Selma Officials OK Plan to End School Conflict
Black and white leaders reached a tentative agreement to give blacks equal representation on Selma’s school board and end eight months of racial strife, the mayor said.
City Council members and Mayor Joe Smitherman met with about two dozen black leaders Sunday night to draw up the agreement, Smitherman said.
The proposal would end white dominance of the school board and ultimately establish a plan to alternate control between the two factions, said Smitherman, who is white. The 5,900-student district is about 80% black.
The 11-member school board’s five blacks walked out last December after the six whites on the panel refused to renew the contract of Norward Roussell, the district’s first black superintendent.
Demonstrations, lawsuits, boycotts and scuffles ensued. A black protest leader was arrested twice.
The agreement would have five white and five black board members voting on all issues. Board Chairman Carl Barker, who is white, would vote only when school litigation matters were involved.
Once all the lawsuits are resolved, the panel would revert to a plan in which whites and blacks would take turns in control, the mayor said.
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