Tag : A

Arranged as a long-distance matchup of two football powers, theSept. 19 game pitted a black team from the Shaw neighborhood ofNorthwest Washington against a mostly white team from rural westernMaryland.
Leading the Sentinels 14-8, the visiting Crimson Tide walked out ofGreenway Avenue Stadium as the coach contended that his players hadbeen targets of racial taunts. The home team, which could end upwinning by forfeit, denied the accusations.
In subsequent interviews, four Dunbar players and the father of afifth have said that the team was subjected to a barrage of racialepithets that night -- principally the N-word -- uttered by FortHill players as they brushed past on the field, faced off at theline of scrimmage or picked themselves up from a pileup. Some ofthe players and their families said it was the first time they hadheard the word uttered in hate.
"It was kind of a shock to him," said Richard Hughes II, father ofdefensive end Richard Hughes III. "Just never had anything likethat happen before." His son's flash of temper on the sidelinesdrew an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty, the first of three 15-yardpenalties assessed against Dunbar as the game unraveled.
Players and coaches from Fort Hill denied hearing any racialepithet on the field. There is only one account on the Fort Hillside of a racially offensive comment from the stands.
Referee Robert M. Broadwater said afterward that he and other gameofficials heard no "inappropriate language." But Broadwater wrote:"There is a lot of close contact between players, so a lot ofconversation can take place that is not heard by any of theofficials."
A civil rights investigation is underway in the Maryland attorneygeneral's office. Interviews with coaches, players, parents andsupporters of both teams suggest that the damage has been done.Dunbar players said they suffered a serious indignity. Fort Hillstudents said they were slandered.
This is the second allegation of racism in a year for Fort Hill,whose principal banned displays of the Confederate flag in Marchafter a black family reported being chased from the school byracial intimidation. Civil rights advocates see an ugly pattern.Defenders of Fort Hill say the Dunbar team and its coach, CraigJefferies, exploited the stain left on the school by theConfederate flag incident.
"We're at a major disadvantage here," said Max Green, a senior andFort Hill campus leader. "There's nothing we can do to take backwhat [Jefferies] said."
Fort Hill and Dunbar have more in common than good football teams.Both schools have had to fight for respect.
Fort Hill, built in 1936 near a Civil War breastworks, is on theless-affluent side of this Allegany County town. The better-off in Cumberland, population 22,000, attendrival Allegany High School. Fort Hill is predominantly white, withabout 60 black students out of more than 1,000. Two-fifths of itsstudents come from families poor enough to qualify for federal mealsubsidies. SAT scores fall nearly 100 points below the nationalaverage.