Diversity Chat

Diversity Chat for the Week of May 28th, 2006

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Welcome to a very special edition of Diversity Chat for the week of May 28th, 2006! Tony Wade and I traveled this week to the annual National Guard Bureau Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights Training Conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

And on this week's Diversity Chat - you'll hear some of the conference highlights - including an interview with Sergeant Debra Mooney - a member of the Oklahoma Army National Guard who organized a powwow while serving in Iraq. And we'll also hear from an Arizona Army National Guard Officer - Major Paul Babeu - who volunteered to go to Iraq as an Equal Opportunity Adviser - and from Major Angela Archuleta - the Montana Army National Guard Officer responsible for all the EOA's in theater during Babeu's time in Iraq.

Plus - we'll hear from perhaps the most popular conference presenter - Mac Fulfer - an attorney who became an expert and author on literally reading people's faces. We also visit with Dr. Thomas Prince - President and Founder of the Atlanta Center for Reconciliation - on the challenges and opportunities mediation presents as an alternative dispute resolution tool.

And we'll get the view from the top in a discussion with Brigadier General Joseph Carter - the Deputy Adjutant General for the State of Massachusetts and Chairman of the Army National Guard's Committee for EO/EEO and Diversity. We'll wrap up our coverage with the insights of Mr. Felton Page - Director of the National Guard Bureau Office of Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights.

First though, this round up of some of the week's top stories in human relations, equal opportunity and diversity:

The U.S. Senate this week approved a comprehensive immigration reform bill by a vote of 62 to 36. The Senate version of the bill includes a guest worker program and a pathway to U.S. citizenship for undocumented aliens already in America. It must now be reconciled with a much tougher House version that focused solely on enforcement.

The architect of the tough House approach to immigration reform - Judiciary Committee James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin - says finding a compromise between the House and Senate versions
may prove impossible. He calls the Senate provision for a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers "amnesty" - and says it's a non-starter.

Meanwhile - Mexico's President Vicente Fox visited three western American states this week to lobby for immigration reform from the Mexican perspective. Political analysts say Fox visited mainly to help the election chances of his hand-picked successor in Mexico's upcoming presidential election.

The co-founder of the Minuteman Project - a vigilante border patrol group - says he feels vindicated by President Bush's decision to send six-thousand National Guard troops to the U.S. border with Mexico. But just who is Chris Simcox? Is he a patriot - an extremist - or maybe a little of both?

An article this week in USA Today may help you make up your mind. In it - Simcox and his group are praised by a U.S. congressman, and described by the former CEO of La Raza as hate mongers from the lunatic fringe.

The head of Caritas Christi Health Care - Massachusetts' second largest health system - resigned this week following allegations of sexual harassment from more than a dozen female employees.

Dr. Robert Haddad had originally been reprimanded and ordered to take sexual harassment training after a handful of women complained. But more women came forward with allegations on May 22nd. Haddad gets 10 months of pay and benefits as part of his severance package. He denies the charges.

The U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission says Nine West and Jones Apparel Group have agreed to pay 600-thousand dollars to victims of sexual harassment, national origin harassment and retaliation - and take major steps to prevent future workplace bias as part of a major litigation settlement.

The agreement settles an EEOC lawsuit alleging two high-level managers at Nine West's headquarters subjected female employees to unwelcome sexual advances, sexually explicit jokes and comments - groping of women's bodies - and taunting the women with insulting remarks about their Hispanic origin.

Meanwhile - the EEOC also announced this week that the National Education Association and its Alaska affiliate had agreed to pay 750-thousand dollars to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit.

That suit alleged Thomas Harvey - the interim assistant executive director for NEA-Alaska - subjected three female employees to abusive treatment on a daily basis. While Harvey's abusive behavior wasn't overtly sexual in nature - the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found Harvey's abusive behavior illegal because it targeted female staff members exclusively. That legal decision prompted the NEA to settle the case.

The EEOC this week also announced a final settlement had been reached in a class-action age discrimination lawsuit involving the state of Massachusetts' retirement system. The claimants in the case will split an extra 165-thousand dollars in retirement benefits each year as a result of the settlement.

