Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Blacks Assail Lynching Cartoon in Paper : Activism: Protesters demand apology from Antelope Valley Press for running a panel commenting on the Denny trial.

About 40 angry black residents gathered outside a Palmdale church Tuesday to demand an apology from a newspaper that published an editorial cartoon depicting a black man being lynched by the Ku Klux Klan.

Lynda Thompson Taylor, president of the Antelope Valley branch of the NAACP, described the cartoon, published Oct. 27 in the Antelope Valley Press, as a “vulgar attack on people of color.”

“We feel this showed a lack of sensitivity to our children, who deserve better,” she said. “We hold you accountable for the images you depict in your paper.”

In the cartoon, one hooded klansman, holding a newspaper announcing acquittals in the Reginald Denny beating trial, says to another klansman who has joined in the lynching: “Relax. . . . Mob violence is only a misdemeanor.”

During the protest in the courtyard at Whosoever Will Christian Church, Taylor was joined by local ministers, representatives of black groups and others who said the drawing may stir up racism in the Antelope Valley.

“I’d like to know how they’d feel if it were the reverse--a group of black people hanging a white person,” said Margurite Hobson of Lake Los Angeles. “Then they’d see our point.”

Others said the lynch scene hit too close to home, reviving memories of the mistreatment that many blacks endured in the recent past.

“I was outraged, I was angry and I was hurt,” said Izetta Hall of Palmdale.

The cartoon was drawn by Chris Britt of the News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., and distributed by San Diego-based Copley News Service.

The day after it appeared, Larry Grooms, editor-in-chief of the Antelope Valley Press, wrote a column in which he extended “my personal apology for any unintended offense the images in the cartoon caused to any readers.”

He said he believed that “the cartoonist was saying the Denny case verdicts had reopened a door to lawlessness that a lot of people thought was long closed. Nothing racist in that message.”

In the column, Grooms said that neither he nor his staff is racist.

Residents attending Tuesday’s protest rejected the column as “a rationalization” and demanded a more direct apology.

Grooms said in an interview Tuesday that he believes the column was sufficient. “The apology was for the imagery, which I recognize was offensive. . . . I thought it was a good apology. No one has asked me for anything further.”

Grooms said the cartoon was selected by a staff member he declined to identify. The editor said he did not see it before it appeared in the paper. Afterward, Grooms said he talked to the staff member about why the cartoon should not have been published and said the employee “feels badly about it.”

The cartoon was distributed to about 300 newspapers. Nanette Wiser, editorial director of Copley News Service, said she does not know how many papers had published it.

Wiser said black students at the University of Iowa protested last month when the cartoon appeared in the college’s newspaper. The cartoon also generated a handful of protest calls when it appeared initially in the Tacoma newspaper, said John Komen, editor of the News Tribune.

“This is just one of many points of view that cartoonists provided to us,” Wiser said. “Because we are providing a forum for debate, we try not to censor our cartoons.”

In a prepared statement, Britt, who drew the panel, said: “A cartoon is not meant to be fair. I was illustrating a point that mob violence or being caught up in the heat of the moment is no excuse for causing harm to another human being, regardless of race.

“In my opinion, justice was not carried out, so I created a cartoon using an extreme example to make my point. It was not my intention to offend anyone.”