The State - News from April 14, 1988

The Los Angeles Brotherhood Crusade and the Black United Fund Inc. filed a $2-million civil rights lawsuit against San Bernardino County supervisors, claiming the board’s vote last April to quash a proposed camp for minority youths near Crestline in the San Bernardino Mountains was racially motivated. Supervisors rejected plans, claiming noise and activity at the camp would be incompatible with the area’s residential character. But the Los Angeles-based black philanthropic organization said in its Los Angeles federal court suit that the neighborhood’s “acrimonious, all-out campaign” against the project was “bereft of factual basis” and motivated primarily by race. The suit alleges that a county planning commissioner told the project’s backers that nearby residents had “certain fears about the unknown” that “stem from old-time racial fears.” The suit seeks unspecified general damages, $2 million in punitive damages and court-ordered project approval.