Willie Gary - a Florida attorney with a record of winning large monetary settlements from big corporations - is leading a class-action race discrimination lawsuit against Ford Motor Company.

But Gary's involvement in the case has some in Detroit wondering if the plaintiffs in the case are more interested in shaking Ford down than in racial justice.

Radio personality Raqiya Mays - fired from a New York radio station for describing herself on the air as a "racist" who has a "problem with white people" served as an unofficial principal for a day at a Brooklyn school for troubled youth this week.

New York Department of Education authorities said they would not have approved Mays' participation in the school's career day event had they known about it in advance.

A music teacher at an elite elementary school in Chicago faces disciplinary action for reportedly telling a 6th grader last year that he needed "to learn his place as a black boy."

The teacher in question says she never mentioned race to the student. But the school district's lawyer wrote in a letter to the child's mother that the student's allegations had been substantiated after an internal investigation.

A man in Washington State got just two days in jail for using racial slurs and threatening to kill an African American state trooper who had pulled him over for drunk driving.

Manuel Thomas Diaz plead guilty to one count of second-degree intimidation and stormed out of the courtroom in anger after the judge handed down the two-day sentence.

A Philadelphia judge this week found Robert Baldwin guilty of using racial slurs to intimidate an African American couple on a flight from Los Angeles to Philadelphia last year. 

The judge convicted Baldwin on two counts of ethnic intimidation and harassment. He ordered Baldwin to pay a 15-hundred dollar fine and serve 200 hours of community service at a facility that promotes racial tolerance.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a lower court ruling rejecting the claims of three high-ranking Charlotte, North Carolina Fire Department officials who said the city denied them promotions based on their race.

One of the firemen who filed the lawsuit - Larry Mackey - said last year the case had prompted the Charlotte Fire Department to promote an African American - Howard Key - to Deputy Chief. Still - diversity in the Charlotte Fire Department overall may be headed in the wrong direction. An internal city memo notes the percentage of African Americans in the Department has fallen from 17.5 percent to 11 percent in the past decade.

Democrat Priscilla Taylor - who represents West Palm Beach in Florida's House of Representatives - says she's convinced she's been pulled over by police twice in the past six months solely because of her race. And Taylor isn't the only Florida lawmaker that believes they've been the victim of racial profiling.

The Florida Legislature's Black Caucus says it will introduce a bill next year requiring local law enforcement agencies to track the race and ethnicity of motorists they stop. The Florida legislature has already passed a bill requiring local law enforcement agencies to adopt anti-racial profiling policies.

Missouri already requires local law enforcement agencies to collect data on race and ethnicity when they make traffic stops.

And Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon this week announced that in 2005 - African-American drivers in the Show-Me State were stopped at a rate 42 percent higher than expected based on their proportion of the driving-age population.

Former Quest Communications employee Donald Moreau is suing the company for harassment based on his sexual orientation. Moreau says Qwest never fully complied with a mediated settlement of his allegations - which were confirmed by the Denver Anti-Discrimination office. Qwest says it complied fully with the settlement.

The Louisiana State Senate this week killed a bill that would have made it illegal to discriminate against gay and lesbian workers in state employment.

The legislation would have turned an Executive Order signed by Governor Kathleen Blanco two years ago into state law. The Executive Order bans employment discrimination against gay and lesbian state government employees - prohibits harassment - and requires businesses contracting with Louisiana to have a policy against discrimination based on sexual orientation.

A new study in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology shows you don't have to be African-American to face discrimination in the pursuit of rental housing - you just have to have a name that sounds like you could be.

The study's authors sent more than a thousand identically worded e-mails to Los Angeles-area landlords asking about vacant apartments advertised online. An equal number of the e-mails were signed Patrick McDougall, Tyrell Jackson or Said Al-Rahman. The fictional McDougall received positive or encouraging replies from 89 percent of the landlords - while 66 percent of landlords encouraged Al-Rahman. But just 56 percent of landlords responded positively to Jackson.

