Panel to Ease Racial Tension Reborn; Time Deemed Ripe

One Glendale police officer tells the story this way: Several years ago a black man was stopped by police for speeding on a city street. The police officer walked over to the man’s car and asked, “What are you doing in Glendale?”

The implication in the question, the officer telling the story said, was that a black man had no business being in Glendale. The black man, enraged by the question, asked for a Glendale Municipal Court hearing. There he supposedly told the judge that he would gladly pay the fine for speeding but that he wanted to protest the officer’s implication that he, as a black person, should not even be in Glendale.

“Let me assure you, sir,” the judge is said to have replied, “that you are indeed welcome in Glendale and can come back whenever you wish.”

Although no one confirms that the incident actually happened, the anecdote is often told when people talk about race relations in Glendale. The image of the city as a place where blacks and other minorities are not welcome is exacerbated by the fact that the city was the West Coast headquarters for the American Nazi Party until 1965.

Struggling With Image

Today, when less than 1% of the city’s 150,000 residents are black and about 18% are Latino, according to the 1980 census, Glendale is still struggling to overcome an image as a city that would like to keep its door closed to minorities, some city officials say.

To that end, amid recent charges of racism within the Police Department and in the vandalism of a deli owned by a black woman, the Glendale Human Relations Council has been reborn.

The organization started in 1963 at a time of national racial unrest and quietly went out of existence in 1980 as the nationwide civil rights movement ebbed.

The organization’s goals, members say, is to mediate racial disputes and to counsel and help those who feel that they have been discriminated against or racially harassed. The group also plans to hold a series of town hall meetings in which speakers will address racially related topics. The first such meeting was held last week; the next is scheduled for Dec. 11.

Rebirth of Council

The council’s new chairwoman, Geri Brown, said: “There’s always been a subtle hint here that, if you’re not white, you’re not welcome. I’m convinced that this bad rap is felt outside of Glendale and that people are afraid to come here and shop or go to a movie. I want to change that.”

Brown, 43, has been a Glendale resident for six years and owns WWB Bowling Supply in Glendale. She said she started pressing for the rebirth of the council about three months ago after reading reports of vandalism and racial slurs against the black owner of the Glendale deli.

Laurette Yates, owner of the Glen-Deli, told police and the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission that derogatory graffiti had been scrawled on the doors of her Brand Boulevard delicatessen and that racial insults had been directed against her and her 17-year-old daughter.

Brown said she was so stunned by the incidents that she called the mayor, the police chief and other city officials. She said she felt brushed aside when officials assured her that the Yates’ experience was isolated and that such racially motivated attacks rarely occur in Glendale.

“I think the mayor’s position and the City Hall position is to look for good publicity and to deny that any of this exists so as to build up Glendale’s image,” Brown said.

Suit Against Police Department

Members of the new human relations council say they were also spurred into action by last month’s trial in a discrimination suit brought against the Police Department by a Latino officer.

The officer charged that he was denied a promotion to sergeant because of his race. A federal judge ruled that the city did discriminate against the officer and ordered that he be promoted to sergeant. The city is appealing the decision.

During the trial, three black officers testified that they had been the brunt of racial harassment, including a 1980 incident in which one of the officers went to a party at a fellow officer’s house and found that his colleagues, purportedly as a joke, welcomed him with a cross burning in the front yard.

The trial also brought to light racially derogatory cartoons and flyers, some of which a white Glendale police officer admitted producing, that were circulated in the department by that officer and at least two others.

Investigation Under Way

At the request of the judge, city officials are investigating the origins of those materials.

In a recent interview, Mayor Larry Zarian said there may be “some sick minds” in Glendale, but that he believes that discrimination and racial harassment are largely things of the past. He pointed out that a number of people and government officials contacted Yates offering support. A city worker also was assigned to paint out the graffiti on Yates’ store. Zarian said those actions are proof that the city does not tolerate racism.

Brown disagrees, saying city officials are “sticking their heads in the sand.” She said the city needs a continuing program of support for minorities.

After Brown discovered that Glendale had once had a human relations council, she contacted ex-members and other interested persons, and in September a membership meeting was held.

Twelve people attended, including Michael McGlothen, a 26-year-old black bank clerk and Glendale resident who recently received a $1,000 settlement in a discrimination complaint he filed against the owner of a Glendale apartment.

Apartment ‘Unavailable’

McGlothen charged in the complaint that he had sought to rent an apartment in August but was told it was unavailable. He said he sent a Latino co-worker to inquire about the apartment, and the woman was told she could move in immediately.

The apartment owners, James and Avis Dahlen, settled the complaint, brought before the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing, by agreeing to pay a penalty to McGlothen.

McGlothen has become one of the most outspoken members of the 15-member committee.

“When I told one of my co-workers what had happened with the apartment, she looked at me and said, ‘Welcome to Glendale,’ ” McGlothen said. He said his experience spurred him to take an active role in the organization.

Started in 1963

The Glendale Human Relations Council began in 1963, shortly after President John F. Kennedy called for community organizations to work for racial harmony.

Many of the original members of the organization were also members of the First United Methodist Church, which has historically taken an interest in human rights. The Rev. James Anderson is the church’s representative on the newly formed council.

Over the years, the group held several seminars on racial relations and, when riots devastated Watts in 1965 and focused national attention on the plight of blacks in the Los Angeles area, it provided emergency help to the victims.

Former members recall acting as trouble-shooters when tensions erupted in Glendale between minorities and whites. Scott McCreary, president of the organization from 1974 to 1978, recalls mediating disputes in South Glendale when the first influx of Latinos arrived in the late ‘70s.

Early Functions

“There were some pretty rough times, some stabbings and things like that. We held a forum and brought in some local officials to talk about the incidents,” said McCreary, 36, now a member of the new council.

During the 1970s, the organization founded an interracial nursery and established a coffee house for youths.

Its annual banquets brought several prominent speakers to Glendale, including the late Superior Court Judge Alfred Gitelson, who issued the order desegregating Los Angeles schools in 1970. Another featured speaker was Myrlie Evers, widow of Medgar Evers, the black civil rights leader who was assassinated by an unknown gunman outside his Jackson, Miss., home in 1963.

In those days, the organization had more than 200 members and a mailing list of 1,000. Its banquets and events were well-attended by prominent city and county officials, and often its controversial speakers made headlines.

Drifting Away

But, by 1980, the all-volunteer staff began drifting away, and soon the organization stopped meeting. McCreary attributed the group’s demise to a lack of willing volunteers and a general easing of civil rights activities nationwide.

At last Thursday’s town hall meeting at Glendale Central Library, Dr. Bruce Cain, associate professor of political science at the California Institute of Technology, spoke to about 50 people about California’s growing minority population.

The next meeting will be held at the library at 7 p.m. on Dec. 11.