Council removes Rebel flag ots: By MICHAEL GEM and EARL SWIFT Staff writers NORFOLK — A spirited contingent from the local NAACP descended on City Hall on Tuesday intent on asking the City Couneil to remove the Confederate bat- tle flag from its dais But when they got there, the flag was gone. “T guess T'll have to change my speech,” said James F. Gay, president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Gay noticed the flag was missing before the council entered the chambers for its regularly scheduled meeting. ‘The NAACP earlier this month voted to ask the council to remove the flag. But after using the flag as a backdrop for city busi ness for generations, the city on Tuesday unceremoni- ‘ously removed the symbol from the council chambers, ‘The banner was removed along with the British Union Jack. The American flag, the Virginia flag, the Norfolk flag and the former Norfolk borough flag re- ‘main behind the dais. Tn other action Tuesday, a new committee asked the council to draft an ordinance requiring that two clerks be on duty at convenience stores open after midnight. For the City Council, the decision to remove the flag was an attempt to end a controversy before it had a chance to flourish. Mayor Joseph A. Leafe and the council did not ad- dress the reasons for taking down the flags until after its business had been condueted and the members of the NAACP and United Daughters of the Confederacy offered opinions about the flag's removal. “We did not desire to see anything made an issue that’s not an issue,” Leafe said Councilman Paul D. Fraim said the flag was behind the dais for “decorative purposes. It wasn't there as a place of honor. And as such, it wasn't a dishonor to remove it.” Leafe said the flag is in storage in Cit not reappear in the couneil chambers. was removed “for balance,” he said. ‘Mary M. Williams, of the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, came to the meeting ‘Tuesday to ask the couneil to Keep the flag behind the Hall and will e Union Jack | dais. ‘She said that ancestors of Norfolk's residents fought in the Civil War ‘‘with honor and dignity” and that the flag was a symbol not of slavery but of that struggle, ‘The Rev. LP. Watson, the local NAACP's first vice president, said the flag represents a time when “my just before objectors arrive After using the Confederate flag as a backdrop for city business for generations, the city on Tuesday _ unceremoniously removed the symbol from the council chambers. grandparents were chattel and (were) not considéret human beings.” Of other South Hampton Roads cities, only Suffoll displays the Confederate flag in its City Hall. Meanwhile, two speakers from the recently formes Convenience Store Safety Committee told the counci that clerks at the all;night businesses face grave dan gers that should be addressed by city ordinances re quiring two workers to be employed during the, wee ours. “Only police and cabdrivers face greater dander, said Jean R. Berrier, a Virginia Beach resident whose father was gunned down in a convenience store ir Charleston, S.C., 11 years ago. “It will take governmen’ law to bring adequate safely measures to the conve nience store business.” Berrier’s sister, Nancy Venable, quoted a 1975 Southland Corp. study that “consistently found that clerks were usually alone in the stores when crime occurred.” “Over and over, throughout the report, it was men tioned that the criminals waited until they could: be alone with the victim,” she said. “Did the industry:move to add extra clerks? No. It was considered too expen: ‘The committee was formed last month, after élerks at a Norfolk Tinee Giant store and a Newport News 7- Eleven were killed on the job the same night. Threat- ened with a clerk walkout, Farm Fresh Inc, owners of Tinee Giant stores, announced that it would close its stores at 11 nightly. Officials from Southland, which owns 7-Eleven, in- stalled two clerks on late-night shifts at its Hampton Roads stores. But Berrier and Venable, who do not work in cofve- nience stores, said they are worried the moves were temporary. They urged the council to adopt. an ordi- nance that requires two clerks on duty during late-night hours, Leafe told the pair that the council is investigat- ing.THE LEDGER-STAR | AreaNews Norfolk counc By ELLIE NOVEK Staff NORFOLK — For more than 90 minutes ‘Tuesday night, speakers accused the City Council of racism in supporting segregated elementary schools, redeveloping low-income neighborhoods into high-rent districts and re- fusing to order the city’s employee pension board to sell its South Africa-related investments, ‘As a crowd of about 150 citizens laughed, hissed and clapped, residents of poor neigh: | borhoods slated for redevelopment joined | members of anti-apartheid groups in’ chal Cw ‘on racially based oo “Norfolk's system of black removal may not be as thorough as South Africa's, but its intention is the same,” said Janice Cole of the 3100 block of Luxembourg Ave., a member of the Coalition Against Racism and Apartheid, “I really thought I would never again see the day when the public schools would be ei- ther biack or white as a result of city policy. Norfolk seems to be busily erecting its own system of apartheid.”” She also pointed out the presence of a Confederate flag in the council chambers, and urged council members, “Please, get rid of OFA2Y/9P & Cech: speakers were concerned residents of the low-rent Lafayette Shores apartments, which developer Robert A. Lawson Jr and BNB Development: Corp. Want to tear down and replace with middle. and upper income fou "The council has not yet reviewed the plan to raze the 644 existing units and Dulld new partments, townhouses and homes onthe 61. tere waterfront site west of Tidewater Drive, but is believed to favorit Shirley Richardson, a spokeswoman for the Lafayette Shores ‘Tenants Association, Said she and her neighbors "need affordable CLASSIFIED/D6 il is accused of racism housing, decent housing... we need the city to stop allowing developers to uproot whole ‘communities to make big profits.” “Don't allow these developers to intimi. date you,” urged the Rev. Anthony Paige of the 3300 block of Norway Place. “There will always be developers who want to build on a prime piece of real estate.” ‘The Rev. Edward K. Haywood of 300 block of Maycox Ave. said the Lafayette Shores plan “follows a long history of lasses of low-income housing in the city. Robin Hood Apartments, Liberty’ Park, Ghent, the list Please see COUNCIL, Page D5 sectionSNCIL «anued from Page D1 on,” he said, naming other previously low-income areas pro- posed for redevelopment or already turned to other uses. Mayor Joseph A. Leafe tried to reassure the crowd that ‘‘no ane in Lafayette Shores is going to be put ‘out on the street without the oppor- tunity for relocation.’ During the year it would take for the project t0 get under way, as- suming it were approved by’ the council, Leafe said, a relocation program would be set up to find housing for current residents. Toni Taylor of 1400 block of Al- sace Ave. disagreed. “There is no ‘way you could approve Mr. Law- son's plan and relocate 2,000 people in a year,” she said. “He plans to relocate us outside the city of Norfolk.” By razing Lafayette Shores and building low-income housing at the Globe fron Works site in a black neighborhood, the city is trying to concentrate its blacks in one area ‘and further its plan for segregated schools, said Old Dominion Uniyér: sity professor Leslie G. Carr. ‘Tempers grew heated as other speakers urged the city to force. its pension board to divest Norfolk Ex- ployee Retirement System holdings {in companies with ties to South Af- rica, hs When Vice Mayor Joseph N Green Jr, said he was “‘ashamed that our city has not moved to di- vest completely from South Africa” ‘and blamed the pension board for taking no action, Portsmouth psy- chiatrist John Dommisse, a native of South “Africa, interrupted from the floor. “We're not going to be sold that rubbish," he said. “Everybody Leafe scolded the crowd for mut- tering while council members tried to speak. After the meeting, Leafe com- mented, “We have a city of almost 500,000 ‘people, You get a. small Broup of peopie who come in and vocalize on a subject and tend to grab onto certain issues, make charges and_generally don't deal with anything positive.”