Massachusetts Donor Hopes I-200 Will Lead to Bigger Things

Friday, August 21, 1998 - Seattle Times

by Tom Brune
Seattle Times staff reporter

A retired Massachusetts newspaper publisher has given $10,000 to the Initiative 200 campaign in hopes, he says, that it will lead to the repeal of the landmark U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed racial and gender discrimination.

J. Edward Pawlick, 71, who last year sold Lawyers Weekly Publications, said he is supporting I-200 because "obviously it's a watershed - it's the second state to have an initiative."

Asked if he believed supporting I-200 would lead to the repeal of the Civil Rights Act - which he said is "damaging to everyone" - he replied, "I hope it will."

I-200, which will be on the Nov. 3 ballot, would effectively ban preferences based on race, ethnicity and gender in state and local public employment, contracting and education, ending affirmative action as it is now practiced.

The initiative would not specifically repeal any state or federal laws.

However, Pawlick's hopes represent the worst fears of I-200's opponents, who often say some backers of the measure aim to erode all civil-rights gains of the past 40 years.

"It is not a surprise that Initiative 200 would attract this type of support," said Michelle Ackermann, spokeswoman for No!200.

"Most of Initiative 200's financial support has come from out of state. And I think that out-of-state funders have been very clear about what their agenda for Initiative 200 is, and that is to use Washington state as a stepping stone for their national agenda," Ackermann said.

That national agenda, announced by Ward Connerly of California, is to roll back affirmative action across the country, she said. Connerly led the successful campaign in 1996 to pass Proposition 209, the model for I-200.

But John Carlson, chairman of the Washington State Civil Rights Initiative, distanced himself and Connerly from Pawlick, saying the Civil Rights Act was necessary.

"I understand his argument, but I disagree with him," Carlson said. "My quarrel is not with the Civil Rights Act but with how its very words and meanings have been ignored over the past 25 years."

He said: "The 1964 Civil Rights Act specifically prohibits preferential treatment to any person or any group because of race, gender or national origin. I would like to see the 1964 Civil Rights Act restored to its original meaning, and that is what Initiative 200 does."

Carlson added, "They are endorsing my position; I am not endorsing theirs."

President Johnson created affirmative action by executive order in 1965, a year after Congress passed the Civil Rights Act.

Pawlick's position is spelled out in his self-published book, "Freedom Will Conquer Racism And Sexism." The book's subtitle is "The Civil Rights Act is damaging everyone in America, especially blacks and women."

The book's argument is deeply rooted in the concept of a free market, with little or no government intervention.

The book is based on the views of such free-market advocates as Barry Goldwater, the late Republican senator and former presidential candidate, and University of Chicago law Professor Richard Epstein. Goldwater voted against the Civil Rights Act.

Pawlick blames a "liberal elite" of politicians, lawyers, judges and members of the news media for deliberately misleading the public about the true purpose of the Civil Rights Act, which he said was the imposition of racial and gender quotas.

He attacks the U.S. Supreme Court's early interpretations of the act and its regulations as "illegal" and contrary to the act's language.

He also charges that regulations, interpretations and enforcement of the act have cost the country $150 billion a year in total output and driven business overseas, to the detriment of poor black workers.

Pawlick also criticizes the Civil Rights Act for including women among its protected classes, resulting in damage to women. He cites studies that say there is no "glass ceiling" for women once education, career goals and education are taken into consideration.

Pawlick, who is white and the father of seven children, said he wanted a return to a color-blind society. He noted one of his daughters recently married a black Yale University graduate who is now attending business school.

Pawlick founded the Lawyers Weekly in Boston in 1972 after practicing as a lawyer for a dozen years. He started similar newspapers in seven other states as well as a national newspaper, eventually reaching 150,000 lawyers.

After he retired, he wrote the 312-page book and published it in May. He said he waited until he was out of the business because he feared retaliation from federal civil-rights-law enforcers.

His hope is to change the national discussion on race, which often dismisses his point of view as "racist" and "bigoted."

"A vigorous debate is taking place in our country over affirmative action, but that is not the proper debate. The proper debate should be about eliminating the Civil Rights Act, in its entirety," his book jacket states.

Return to the I-200 page.
Return to the Affirmative Action and Diversity Page

Carl Gutiérrez-Jones
Department of English
University of California, Santa Barbara
e-mail: carlgj@humanitas.ucsb.edu