To the editor:

Well I for one was totally shocked that J.L. Chestnut saw race as a factor in this year’s mayoral election.

No, I’m just kidding.

J.L. sees race as a factor in his bowl of Corn Flakes every morning.

This is no surprise to anyone who has lived in Selma longer that a week and a half.

What really surprised me was that the STJ saw fit to publish another of his lunatic diatribes on how the race relations of 40 years ago are still alive and well in Selma.

They may be alive and well in J.L.’s imagination, but that’s where it stops for the vast majority of our population.

J.L. tells us “more than a few people still believe my 33-year-old law firm, Rose Sanders and others are plotting to visit on local whites what was visited on blacks.”

No big secret there.

He then attempts to convince us “There never was one iota of truth in that assumption.”

J.L. must have been on vacation the time Rose and her small army of mind numbed robots illegally diverted from their “M.L. King March” route and tried to lynch the bust of Gen. N.B. Forrest.

The entire disgrace was video taped and a photo of Rose’s face made it to the front page of this paper.

Do you remember what justice was done for this blatant act of vandalism?

None!

Mayor Perkins allegedly ordered the Selma Police Department to “not arrest Rose Sanders for any reason.”

This, by the way, puts the lie to J.L.’s assertion that “During the past three and a half years, the incumbent black mayor has not done a single favor for any individual black person, much less our firm.”

Yes, J.L. Chestnut truly lives in a world of his own.

From his referring to burgeoning black leaders of the Civil Rights era as “white-appointed Uncle Toms” to his reference to successful middle-class blacks as “recovering white supremacists”, his pitiful tirade spans the breadth of self-serving rhetoric.

Gee, since he himself is a successful middle-class black, does he mean to tell us that he is a “recovering white supremacist”?

Nah.

I’m sure it really shocked “the Firm” to watch the crushing defeat of their candidate, Judge Nathaniel Walker, by Bob Armstrong last month.

The election of a white judge in a predominately black area is evidence of their biggest nightmare come true: that thinking people, regardless of color, are voting for the best candidate, regardless of color.

Horrors!

Of course this trend has to stop!

So J.L. attempts to demean Yusef Salaam, our highly respected Representative in the State House and a strong candidate in the upcoming election as “but a poor, aging black lawyer.”

He further slanders Mr. Salaam and Rev. Glenn King as “subservient black.”

J.L., himself but a rich, aging black lawyer, also has to rip his fictional “white republican friend” as “out of touch with reality” and “a white supremacist to some degree” before he relates the opinion that Salaam “is the most experienced candidate and his race has nothing to do with it.”

This sounds neither “out of touch” nor “white supremacist” to me which is no doubt meant to shame me into thinking that I am both.

J.L. was right however in one assertion: privilege, politics and power are in play in this year’s mayoral race.

And it will be my privilege to witness the new politics of Selma strip the power from James Perkins, J.L. Chestnut and the rest of the bunch at the Rose Law Firm.

But then, according to J.L., I’m just “a victim of my own sordid, racist history and guilt.”

Yeah, sure I am!

Sincerely,

Dusty Brown