SIT-IN ENDS, BUSH YIELDS GOVERNOR'S RACE POLICY TO GET PUBLIC HEARING PROTESTERS AT CAPITOL OFFICE SEE VICTORY IN COMPROMISE
Miami Herald, The (FL) - Thursday, January 20, 2000
Author: STEVE BOUSQUET AND LESLEY CLARK, sbousquet@herald.com
Facing mounting outrage and an office virtually held hostage over his plan to scrap affirmative action in state government, Gov. Jeb Bush backed off Wednesday, ending a 20-hour sit-in by two state lawmakers who had refused to leave his office suite until he agreed to public scrutiny of the policy.
After hours of tense, private meetings with angry black lawmakers and legislative leaders, the governor made several concessions, including the cancellation of Friday's key meeting of the state Board of Regents. The regents, who set policy for the state's university system, had been expected to approve Bush's plan to do away with numerical quotas and put in its place a program called Talented 20, which guarantees university admission to the top 20 percent of Florida high school graduates. The meeting was reset for Feb. 17.
A backpedaling Bush also agreed to hold three public meetings - in Miami, Tampa and Tallahassee - in which legislators will hear public reaction to his plan, called the One Florida Initiative. The plan would do away with mandatory affirmative action quotas in state hiring, contracting and university admissions.
The concessions, which include reviewing ``in good faith'' criticism of his plan from the two black lawmakers who occupied his office, are an attempt to mend a widening gulf between the popular first-term Republican governor and black Floridians who see him as rolling back hard-fought affirmative action gains of the civil rights era.
The emotional day was marked by a 100-person-strong sympathy sit-in waged outside Bush's office in the Capitol by an often boisterous group of students, union workers from across the state and black and white Democratic lawmakers, who knelt on the granite floor, praying and singing We Shall Overcome.
The protesters had gathered in a show of support for Miami Sen. Kendrick Meek and Jacksonville Rep. Tony Hill. The legislators had refused to leave the office of Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan, in the governor's office suite, after Bush refused to meet with them Tuesday and said he would not roll back his proposal - which the governor maintains will unite Floridians by erasing unworkable race-based quotas.
The emotions overflowed into tears after the compromise was reached. Hill, looking bleary-eyed from his night in Brogan's office, broke down as Meek's mother, U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek, and Miami resident Patricia Stephens Due, who weathered the civil rights battles of the 1960s, hailed the two lawmakers as heroes.
``I'm so proud of these young men who had the courage to do what is necessary,'' said Due, who spent 49 days in jail 40 years ago for trying to integrate a Woolworth's lunch counter in Tallahassee. ``We have paid a lot of dues. We don't intend to lose ground to some Johnny-come-lately who knows very little about our history and who treats us as if we don't matter.''
Bush, who met with the black lawmakers in a crowded conference room to announce the late-afternoon deal, said he welcomes the discussion.
``I'm asking for a critique of our plan and suggestions of how we can make it better,'' he said.
Still, the governor added that he is prepared to defend his proposal, which he says will create diversity and opportunity without laws that mandate it.
`Our plan is not perfect but it is good,'' Bush said. ``It will pass the test. I have no qualms.''
Meek said he hopes that what the governor hears at the three public meetings will change his mind. The legislative committee that will hold the hearings could suggest laws to change the proposal.
`WE'VE GOT A CHANCE'
``If One Florida is going to be the law, maybe we can find ways to make it better,'' Meek said, sitting in his office with his wife, Leslie, by his side. ``But until now no one's had a chance to talk. We've got a chance for our criticism, our suggestions to be heard. Man, that's why we were here.''
For Bush, the day produced a torrent of criticism that may not soon subside.
He was faulted for words and actions that escalated a minor protest by two attention-seeking lawmakers into a major confrontation that could further divide Florida, and for refusing to meet with politicians who have opposing views.
U.S. Rep. Meek of Miami chastised Bush for not talking to more people about his proposal.
``A little bit of talking could have helped in the very beginning,'' Meek said when Bush phoned her. ``We talked to Communist China. We want to talk to you.''
Bush made things worse for himself Tuesday night: Unaware that he was talking into an open TV microphone, he told an aide to remove reporters covering the sit-in. ``Kick their asses out,'' Bush said in a remark played on newscasts across the state, sometimes without explanation, which led some viewers to think the remark was aimed at the protesting black legislators.
BUSH APOLOGY
Bush apologized for the remark Wednesday, saying he had used language his mother wouldn't approve of.
When Meek and Hill first camped out in Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan's office Tuesday afternoon, nine news reporters joined them. Bush's chief of staff asked the reporters to leave Brogan's ``private office'' Tuesday night, but the reporters refused to go.
Bush gave the order at noon Wednesday to have the reporters forcibly removed.
Larry Olmstead, managing editor of The Herald and president of the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors, said ejecting the nine reporters was ``uncalled for.''
``The reporters were providing no security problems. They were in a place being occupied by two public officials in a very public building, and clearly the public's business was being transacted. They should have been allowed to remain,'' Olmstead said.
