District attorney in NC removed from office after making a racial slur

Jet, Sept 25, 1995

A fraternity spokesman at the University of Arkansas recently denied that a racial insult was intended by the fraternity house display of a Black figure with a "Sambo" name tag.

But a Black professor at the university said he was nearly hit by a chair and heard racial slurs when he tried to photograph the figure.

Carlton Bailey said the chair was tossed from a window of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house and landed a few feet away from him.

Fraternity officer Richard Jason Durham said that Bailey wasn't the target of the tossed chair.

Bailey photographed the two-foot Sambo statue during rush week.

"They were inside and I went up to the porch to take a few pictures, and as I was taking pictures, some people were yelling the `N' word," Bailey said. "As I was walking away, someone threw a chair out the window at me. The chair came down with a lot of velocity."

He has filed complaints with university administrators.

"I wasn't threatening anybody. I just took a picture to confirm it was there," he said. "I just want to see what the university does. When a Black person does something on campus, the community goes nuts."

Bailey said the fraternity's president and the faculty advisor have apologized to him.

The fraternity could face sanctions as a result of the incident. The fraternity has since destroyed the statue. "We publicly apologize to anyone who was offended," said Durham. He explained that the fraternity members thought "Sambo" referred to a folk tale about a Black boy chased by a tiger who runs so fast he turns into butter.