E-mail a friendDiane Ragsdale
airdate October 11, 2005
Diane Ragsdale is a former Dallas City Councilwoman. She's a founding member of many community service organizations, including the Martin Luther King, Jr. Family Health Clinic and the Common Ground Community Economic Development Corporation. Ragsdale was a prominent backer of neighborhood preservation projects and community-based crime control and prevention initiatives. She served on the Council with Harriet Miers and has recently helped shed light on the Supreme Court nominee's views.
Diane Ragsdale
Tavis: Diane Ragsdale is a former Dallas City Councilwoman who worked closely with Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers on a number of issues facing her home district of South Dallas. She now heads up the South Dallas Fair Park Inter Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit group aimed at providing affordable housing for low-income residents. Diane Ragsdale joins us tonight from Dallas. Councilwoman, nice to have you on the program.
Diane Ragsdale: Thank you very much.
Tavis: My pleasure to have you here. Let me - ask you to take me back to your days on the Dallas City Council and tell me how and when and on what you came to work with Harriet Miers.
Ragsdale: Well, Harriet Miers was a fellow colleague. We both worked together as council members. Harriet Miers was an at-large council member, meaning that she represented the entire city of Dallas, and my role was to represent a district. I was elected from the district. And Tavis, I remember very clearly, very well when she was elected, and Councilwoman Miers approached me, unlike most city-wide council members.
She approached me and asked me, "How can I work with you to improve the conditions of your constituents, to help you address the problems within your area?' And that was extremely atypical. And then from then on, we developed a working relationship and a friendly relationship.
Tavis: Tell me more about the district that you represented, what the makeup of the district was.
Ragsdale: African American for the most part, low to moderate income. The average income around $18,000 per year.
Tavis: And so she was interested in trying to help you advance some policies that would benefit your constituents.
Ragsdale: That's absolutely correct. She reached out, which was - a pleasant surprise, extremely atypical. So from then on, we began to work together on issues from affordable housing to crime reduction. Wherever I needed some help, then she would step in to help out. There's no question as a result of our relationship, I came to really conclude that she was a woman of fairness and diversity. She believes in both of those.
Tavis: Let me ask you. Being a woman of fairness is one thing, because fairness is rather subjective these days as what we define fairness as.
Ragsdale: Yes indeed it is.
Tavis: Let me ask you whether or not she's not just fair, but whether or not she gets it, and I say gets it, I mean gets issues of diversity, gets issues of inclusion. Because there are a lot of folk trying to figure out where she stands on those kinds of issues.
Ragsdale: Well, I think that's a very key issue. That's a very important question. We worked together on single member districts. The truth of the matter is that originally she did not support single member districts, meaning we in essence wanted to, we meaning primarily African - I mean, Councilman Al Lipscomb and I worked together. My other colleague who was African American who was on the council at that time, we worked together to in essence eliminate, if you will, the at-large system or the city-wide system.
Councilwoman Miers at that time originally did not support the single member district system or all council members being elected from districts. But she eventually did support an all-single member district system. And so - she was supportive, eventually. And there were still some council members who really never did support a single member district system. But eventually, she became one of our supporters on that given issue.
Tavis: Tell me what kind of relationship you are aware of that she developed over the years, if any, relationship with other black leaders throughout the city. It's one thing for you as a council member, as a colleague, to have had a working relationship with her. It's another thing for her to have had that kind of relationship with other African American leaders. How broad does her collegiality and cooperation go with regard to other African American leaders in that city of Dallas?
Ragsdale: Well, I know she did develop a relationship with some African American attorneys, in particular Demetrius Sampson, who's one of our leading attorneys in the city. And they worked together on a number of issues as well. As it relates to the plaintiffs, with respect to the lawsuit that really led us to single member districts, Mr. Roy Williams and Mr. Marvin Crenshaw.
She in particular worked with Roy Williams. So they developed a working relationship also. So - through it all, we've had our challenges. We did have some differences along policy lines, but we really did conclude that she was a woman of fairness and diversity.
Tavis: Give me your thoughts, since you know her and have known her for many years, dating back to the '80s, give me your assessment on what you make of how she is being treated as we speak. And by "treated," you can take that any way you want to take it 'cause the Democrats have questions, members of the President's own party are having major issues with Harriet Miers. Give me your sense of what you think when you see how your former colleague is caught in this process at the moment.
Ragsdale: Well, I don't think that she - is being treated fairly with respect to her intellect. I mean, Harriet is highly intelligent. She is a negotiator. She is a consensus-builder. She can build bridges, and I guess to some extent maybe there are some people who simply don't like those type of characteristics in individuals. But she is one who, as I indicated, believes in fairness, and she will sit down and negotiate with you and try to move you toward a resolution, move you toward settlement, and those are really her main strengths.
Tavis: Is it your sense then that she might, if confirmed, be a justice that is along the lines of the woman she's nominated to replace, Sandra Day O'Connor, who was a swing vote on a number of issues? She didn't have a particular voting style, did not have a particular pattern, unlike Scalia, Thomas, Rehnquist and others.
But she was that decisive vote on any number of issues. I'm hearing from you that if she is a consensus-builder, if she is fair, if she'll sit down and talk to you, to use your word again, if she's a negotiator, maybe she is not too far from the style at least that Sandra Day O'Connor had. Your thoughts?
Ragsdale: Well, that's perhaps, that could be true, but to be quite frank with you, I'm not sure. I cannot speak to those issues like, abortion, even the gay rights, etcetera. I'm not so sure about those issues, to be quite frank with you. But I do know that she's not going to legislate. She is a woman who follows rules, so she will follow the law as it is, and so, but - I don't necessarily see her as one who is the Scalia type, to be quite frank with you. But I do see her as one who will sit down and make a clear assessment about the law and the Constitution and judge accordingly.
Tavis: Let me ask you - and this is putting you on the spot, and I apologize, but you are the only - I say this respectfully. You're the only African American I've had a chance to talk to, at this point at least, who has a relationship with her, who - has known her for any substantial period of time. So let me just ask you whether or not as an African American, I assume, 'cause I know a little bit about your work. I know the district you represented.
I know what other folk in Dallas think of you inside the black community, so I assume that you would be and are, in fact, concerned about any decisions that she might make that would affect your people, that would affect African American people. Give me your sense then of how comfortable, scale of one to 10, 10 being extremely comfortable. As an African American, given the issues that you know this court is going to see, how comfortable would you be with Harriet Miers sitting on the Supreme Court? This is your own opinion.
Ragsdale: Seven.
Tavis: Seven out of 10?
Ragsdale: I would give seven out of 10. Particularly in the area of affirmative action, minority contracting, seven out of 10 to be quite frank about it. But I could be wrong, but that is my opinion, and that's - based upon my experiences.
Tavis: You have any idea whether or not she's going to survive this process? I mean, tell me about her personality, her constitution. Is she strong enough to get through this? 'Cause it ain't looking cute these days.
Ragsdale: No, it's not. It's not looking cute at all, and she's challenged quite a bit. While I cannot speak exactly how she is going to rule at all on any given issue, I do know that - she's a strong woman and that, indeed, she can step forward and stand strong consistent with her thoughts and her beliefs.
Tavis: Well, I'm glad to have you on. It's always good to talk to somebody who knew the nominee back in the day, back when. Diane Ragsdale, former Dallas City Council member, nice to have you on the program.
Ragsdale: Thank you very much.
Tavis: Up next on this program, one of my favorites, singer, performer Frankie Beverly, frontman for Maze. Stay with us.
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