Associated Press Writer

DALLAS (AP) - The firing of Dallas' first black police chief ended a brief peace in this racially volatile city and threatens to fracture the cooperation the city's white, black and Hispanic leaders earned after a decade of strife.

"We were going forward and then this thing hits us like a blow in the face," said Glenn Linden, a history professor at Southern Methodist University who has written extensively about desegregation in Dallas.

The August dismissal of Terrell Bolton rekindled the kind of animosity that crippled city government throughout much of the 1990s.

It was a decade when blacks, chanting "No Justice, No Peace," picketed tirelessly against allegations of white favoritism in the police department. Hispanics and blacks demanded fair representation on the city council. In 1996, Black Panthers shut down a school board meeting and scuffled with police.

Tension eased in recent years as the city elected its first black mayor and groups vowed to work together, but old feelings resurfaced with Bolton's firing.

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Dallas recorded the highest per capita crime rate in the country for six years and the police department faced a fake drug scandal in 2001 that put dozens of innocent immigrants in jail.

City Manager Ted Benavides, citing poor job performance during Bolton's four year tenure, fired the chief on Aug. 26.

The decision set off protests and allegations of racism.

Protesters, demanding the removal of Benavides and recall of Mayor Laura Miller, briefly shut down a city council meeting and marched to City Hall within days of the firing.

Bolton believes Miller orchestrated his dismissal and one rally organizer called the firing a "public lynching."

Black civic leaders, city councilmen and preachers at their pulpits said city leaders disrespected the entire black community by discarding Bolton without giving him a chance to resign or take a different post.

"This is a slap in the face like it's never been slapped before," declared Councilman James Fantroy, who is black.

Bolton was painfully vocal about the firing, sobbing at one news conference and telling his church's congregation the ordeal made him reflect on his childhood in rural Mississippi where "racism dripped like honey from a tree."

He has said his evaluations included none of the criticisms blamed for his ouster. City leaders dismissed his demand for a settlement, but Bolton's lawyer believes the firing is illegal and has requested arbitration.

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Much of the criticism is directed at Miller, a newspaper reporter-turned-mayor whose journalism work included scathing criticisms of several black politicians.

Some of Bolton's supporters say Miller, who is white, pressured Benavides to fire Bolton to divide the minority communities.

"I believe that this mayor is responsible for the height of tensions, that she has devilishly pitted blacks against Hispanics," said Rev. Stephen Nash, president of Dallas' Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance.

"Dallas is a racist city ... What we're praying for are leaders who diffuse the racial tension, not heighten it. We want a mayor that quells the storm, not blow into the wind to help strengthen it," Nash said.

Miller says she had nothing to do with the firing, though she supports it, and says Bolton's use of race is nothing more than strategy.

"That's a sensitive issue that people are afraid of. It gets thrown out to keep things churning," Miller said. "Clearly, it is to the former chief's advantage to have things continue to churn in the city and that's always been a pretty fail-safe way to get that to happen."

Blacks also blasted Benavides, the city's first Hispanic city manager. Tension between blacks and Hispanics escalated when black protesters held signs calling Benavides a "wetback" at a rally and a city council meeting.

Hispanic leaders held a news conference denouncing the use of "hate speech," and demanded an apology from black elected officials. A group of blacks, including Nash, who attended the conference, apologized for the sign, though they claimed no responsibility for it.

"It divided the Hispanics and the African Americans," said Jesse Diaz, president of the Dallas League of United Latin American Citizens. "When they come to us for support and when they ask us to support them in the elections or any issue, we're going to remember September 2003."

Benavides did not respond to requests for an interview with The Associated Press.

Diana Flores, a trustee with Dallas County Community College District, blamed the ordeal on growing pains between two newly empowered communities.

"What we're seeing is just a continuing evolution of race relations in our city," Flores said. "We don't know how to work with each other when we're the majority. And that's our challenge."

Dallas is 37 percent Hispanic, 25 percent black, 33 percent white non-Hispanic, and 3 percent Asian, according to the most recent population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

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Throughout much of Dallas' history, a white power structure gave a few concessions to minority leaders and accommodated some of their communities' needs while refusing to share any real power, said Linden, the SMU professor.

"We didn't have a civil rights movement in this city. We didn't learn the lessons," Linden said. "I think in some ways you can say it's a city still in formation, but how long can you be in formation?"

Dallas never experienced race riots of the 1960s like other large cities.

A federal court order forced Dallas to desegregate its schools in 1971, a process that didn't end until this year. In the late 1980s, minorities fought to abolish citywide city council positions they said made it difficult for minorities to win seats.

After a 1990 referendum, new districts were gerrymandered to guarantee racial or ethnic majorities representation. Although they produced greater diversity on the council, some say new districts only reinforced Dallas' segregated residential patterns.

Race relations seemed to improve in the years after the city elected its first black mayor, Ron Kirk, in 1995 and re-elected him in 1999.

Kirk used a strong hand to tame contentious city council meetings and to pressure blacks, whites and Hispanics to cooperate. He calmed tensions largely by avoiding the subject of race and stressing the importance of working together as a city.

"I'm hopeful that model will help sustain us through the difficulty we see now," he said.