wfn.org | UCC/Jury set in anti-'Wahoo' case

["Barb Powell"<powellb@ucc.org>]

UCC/Jury seated in anti-'Wahoo' case
Office of Communication
United Church of Christ
April 3, 1998
In Cleveland, contact:
Hans Holznagel
(216) 736-2214
E-mail: holznagh@ucc.org
Laurie Bartels
(216) 736-2213
E-mail: bartelsl@ucc.org
On the World Wide Web:  http://www.ucc.org

Jury seated in anti-'Wahoo' case; trial to resume Monday

CLEVELAND--An eight-member Municipal Court jury began
hearing the city's case today (April 3) against three
American Indians arrested last fall during a protest
against the name and "Chief Wahoo" logo of Cleveland's
Major League Baseball team.
     The trial of Vernon Bellecourt of Minneapolis and
Juanita Helphrey and Juan Reyna of Cleveland will resume
at 9 a.m. Monday, April 6, in Courtroom 14-C at the
Justice Center, 1200 Ontario St.  (Thursday and Friday
sessions were in Room 15-C.)
     Bellecourt faces charges of criminal endangering
and resisting arrest in connection with the burning of
an effigy of "Chief Wahoo"outside Jacobs Field on Oct.
23, 1997.  Helphrey and Reyna were charged with
aggravated disorderly conduct and criminal trespass on
allegations that they refused to leave a separate -- and
peaceful -- demonstration site when police
ordered protestors to disperse.
     The defendants consider the bright red, grinning,
feather-capped logo, together with the name "Indians,"
to be racist, demeaning and disrespectful of their
cultural and spiritual heritage. 
Bellecourt explained why Friday morning as he questioned
a pool of 52 potential jurors.  He suggested that they
and many Americans perpetuate anti-Indian stereotypes
and biases without knowing it.
     Bellecourt -- who is acting as his own attorney
during portions of the trial -- received a nearly
unanimous show of hands when he asked how many
prospective jurors would be offended if the baseball
team had the name "Cleveland Negroes" and a symbol like
"Little Black Sambo." He said many people don't know
that symbols and names like "Chief Wahoo" are just as
offensive to Native people.  "The word 'Wahoo' is, in
itself, blatantly racist," Bellecourt said. "Calling
someone a 'wahoo' is the same as calling a black man
'boy' or a black woman 'girl.'"It's part of a pattern of
words and images that people don't realize are
degrading, he said.
     Some potential jurors said such explanations helped
them understand why American Indians are offended. 
Bellecourt drew audible gasps when he said, "Did you
know that the word 'squaw' is a French corruption of an
Iroquois word that refers to female genitalia?" 
     Jury selection ended Friday afternoon with the
seating of a panel of three African American women,
three African American men, one white woman and one
white man.
     During opening statements, defense attorney Terry
Gilbert invoked the names of Medgar Evers, Ghandi and
the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as examples of
people who fought for freedom.  Gilbert told the jury
that if protesting is not allowed outside a stadium
payed for with public funds then we "are in deep trouble
as a freedom loving people."
     Bellecourt likened burning the effigy of Chief
Wahoo to a similar act protected by the First Amendment. 
"If you can burn an American flag, which we would never
do, you could certainly burn a racist symbol," he said.
     The jurors heard Cleveland Police Sgt. Andre
Gonzalez, who arrested Reyna Oct. 23, testify that he
was at the Gateway sports complex that evening as part
of a private security company contracted by Gateway
Development Corp., which owns Jacobs Field.  Gonzalez
sees his duty there as "to provide a safe environment"
for people on the premises.  Judge Kathleen Keough had
to instruct Gonzalez to answer a question asked several
times by Gilbert as to who was paying him for his work
Oct. 23.  After repeating several times that he
considered himself to be acting on his authority as a
Cleveland police officer, he admitted to being on a
private payroll for his off-duty security work.
     The United Church Board for Homeland Ministries, a
mission agency of the United Church of Christ -- where
Helphrey works as a racial-justice advocate -- is
helping with the protestors' defense costs and has
started a Legal Defense Fund for Indigenous People
Resisting Racism for that purpose (call 216-736-3260 for
details or to contribute).
     The United Church of Christ, with national offices
in Cleveland, has some 1.5 million members and 6,100
local churches in the United States and Puerto Rico. 
Its General Synod, a national body of delegates that
meets every two years, went on record in 1991 as
opposing the "negative stereotyping" of American Indians
in sports and commerce.  In the UCC's decentralized form
of governance, members and local congregations are free
to hold opinions that differ from those of the General
Synod.
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