William Loges co-authored the study. He's an assistant professor of new media communications and sociology at Oregon State University. And according to Loges - the study shows not only that housing discrimination exists - but that it begins long before a landlord meets a prospective tenant - even in Los Angles - one of the most diverse cities in the world.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Federal is investigating whether a two-year-old program to combat crowded housing in Manassas, Virginia unfairly targets Hispanic families in violation of the Fair Housing Act.

HUD officials filed a complaint this week alleging a pattern of discrimination. And a group of Manassas residents and civil rights advocates Thursday filed eleven more complaints - alleging the city has selectively enforced its overcrowding rules and other ordinances against Hispanic residents.

Diversity Chat for the Week of May 21st, 2006

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Welcome to Diversity Chat for the week of May 21st, 2006! This week - Tony Wade and I discuss why an invitation to the president of a reactionary think tank may have spurred dissension among the ranks within the EEOC - why Bill O'Reilly thinks white power needs protecting - what Tony Snow may have revealed about his attitude toward race his first week on the job - and the challenges in putting together a community human relations commission.

And we go "Out or About" this week to a hard-hitting film, "The Boys of Baraka" - which documents an only partially successful attempt to turn around the lives of African American boys in the gritty heart of Baltimore's urban core.

Plus, we'll talk with Margaret Gilmore, Coordinator of the Nebraska Coalition for Quality Jobs, about the dangerous, low-paying jobs the meatpacking industry loves to fill with undocumented immigrant workers, and her thoughts on immigration reform.

First, though, here are some of the week's top stories in human relations, equal opportunity, and diversity:

President Bush urged the Senate to pass comprehensive immigration reform with a balanced approach during an address to the nation this past week.

The Senate responded with a week's worth of sometimes heated debate on - and amendments to - its immigration reform bill. Among amendments approved - a measure that would build over 300-miles of fence on the U.S.-Mexico border - and a largely symbolic amendment naming English the national language. But the Senate defeated amendments that would have stripped a guest worker program and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers from the overall bill.

Joe Arpaio - the controversial sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona - says none of the solutions to immigration being proposed in Congress are needed. His approach to undocumented workers? Lock them up in the county jail on charges of smuggling themselves across the border. Arpaio - whose jurisdiction includes much of Phoenix - has faced past criticism for making inmates wear pink underwear - forming a chain gang for female inmates - and turning a desert tent-city into an internment camp for county prisoners.

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday - on a strict party line vote - approved sending a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage to the Senate floor for consideration. The Senate is expected to consider the measure in June. Two-thirds of Senators would have to approve it - which political analysts consider impossible.

President Bush says he supports a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages.

Meanwhile - Fulton County Superior Court Judge Constance Fuller on Thursday struck down an amendment to Georgia's constitution that banned same-sex marriage. Georgia voters overwhelmingly approved that amendment in November of 2004. Judge Fuller voided the amendment - not on civil rights grounds - but over procedural flaws in its wording. Still - gay rights groups praised the ruling.

And in Vermont - Governor James Douglas vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have made the state the eighth in the Union to outlaw discrimination based on gender identity or expression. Douglas said lawmakers had not sufficiently studied the law's impact on Vermont's current anti-discrimination statutes before passing it. Gay rights groups expressed disappointment in the veto.

Could this November's elections result in greater representation for women in Congress? An article in the Christian Science Monitor says 2006 could be much like 1992 - when the number of female Representatives and Senators jumped from 32 to 54. Currently - 81 members of Congress - 52 Democrats and 29 Republicans - are women.

Voters in New Orleans went to the polls Saturday to elect their next mayor. The two candidates - Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu and incumbent Mayor Ray Nagin - have similar platforms. But race has played a significant role in the campaign. Landrieu's father was the last white mayor of New Orleans. Nagin has said his victory would be a triumph over racial discrimination.

The U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission this week postponed a panel discussion on the balance between diversity and affirmative action. According to the Washington Times - it's because career EEOC employees protested the participation of Roger Clegg on the panel. Clegg is President of the Center for Equal Opportunity - which favors the elimination of all affirmative action programs - among other things. An EEOC spokesman says the panel discussion got delayed because the EEOC simply wasn't prepared to hold it as scheduled.

