Georgia Mayor Begins Effort to Lift Merchant Ban on 21 Blacks
The mayor is trying to get merchants to lift a ban on 21 young blacks named in a list intended to curb crime by targeting problem shoppers, a U.S. Justice Department official said.
Mayor Ben Stewart, who owns three businesses that have been enforcing the ban since December, met Thursday with a federal mediator and representatives of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.
Justice Department spokesman Earnest Jones said the mayor promised to confer with other merchants and try to win a consensus to drop the ban.
The merchants in the town 75 miles east of Atlanta said they decided to ban the 21 people from their stores to end a rash of burglaries and shoplifting.
Ten of those on the list, which was posted in the stores, filed a lawsuit against Stewart and 16 merchants, claiming their civil rights were violated.
Their lawyer, H. Samuel Atkins Jr., said most on the list had never been charged with shoplifting, theft or burglary. Police identified them as people they had to deal with regularly.
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