During the negotiations, Hill and Meek were in constant touch via cell phone with fellow black lawmakers to determine what sort of concessions from Bush they would accept. They at first asked for seven meetings across the state, but agreed to three.
They had used the phones through the night, talking with black radio stations to mobilize their constituents.
FIU RALLY
In Miami, about 200 people rallied Wednesday afternoon at Florida International University's West Dade campus. Waving bright orange signs and chanting for justice, they protested Bush's effort to eliminate affirmative action in the state.
``It is not the One Florida Initiative,'' Bishop Victor T. Curry of the New Birth Baptist Church told the spirited crowd. ``It is still the good-old-boy initiative.''
FIU Vice President Steve Sauls, however, said the university's preliminary analysis of One Florida indicates it would actually increase minority enrollment at FIU.
The lawmakers who criticized Bush for not meeting with them said Wednesday that they were pleased with the compromises the governor made.
``Now we're engaged, we can share our concerns about the inequities with the governor,'' Kendrick Meek said. ``We're prayerful that this is going to start a better line of communication between the black caucus and the governor's office.''
But Meek said that after the day's events, he doesn't think he will be invited to the governor's office anytime soon.
``The governor has said `If you want to meet with me, I'll be happy to come to your office,''' Meek said, laughing.
Herald staff writer Sonji Jacobs and researcher Tina Cummings contributed to this report.
After hours of tense, private meetings with angry black lawmakers and legislative leaders, the governor made several concessions, including the cancellation of Friday's key meeting of the state Board of Regents. The regents, who set policy for the state's university system, had been expected to approve Bush's plan to do away with numerical quotas and put in its place a program called Talented 20, which guarantees university admission to the top 20 percent of Florida high school graduates. The meeting was reset for Feb. 17.
A backpedaling Bush also agreed to hold three public meetings - in Miami, Tampa and Tallahassee - in which legislators will hear public reaction to his plan, called the One Florida Initiative. The plan would do away with mandatory affirmative action quotas in state hiring, contracting and university admissions.
The concessions, which include reviewing ``in good faith'' criticism of his plan from the two black lawmakers who occupied his office, are an attempt to mend a widening gulf between the popular first-term Republican governor and black Floridians who see him as rolling back hard-fought affirmative action gains of the civil rights era.
The emotional day was marked by a 100-person-strong sympathy sit-in waged outside Bush's office in the Capitol by an often boisterous group of students, union workers from across the state and black and white Democratic lawmakers, who knelt on the granite floor, praying and singing We Shall Overcome.
The protesters had gathered in a show of support for Miami Sen. Kendrick Meek and Jacksonville Rep. Tony Hill. The legislators had refused to leave the office of Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan, in the governor's office suite, after Bush refused to meet with them Tuesday and said he would not roll back his proposal - which the governor maintains will unite Floridians by erasing unworkable race-based quotas.
The emotions overflowed into tears after the compromise was reached. Hill, looking bleary-eyed from his night in Brogan's office, broke down as Meek's mother, U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek, and Miami resident Patricia Stephens Due, who weathered the civil rights battles of the 1960s, hailed the two lawmakers as heroes.
``I'm so proud of these young men who had the courage to do what is necessary,'' said Due, who spent 49 days in jail 40 years ago for trying to integrate a Woolworth's lunch counter in Tallahassee. ``We have paid a lot of dues. We don't intend to lose ground to some Johnny-come-lately who knows very little about our history and who treats us as if we don't matter.''
Bush, who met with the black lawmakers in a crowded conference room to announce the late-afternoon deal, said he welcomes the discussion.
``I'm asking for a critique of our plan and suggestions of how we can make it better,'' he said.
Still, the governor added that he is prepared to defend his proposal, which he says will create diversity and opportunity without laws that mandate it.
`Our plan is not perfect but it is good,'' Bush said. ``It will pass the test. I have no qualms.''
Meek said he hopes that what the governor hears at the three public meetings will change his mind. The legislative committee that will hold the hearings could suggest laws to change the proposal.
`WE'VE GOT A CHANCE'
``If One Florida is going to be the law, maybe we can find ways to make it better,'' Meek said, sitting in his office with his wife, Leslie, by his side. ``But until now no one's had a chance to talk. We've got a chance for our criticism, our suggestions to be heard. Man, that's why we were here.''
For Bush, the day produced a torrent of criticism that may not soon subside.
He was faulted for words and actions that escalated a minor protest by two attention-seeking lawmakers into a major confrontation that could further divide Florida, and for refusing to meet with politicians who have opposing views.
U.S. Rep. Meek of Miami chastised Bush for not talking to more people about his proposal.
``A little bit of talking could have helped in the very beginning,'' Meek said when Bush phoned her. ``We talked to Communist China. We want to talk to you.''
Bush made things worse for himself Tuesday night: Unaware that he was talking into an open TV microphone, he told an aide to remove reporters covering the sit-in. ``Kick their asses out,'' Bush said in a remark played on newscasts across the state, sometimes without explanation, which led some viewers to think the remark was aimed at the protesting black legislators.
