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Parkland Protesters Vow to Keep Up Fight Over Board Appointments

By Bill Zeeble, KERA 90.1 reporter

Dallas, TX – Protesters: No taxation without representation, no taxation without representation...

Margaret Keliher, Dallas County Judge: All right, you'll please be quiet now. We're in court now.

Bill Zeeble, KERA 90.1 reporter: Protesters claimed Parkland's board of six Whites and one African American woman does not reflect the makeup of Parkland's patients, more than 80 percent of whom are minorities. In March, four Parkland board members - three females, one male - abruptly resigned, angry with hospital administrators and County Commissioners. Last month, four White men were named to replace them. For a while, the protesters, including former state representative Domingo Garcia, longtime Black activist Lee Alcorn, and SCLC member Peter Johnson, quieted down. That didn't last long.

Keliher: If you keep on yelling, y'all will be removed. Take a recess at this time.

Zeeble: After commissioners briefly left the room, Peter Johnson and M.L. Curry with the West Dallas Ministerial Alliance refused sheriffs' urges to quiet down.

Peter Johnson, SCLC member: If we're under arrest, tell us and charge us. If we're not under arrest, then leave us alone.

M.L. Curry, Pastor: We want to be heard, we want to sit down at the table, we want to help make some decisions like everybody else. That's why we're here today. 'Cause nobody cares to listen to us. They just get up and walk out on us.

Zeeble: The activists finally quieted down after Judge Keliher agreed to hear their concerns. Domingo Garcia and LULAC's Lico Reyes:

Domingo Garcia, Former State Representative: I don't like having to protest in front of Commissioners Court. I don't want my children to have to protest in front of a court over a basic issue about representation. It is important you have diversity on the Parkland board.

Lico Reyes, League of United Latin American Citizens: This is what the Boston Tea Party was about. The buck stops with you.

Zeeble: Protesters vowed weekly returns to the Commissioners Court until a change occurs on Parkland's board. But Judge Keliher rejected proposals to replace board members or expand the number serving. She then said Parkland's problems of falling funds and rising costs will not be solved by the board alone. She asked for help from the protesters.

Keliher: We need help from these communities to deal with the issues that we lost $33 million to treat out of Dallas County patients over at Parkland Hospital. We need your help to help us change that system. We need your help, 'cause every time the state cut one dollar out of their budget for health care, it cost the Dallas County taxpayer $3 and 81 cents. We need your help.

Zeeble: Keliher continued, then asked activists to list their names and addresses for future contact. But Pastor Curry and Peter Johnson weren't buying it.

Curry: This stuff about you need to sign up - we've been signing up. It's just the same thing. They sit there and listen and they go on like we haven't said anything. We want to help. I think she was just talking. I don't think she was meaning she really wants our help.

Johnson: Someone would be on the board if they really wanted our input and our help.

Zeeble: Peter Johnson said this issue will not go away. He's now working to find out which national organizations are planning Dallas conventions, with a boycott in mind. He says he'll either urge them to change their mind, or picket them upon arrival. For KERA 90.1, I'm Bill Zeeble.

Email Bill Zeeble about this story.