Patrick Rooney

Ken Fermoyle (letter, May 12) is just wrong about J. Patrick Rooney. In 1976, when voices in corporate America were silent, Rooney, living in Indiana, had his company sue Illinois and Educational Testing Service, charging intentional discrimination against minorities. After Rooney’s company spent $2 million, the civil rights case was settled with a groundbreaking agreement that eliminated unnecessary racial disparities, all because of a courageous out-of-state businessman named Pat Rooney.

Opponents attack Rooney for being out-of-state. People remember that my uncle, Martin Luther King Jr., and father, A.D. King, who fought discrimination throughout America, were also called out-of-state agitators. The name-calling does not shade Rooney’s tremendous dedication to helping powerless Americans.

Prop. 226 simply says employees must give permission before an employer or union can take money out of their paychecks for politics. Rooney has always supported the civil rights of working Americans, be it in California or rural Alabama.

ALVEDA CELESTE KING, King for America, Atlanta