Suit Blames 2 Deaths on Racism by Fire Chief

Blacks in a small Georgia town have filed a lawsuit in federal court charging their local fire chief and several firefighters, who they allege are members of the Ku Klux Klan, were responsible for the deaths of two black children.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed Thursday, who include the parents of the two children and local black leaders in the town of Blakely, allege their fire department’s response time is much slower to fires in black neighborhoods than to those in white neighborhoods.