Racial Problems

HOW MANY AMERICANS figure that alleged terrorist Osama bin Laden is quaking in his boots by now? A show of hands please. Anyone? Anyone?Of course he isn't. The bombs we dropped in Afghanistan missed him and his gathering of terrorists. The bombs we dropped in Sudan either destroyed a deadly chemical weapons plant -- if you believe President Clinton and that ever-reliable, never-prevaricating American intelligence community -- or a pharmaceutical plant. A CNN news report says one of our bombs also hit a candy factory near Khartoum.

At Francis Scott Key High School in mostly rural northwest Carroll County, the few black students are used to the occasional threatening looks and the racial slurs muttered in the hallways.But they weren't prepared for what happened at the homecoming dance three weeks ago.In a gesture directed toward a black student, a white student pantomimed the motion of pulling a noose. The school principal intervened, removed the white student and his friends from the gym, and the dance continued.But the offensive incident has not been forgotten.

A Baltimore police sergeant who filed a $13.5 million discrimination suit against the city in 1996 has negotiated a confidential settlement, ending a case that exposed years of racial division inside the Police Department. Settling the case could help city police address lingering racial problems and give new Commissioner Edward T. Norris a relatively clean slate. The department is negotiating with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which found evidence of racial discrimination in 1998.

Havana -- To look at her meager two-room house that doubles as a storefront souvenir shop, it may not seem that Vivian Madrigal Ponjuan has a lot in life. But she says she is fortunate because she has a roof that doesn't leak, running water and a refrigerator full of food. The fact that she has a warm place to sleep is a gift of the revolution more than 40 years ago that put Fidel Castro in power, she said. Life before the revolution was hard for her family, who, like many blacks, lived in extreme poverty.

Baltimore's police chief agreed yesterday that his department has racial problems and vowed to implement reforms proposed in a report that concluded black officers are treated more harshly than white officers when accused of misconduct.Commissioner Thomas C. Frazier said many of the recommendations -- such as making trial boards more diverse and increasing the number of black officers doing internal investigations -- have been under way for months."We have made tremendous progress in a lot of areas," Frazier said, speaking publicly on the issue for the first time since the report ordered by Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke was released Tuesday.

A once-exiled South African political activist said she will use her own experiences with suffering to understand better the suffering of others, such as AIDS victims and substance abusers.Mankekolo Mahlangu-Ngcobo spoke Friday on what she called a "happy day" as she was ordained a deacon in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Ms. Mahlangu-Ngcobo fled South Africa in 1980 after she was exiled for taking part in political uprisings. She returned to South Africa for a visit last year.She is now assistant pastor at Bethel A.M.E.

For her efforts as the charismatic head of the Cambridge Non-Violent Action Committee during the battle for civil rights in the early 1960s, Gloria Richardson Dandridge was called "Glorious Gloria." Others said she was like a second Harriet Tubman.The strong-willed housewife, who fearlessly pushed aside the bayonets of the National Guardsmen sent to maintain law and order, rose to national prominence as a civil rights leader who led marches and was arrested as she sought to promote civil rights for Eastern Shore blacks.

ANNAPOLIS -- Jackie Gilmer stood before the crowd sitting in the pews last night at the First Baptist Church, her voice shaking as she spoke."I feel Rodney King's fury," she said. "When the verdict came down, I cried. It really hurt me. The only difference between Rodney King and myself is there was a video camera to record what happened."Ms. Gilmer told the crowd about a beating she said she received at the hands of a police officer 2 1/2 years ago. Then she related her account of four officers surrounding a handcuffed man and one of them beating him with a club.

Leann Martin felt inconvenienced when she had to prove she bought something she was carrying through a department store without a bag.When the sales clerk followed her as she left the store, she said she felt harassed."

Snowden seeks 3rd term, not Mayor Hopkins' jobSurrounded by more than 200 supporters, Annapolis Alderman Carl O. Snowden announced his bid for re-election last night, ending months of speculation over whether he would run for mayor.A jubilant Mr. Snowden told the crowd of relatives, supporters and politicians at the American Legion post on Forest Drive that he was seeking his third and last term on the Annapolis City Council.The Ward 5 Democrat and civil rights activist expressed interest this year in challenging Mayor Alfred A. Hopkins.