ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 20, 1996 TAG: 9602210005
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
Virginia NAACP leaders said Monday that Gov. George Allen and the General Assembly are trying to turn back the clock on some civil rights gains.
Allen and legislators are attempting to reverse strides made in areas such as voting rights and children's issues, said Lynda Byrd-Harden, executive director of the Virginia State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
For example, the bipartisan juvenile justice reform bill moving through the legislature is too tough on children, she said.
The bill would do away with the theory of prevention by automatically trying some teen-agers 14 or older as adults without considering mitigating factors, she said.
While legislative black caucus chairman Del. Jerrauld Jones, D-Norfolk, was a driving force behind the bill, Byrd-Harden blamed the Republican governor for the objectionable provisions. ``This was not his doing,'' she said of Jones.
- Associated Press
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