PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The tobacco industry has been hit with a lawsuit accusing it of violating the civil rights of blacks by specifically trying to sell them menthol cigarettes.

The lawsuit -- filed in federal court Monday -- claims menthol cigarettes are more dangerous than other types.

The lawyers who filed the proposed class-action said it is the first lawsuit brought against the tobacco industry under federal civil rights law rather than personal injury or product liability laws.

Plaintiffs include several black smokers and former smokers of menthol cigarettes and two black health groups.

They are demanding that tobacco companies and industry groups make public all research about the effects of smoking, especially of menthol cigarettes, on blacks. They also want a ban on menthol tobacco.

The lawsuit contends that menthol compounds, when burned, create additional toxic substances that make such cigarettes more dangerous. Government studies of smoking have suggested that the menthol taste makes it easier for people to smoke longer and inhale more deeply, the lawsuit claims.

Suit: Up to 70 percent of menthol smokers are black

The case is based on the original Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1870, passed to prevent the victimization of former slaves during Reconstruction.

The act "has been amended and used in school desegregation and police beating cases, but if you go back to the original act, this is what it was intended to prevent: targeting black people in ways that take advantage of them," plaintiffs' attorney Stephen Sheller said.

Philip Morris Inc. had no comment on the allegations, saying company attorneys had not yet seen the lawsuit.

Although blacks account for about 10 percent of all U.S. smokers, the lawsuit says they make up 60 percent to 70 percent of the menthol cigarette consumers, and are 30 percent more likely to die of smoking-related illnesses than whites.

Fifty-five percent of blacks used one of three menthol brands -- Newport, Kool and Salem -- according to a 1998 Surgeon General's report.

"Even if you account for poverty and other things, that still doesn't account for the higher death and illness rates among African Americans," said the Rev. Jesse W. Brown Jr., a Lutheran pastor and lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. "We think it's the menthol."

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