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St. Pete mayoral candidate criticized for racially tinged comment

Staff photo by TODD DAVIS

Kathleen Ford's remark doesn't sit well with Baptist minister and longtime civic leader Watson Haynes II, one of an impromptu coalition of about 30 religious and civic leaders who gathered at City Hall on Monday to protest her comment.

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By MARK  DOUGLAS | News Channel 8

Published: October 19, 2009

Updated: 10/19/2009 09:45 pm

ST. PETERSBURG - Two weeks before the runoff election, St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Kathleen Ford is taking heat over her use of a racially charged term during a radio interview.

During an appearance last week on the Bubba the Love Sponge radio program, Ford made a reference to "HNIC,'' which stands for "head negro in charge,'' although the "N'' also is sometimes used as a racial epithet.

"Actually Cornell West has a whole explanation about the HNIC theory, and I agree with that," Ford told Bubba during an hourlong radio interview. "We don't need one spokesperson for a group."

West is a prominent African-American scholar at Princeton.

Ford and the radio host had been talking about Goliath Davis, a black deputy city mayor in St. Petersburg that Ford makes clear won't have a job if she's elected, partly because of Davis's contentious history with the city while serving as police chief, and partly because Ford thinks management at City Hall is top heavy.

Ford's remark doesn't sit well with Baptist minister and longtime civic leader Watson Haynes II, one of an impromptu coalition of about 30 religious and civic leaders who gathered at City Hall on Monday to protest her comment.

"We've been through a lot of riots in the city and I've been in the middle of them trying to quell stuff, trying to bring people to the table," Haynes said. "And it's these kinds of inflammatory statements that get people excited."

Deveron Gibbons, who made an unsuccessful bid to become St. Petersburg's first black mayor before losing in the primary election, also was critical of Ford.

"Whether she intended to make a racial comment, it was racial and it's not appreciated, not just by African-Americans but you can see who's here — a total community of folks from all walks of life," Gibbons said.

David Zachem, who is white and a self-described former civil rights marcher in the 1960s, joined Gibbons and Haynes in objecting to Ford's radio remark. "That phrase rolls the clock back 50 years in Florida and in many communities in the South," Zachem said.

Zachem said the "head negro in charge" expression refers to an old patronage system which favored black leaders who rounded up votes for white politicians and were rewarded with business licenses and permits when the candidates they helped were elected.

Bill Foster, Ford's opponent in the Nov. 3 runoff, says Ford chose her words poorly.

"We're not going to make this about race," Foster said. "It's about judgment; it's about judgment and really knowing the pulse of the community."

Ray Tampa, the head of the St. Petersburg NAACP, said he thinks many of those who showed up to criticize Ford were there for political reasons. He said he was not offended because Ford was using the term in an academic discussion about race.

"It's an offensive term, it's offensive, but in the context Ms. Ford used it, it was not offensive,'' Tampa said.

Ford could not be reached for comment Monday. Lauren Hallahan with her campaign said Ford was too busy with previous commitments to speak to reporters about the comment or the protest.

Hallahan said she wasn't sure Ford even knew about the protest and that the controversy was being generated mostly by the media.

"It's not really growing,'' Hallahan said about any controversy. "The media is growing it.''

Reporter Samara Sodos contributed to this report. Mark Douglas can be reached at 727 451-2333.

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