wfn.org | United Methodist judge works to make judicial system trustworthy

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Nov. 10, 1999 News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.    10-21-30-71BP{603}

NOTE: A photograph is available with this story.

A UMNS Feature
By Tom McAnally*

Dale Segrest, a circuit court judge in Alabama since 1983, is a
do-something-about-it kind of guy when it comes to racial bias in the
judicial system of his state.

"The American people are keenly aware of the fact that racial beliefs and
racial tensions have an impact on the delivery of justice," said Segrest, a
United Methodist from Tallassee, northeast of Montgomery. "But to understand
that a problem exists is not to solve it."

Segrest is promoting an innovative strategy for addressing the issue through
"Foundations in Pluralism." He developed the project in cooperation with the
Alabama Judicial College and historically black Tuskegee University, which
is in his judicial area. 

The Alabama judge, educated at United Methodist-related Huntingdon College
in Montgomery and the University of Alabama School of Law, is an active
churchman. He has served as lay leader of the Alabama-West Florida Annual
Conference and is currently a member of the Connectional Process Team,
created by the 1996 General Conference to set a "transformational direction"
for the church in the next century. He also will participate in the upcoming
General Conference for his fourth consecutive stint as a delegate.

"Despite the fact that judges are trained to deal fairly with all races and
strive diligently to overcome the impact of society's racial division, there
is still great danger that racial division makes itself felt in our work,"
Segrest said.

Underlying the Foundations project is his contention that the legal
profession needs a stronger grasp of the pluralism from which racial issues
arise.  

"We must make certain that the judicial system is trustworthy," he said.
"Secondly, we must find ways to encourage the African-American community to
place their trust in the efforts of the judiciary." Judges, he said, are in
a pivotal position to make a difference in the way the public views the
legal system.

"The Foundations in Pluralism project is a viable means for judges
themselves to become aware of racial differences and to become aware of the
sources of racial differences," he explained.  "Only as we become aware of
the sources of racial difference can we devise strategies to overcome the
harmful effects of those differences while affirming the positive aspects of
our cultural differences."

Racial differences, Segrest said, lie deep in the heart of the culture and
can best be understood by careful consideration of history and literature.
"The hope for reconciliation lies in a clear understanding of the culturally
posited differences," he said.

The first Foundations in Pluralism session, involving 20 judges from across
the Alabama, was held in late 1995 at Tuskegee. During the three-day event,
the judges - mixed by race and gender -- discussed Up From Slavery, by
Booker T. Washington; The Souls of Black Folk, by W.E.B. Du Bois; Barn
Burning, by William Faulkner; and Sonny's Blues, by James Baldwin. 

A year later, 30 judges convened at Tuskegee for a second Foundations in
Pluralism session and discussed The Autobiography of Malcolm X and
selections from A Testament of Hope, the collection of writings of the late
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Enrollment in the programs was limited so each judge could fully
participate. Participants were invited to consider and discuss specific
texts and historical events, rather than attempting to pinpoint issues.

"The discussion of historical events and literary texts provided an
important, impersonal context for racial issues," Segrest said. "The
material lent itself well to a discussion of jurisprudence."

A program such as Foundations is "long overdue," said U.S. District Court
Judge Aubrey Ford of Tuskegee, Ala., an African American. "Everyone has been
very enthusiastic about it, and everyone has enjoyed it immensely," he said.

"It helps to give all judges of all races a greater appreciation of the
accomplishments of black Americans and how those accomplishments have led to
the building of this great country," Ford said.

"The courts deal with all kinds of people and people from all cultures and
all backgrounds, and it's very important for us as judges to have an
appreciation for the people that we see on a daily basis and their
backgrounds," he said.

Alabama's Administrative Office of Courts has promised to fund a third
Foundations in Pluralism project in the year 2000. Other funding agencies
have also expressed strong interest in the project, Segrest said. The first
two projects received wide attention resulting in articles in The Alabama
Lawyer, the official publication for members of the legal profession in
Alabama; Court Review, a national publication for judges; and the American
Bar Association.

Segrest and a Tuskegee professor who has worked on the project were invited
to speak at a division meeting of the American Bar Association in Tucson,
Ariz., in 1997. Subsequently, the Los Angeles Daily Journal, a publication
for lawyers in California, published a front-page article about the project.

Last June, Segrest was invited by the United States Justice Department to
share information about the project at a one-day seminar dealing with race
and the criminal justice system.

For judges who participated in the first two programs, Segrest is planning
another in cooperation with Tuskegee's Continuing Education Department and
National Bioethics Center. The new program will focus on the literature
surrounding the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, in which 399 African-American males
were denied treatment for the disease and deceived by the United States
Public Health Service during a 40-year period beginning in 1932. 

Segrest said the program will reflect the distrust among African Americans
concerning the delivery of medical services in the United States. 

"If judges can see both the rational basis for the distrust of the medical
system and the emotional overtones of the distrust within the black culture,
then the judges can more readily understand the distrust of the judicial
system," he said. "Understanding that there is an emotional component to
distrust can help judges understand why it is not enough merely to reach a
rational decision based on the law or the technically correct decision. We
must always find ways not only to be totally trustworthy but to earn trust."

The leadership in judicial education in Mississippi has expressed strong
interest in duplicating the program there, Segrest said.

Ford would like to see the program taken up by other jurisdictions around
the country. It's also important to look at the writings of groups such as
Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans, to get a better idea of their
accomplishments and backgrounds, he said.

The Foundations in Pluralism concept used to educate judges could work
equally well for a variety of groups, including the church, Segrest said.  

"In a larger sense, I feel very strongly that work of this type is the very
best witness for those of us who function both in the church and in the
world.  This is the kind of work that gives real meaning to Christianity."
# # #
*McAnally is director of United Methodist News Service, the church's
official news agency with offices in Nashville, Tenn., Washington and New
York.

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United Methodist News Service
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