Racism And Power In The South
Georgia Power, a subsidiary of the Southeast's top provider of electricity is again facing a powerful charge — institutional racism.
At a plant south of Atlanta, four subcontractors last month say they heard racial slurs and jokes, ducked falling materials, were spit on.
"They didn't like blacks basically," said Emmanuel Harris.
Most threatening, they say, is what they saw.
"I looked and there was a noose right there," said John Steadman.
A noose, long a symbol of lynching in the South, was hanging in plain view.
A familiar issue at Georgia Power, which admits finding twenty nooses on various company properties — one was even wrapped around a black doll.
"Some places nooses had hung for years. Ten or twelve years or longer. And they were in areas where they could be seen by management," said Cornelius Cooper, a Georgia Power lineman.
CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassmann reports 2,400 black employees have been suing the utility claiming widespread gaps in pay and opportunity by race and a long history of racial harassment.
A cartoon showing Klansmen caroling about a "White Christmas" was stuffed in some black employees' mailboxes.
Under deposition, the former CEO of the utility's parent company, Southern Company, testified he saw nothing offensive in that.
"And I would think all employees, most employees, would find some humor in that, black or white," said A.W. Dahlberg.
He also testified he had "no idea" a noose was a racial symbol.
"Just never entered my mind. Just never occurred to me."
"It's just an atmosphere of being treated like second-class citizens that is incredibly pervasive," said plaintiffs' lawyer Mike Terry.
As for the latest nooses, Georgia Power has offered a reward for information, and called in state investigators.
"Georgia power does not tolerate any racial insensitivity. We have said that. We will not tolerate it. We will not accept it," said Lolita Browning, spokeswoman for Georgia Power.
Yet two days after complaining, the subcontractors were fired for tardiness.