PANHANDLE TOWN'S DRUG WAR REVEALS RACIAL DISPARITY

TULIA -- Cotton is scattered on the side of the road like abandoned
snowflakes. Granaries decorate the flat landscape. A street sign points
toward a Texas Department of Corrections facility.

Welcome to Tulia, in the Texas Panhandle.

The red sign on the door at the Tulia Chamber of Commerce reads ``Known Far
and Wide for Our Hometown Pride.'' The sign is part of a public relations
war to change the image of a town that is becoming famous for the excesses
of the war on drugs. In Tulia, it appears to be a war on African Americans.

In July 1999, 40 African Americans -- or 16 percent of the African American
population of this town of about 5,000 -- were arrested by an undercover
officer with a regional drug task force. Tom Coleman had neither wiretap
nor video surveillance to back up the allegations against the defendants.
And no money, guns or drugs were confiscated during the arrests.

Tulia may be at the center of the controversy surrounding the war on drugs.
But the town, where churchgoing is as much a part of the social fabric as
the cotton and prison industries, is also at war with itself over its
racial issues. Some of the sentences in the drug operation, which range
from probation to hundreds of years, may have been too long, said Lana
Barnett, president of the chamber of commerce. But she denies that race is
a factor in the cases.

``There's never been a (racial) problem here,'' said Barnett, referring to
two African Americans who recently received top awards from civic groups.

But the statistics in the drug operation paint a different picture. Of the
43 people arrested, 40 were African American, two were Hispanic and one was
white. A few had previous arrests for drugs and other things. Fearful of
long sentences, many of the defendants pleaded out on charges of delivery
of cocaine. Several are serving prison sentences. All had court-appointed
lawyers. Last week, an appeals court in Amarillo, north of Tulia, dropped
charges against one defendant.

Austinites collected about $1,600 and donated it to the Friends of Justice,
an interracial group that is raising money for the defendants' families.

The arrests have touched most families in the African American community,
which is about 5 percent of Tulia's population. I met Tamara Barrow outside
of a store. Her husband, James, is on probation. At least two of his
relatives are in prison as a result of the sting.

``Somebody has to make a stand. I'm not gonna let my kids grow up thinking
they are less,'' Barrow said.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a civil rights lawsuit in
September against Swisher County Sheriff Larry Stewart, who supervised
Coleman, and District Attorney Terry McEachern on behalf of the Tulia
residents. And the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the sting
operation.

This question deserves an answer: How could a town of 5,000 support 43 drug
dealers of any race?