Hanging of Black Woman Renews Racial Fears

The body of a black woman was found hanging from a tree Tuesday in suburban Lafayette, renewing concerns about racist violence first raised after the hanging death of a black man in nearby Concord last winter.

A Contra Costa County sheriff’s spokesmen said there was no obvious indication whether the young, poorly dressed woman, who was not immediately identified, had taken her own life or was killed.

Black leaders were quick to point to the death as evidence of racist violence in Contra Costa County, a collection of small, mostly white communities 30 miles east of San Francisco, which they claim is the home of Ku Klux Klan sympathizers.

‘Klan Is Active’

“I think this is the same thing I said before--the Klan is active in this area, and it’s not going to stop,” said Thordie Ashley, secretary of the Emeryville chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People. “The (U.S.) Justice Department should begin to move on this.”

John Holford of the San Francisco FBI office said his agency has concluded its investigation into the Nov. 2, 1985, hanging death of 21-year-old Timothy Lee in Concord--a death that occurred on the same night that two white-robed white men knifed two black men outside a Concord bar. Police ruled his death a suicide. Holford would not discuss details of the investigation.

The knifings occurred after the two white men, who later claimed that their robes were for a costume party, saw the blacks talking to some girls. Both of the attackers were sent to prison.

Lee’s body was found a few hours after the knifings. Family members, friends and black leaders strongly disagreed with the ruling that his death was a suicide.

Family members said that they believed that Lee was killed because he was gay.

Called Depressed

Lee’s roommate later told authorities Lee had been depressed and had suggested he might kill himself during a phone conversation hours before his body was found.

Civil rights activists began coming forward then with alleged incidents ranging from taunts and threats against black schoolchildren to slingshot and arson assaults on Asians and Pacific islanders.

A probe of possible racism in central Contra Costa County by the state Fair Employment and Housing Commission concluded in a draft report that local officials were not adequately responding to the problem.

The report criticized Concord-area police for failing to take seriously allegations of racial harassment. The report also scolded the Mt. Diablo Unified School District for having “attempted to ignore or deemphasize the existence of racial tension” in the classroom. The final report is scheduled for release in September.

Cites Membership List

Lynette S. Jee, staff counsel for the commission and author of the report, said one of the men arrested in the knifings had a membership list indicating that “there is the presence (in the county) of 20 to 30 people sympathetic to the Klan.”

The woman’s body found Tuesday was discovered by garbage men on their rounds about 7:30 a.m. near a Lloyds Bank of California parking lot. Sue Brown, who works at a photo shop nearby, said the body was dirty and dressed in flower-print lavender pants and an army fatigue jacket.

“She looked like a transient,” Brown said.