Racial Issues

Thomas Dickerson Dawes, a retired civil engineer and former chairman of the Baltimore County Human Relations Commission who touched off a controversy in 1970 when he investigated several incidents of racial unrest in southeastern Baltimore County, died Nov. 5 of pancreatic cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care. Mr. Dawes died three days shy of his 85th birthday. Mr. Dawes was born in Baltimore and raised on a Falls Road farm that was purchased by his great-grandfather in 1859 and has remained in his family since that time.

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. lashed back at his Republican challenger yesterday, calling Paul H. Rappaport's assertion that Curran told state troopers he would not represent them if they were sued by the American Civil Liberties Union "an out-and-out lie.""He either has zero credibility or he owes me an apology," the three-term incumbent said as the once-quiet attorney general's race became increasingly vitriolic.Rappaport did back down slightly from his earlier statement that Curran himself threatened to withhold state representation in a ACLU lawsuit charging that the state police and members of a drug interdiction team had used race as a factor in conducting traffic stops and searches.

A Baltimore County judge decided against capital punishment for convicted murderer Douglas A. Starliper of Woodlawn yesterday, saying a death sentence and its decades-long appeal process would leave the victims' families without closure. Circuit Judge Dana M. Levitz said that he knew of no other Maryland judge who had noted the painful arduousness of the death penalty process as a reason to decide against it. "The reality of the situation is that were the death penalty imposed in this case, the victims' families have to look forward to years, years of appeals, of retrials," Levitz said in court.

Prime-time network television is not the place you might expect to find a serious discussion of race -- especially during a season drowning in sitcoms about young friends.But, contrary to notions of network entertainment as essential mindlessness, an informed and highly charged discourse on ethnicity, power and race is now taking place every weeknight on ABC, CBS, NBC and even Fox.To an extent without precedent, millions of Americans are bearing witness nightly to symbolic representations of some of their deepest feelings on one of the deepest issues in the national psyche.

To Baltimore voters, next month's Democratic primary for Prince George's County executive may seem familiar. That's because it looks a lot like the race in Baltimore three years ago, when voters had to choose a successor to Kurt L. Schmoke, the city's first African-American mayor. As in that race, when the city elected Martin O'Malley, Prince George's voters must select a replacement for the county's first black executive, Wayne K. Curry, at a time when crime is rising, schools are failing and a general malaise has taken hold.

THE ISSUE: The acquittal last week of a white Pasadena teenager in the death of Noah Jamahl Jones, a black student at Northeast High School, has rekindled racial issues that have surrounded his death since six white men were charged with manslaughter last year. Local black community leaders asked for calm moments after Jacob Tyler Fortney, 19, was acquitted Thursday, and police are keeping a watchful eye for potential violence. But some observers say the racial aspects of the case have been overblown, and that other factors led to the deadly confrontation in July on a Pasadena street.

I found Patrick Sheridan's letter about heritage to be quite disconcerting and felt compelled to respond. In making the statement that African Americans by their very existence have a richer heritage than others is a racist statement. Are African Americans comprised of richer heritages than those born in the Middle East or Greece with thousands of years of civilization? Does the author feel that those of Gaelic or Celtic heritages did not suffer at the hands of Romans or Britain under their cruel and oppressive rule?

John A. McDermott,70, a social activist who founded the Chicago Reporter, a publication devoted to analyzing local racial issues, died of leukemia Saturday in Chicago.The native of Philadelphia moved to Chicago in 1960 to be the executive director of the Catholic Interracial Council, a lay organization that promoted civil rights.After a brief stint in Washington as a senior staff member at the Urban Institute, he returned to Chicago in 1970. Two years later, he persuaded the Community Renewal Society, an arm of the United Church of Christ, to sponsor a newsletter that would bring investigative journalism to the problems of race and poverty.

THE QUESTION Maryland native Edward Norton is starring as a magician in The Illusionist. Which of his film roles is your favorite? WHAT YOU SAY I think Edward Norton's best role is a tie between Red Dragon and American History X. He shows that he can play both the protagonist and the antagonist in each of these movies. KARYN WARFIELD, DUNDALK American History X was a powerful story, and Norton showed a lot of range in his characterization of a white supremacist so full of hate. ... But the role I liked the best was in The Score with Robert DeNiro.

Committee to present school boundary proposals The Long Range Facility Planning Committee of the Board of Education will present final recommendations for boundary adjustments affecting several schools at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Westminster High School. The adjustments are necessary in anticipation of the opening of Shiloh Middle School this year, Century High School in 2001 and the new Westminster area high school in 2002. The high school is at 1225 Washington Road. Information: 410-751-3179.