Urban League Chapter Backs Rights Choice

William Lucas, Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh’s candidate to head the Justice Department’s civil rights division, has won a vote of support from the board of the Urban League’s Detroit chapter.

The Detroit board of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People had voted to oppose him.

All but two of about 30 members of the Urban League’s 45-member board attending a meeting Wednesday night voted to support Lucas’ anticipated nomination, according to N. Charles Anderson, the chapter’s president. The two abstained, but gave no reason, Anderson said.

Anderson said that the league’s leadership had no plans to promote Lucas’ nomination otherwise. In its statement, the league’s board noted that Lucas, former sheriff and county executive, had served as “an active and viable board member,” assisting the organization in helping blacks and other minorities to realize their potential.

Anderson said that the board has “utmost respect for the commitment and integrity of Mr. Lucas and believes he would serve well if nominated and confirmed.” The NAACP Detroit unit, in opposing Lucas by a board vote of 68 to 2 Monday night, cited concern over his “competence” and sensitivity to civil rights.

Asked about the criticism, Anderson said that Lucas “distinguished himself well when he served on our board, and that’s civil rights in our mind.”

“Bill Lucas ain’t no Jesse Jackson when it comes to civil rights,” Anderson said. “He’s not known as a vociferous and forceful spokesperson on civil rights.

“But we believe he has more experience and sensitivity than (former Assistant Atty. Gen.) William Bradford Reynolds,” a reference to the official who symbolized efforts to cut back on civil rights protections during the eight years of the Ronald Reagan Administration. “We did not feel in good conscience that we could oppose him.”

Lucas, 61, ran unsuccessfully in 1986 as the Republican candidate for governor of Michigan.

Thornburgh, who repeatedly has declared his support for Lucas, has said that opposition to his appointment is largely partisan--from those unhappy over his 1985 conversion from the Democratic to Republican Party.

Lucas has drawn criticism for inflated job descriptions that have appeared on some of his resumes. He also was criticized in a jail overcrowding case and a police brutality decision and for his acceptance, while sheriff, of free air transportation and a Las Vegas hotel room in the mid-1970s from a Detroit man indicted but not convicted on federal gambling conspiracy charges.