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GREENSBORO - Prominent black leaders will rally support tonight for their Declaration of Intolerable Racism, a document that outlines what they consider recent injustices to the Guilford County black community.

"We are experiencing a deplorable and rapidly deteriorating situation," the declaration states, after listing nine recent events that grew "out of a culture of racism."

They include the high suspension rates of black students in Guilford County and the racial profiling of African American police officers by the former police chief.

Joe Alston, president of High Point's NAACP, said the group's strength is that many of its members are leaders in the larger community, "inside the systems that we are looking at."

He said the group will hold strategic planning sessions about each of the issues outlined, but plans beyond that are unclear.

The group's rally will be at 6 tonight at Phill G. McDonald Plaza on Greene Street in downtown Greensboro.

The Rev. Cardes Brown, pastor of New Light Baptist Church , said last week's firing of Guilford County Manager Willie Best, who is black, prompted the group's declaration.

"The coming together was in all probability initiated by the last intolerable occurrence, which was the firing of (Best)," said Brown, who signed the declaration.

"There are a myriad of other issues which have given us reason to be alarmed and concerned about the rise of racism."

Best was fired during a televised meeting in which commissioners called each other idiots and liars. The board's three black members said Best was losing his job because of his skin color.

Chairwoman Carolyn Coleman called Best's ouster a "2006 high-tech lynching."

The declaration says the context of the firing seemed to be "political rivalry with race and racism as the backdrop."

The declaration also says "there has evolved a deep denial that the enslavement and discrimination of yesterday have any meaning or bearing on today's reality."

It calls on "people of all races who love justice and cherish community" to gather downtown tonight to support the document.

The document is supported by 18 African American elected leaders and ministers.

They include Guilford County Commissioners Melvin "Skip" Alston and Bruce Davis; Greensboro City Councilwomen Yvonne Johnson, Goldie Wells and Dianne Bellamy-Small; and Guilford County Board of Education members Amos Quick and Deena Hayes.

None of those leaders returned telephone calls Thursday.

Among the other items listed in the declaration:

l The scandal involving the Greensboro Police Department and ousted Chief David Wray.

An investigation revealed that a police department employee under Wray secretly recorded and saved conversations with several community leaders, including clergy, attorneys, doctors and business owners.

"Targeting African-American leadership for apparent entrapment or some other unstated (secret) purpose is unethical and unjustifiable," the declaration states.

l The "scapegoating" of Bellamy-Small. In May, she was the only council member who refused to take a lie-detector test regarding the leak of the report investigating the police department to the News & Record.

The declaration says negative attention on Bellamy-Small shifted focus from "the behavior of a rogue group of police officers."

"The disrespect shown Ms. Small reflects a disrespect of black elected officials throughout Guilford County and, by implication, disrespect for the 29 percent of the population which they represent," the declaration states.

Other items in the declaration include the disproportionate number of black students suspended from Guilford County Schools and the city of High Point's failure to address its lead- paint problem.

Nettie Coad, an activist in the black community who signed the declaration, said racism in Greensboro is subtle. That leads people to avoid discussing it, she said.

"We don't really go deep enough into the issue of racism to really address it, " she said.

Staff writers Mark Binker and Kavita Pillai contributed.

Contact Margaret Moffett Banks at 373-7031 or mbanks@news-record.com