Well known pundit Bill O'Reilly this week acknowledged "the white power structure that controls America" during the May 16th edition of his TV show. He also accused so-called "lefty zealots" of trying to sweep "white Christians" out of power "by a new multi-cultural tide..." Media Matters for America says O'Reilly has identified the "hidden agenda" of the immigration movement as "the browning of America."

Meanwhile - pundit-turned-White House Press Secretary Tony Snow started his new job with a questionable choice of words. Describing his desire to avoid answering a question about the domestic spying program - Snow told a reporter he didn't "...want to hug the tar baby of trying to comment on the program..."

Joe Leonard, executive director of the Black Leadership Forum, called Snow's remarks "simply inappropriate."

As expected - the NAACP this week brought a suit in federal court in Omaha challenging the constitutionality of the state's new law splitting the Omaha public school district along largely racial lines. According to the NAACP lawsuit - the Nebraska law "intentionally furthers racial segregation."

Ernie Chambers - Nebraska's only African American state lawmaker - strongly supports the law. During an interview on Diversity Chat for the Week of April 23rd, he said the law simply gives more local control to portions of the Omaha school district whose students are predominantly African American or Latino.

The House Appropriations Committee this week ordered a Government Accountability Office investigation into sexual harassment at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. And the House Subcommittee on National Security will hold a hearing on the matter next month. The moves come just weeks after five Coast Guard cadets accused a fellow cadet of rape and sexual assault during two days of hearings in New London, Connecticut.

The National Guard Bureau holds its annual EEO and Civil Rights Training Conference this week in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Topics include reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act - alternative dispute resolution and mediation - complaints investigation - and creating a culture of opportunity - among others. Several hundred Equal Opportunity professionals from both the Army National Guard and Air National Guard are expected to attend.

And finally, a group of communities in north central Montana met recently to form a Human Relations Commission for the region - and they found out it's no easy process. In fact - a local newspaper says the meeting had many of the new Commission members wondering - if Commission members can't get along with each other - what kind of example are they setting for the rest of the community? A few people reportedly left the meeting - and one man had a bottle of water thrown in his face. But by the end of the meeting - according to the local paper - most in attendance had figured out a way to get along.

Diversity Chat for the Week of May 14th, 2006

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Welcome to Diversity Chat for the week of May 14th, 2006! This week, Tony Wade and I look at the ongoing dispute between the Minuteman Project and the Southern Poverty Law Center, look at what the Republican party may want to do if it's serious about attracting more African American voters, and discuss whether or not the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King should ever be invoked for purely political purposes.

Plus we go "Out or About" this week to a presentation by a singing former Benedectine monk on the importance of mediation in today's fast-paced world.

And we hear this week from the United States Senate's only African American member Illinois Democrat Barak Obama - and the only U.S. Senator who's an immigrant - Florida Republican Mel Martinez.

First though, here are some of the week's top stories in human relations, equal opportunity and diversity:

President Bush will address the nation on immigration Monday night. He's expected to announce plans to deploy several thousand National Guard troops to the U.S. border with Mexico in an effort to staunch the flow of illegal immigrants.

The President's address comes as the U.S. Senate resumes debate Monday on comprehensive immigration reform. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid have reportedly reached a deal that will allow passage of a bill that includes tougher enforcement measures - along with a guest worker program - and a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11-to-12 million illegal immigrants already living and working in the United States.

Meanwhile - pro and anti-immigration protestors squared off in front of the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. Friday. Stephen Eichler - Executive Director of the anti-immigrant Minuteman Project - left no doubt where his organization stands on the issue - saying "we shall not allow our nation to be invaded, and we will not allow our freedoms to be given away."

But pro-immigration protestors had a message of their own for the Minutemen - chanting "Minutemen go away, immigrants are here to stay."

All this comes as labor leaders, Latino activists, Catholic priests and radio personalities that organized massive pro-immigrant demonstrations across the country unveiled a new campaign this week to register a million new voters before the November elections. Leaders of the new "We Are One America" movement unveiled the voter registration drive in separate anouncements in Los Angles, New York, and Chicago.

