In the face unanimous and universal condemnation from politicians to civil rights organizations, Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell did what everyone was telling him to do - he resigned.Read the background story here.
The office of Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne said it had received a statement from Mr Bardwell saying: "I do hereby resign the office of Justice of the Peace for the Eighth Ward of Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, effective November 3, 2009."
Keith Bardwell was the JP who refused to marry an interracial couple in Louisiana because of his concern for the kids of such a union. He was unapologetic about his attitude and genuinely did not seem to realize what all the fuss was about, as seen in this interview with CBS:
Bardwell was first elected in 1975 as justice of the peace in Ponchatoula, La., a town 55 miles north of New Orleans. His term was set to run through 2014, and he had said that even before the flap, he hadn't intended to run for re-election.
The couple Mr Bardwell refused to issue a license for - Beth Humphrey, 30, and Terence McKay, 32 - have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against him.
"We're saddened that it took national attention to this issue, which was decided back in 1967 by the Supreme Court, and also that it took public admonishment from other elected leaders in order for him to resign," said Laura Catlett, a lawyer for Humphrey and McKay.
The Governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal who had previously called for Bardwell to resign, said Bardwell made the right decision.
"What he did was clearly wrong and this resignation was long overdue," the governor said in a statement.
"I am deeply disturbed by Justice Bardwell's practices and comments concerning interracial marriages," she said. "Not only does his decision directly contradict Supreme Court rulings, it is an example of the ugly bigotry that divided our country for too long.
"By resigning ... and ending his embarrassing tenure in office, Justice Bardwell has finally consented to the will of the vast majority of Louisiana citizens and nearly every governmental official in Louisiana ... We are better off without him in public service," she said.
Catlett said the resignation won't stop the lawsuit, which also names Bardwell's wife as a defendant.
"This does not in any way change the fact that he, with his wife's help, discriminated against an interracial couple while he was a public official," Catlett said.
Beth Humphrey, 30, and Terence McKay, 32, both of Hammond, La. were in love and decided to get married. They went to Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell for the marriage license. He refused because Beth was white and Terence was black and he doesn't do mixed-race marriages.
He suggested that they get someone else to sign the marriage certificate....which they did. They are now happily married....no thanks to Keith Bardwell.
Before continuing any further, I am going to go ahead and call Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell from Hammond, in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana a racist. A racist who has no business being a Justice of the Peace, sworn to uphold the laws of the United States of America.
This issue was decided by the Supreme Court on June, 12, 1967 when it declared: "The Government cannot tell people who they can and cannot marry." See Loving vs Virginia and the story behind the ruling.
“Marriage is one of the ‘basic civil rights of man,’ fundamental to our very existence and survival,” wrote Chief Justice Warren. “Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.”
This has been the law of the land for over 40 years.
According to JP Keith Bardwell, he refused to issue a marriage license out of concern for the children of such a marriage and that it has been his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long. He refutes the notion that he is a racist.
"I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way," Keith Bardwell told AP. “I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else” Bardwell said. "My main concern is for the children."
After having discussions with both blacks and whites, he said he has come to the conclusion that: "Most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society."
"I don't do interracial marriages because I don't want to put children in a situation they didn't bring on themselves," Bardwell said. "In my heart, I feel the children will later suffer."
Beth Humphrey said she called Bardwell on Oct. 6 to inquire about getting a marriage license signed. She says Bardwell's wife told her that Bardwell will not sign marriage licenses for interracial couples.
According to the Census Bureau, Tangipahoa Parish is about 70 percent white and 30 percent black.
Beth Humphrey is an account manager for a marketing firm. Terrence McKay is a welder and they had just returned to Louisiana. Humphrey says she plans to enroll in the University of New Orleans to pursue a masters degree in minority politics.
"That was one thing that made this so unbelievable," she said. "It's not something you expect in this day and age. We are looking forward to having children, and all our friends and co-workers have been very supportive. Except for this, we're typical happy newlyweds."
The ACLU sent a letter to the Louisiana Judiciary Committee, which oversees the state justices of the peace, asking them to investigate Bardwell and recommending "the most severe sanctions available, because such blatant bigotry poses a substantial threat of serious harm to the administration of justice."
"It is really astonishing and disappointing to see this come up in 2009," said American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana attorney Katie Schwartzmann. "He knew he was breaking the law, but continued to do it."
The NAACP branch of Tangipahoa Parishhas also gotten involved. It has forwarded the case to the state and national levels of the civil rights group, calling for Keith Bardwell to resign because of his refusal to issue the marriage license.
“He’s an elected public official and one of his duties is to marry people, he doesn’t have the right to say he doesn’t believe in it,” said Patricia Morris, president of the NAACP branch of Tangipahoa Parish, located near the Mississippi line. “If he doesn’t do what his position calls for him to do, he should resign from that position.”
Keith Bardwell said that in the 34 years he has been a justice of the peace he has never married couples of different races.
“I do not, do not, do mixed-race marriages,” he said. “I always guide them to another justice of the peace. They can go other places and get married. A justice of the peace does not have to marry anybody,” Bardwell said.