BUSH APOLOGY
Bush apologized for the remark Wednesday, saying he had used language his mother wouldn't approve of.
When Meek and Hill first camped out in Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan's office Tuesday afternoon, nine news reporters joined them. Bush's chief of staff asked the reporters to leave Brogan's ``private office'' Tuesday night, but the reporters refused to go.
Bush gave the order at noon Wednesday to have the reporters forcibly removed.
Larry Olmstead, managing editor of The Herald and president of the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors, said ejecting the nine reporters was ``uncalled for.''
``The reporters were providing no security problems. They were in a place being occupied by two public officials in a very public building, and clearly the public's business was being transacted. They should have been allowed to remain,'' Olmstead said.
During the negotiations, Hill and Meek were in constant touch via cell phone with fellow black lawmakers to determine what sort of concessions from Bush they would accept. They at first asked for seven meetings across the state, but agreed to three.
They had used the phones through the night, talking with black radio stations to mobilize their constituents.
FIU RALLY
In Miami, about 200 people rallied Wednesday afternoon at Florida International University's West Dade campus. Waving bright orange signs and chanting for justice, they protested Bush's effort to eliminate affirmative action in the state.
``It is not the One Florida Initiative,'' Bishop Victor T. Curry of the New Birth Baptist Church told the spirited crowd. ``It is still the good-old-boy initiative.''
FIU Vice President Steve Sauls, however, said the university's preliminary analysis of One Florida indicates it would actually increase minority enrollment at FIU.
The lawmakers who criticized Bush for not meeting with them said Wednesday that they were pleased with the compromises the governor made.
``Now we're engaged, we can share our concerns about the inequities with the governor,'' Kendrick Meek said. ``We're prayerful that this is going to start a better line of communication between the black caucus and the governor's office.''
But Meek said that after the day's events, he doesn't think he will be invited to the governor's office anytime soon.
``The governor has said `If you want to meet with me, I'll be happy to come to your office,''' Meek said, laughing.
Herald staff writer Sonji Jacobs and researcher Tina Cummings contributed to this report.
Caption: color photo: Rep. Tony Hill cries at a press conference at the end of his 20-hour sit-in (a), Gov. Jeb Bush shakes hands with Kendrick Meek (a), Sen. Mandy Dawson-White is denied entry to an office as other legislators pray at the door (a); photo: Marie Jean Philippe and Monica Russo and Jean Sejour shout their support of the Capitol sit-in (a), Angela Pierre participates in an N.A.A.C.P. demonstration at FIU's West Dade campus (a)
PHIL SEARS/TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT MARK FOLEY/AP THE END: Rep. Tony Hill, D-Jacksonville, above, cries at a press conference at the end of his 20-hour sit-in. Gov. Jeb Bush, far right, shakes hands with state Sen. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, who protested with Hill, at the end of the one-night sit-in inside the governor's office suite.
MARK FOLEY / AP PROTEST AT THE CAPITOL: State Sen. Mandy Dawson-White, D-Fort Lauderdale, left, is denied entry to an office as other legislators pray at the door.
CANDACE BARBOT / HERALD STAFF SUPPORT AT FIU: From left, Marie Jean Philippe, Monica Russo and Jean Sejour shout their support of the Capitol sit-in.
CANDACE BARBOT/HERALD STAFF SOLIDARITY PROTEST: Angela Pierre, 9, participates in an N.A.A.C.P. demonstration at FIU's West Dade campus Wednesday.
PHIL SEARS/TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT MARK FOLEY/AP THE END: Rep. Tony Hill, D-Jacksonville, above, cries at a press conference at the end of his 20-hour sit-in. Gov. Jeb Bush, far right, shakes hands with state Sen. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, who protested with Hill, at the end of the one-night sit-in inside the governor's office suite.
MARK FOLEY / AP PROTEST AT THE CAPITOL: State Sen. Mandy Dawson-White, D-Fort Lauderdale, left, is denied entry to an office as other legislators pray at the door.
CANDACE BARBOT / HERALD STAFF SUPPORT AT FIU: From left, Marie Jean Philippe, Monica Russo and Jean Sejour shout their support of the Capitol sit-in.
CANDACE BARBOT/HERALD STAFF SOLIDARITY PROTEST: Angela Pierre, 9, participates in an N.A.A.C.P. demonstration at FIU's West Dade campus Wednesday.
Edition: Final
Section: Front
Page: 1A
Index Terms: FLORIDA AFFIRMATIVE ACTION END BLACKS HILL MEEK REACTION PROTEST ; BUSH SIT-IN CAPITOL
Dateline: TALLAHASSEE
Record Number: 0001210143
Copyright (c) 2000 The Miami Herald
Section: Front
Page: 1A
Index Terms: FLORIDA AFFIRMATIVE ACTION END BLACKS HILL MEEK REACTION PROTEST ; BUSH SIT-IN CAPITOL
Dateline: TALLAHASSEE
Record Number: 0001210143
Copyright (c) 2000 The Miami Herald
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