Observer writer wins Unity Award

Dallas Observer staff writer Miriam Rozen has won a Unity Award in investigative reporting for her February 15, 1996, cover story, "Project X." The Unity Awards In Media, sponsored by Lincoln University of Missouri, honor outstanding coverage of minority problems, issues, and concerns.

Rozen's story told how a former Southwestern Bell manager who'd been celebrated as a hero after saving a woman's life was later fired after he complained about what he alleges were the company's racist billing practices.

Rozen's investigation revealed one of Southwestern Bell's secret billing practices, known internally as "Project X." According to the former manager's complaint and the Observer's own reporting, Project X was the name for a set of procedures employed in the company's Dallas revenue-management office regarding the establishment and termination of telephone service.

Project X implemented specific practices that treated customers in low-income--and typically minority--neighborhoods more harshly than their counterparts in wealthier areas. Telephone company workers were told to stop service, for instance, on an Oak Cliff customer if a bill of $50 went unpaid. Meanwhile, a customer in North Dallas with a delinquent bill of $200 may have had his or her service continued.