In my opinion.... No one should have to put up with the racist attitudes of a bigot masquerading under the pretense that he cares what happens to the children of mixed-race parents. It is none of his business. No one asked for his opinion much less his permission to get married. If he can't do his job without interjecting his personal biases then he should not be a Justice of the Peace. He should resign or be removed from office.....in my opinion.
Brandon Huntley, 31, an unemployed water-sprinkler salesman, said he had to flee South Africa after he was attacked in Mowbray seven times — and stabbed in three of those incidents — by blacks who called him a “white dog” and “settler”. Testifying before an Immigration Board in Ottawa, Canada, he argued his life would be in danger if he returned home because of the color of his skin.
Huntley came to Canada on a visa in 2004 to work as a carnival worker. He returned in 2005 on a one-year visa and stayed for a second year illegally. He went back to South Africa, then entered Canada a third time, and filed his refugee claim in 2008.
Russell Kaplan, a human rights lawyer,who left South Africa 20 years ago, represented Brandon Huntley. He said that not only was he harassed and attacked by black South Africans, he was unable to find work under new legislation that seeks to "empower" black Africans in the work force. Newspaper clippings were presented as evidence of life in South Africa during the August 18 hearing.
Mr Huntley admitted he did not report any of the alleged crimes to the police, saying there was no point because as a white person they would not be interested in pursuing the crimes.
The Immigration and Refugee Board agreed with Huntley and granted him refugee status. William Davis, the board’s chairman, said:
Mr Huntley was “a victim because of his race rather than a victim of criminality” and would “stick out like a sore thumb” in any part of the country because of his skin color. He also said that there was "a picture of indifference and inability or unwillingness" by South Africa to protect "white South Africans from persecution by African South Africans"
He ruled that Huntley's fears of persecution are justified based on the evidence he submitted.
Clive Levin, 40, a white South African, and freelance film cameraman, who lives in Mowbray, has a very different story to tell than the one portrayed by Huntley.
“I just love it here, I fell in love with Mowbray the moment I discovered it. It is this eclectic mix between suburbia and the city. It is a great community, very mixed,” he said.
“This guy was feeding off the paranoia people have about crime. He made it up and it fed into people’s perceptions because he wanted to stay there. Crime is an issue, it is everywhere in this country, but whites are not more in danger here from it than blacks or anyone else,” he said.
Luke Mills, an Englishman who has lived in Mowbray for seven years, agreed the country was getting a “bad rap”.
“The idea that as a white person in South Africa you have somehow drawn the short straw is ludicrous, when you look at the average white person’s life-style and the opportunities which come their way it is laughable... This guy is a con man,” he added.
It is far from the hell hole painted by Mr Huntley. His former white neighbors don’t believe a word of his tale and — strangely, they say — no one seems to have heard of him, not even the owner of the biggest water irrigation business who claims to know “every salesman in the area”.
Anesh Maistry, head of the political section at the South African High Commission in Canada, said board's decision is wrong and belies the reality of South Africa. Maistry also said the board never asked for South Africa's views on Huntley's claims nor did it seek to confirm his allegations of repeated attacks.
"This decision is incorrect, it is not factual, it does not represent the facts on the ground. It portrays South Africa in a negative light and it misrepresents the work that has been done in the last 15 years to build a nonracial society in the country," Maistry said.
Deepak Obrai, Canada's parliamentary secretary to the minister of Foreign Affairs and a Conservative lawmaker in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, expressed outrage over the board's decision in a statement and said it shows a serious lack of judgment.
"Having grown up in Africa and witnessed the devastating effects of apartheid, in this case against blacks and Indians, it is beyond my understanding how a Canadian institution makes a decision on a racial basis," said Obrai, who was born in Tanzania.
In South Africa, the case has infuriated the ruling African National Congress. Both government and the ANC slammed Canada’s decision as racist, saying it perpetuated false stereotypes that black people attacked white people, whereas both were victims of crime which newly elected President Jacob Zuma has pledged to reduce.
“We find the claim by Huntley to have been attacked seven times by Africans due to his skin colour without any police intervention sensational and alarming,” said the ANC’s Brian Sokutu. “Canada’s reasoning for granting Huntley a refugee status can only serve to perpetuate racism.”
Ronnie Mamoepa, spokesman for the Home Affairs Ministry, slammed the Canadian move as preposterous.
“It would have been courteous for the Canadian authorities to contact the South African government to verify this case,” he told reporters. “The allegations are as preposterous as they are laughable.”
The Canadian government, under pressure from South Africa, said it would challenge the ruling of the immigration board's decision in court.
"The government felt that because this is a fairly unique claim, it's something we felt would be wise to put before a higher authority, in this case the Federal Court," said Alykhan Velshi, a spokesman for Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.
"It usually takes four to six months to learn if the Federal Court will hear the case, and several months after that for a decision. If the Federal Court agrees with the government's position, it will ask that the case be re-determined," she said.
Abraham Nkomo, South Africa's High Commissioner to Canada, said he had been told of the Canadian government's decision and that the court would take between 30 and 90 days to review the asylum ruling.
