OUTCOME FORESEEN BY MANY BLACKS : COMMON FEELING ONE OF INJUSTICE, ILL WILL.

Byline: Sherry Joe Crosby and Rick Orlov Daily News Staff Writers

From City Hall in Los Angeles to the Boulevard Cafe in Crenshaw, many African-Americans saw the civil trial verdicts against O.J. Simpson as an attempt to persecute the former NFL star and his most ardent supporters - the African-American community.

``The deck appeared stacked against O.J.,'' said Dr. James Mays, a community activist in South Central Los Angeles. ``The setting, jury preparation, everybody appeared anti-O.J. this time.''

A predominantly white civil jury in Santa Monica found Simpson liable on Tuesday for the slayings of Ronald L. Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson and ordered him to pay $8.5 million in compensatory damages to the Goldman family.

A mostly African-American jury downtown found Simpson not guilty in his October 1995 murder trial.

At Moore Hair Designs near the Baldwin Hills Mall, hair stylist Terry Jordan said she didn't understand the reason for a second trial.

``If they found him innocent of murder, I don't see why they even had to have another trial,'' Jordan said.

Accountant Myke Wyatt said he believed the location of the civil trial and widespread criticism of the criminal trial jurors were big issues.

``Santa Monica: Guilty. Los Angeles: Not guilty,'' said Wyatt as he ate lunch at the Boulevard Cafe where a lithograph of Simpson hung prominently on the wall. ``There's different jurors in Santa Monica. Look at the average income in Santa Monica - it's a half-mile away from the beach. Look at the average income in Los Angeles.''

Outside the Magic Johnson Theatres in Crenshaw, the Rev. Craig Ward of Brookins AME Church said he will continue to support Simpson despite the latter's minimal contact with inner-city neighborhoods.

``To err is human. To be forgiven is divine. That is what we aspire to,'' said Ward, who added that Simpson visited his church twice in September. ``He's been forgiven by us of forgetting where he comes from.''

Several African-Americans predicted the verdicts will only perpetuate - if not widen - the racial gulf in the city.

``It only prolongs the widening of the polarization of the races,'' Mays said.

In an ABC poll of 361 adults released today, 82 percent of whites said Simpson is guilty, but only 31 percent of African-Americans agreed.

A civil rights leaders said African-Americans could be hurting themselves by viewing Tuesday's verdicts as a cultural and racial blow - an attitude that could perpetuate feelings of victimization at the hands of whites.

``The crutch days are rapidly eroding,'' said Celes King III, state chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality. ``We're going to have to stand more on our own feet and consider education as a must and we're going to have to look at the entrepreneurship in a new and a valid way and the work ethic has got to be part of everyone's cultural ethic.''

Councilwoman Rita Walters, one of three African-Americans on the council, said many in the African-American community do not believe the justice system is fair.

``It's a question that's larger than Simpson,'' Walters said. ``Justice, with respect to African-Americans and their experience with the system is so different from what the majority of people have seen. It's Latasha Harlins. Rodney King. Years after years of experience. I know it's difficult for Anglo people to understand. There's this compilation and (Simpson) is just one more example.''

In April 1994, a federal jury ordered the city of Los Angeles to pay Rodney King more than $3.8 million in compensatory damages for injuries he suffered during his 1991 beating by police.

Harlins, an African-American teen-ager, was killed by a Korean grocer during a dispute in which the girl was accused of attempting to steal a bottle of orange juice. The grocer was convicted in October 1991 of voluntary manslaughter.

Councilman Nate Holden said many of his constituents feel the civil trial was a case of double jeopardy.

``There's a lot of doubt out there and a lot of people don't understand why this trial was held when he was already found innocent,'' said Holden.

Raphael Sonenshein, a white professor at Cal State Fullerton and the author of ``Politics in Black and White: Race and Power in Los Angeles,'' said the difference between African-Americans and whites as to what the verdict means is not a good sign for the city itself.

``It's a continuation of the fact that this case has not been good for race relations,'' he said. ``It's hard to see where you can get any resolution.''

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1) Terry Jordan, a stylist at Moore Hair Designs, believes O.J. Simpson is innocent and should not have been charged in the liable suit.

(2) ``Santa Monica: Guilty. Los Angeles: Not guilty,'' accountant Myke Wyatt lamented Wednesday at the Boulevard Cafe.

David R. Crane/Daily News