Black Political

A black political action group, charging that Anne Arundel Medical Center has not involved minority firms in its projects, asked the Annapolis hospital Monday to hire more minority-owned companies for a major capital improvements project."

DURING THE last full decade of South Africa's apartheid in the 1980s, neighboring Zimbabwe was often hailed as proof that black majority rule could work. More recently, though, it has become an example of how unwise policies practiced by an unchallenged, aging leader can throw a country into hopelessness.This situation has been only too common in post-colonial Africa. Eventually, unhappiness swept aside such founding presidents as Tanzania's Julius Nyerere, Zambia's Kenneth Kaunda and Malawi's Hastings Kamuzu Banda.

A Northwest Baltimore legislator's plan to move to Baltimore County and run for the Maryland Senate in the new, mostly black, 10th District has touched off warfare with county political hopefuls who fear an invasion of city politicians in their turf.Del. Dolores G. Kelley, who says she'll move to Randallstown in the spring, has already been labeled a "carpetbagger" in unsigned leaflets left on windshields along Liberty Road.Her plans have raised the hackles of county activists who have been working for the past eight years to develop a new political organization among the county's fast-growing black middle class neighborhoods stretching from Woodlawn to Randallstown.

Two District Court judges were named yesterday by Gov. William Donald Schaefer to Circuit Court vacancies in Baltimore City and Carroll County.In the city, Mr. Schaefer's choice of Judge Andre Maurice Davis marked the second time this fall that he has elevated a black member of the lower court to the white-dominated circuit bench.Judge Davis, 41, replaces Judge Mary Arabian, a close friend and former law partner of the governor who retired earlier this year and who was named yesterday to the University of Maryland Board of Regents.

Less than an hour after Anne Arundel County Executive Robert R. Neall announced the hiring of a new police chief, who is white, a coalition of black politicians and community leaders criticized Neall's record in hiring and promoting minorities, calling it "Annpartheid."The Black Political Forum, a bi-partisan group, yesterday released a critical report on the county executive's first 100 days in office titled, "Bobby Neall's Days Has Lighthizer and Pascal's Ways."The forum's 14-page report accuses Neall of continuing in the tradition of former County Executives Robert A. Pascal and O. James Lighthizer by excluding blacks from leadership positions and continuing to maintain "virtually an all-white, male-dominated power structure."

A two-pronged effort to enlarge the Baltimore County Council by gathering signatures to place a charter amendment on the November ballot has faltered, and may fail.With less than six weeks left before 10,000 valid signatures must be submitted to the county elections board, one group gathering them has virtually given up and the other has only 3,600 names, organizers said.Together, the eastern county group based in Essex and a western county group based in the Liberty Road corridor have collected about 7,000 names, according to Del. E. Farrell Maddox, the Essex Democrat leading the eastern group, and Harold G. Gordon, the west-side group coordinator.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- South Africa took a giant leap last week toward the democratic future that its political leaders have been talking about for two years.After months of reforms that eliminated the country's apartheid laws, the major political players in South Africa's long-running racial drama agreed to begin formal negotiations on a new constitution.All the action up to now, beginning with President F. W. de Klerk's stunning announcement Feb. 2, 1990, that he was unbanning opposition groups and freeing black political leaders from prison, has paved the way for these negotiations.

The Black Political Forum has asked the county to create a new County Council district in the Annapolis area to increase black voting power.The forum, a group of county and Annapolis leaders, made its proposal to the county Charter Revision Commission during a public hearing at Glen Burnie High School Thursday night.The commission is charged with redrawing council districts to reflect population changes recorded in the 1990 census.The commission will make its recommendations to the County Council in September.

Black leaders and city and county officials will celebrate the birthday of Malcolm X in Annapolis Sunday."The significance of that isincredible," said Alderman Carl O. Snowden, D-Ward 5, one of two black City Council members. "He was such a controversial figure."Leslie Stanton, acting chairman of the Black Political Forum, which is sponsoring the celebration, said the group chose to honor Malcolm X, the militant black leader who was assassinated 26 years ago, because of his values and vision.

Annapolis community activists are calling for reopening Adams Park Elementary and accusing officials of shutting them out of the process of redrawing school attendance boundaries.A coalition of black community organizations announced Friday that it would hold a rally at 2 p.m. today at Adams Park Elementary to drum up support for a redistricting plan that would include reopening the school at Clay and Glenwood streets."Our position is that all kids should have equal opportunity and access to opportunity in the educational system," Orlie Reid, co-chairman of the Educational Equity Committee for Community Relations, said at a press briefing Friday at the Mount Olive A.M.E.