An illegal immigrant who won part of a 22-thousand dollar judgment from a San Francisco restaurant after complaining to the city's Office of Labor Standards Enforcement about getting paid less than minimum wage is now facing deportation. Sonia Cano says she and her husband - also an illegal immigrant - were anonymously reported to immigration authorities after the ruling against the restaurant.

The U.S. Census Bureau this week said America added 2.8 million residents between July 2004 and July 2005 - nearly half of them Latinos. The Census Bureau data confirm Latinos as America's largest minority group - and as the fastest growing segment of the population. Significantly - the data show Latino population growth is driven more by births than immigration.

Among the other interesting findings of the Census Bureau data - that roughly one in three Americans belong to a minority group. And nearly half of all Americans under the age of five are minorities.

The House of Representatives this week passed a half-trillion dollar defense authorization bill that includes language allowing military chaplains to pray in the name of Jesus at public military ceremonies. The House language runs counter to recent Air Force and Navy directives on the role of chaplains and religious tolerance. The Chief of Navy Chaplains is among those opposed to the House provision.

For decades - the party of Lincoln hasn't been the party of African Americans. But three prominent African American GOP candidates are trying to change that this political season. In Ohio - J. Kenneth Blackwell is running for governor. In Maryland - Michael Steele is running for the U.S. Senate. And in Pennsylvania - Football Hall of Famer Lynn Swann aims to unseat incumbent Democratic Governor Ed Rendell.

But even Republican strategists concede it may take more than one election cycle to overcome the voting habits of African Americans. And some Democrats say it will take more than a handful of strong African American GOP candidates to overcome the distaste of many African Americans for Republican policy positions on affirmative action and other issues.

The Salvation Army this week named Israel Gaither as National Commander and his wife Eva as National President of Women's Ministries. Gaither is the first African American to hold the position in the Salvation Army's history. The Gaithers have served in the Salvation Army since 1964. Their marriage in 1967 marked the first racially integrated marriage of Salvation Army Officers in America.

The CEO of Toyota North America stepped down this week - just days after a former assistant filed suit against him and the company for sexual harassment. Hideaki Otaka says he didn't do it - but doesn't want to be a distraction.

Toyota - meanwhile - is creating a panel headed by former U.S. Labor Secretary Alexis Herman to review its policies and  procedures on sexual harassment and discrimination. The company also reportedly plans to immediately enhance equal opportunity training for senior executives.

New York brokerage firm Morgan Stanley is facing a sexual harassment lawsuit from a former broker - just two years after settling a gender discrimination case brought by the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission for 54-million dollars.

Kathryn O'Hagan says after she filed sexual harassment complaints in 2002 and 2004, her boss stripped her of her accounts, refused to give her an office, and withheld promotions. She also says male employees watched pornographic videos at work, and forwarded pornographic video clips via e-mail.

In related news - the negative health and peformance effects of sexual harassment on individuals are well documented. But a new study published this month in the Academy of Management Journal also shows sexual harassment hurts work teams, too.

In fact - the study finds sexual harassment is associated with significantly more conflict in work teams - less team cohesion - and importantly - less success in meeting financial goals.

Data released by the Census Bureau Friday shows roughly half of America's 51-million disabled people have jobs. But the data also show disabled people tend to be paid less than their able-bodied counterparts - and are also less likely to have health insurance.

The California state Senate voted Thursday to require the historical contributions of gays and lesbians in the United States be taught in California schools. The measure must still pass the state Assembly and be signed by Republican Governor Arnold Schwarznegger - who has not yet taken a public position on the bill.

And finally, Diversity Inc released its list of the top-10 companies for African Americans. Allstate topped the list. AT&T and Cox Communications rounded out the top-three.

Diversity Chat for the Week of May 7th, 2006

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Welcome to Diversity Chat for the Week of May 7th, 2006! This week, Tony Wade and I discuss why sexual harassment complaints should be investigated without regard for the rank of the alleged offender, some of the reasons people discriminate against members of their own groups, and why the final determination of an early civil rights leader's cause of death is a welcome development.

Plus, we go "Out or About" to the Women's Lyceum in Kansas City - and find out how a Dartmouth professor is helping women of color overcome negative stereotypes and balance their personal and professional commitments.

