Blacks Los Angeles County

The chief defense lawyer for former Compton City Councilwoman Patricia Moore complained bitterly Friday that it has become "statistically impossible" to seat a black person on the jury being chosen to decide Moore's extortion case. As the third day of jury selection drew to an end, defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. told U.S. District Court Judge Consuelo B. Marshall he was "outraged and saddened" by the prospect of no African Americans on the jury.

Parishioners at a prominent African American church applauded Sunday as O.J. Simpson was made an honorary member of the congregation. "I'm not trying to restore an image. I'm not trying to get back what wealth that I lost," Simpson told worshipers at Brookins African Methodist Episcopal Church. "I'm trying to do one thing. I'm trying to go to heaven." Following the post-services presentation, Simpson shook hands and spoke with churchgoers.

It is not a question of if it will happen. The only question now is when will Los Angeles' shrinking African American population result in fewer black elected officials? "A lot of us have been handicapping this one for a long time," said veteran political consultant Chris Hammond. "The assumption is that somewhere down the road--I don't know if it will be the year 2000--we're going to lose a council seat."

A group of African Americans has demanded that Quartz Hill High School's use of the symbols of the Confederacy be eliminated and that district employees receive mandatory sensitivity training. "In case you haven't heard, the South lost the war," NAACP official Lynda Thompson Taylor told the Antelope Valley Union High School District board Wednesday night. "This is the United States of America. Not the Confederate States of America. . . . The symbols are offensive and degrading to all Americans."

African Americans in Los Angeles County are only about 60% as likely as whites to undergo heart bypass surgeries and, along with Latinos and Asian Americans, trail white patients in obtaining other lifesaving heart procedures, according to a UCLA study released Tuesday.

Growing up in Senegal in the 1960s, Ousmane Drame envisioned America as a hip, socially enlightened land of plenty where black people enjoyed the wealth and social prominence of pop stars such as Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye.

The owners of more than 3,000 apartment units located mainly in the San Fernando Valley were accused in a class-action lawsuit Monday of discriminating against African Americans and the disabled and harassing white managers who refused to carry out discriminatory orders. The suit charges that the owners and managers of the buildings refused to rent to a disabled man and instructed managers to reject African American applicants or to charge them higher rents and security deposits.

An African American man applies to rent an apartment in a Latino neighborhood of Bell Gardens. The manager, who is Latino, shows him what's available--a dim, cockroach-infested unit in need of repair. Thirty minutes later, a Latino applicant knocks at the same manager's door. This time, the manager shows the prospective tenant a freshly painted, newly carpeted unit, ready for immediate occupancy.

Black Men Reaching Black Inc.'s first walk-a-thon to raise money for its mentor program with young boys will be Saturday. The Baldwin Hills-based organization offers African-American men the opportunity to become mentors to African-American boys, said organization president Cedric Fisher. The 5-K walk begins at 8 a.m. at Founder's National Bank, 3910 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Participants can register in advance or sign up at 7 on the morning of the walk. Information: (213) 739-4041.

Eva Duvall talks with unbridled enthusiasm about returning to graduate school to study social work. She wants to be a health care social worker, specifically to help patients with kidney disease cope with dialysis. Although Duvall has yet to return to school, she already has the life experience necessary to help soothe the pain and fears of kidney patients.