Rights Panel Hears Plans to Create Inner-City Jobs

A project to provide business opportunities to South-Central Los Angeles residents has already put 25 inner-city residents on their way to becoming entrepreneurs and has scores of others on a waiting list, the Rev. Cecil J. Murray told the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

“If you will enable us, we will empower ourselves,” Murray, senior pastor of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, told commissioners, who were conducting three days of public hearings on the resurgence of racial and ethnic tension in the United States. “Koreans are not our problem. Latinos are not our problem. We are not each others’ problems.”

What is needed are more partnerships between community-based organizations in economically depressed areas and corporations to create jobs and train people who can provide employment, he said.

Starting with a $1-million grant from the Walt Disney Co. and another $500,000 from Arco, Murray’s church created FAME Renaissance nine months ago, the pastor told the commission.

FAME Renaissance will open 35 businesses, renovate 35 existing ones and create 350 jobs, he testified on the second day of hearings, during which more than 30 witnesses, including former RLA co-chair Peter V. Ueberroth, testified.

Twenty applicants, predominantly African-Americans, have received $20,000 loans and have started a variety of businesses, including a restaurant, a bus company and a clothing store, Murray told the panel.

In an interview outside the hearings, Murray and Julius Butler, who is also involved in the project, called it a prototype for the country. “This is a grass-roots approach to rebuilding Los Angeles,” Murray said.

Candidates must undergo 10 weeks of training and be screened by a board from the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, USC and the Bank of America, Murray said.

Once approved for a loan, applicants are required to work closely with a monitoring team drawn from a pool of 300 lawyers, accountants and business management specialists who are members of the church, Murray said. If they meet requirements for two years, new entrepreneurs will be eligible for loans from an African-American and a Korean bank, Murray said.

“Our goal isn’t just to find jobs for people but to make it possible for people to own businesses that will create jobs for other people.”

Another witness, Antonia Hernandez, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said improving economic conditions and education are “central to easing racial tensions in Los Angeles.”

Responding to questions from commission Vice Chair Charles Pei Wang, Hernandez said the federal government is partially responsible for the racial tensions in Los Angeles.

“The federal government needs to pay attention to inner cities and urban centers,” she said. “When that happens, you will see a greater redistribution of resources.”

The sharpest criticism of the federal government came from Ueberroth, who said it was an outrage that there has not been a single piece of legislation on inner-city issues since the riots.

“How can it be that there is not one iota of federal legislation?” he asked. “When in the hell are they going to do something?”

Ueberroth suggested that the government provide incentives for anyone who will invest, hire or train a person who is out of work. For example, if an employer gives a job to a single mother on welfare, it is saving taxpayers’ money.

There was a tense moment during the testimony of the Rev. Joseph Ahn, associate pastor of Koreatown’s Oriental Mission Church, when commissioner Wang raised questions about the shooting death of Latasha Harlins by Korean-American grocer Soon Ja Du.

Ahn bristled when Wang asked if he were aware of the continuing anger over the incident in the black community.

Speaking through an interpreter, Ahn said it is unfortunate that the “mainstream media have framed the tragedy of the April 29 riots as an exclusive problem of blacks and Koreans” and the Du case as symbolic of the relationship between the two communities.

“The reality is that riots were caused by an explosion of long-festering tensions between blacks and whites,” he said. “Koreans weren’t here in 1965, but you still had the Watts riots.

“There is no question the shooting death of Harlins was unfortunate, but it was an isolated case. In all candor, I should like to remind the commission that many, many more Koreans were . . . victimized by African-Americans, but we do not see people asking how to alleviate the anger and suffering of Koreans,” Ahn said.