Cape Girardeau's black leaders, who Sunday used the forum of public-access television to inform residents of local NAACP activity, voiced frustration at a lack of progress in race relations.

They also bemoaned what they described as limited economic opportunities for Cape Girardeau's black residents.

Sunday's "Community Awareness Program" was held at City Hall by the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The event was broadcast live on Channel 13, the city's cable-access television station.

Michael Sterling, president of the local NAACP, said recent survey work indicates black applicants aren't given fair employment opportunities.

He said a lot of large businesses in Cape Girardeau are family owned and operated with little opportunity for non-family members particularly black applicants.

"We know employment is the number one issue because economics is success, and people are just not being hired," Sterling said. "It's definitely an area of concern."

Carol Keeler, a news representative at KZIM radio, hosted the meeting. She asked Sterling if he was able to determine whether black people simply weren't applying for some of the jobs identified in the survey.

"We've found this just not to be true," said Sterling. "A lot of times what we found is applications were lost. Or they'll say they were sent to one place and we find out it's still on the desk buried at the bottom of the pile.

"It is really happening, and it's a serious offense."

Sterling said the NAACP works hard to address employment and other concerns in the community. He said the key to the group's success and progress for Cape Girardeau's black community is cooperation.

"We can work together and achieve these things. They're not so far out there that we can't reach them," he said. "But our strength is in our membership and our committees."

Juanita Spicer also said membership is important.

"Membership is the lifeblood of the NAACP," she said. "We encourage anyone who believes discrimination is wrong to join us."

Sunday's meeting included a "call-in" line for questions from viewers of the program. Sterling was asked by one caller if residents should be concerned about rumors of a possible Ku Klux Klan rally in Cape Girardeau Saturday.

"Of course, that threat should be taken seriously," he said. "I've been on the phone with the justice department and they're concerned this rally will take place."

Police have said a rally is unlikely Saturday.

Another caller asked if the NAACP wasn't simply promulgating fears of a rally by frequently voicing objections to it.

But William Campbell, a 1992 honors graduate from Cape Central High School, said that racism only spreads when it's ignored.

He compared the issue to AIDS and the need to inform the public of ways to prevent the spread of the disease. "Like AIDS, if we don't talk about racism it will only grow," he said.

Another caller complained that black workers often are accused of getting their job only as a result of affirmative action.

Ina Boone, NAACP Region 4 director, said: "In this day and age, I have learned that you do not get anything because you're black. You only get the job because you are academically trained or academically qualified.

"And a lot of times you're denied the job even if you're academically trained or qualified," she added.

Costella Patterson, a retired elementary school teacher and longtime NAACP member, said the Cape Girardeau chapter has a history of working to improve employment opportunities for blacks.

"We were able to open doors at financial institutions, department stores, supermarkets and restaurants where other than dishwashers were hired office help and secretaries, and the local building trades," she said.

Patterson said the city's largest employers, Procter and Gamble, also is the only large business that includes blacks in upper management positions.

She said education is another area of employment that's not well represented in Cape Girardeau by blacks.

"So many black teachers lost their jobs because of integration," she said. "We've worked on that by meeting with the board of education, where we urged changes in recruitment practices."

Patterson said the school district now recruits from universities with more black students, and also includes a black staff member when recruiting teachers.

"I think the NAACP has and must insist that more black teachers have to be hired and that some black principals and administrators have to be hired," she said

Boone said the Cape Girardeau branch also joined other branches in working to assure pay parity among black and white teachers.

But Debra Willis, community action chairperson for the local NAACP, said little has changed in the past few decades in terms of problems faced by black residents.

"The problems are the same," she said. "The buildings you're being kicked out of are a little more glossed over and nice, but you're still being kicked out.

"The jobs you're being denied are a little more high-tech, but you're still being denied the jobs."

Willis said she was frustrated to find that people in Cape Girardeau seem to think race relations here are fine "even though the work force isn't integrated, and we still aren't being hired."