Pendleton Draws Fire by Calling Rodino ‘Uncivil Rights’ Victim

The outspoken head of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, plunging into turbulent waters with his first “uncivil rights award,” lashed out Tuesday at New Jersey politicians who, he asserts, have forced a long-tenured, white congressman to retire because he is “the wrong color.”

Commission Chairman Clarence M. Pendleton Jr. ranked the retirement of Rep. Peter W. Rodino Jr. (D-N.J.) atop a growing list of civil rights “absurdities,” edging out two California cases that center on the rights of homosexuals and blacks.

Pendleton, who is black, said the newly established award reflects his personal views, not those of the eight-member commission. A Reagan appointee to the commission, Pendleton is a passionate critic of affirmative action.

Loss of Staff Time Cited

The chairman’s award--coming just as debate has intensified on Capitol Hill over civil rights legislation--drew immediate fire from critics inside and outside the rights panel. They accused Pendleton of diverting staff time and resources to fuel his personal agenda and prejudicing any serious review that the commission might undertake on the cases he cited.

“This is outrageous, absolutely unbelievable, but I guess I should expect this sort of thing from him,” said Commissioner Francis S. Guess, a frequent critic of Pendleton on the bitterly divided panel.

Guess called the award “an excellent self-marketing ploy” and charged that Pendleton has made “a mockery” of the commission’s function as a deliberative body charged with reviewing civil rights issues.

Jim Williams, spokesman for the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, said: “The idea of Mr. Pendleton presenting such an award is really ridiculous. He has no standing in the civil rights community.”

Newark Mayor Named

Pendleton, the first black to lead the civil rights panel, named Newark Mayor Sharpe James winner of his “Perpetrator of Uncivil Rights” award for his role in Rodino’s pending resignation. Rodino, under pressure from black groups, announced last week that he is stepping down after 20 terms in office.

Pendleton argued that the Rodino case marked the most “blatant” example of recent civil rights injustices, in which race took precedent over merit. “Rodino has been pressured to retire so that a proper--read ‘black’--representative can be elected,” he said. “The Newark power brokers have decided that he is not ‘their’ representative--he is the wrong color.”

Rodino refused to comment. Mayor James, calling the awards “a joke,” said: “I will not dignify (Pendleton’s) comment with a response.”

Two California civil rights cases also prompted denunciations from Pendleton. These were the awarding of custody of a 16-year-old San Diego boy to the homosexual companion of his late father, despite the appeal of the mother, Betty Lou Batey; and the state’s refusal to administer an IQ test to a black child because the tests had been declared racially and culturally biased in a 1979 court case.