Racism Led Official to Fight Blacks’ Camp, Judge Finds

A former chairman of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors was motivated by anti-black bias when he helped scuttle plans to open a mountain camp and retreat that would have been used by African-Americans, a federal judge ruled Monday.

U.S. District Judge William M. Byrne Jr. also found the County of San Bernardino liable in a case that sparked wide controversy in the overwhelmingly white communities southwest of Lake Arrowhead.

Byrne found no proof that two other white county supervisors who voted in 1987 to deny the Brotherhood Crusade an operating permit for the camp had been motivated by racial bias.

The Brotherhood Crusade sued the supervisors after the proposal to build a camp was denied, charging that the board vote was the result of racial discrimination.

Danny Bakewell, president of the South-Central Los Angeles-based organization, left the U.S. Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles elated.

He told scores of cheering supporters outside that the ruling was “a beginning of real healing” for those frustrated with recent court decisions such as the not guilty verdicts against four police officers accused of beating Rodney G. King.

“There is now some justice that has been rendered to the African-American community,” Bakewell said. “We can win. We can win.”

But Richard Terzian, who represented the county and former Supervisor John Joyner--the only individual found liable in the case--maintained that race played no part in the board’s vote and indicated he would appeal the decision.

His clients, however, must first go to trial again early next year to determine monetary damages to be awarded to the Brotherhood Crusade. Joyner, who is no longer a supervisor, could not be reached for comment.

“It was a land-use issue,” said Terzian. “The facility was in the wrong place. The place was too small, and there was too much of a noise and traffic problem.”

But Brotherhood Crusade lawyers said such complaints were smoke screens for the racism of the white residents of a trailer park next to the five acres near Crestline where the camp was to operate. Bakewell’s group acquired the property in 1985 to open a camp for youngsters and to operate a retreat for senior citizens and other community groups.

“It looked like it would be approved with no fuss,” said Mary Lou Byrne, a lawyer whose firm, Nossaman, Guthner, Knox & Elliott, represented the Brotherhood Crusade at no charge. “Then the residents got wind of it and packed meetings and wrote letters using racist code words and stereotypes.”

Joyner--in whose district the property was located--and his supporters had the Brotherhood Crusade “jump through all kinds of hoops” said Byrne. “Every time they would satisfy one requirement, another one was created.”

First, the permit was denied by planning officials, but that denial was appealed to the Board of Supervisors. The board, with one member absent, deadlocked 2 to 2 and sent the matter back to planning officials, who finally approved it. It was defeated when it returned to the board.