Many of us South of the Trinity could not understand why the Dallas Morning News would publish a front page story on former John Wiley Price confidant and now Laura Miller follower, Betty Culbreath. Ms. Culbreath’s transformation is no less dramatic then a former pro life advocate going over to the pro choice side in the abortion debate. I mean a two page story in the city’s only daily is a bit much for an African-American woman who has little or no political influence in the Black community anymore. The facts are clear. Ms. Culbreath was once in the forefront of the Black political community for a number of years. She was credited with much of the early success of Commissioner John Wiley Price but once Ms. Clubreath left the Price camp, her political power quickly waned.

I also found it interesting that Mr. Price’s past legal woes were chronicled in a story about Betty Culbreath. Unless Mr. Price’s political enemies, both Black and white, are about to campaign to remove what influence he has in the Black political community, I did not understand why Mr. Price’s past legal woes were important to the story. I would think by now the Anglo community would realize financial and legal woes of popular Black political personalities are not as detrimental to political success as these same problems would be for a white politician. The main reason for our tolerance of alleged financial and legal issues is that many African-Americans have been adversely and sometimes unfairly impacted by the criminal justice system. We also understand when a person does not have the money to pay his or her bills does not necessarily mean that they are poor financial managers or that they would be irresponsible custodians of the public’s money. The above statement might explain why Democrat candidate for DA, Craig Watkins’s campaign, did not miss a beat when news surfaced that he did not properly address some of his financial obligations. In other words, being broke in the Black community is not a character issue. We understand there are far too many other circumstances out of one’s control that could create a negative image.

Conspiracy theorists South of the Trinity offer this explanation for the Morning News’ appealing account of a Black woman who is considered no more then a lonely mouth piece for Laura Miller in the southern sector. In an attempt to pay Ms. Culbreath back for her unflinching loyalty to Miller, the Morning News, considered in the southern sector to be squarely in Miller’s corner, wrote this flattering portrayal of Betty Culbreath. The portrayal was complete with the false notion that Mayor Miller’s problems with the Black community stems from columns she wrote over 15 years ago about John Wiley Price. The News story, once again, ignored Miller’s current issues with the African-American community and highlighted Ms. Culbreath’s continued insistence that Laura Miller is not a racist.

The story concluded that Betty Culbreath might seek to replace Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill on the city council in 2007. If Ms. Culbreath chooses to run for city council in District 5 it will become the most interesting race in the 2007 city election. For not only will Mayor Miller have her own candidate in the race in Ms. Culbreath, but Commissioner Price will have his own candidate in the race as he is backing Voncil Hill. And Don Hill will have his own candidate, Lynn Flint-Shaw. It can’t get better then this! "And that’s how we see it from South of the Trinity."

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