Protesters demand apology, speak against Wausau City Council appointment of Linda Lawrence
Laura Schulte
WAUSAU - Protesters were escorted out of a City Council meeting Tuesday night after a heated public comment session about new council member Linda Lawrence.
Lawrence, 71, served as mayor of Wausau from 1998 to 2004, and was a member of the City Council from 1986 to 1998 and the Marathon County Board from 1986 to 1992 and 1994 to 1998. She stepped back into the political arena last month to fill a vacancy left by the resignation and death of City Council member Karen Kellbach.
Lawrence came under fire in 2003 for using language critics described as racially charged to describe certain neighborhoods in Wausau. In an email made public, Lawrence referred a "subculture that has invaded" the city, later spoke to local business leaders about needing to "get out the goons," and made statements about drug dealers coming into the area and about men "breeding" with vulnerable women.
The comments led to protests outside City Hall in 2003 by residents concerned that Lawrence was making veiled references to black men and white women and making the city less hospitable for people of color.
Protesters again gathered outside City Hall Tuesday night, ahead of the council meeting, asking that council members think about the message they sent by appointing Lawrence.
Wausau mayoral candidate Chris Norfleet, also co-founder of the group People for the Power of Love, spoke during the meeting about how the council should be held accountable for the decisions that it's making for its citizens.
"You owe the black community some evidence that this woman has changed," he said in the opening of his address. "And not one of you can suggest to us that we're supposed to be OK with these comments or that behavior. Not then and not now. Some action must be taken in this city to be accountable."
Norfleet's speech was impassioned, and he turned several times to look at the audience, the mayor and Lawrence. The audience was composed of about 15 protesters, as well as people who came to observe the meeting or speak on other topics.
"We are not just people you talk nasty about with citizens," Norfleet said later in his speech. "We're human beings and we pay your bills. ... Linda, apologize to our community. And then tell us what we're going to get to show us this is not going to continue."
Among those braving the cold that settled over Wausau ahead of the snowstorm was Shannon Drake, one of the women who stood in the same position outside of City Hall 16 years ago when Lawrence made the comments as mayor. She is the mother of biracial children and was deeply impacted by the comments then, and still is today, she told the council.
"You were elected to serve the city of Wausau, and you say that you're for women, yet you downgraded women in your own community that you were supposed to represent and protect," she said, fighting back tears. "I don't hate you, I'm disappointed in you. And I'm disappointed in the City Council for allowing her to represent the city of Wausau."
Autumn Drake-Dabler, 16, Drake's daughter, also addressed the council.
"All of my cousins back there, they're mixed. Their mothers were not bred with, their fathers did not come here to breed," she said. "I think we all need to look at ourselves and remember what Wausau is — Wausau is a diverse community. We have such a high Asian population. Hmong and Laotian people came here for a better life, and now they're facing racism here. Black people moved here to try and get away from violence in bigger cities, and this is what they're treated with here. Hispanic people come here for a better life, and they're greeted with racism and excuses for it."
After residents addressed the council, Lawrence spoke to their concerns. She apologized for hurting those in the audience and said that she didn't know them at the time, but she would be glad to sit down and talk with them.
She also spoke of the neighborhoods around downtown and said that when she was mayor, there were issues with drugs and that the people there needed support and jobs.
"The police department had what was called a 'war room' at the time. And I was taken through the war room and there were, I don't know, 40 faces or so, predominantly African American men probably in their 20s or so," she said. "And the whole issue was drug sales. It wasn't because brown-skin people were moving here to get away from violence."
She went on to speak about her sister's experience as a nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit at the time, and she had spoken of a woman who gave birth to twins prematurely. She told the audience that the "baby daddy" had left the woman and she had given birth on her own.
"He wasn't there to help her raise the child. He was off to another woman and she was hurting," Lawrence said.
When Norfleet interrupted Lawrence, again asking for an apology, he was escorted out of the meeting by Matt Barnes, the chief deputy of the Wausau Police Department. Others in the audience left too, some shouting and others in tears, as they tried to fit in their last words.
"I'll just summarize by saying the issue had to do with people's behavior that was consuming resources and upsetting law-abiding citizens. Skin color had nothing to do with it," Lawrence said as they left the room. "I apologize profusely to people whom this blanket of mean-spiritedness spilled over, it had nothing to do with that then, and it doesn't now."
Lawrence on Wednesday morning declined a reporter's request for an interview.
Contact watchdog reporter Laura Schulte at 715-496-4088 or leschulte@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @schultelaura.
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