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PEMBROKE PINES • The mayor of Fort Lauderdale, Jim Naugle, wasn’t scheduled to receive an award from the South Florida Human Rights Council on Saturday, and he didn’t.
But one of the city’s biggest legal nemeses, Reginald Clyne, received the group’s Thurgood Marshall Award, one of the two highest awards the civil rights organizations gives.
Clyne, in turn paid compliments to Naugle, whom he cited as “the lone voice” among Fort Lauderdalecity officials for noting that the city has a discrimination problem.
“It takes a lot of courage to do that,”• said Clyne, a Miami-based attorney who represented Elgin Jones in his discrimination complaint against the city that was settled recently for $455,000.
Clyne has five discrimination cases against Fort Lauderdale stifi pending. Naugle, who attended the South Florida Human Rights Council board luncheon; said he was surprised by Clyne’s remarks and added, “rt’s disheartening that discriminationis being swept under the rug” in Fort Lauderdale.
Aside from Clyne, the local human rights organization honored a group of SOuth Florida citizens Saturday but gave its highest award to a retired New York judge who was the first black woman to serve on the federal bench.
The South Florida Human Rights Council bestowed its Human Rights Award upon Constance Baker Motley, the first black woman appointed to a federal judgeship by then-President Lyndon Johnson. Her brother, Edward Baker, acceptedthe award for her.
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Motley made history in 1966 when President Johnson nominated her for the judgeship in the district court for the Southern District of New. York. She was a member of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund team under Thurgood Marshall and specialized in housing discrimination.
In 1962, she successfully argued for James Meredith to attend the Umversity of Mississippi.
The South Florida Human Rights Council, which was founded last year, is a multiracial, nonprofit public advocacy group created by Jeff Gorley to shine light on issues and concerns affecting South Florida’s diverse communities. Motley is Gorley’s aunt.
Also honored with the group’s Civil Rights Awards were Broward Urban League President and CEO Don Bow-en and former Broward Human Rights Board member Maurice Lawrence. Miramar Commissioner Sallie L. Stephens was awarded the council’s Education Award.
Dania Beach Mayor Robert Chunn, Legal Aid attorney Sharon Bourassa, community activist Leola McCoy, Broward Clerk of Courts Howard Forman, Davie Vice Mayor Geri Clark, and Executive Director of Broward Outreach Allen Reesor received Cornmunity Services Awards.
The luncheon drew a diverse crowd of almost 100 people, including Broward Mayor Diana Wasserman-Rubin.
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