragged to a room down the hall where they could hear his moans as the beating continued. ‘They took me out there and asked if I wanted some,’ Mr Maxie said. ‘They got in my face and said then I better go back to my cell and keep my mouth shut.’ Later, he said, Mr Garner was dumped back in the cell, his shirt soaked in blood and his face battered. Mr Garner spent the night lying on the ground, his eyes open, breathing heavily but not moving, Mr Maxie said. When deputies were unable to rouse him in the morning, Mr Garner was rushed to a local hospital, and then transferred to the Tyler Medical Center where he died December 27. The preliminary coroner's report said he died of head injuries. Now, the three police officers concerned, Police Chief Thomas Ladner, and county sheriff's deputies Bo Hyden and Bill Horton have been charged with depriving Mr Garner of his civil rights by beating him to death. The Times specified, ‘Mr Garner was black and the three law-enforcement officers, like the rest of the Hemphill and county law-enforcement officers, were white.’^197.

197. The New York Times, from a report by Peter Applebome