
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 12, 1990                   TAG: 9006120344
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: BEDFORD/FRANKLIN 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

GOV. L. DOUGLAS WILDER OF VIRGINIA SAID MONDAY

Gov. L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia said Monday that the current debate over racial relations obscures the progress that has been made in the last 20 years and gives too much attention to voices like that of the Rev. Al Sharpton.

"People have said we've not made any progress in the last 20 years," Wilder said at a breakfast meeting with reporters. "I dispute that. I think there's been great progress."

But the governor said, "Calm voices and voices of persuasion have been a little too quiet," while people like Sharpton have stepped into the fray.

Wilder noted that the recent plea by Mayor David N. Dinkins of New York for racial conciliation was criticized by Sharpton and two lawyers who are also active in black protests, C. Vernon Mason and Alton Maddox.

"Sharpton, Mason, Maddox said it was horrible that this man should come in and speak of healing," said Wilder, who became the first black elected governor last year. "This was no time for healing, they said."

Wilder added: "But that is not a black leader speaking, those persons who were criticizing Dinkins. And unfortunately, the media pay too much attention to persons who are not representative of anything other than attention-getting, headline-grabbing and feeding their natural cause - and that is to spread trouble."

by CNB