On Monday, Chronicle City Editor Mike Clark-Madison resigned from his voluntary positions on the city of Austin’s Library Commission and Bond Oversight Committee, at the request of Council Member Daryl Slusher, who had appointed him. Clark-Madison had served on the Library Commission since May of 1998, and the Bond Oversight Committee since March of this year.
His appointments were called into question in an Aug. 24 memorandum issued by Council Member Danny Thomas, denouncing Clark-Madison for “racially and religiously derogative” comments in his column last week in the Chronicle. Referring to the rumor that former council member Eric Mitchell was considering a run for mayor, Clark-Madison commented, “We guess that would be Eric Mitchell No. 1, the sharp-dressed black Republican millionaire wannabe from Oak Hill, not Eric Mitchell No. 2, the self-styled field Negro and Nation of Islam hanger-on. We still refuse to believe that they are indeed the same person.”
Thomas objected to the phrase “self-styled field Negro and Nation of Islam hanger-on,” which referred to Mitchell’s 1997 election-night statement, when he described his opponent Willie Lewis as a “house nigger.” (Thomas initially also condemned Clark-Madison’s comparison of City Manager Jesus Garza to Joe Torre, the manager of the New York Yankees, but later told the Chronicle that he withdraws that objection.)
In his memo, Thomas said freedom of the press is “not synonymous with freedom to denigrate and discriminate,” and demanded a public apology from Clark-Madison and his immediate removal from the Library Commission. Clark-Madison responded in a letter to the council (see “Clark-Madison Responds,” below). Thomas was mistakenly under the impression that Clark-Madison had been a “consensus” council appointment; in fact, he had been appointed by Slusher (formerly a Chronicle columnist and political editor), and on Sunday Slusher asked for Clark-Madison’s resignation.
In a statement released Monday, Slusher said he believed that Clark-Madison had “made a mistake in using the phrase he did in The Austin Chronicle, [although] it falls under freedom of the press.” But Slusher went on, “A situation has now been created where the city is seen by some as responsible for anything [Clark-Madison] writes. … I do not believe this is fair to anyone involved. I should never have accepted that situation or created it.” Clark-Madison agreed to resign, although in his letter of resignation he described Slusher’s reasoning as “wholly specious.”
“There are more than 500 city board members,” Clark-Madison wrote, “many of whom are opinion leaders whose statements and actions are potentially controversial or disagreeable. I see no difference whatsoever between being a journalist and being a minister, or an entertainer, or a business executive, or a labor leader, or a professional activist for whatever cause, and members of those professions have admirably served the city for years as board members. (As, indeed, have journalists before me.) …
“By this standard, the City Council should ask for the resignation of dozens, if not hundreds, of commissioners and would in my view be hard-pressed to find new ones.”
In an interview with the Chronicle, Council Member Thomas reiterated his stand that Clark-Madison “needs to be removed, and there needs to be a public apology.” While he said that in general he has “no problem” with the Chronicle, the “taste of that article was just not right,” and was “racially motivated.” Mitchell’s remark “was one African-American talking to another, and everybody knows Mitchell was upset that night,” Thomas said. “Why talk about something negative?” he asked. “Why not talk about Mitchell’s accomplishments?” In any case, Thomas added, “Two wrongs don’t make a right … and I’m not going to change my position.”
Slusher reiterated to the Chronicle his belief that Clark-Madison had “made a mistake,” particularly in his reference to Eric Mitchell as a “self-styled field Negro.”
“I don’t think it was right for Eric to do it,” Slusher said, “and it was very hurtful. I don’t approve of the way Mike said that. I don’t think that word [“Negro”] should be thrown around.” He wasn’t swayed by Clark-Madison’s explanation that Mitchell, in calling Lewis a “house nigger,” was implicitly styling himself as the opposite: a more noble “field Negro” (to use terms popularized by the late Nation of Islam Minister Malcolm X). “I would not use that term myself,” said Slusher. “I would not put it in the newspaper, I would not have printed or written what Mike did.” Slusher said Clark-Madison has the First Amendment right to say what he wants, but added, “I intentionally [as a reporter] didn’t do anything on the Chronicle like that — I think that was wrong. … I don’t want my appointed library commissioner to use that term.”
Coincidentally, the current chair of the Library Commission, AISD librarian Clifton Griffin, is both an African-American and a part-time volunteer journalist: co-host (with Richard Smith) of the Sunday night Austin Cable Access news commentary show 59 Minutes. On Sunday’s program, Griffin recounted the Clark-Madison controversy, read aloud the journalist’s response to the council, and concluded, “I think Danny Thomas owes Mike Clark-Madison an apology.” Griffin and Smith went on to say that by the standard Thomas was using to judge Clark-Madison, certain black activists (for example, Dorothy Turner of the Black Citizen Task Force) would also be barred from city service.
Griffin told the Chronicle, “I think that Danny Thomas took what Mike was saying in the wrong way. Mike was basically quoting Eric Mitchell’s own words and basically most of what he said was factual.” Elaborating on his televised reference to Dorothy Turner, Griffin said that while working for the city or serving on the Human Rights Commission, “Turner made blanket statements that ‘all white people are racists,’ or similar comments.” Griffin reiterated, “Danny Thomas should apologize to Mike Clark-Madison for accusing him of racial or religious insensitivity.”
Informed that Daryl Slusher had asked for Clark-Madison’s resignation, Griffin rezsponded, “Daryl is overreacting if he’s asking for Mike to resign. I thought I knew Daryl better than that. It’s very sad, if he’s asking Mike to resign.” 
This article appears in August 31 • 2001.