"They have understood our case and submission, and want to place on record that they have a very high regard for South Africa's track record, its inter-racial harmony and democracy that have been observed in our country," he said.
"They also take into regard the bilateral relations between our two countries, which are very strong."
Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. (a Black man) was arrested in his house by Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley (a White man). President Obama (a Black man) says the Cambridge police "acted stupidly" in making the arrest.
The situation escalates and charges of racism and racial profiling are leveled. The President is criticized for defending the Harvard scholar and the unapologetic policeman is backed by his union. The news media, talk shows and blogs all have a field day as the public weighs in with various opinions. Sounds like a powder keg about to explode, right? But not so fast.....President Obama had more to say:
"This has been ratcheting up, and I obviously helped to contribute ratcheting it up," he said. "I want to make clear that in my choice of words, I think I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge police department and Sgt. Crowley specifically. And I could've calibrated those words differently."
In what he called an opportunity for a "teachable moment", Obama, at the suggestion of officer Crowley, invited both men to have a beer with him at the White House.
"My sense is you've got two good people in a circumstance in which neither of them were able to resolve the incident in the way that it should have been resolved, and the way they would have liked it to be resolved," Obama said. "The fact that it has garnered so much attention, I think, is a testimony to the fact that these are issues that are still very sensitive here in America, and -- you know, so to the extent that my choice of words didn't illuminate but rather contributed to more media frenzy, I think that was unfortunate. What I would like to do, then, is to make sure that everybody steps back for a moment, recognizes that these are two decent people."
In what was a very different tone than before, Henry Louis Gates Jr. said he would accept Obama's invitation to the White House for a beer with the President and Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley, who had arrested him. In a statement posted Friday on The Root, a Web site Gates oversees, the scholar said he told Obama he'd be happy to meet with Crowley, whom Gates had accused of racial profiling.
"I told the president that my principal regret was that all of the attention paid to his deeply supportive remarks during his press conference had distracted attention from his health care initiative," Gates said. "I am pleased that he, too, is eager to use my experience as a teaching moment, and if meeting Sergeant Crowley for a beer with the president will further that end, then I would be happy to oblige."
"It is time for all of us to move on, and to assess what we can learn from this experience" Gates said. ".....Because, in the end, this is not about me at all; it is about the creation of a society in which 'equal justice before law' is a lived reality."
A trio of Massachusetts police unions released a joint statement shortly after Obama's latest comments, saying Crowley had a friendly and meaningful conversation with the president.
"We appreciate his sincere interest and willingness to reconsider his remarks about the Cambridge Police Department," according to the statement. "It is clear to us from this conversation, that the President respects police officers and the often difficult and dangerous situations we face on a daily basis."
Isn't it wonderful to see intelligent people act intelligently? I, however do wonder if it's possible for a President, a Professor and a Policeman (yeah the 3 Pees) to agree on what kind of beer they should be drinking.
I can just see the new ad campaign for which ever beer wins: "Intelligent people drink"....... or "the beer that brought the nation back together"...... Stay tuned!!
Henry Louis "Skip" Gates, Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, educator, scholar, writer, editor, and public intellectual. Gates currently serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University, where he is Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.
The above was taken from his Wikipedia biography. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is also Black. Whether this fact played a role in his arrest at his own home or not is as matter of conjecture. Below is one account of what happened when police were summoned to his house, because a neighbor, identified as Lucia Whalen, thought that two Black men were trying to break in. See Video here
"Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof he was in own home," Obama said.
"What I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately," Obama said. "That's just a fact."
The police sergeant accused of racism after he arrested Gates insisted that he won't apologize. Police say Gates at first refused to display ID and then accused the officer of racism. Sgt. James Crowley said he followed proper procedures in arresting Gates.
Crowley said he was disappointed by the national debate triggered by the incident and insisted he followed proper procedures in arresting Gates last week in Cambridge on a charge of disorderly conduct.
"I'm outraged,"Gates said in extensive comments made to TheRoot.com, a Web site he oversees.
"I can't believe that an individual policeman on the Cambridge police force would treat any African-American male this way, and I am astonished that this happened to me; and more importantly I'm astonished that it could happen to any citizen of the United States, no matter what their race.
There are 1 million black men in the prison system, and on Thursday I became one of them," he said. "I would sooner have believed the sky was going to fall from the heavens than I would have believed this could happen to me. It shouldn't have happened to me, and it shouldn't happen to anyone."
He spoke of a "terrifying and humiliating" experience at the Cambridge jail, where he was booked, fingerprinted, photographed and questioned, then locked up in a tiny cell that made him claustrophobic. He said he wants an apology from the officer, Sgt. James Crowley. He also said he planned to talk to his legal team about the next step.
Prosecutors dropped a disorderly conduct charge against Henry Louis Gates Jr. The city of Cambridge called the arrest "regrettable and unfortunate," and police and Gates agreed that dropping the charge was a just resolution.
The city of Cambridge, a Boston suburb, released a statement saying the situation "should not be viewed as one that demeans the character and reputation of professor Gates or the character of the Cambridge Police Department."
;)
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 3:44AM 