And we'll talk with Chase Badwounds, an Amerian Indian from the Ogallala Lakota Sioux tribe, about the lack of opportunity that still plagues America's first citizens.

First though, here are headlines and links to some of the week's top stories in human relations, equal opportunity, and diversity:

As expected, more than a million people took to the streets this past Monday in protests across the country that organizers called the "National Day Without an Immigrant." Protest organizers had urged immigrants to boycott work and attend the demonstrations - aimed at urging Congress to pass immigration reform that deals fairly with the estimated 11-million illegal migrants already living and working in America.

But action on immigration reform remained stalled in the Senate amid partisan finger-pointing.

And while Americans as a whole remain divided over the best approach to immigration reform - the less-punitive Senate version is overwhelmingly favored by Lation voters. That's according to a poll of Hispanic Americans conducted in 23 states for the Latino Policy Coalition - which found 80 percent of Hispanic voters favor the Senate version.

Meanwhile - a new report from a group called Immigration Equality and Human Rights Watch says U.S. immigration policy is keeping thousands of gay Americans from their non-American partners.

The report called "Family, Unvalued" says Congress should pass the Uniting American Families Act - a legislative proposal that would allow binational gay couples to permanently live together in the United States. The measure does enjoy the support of a bipartisan group of 107 of the nation's 535 lawmakers. But political analysts believe Congressional leaders have no plans to move the bill forward.

By an eight-to-five vote - the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan decided that New York felons cannot use the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to regain the right to vote. The plaintiffs in the case argued barring convicted felons is discriminatory because a disproportiante number of them are African American and Hispanic.

And as Congress readies to reauthorize the 1965 Voting Rights Act - A group of House Republicans wants to do away with the law's requirements for bilingual ballots and translation assistance at the polls.

The 56 lawmakers say they support the Voting Rights Act overall - but believe the requirement to provide language assistance to voters hurts national unity - boosts the risk of election fraud - and unduly burdens state and local governments.

The former assistant to the Chief Executive of Toyota North America is filing a 190-million dollar sexual harassment lawsuit against the giant automaker. Sayaka Kobayashi says Hideaki Otaka made repeated sexual advances toward her after she took the job as his assistant in March of 2005.

Toyota says it takes allegations of sexual harassment seriously. Ms. Sayaka's lawsuit says Toyota never conducted a formal investigation after she complained - and then fired her.

A labor union this week filed a protest with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development over the dismissal of eight female employees at a snackfoods plant in Poland owned by international food conglomerate PepsiCo. The union claims management at the Polish plant first fired the women for participating in the sexual harassment complaint process - and has since taken steps to end union representation at the plant. The union says it filed the OECD complaint to force PepsiCo to negotiate.

Two men - one of them a Latino - were sentenced by a federal district court judge in Philadelphia Thursday after being convicted of fraud in a scheme that got local Latinos to take out high-interest loans for home improvements that were never done.

Edwin Rivera and Brad Marks preyed on those who couldn't speak English - promising them elaborate  home improvements at low interest rates in Spanish - then having them sign papers their victims couldn't understand in English. Both men got prison time and will have to pay restitution.

The U.S. Department of Justice is suing the owners of a 273-unit apartment complex in the Detroit metro area for housing discrimination.

The complaint - brought under the Fair Housing Act - claims the owners have told managers and employees not to rent to African Americans - have told African Americans apartments were not available when the same apartments were available to whites - and required African Americans to pay a deposit to apply for an apartment while not requiring whites to do so.

Vermont is poised to become the eighth state to prohibit discrimination against individuals who have gone through gender reassignment surgery - or against those who present themselves as a different gender.

Vermont's Senate approved the bill Wednesday and sent it to the Vermont House - which is expected to approve the measure. Vermont's governor is also expected to sign the bill.

And finally, Booker T. Washington's cause of death has finally been determined once and for all. At the time the civil-rights pioneer died in 1915 at age 59 - one of his doctors said Washington died of "racial characteristics" - a term that at the time covered both high blood pressure and syphilis.

But Washington's medical records were reviewed this week by a University of Maryland medical conference that looks each year at a famous person's cause of death. They determined Washington died of kidney failure brought on by high blood pressure - not syphilis.