Pendleton Cites Rodino as ‘Victim of Uncivil Rights’

Clarence Pendleton Jr., the controversial chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, named Rep. Peter W. Rodino Jr. (D-N.J.) the first recipient of his personal “victim of uncivil rights award” today.

Rodino, a white, announced his retirement earlier this month after pressure from black politicians who want a black to represent Rodino’s 10th Congressional District, which is 58% black.

Pendleton said the incident involving Rodino, who has been elected to represent the district 20 times, “has undermined the very notion of representative government.”

Pendleton, a black whose views on civil rights have often landed him in hot water with the civil rights community, said he was instituting the award to call attention to “the absurdities which pass under the umbrella of civil rights.”

He also scored the recent student and faculty protests over the appointment of the non-deaf Elisabeth Zinser, chosen to head Gallaudet University, the nation’s major higher educational institution for the deaf. Zinser was forced to resign because she is not deaf.

And he also cited the case of Betty Lou Batey, who was denied custody of her 16-year-old son by a San Diego court after her homosexual ex-husband died of AIDS. Instead, the court awarded custody to the father’s homosexual lover.

In his version of the Rodino incident, Pendleton noted that in 1972 the congressman’s district was redrawn by federal court order “so as not to dilute black voting strength. But Peter Rodino continued to be elected.

“So in 1982, the 10th District was redrawn again so that it is now 58% black--and still Peter Rodino was reelected,” Pendleton said.

“Now Rodino has been pressured to retire so that a proper--read black-- representative can be elected,” he said. “This notion that Peter Rodino doesn’t represent the people of the 10th District is absurd. They have elected him to Congress 20 times and continue to support his leading role on civil rights.”

Pendleton said he will issue his “uncivil rights” awards as often as “they are properly earned--perhaps once a month.”