NAACP push sees flagging support
COLUMBIA — The Confederate battle flag that flutters 30 feet above one of this city's busiest streets still draws a mix of head shakes and shrugs from South Carolina residents.
Some are upset the banner was removed from the statehouse dome eight years ago. Some say they like it in its current spot beside a Confederate soldiers memorial. And some echo a recent call by the NAACP for the banner to be removed from state property altogether.
At its national convention this week, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People renewed its call for an economic boycott of the state. Since 1999, the organization has encouraged reunions, sporting events and entertainers to stay away from the state, and officials say their new plan entails asking actors and movie studios to shun the state's efforts to lure film makers.
"We are a patient organization. We've been working for 100 years doing this. And as is always the case, outside pressure is the only way South Carolina ever gets anything accomplished," said Lonnie Randolph, president of the South Carolina chapter of the NAACP.
But in this normally laid-back state, where a rare outbreak of protests helped force the flag from its perch in 2000, there appears to be little popular support for another push.
Some lawmakers who engineered the move to the current spot say they're satisfied. Some say the banner, passed by 28,000 drivers each day, has faded into the background. Even those who aren't pleased say there isn't the political will nor the public outcry to make another switch.
"It will take the next generation of lawmakers to resolve the issue," said state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, a black Democrat from Orangeburg.
The flag was hoisted above the statehouse in 1962. Several efforts in the 1990s to move it failed. By 2000, opinions started to turn. With support from the state's business community, people took to the streets.
Nearly 50,000 people marched on the capitol. Former governors, religious leaders and the football coaches of Clemson and the University of South Carolina joined a 110-mile march from Charleston to Columbia. Tennis star Serena Williams made headlines when she pulled out of a tournament.
When the flag was moved, much of the steam went out of the protests. While the NAACP continues to press a boycott, state tourism officials say measuring any effect is difficult. They said the rate of growth for the state's $16 billion tourist industry appeared to slow in the first years after the boycott began but has since rebounded.
The state NAACP doesn't have solid figures either, but its efforts have been bolstered by the National Collegiate Athletics Association's 2001 decision to no longer bring events it holds at predetermined sites, like basketball tournaments, to South Carolina.
Randolph said hundreds of families have told the group they have moved reunions and said several gatherings of religious groups and black fraternities and sororities have picked other places to gather. The Harlem Globetrotters also no longer come to South Carolina.
But, eight years later, Williams is back playing tennis in the state, winning the Family Circle Cup in Charleston in 2008. The South Carolina Chamber of Commerce reports hearing few complaints from businesses about the flag. Democrats held a critical presidential primary in the state this year and the flag received less attention than in years past.
Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston, says he can't understand why the NAACP doesn't focus on Mississippi, where the state flag includes the rebel banner; or on Georgia, whose flag has elements of a banner that flew over the Confederacy.
"Compared to Mississippi and Georgia, it's a non-issue because you're just talking about one flag minding its business at the Confederate soldiers monument," Ford said.
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Comments
mdtpace (anonymous) says...
Randolph is a lying sack of Sh*t. Funny his accounts of "hundreds of families have told the group they have moved reunions and said several gatherings of religious groups and black fraternities and sororities have picked other places to gather" can't be corroborated. There is no indication whatsoever that anything he is saying is true. Think he knew that when he said it? He's a joke.
July 19, 2008 at 1:04 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
BillytheKid (anonymous) says...
Ford works the system to his advantage, he has no color. The NAACP is like the old unions for the auto industry, at a time they were needed but they have lost touch with the reality of the situation. The "flag" that everyone supports so much causes CEO of company's that would maybe look at South Carolina as a "spot" they may want to put a plant is knocked down because of the bigotry that is so much a part of this state. The leader of our senate has a store that is devoted to the civil war, War Between the States, northern aggression or what ever you want to call it. Just what kind of message do you think that sends to the business world? I had a chance to talk to him and he reminds me so much of Joe R, never a straight answer but a lot of BS.
July 19, 2008 at 3:22 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
5thGenerationLocal (anonymous) says...
I for one am ok with less people moving to my wonderful state. We are overgrown and crime infested already. We do not need any more.
As for the Williams sisters--there are your racists.
July 19, 2008 at 4:43 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
NativeSon (anonymous) says...
The National Association for Adam Clayton Powel (naacp) just can't seem to face up to and get therapy for their mental illness.
July 19, 2008 at 7:30 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
BIGDEE (anonymous) says...
We've got falling schools, poverty, crime,stuggling single parent home and this is what NAACP focuses on. Let start a movement to disband this organization. It is just a remider of what use to be and a country club for old afro American men that wants to keep race an issue, so that they can keep a position of power and influence is the community.
July 19, 2008 at 7:59 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
hoyce (anonymous) says...
i guess when you set the bar low for your goals, it isn't hard to say you've met them. Why not tackle absentee fathers, schools, healthcare, or something that would actually benefit the community as a whole?
July 19, 2008 at 8:13 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
shoelaces (anonymous) says...
I am a little scared....I am starting to almost like this guy.....or at least have a little respect for him....
"Compared to Mississippi and Georgia, it's a non-issue because you're just talking about one flag minding its business at the Confederate soldiers monument," Ford said.
Boycott doesn't impact...next issue, please.
July 19, 2008 at 8:44 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
lowcountrydawg (anonymous) says...
Blah...blah...blah...when the NAAAA (Natl Association for the Ashamement of African-Americans)worries about the real issues affecting ALL people, maybe I'll listen.
Why is it everyone else can be proud and promote their heritage, but if you are a southern, anglo-saxon, white male you are made to be the root of all evil in the world for the last 400 years?
I am proud to be a Southerner...granted, we've had our issues, but so has everyone else. Someway, somehow, we find ways to work with all people regardless of race, creed, religion, etc...
Until then...anyone got a coldbeer?
July 19, 2008 at 8:46 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
zekemire (anonymous) says...
I could care less one way or the other, except for the fact that a small group of people are trying to force their will and opinions on the vast majority of South Carolinians! The naacp is way out of line on this issue! Their useless boycott, which by the way if challenged would be against federal rules about economic boycotts, is doing nothing but hurting those workers in tourism, mostly black and hispanic! Anyone saying the flag is a symbol of the main reason for the war against the South has no clue to the real reasons for seccession and the war! It was not slavery!! It was about the economic terrorism employed ny the industrial northern states, businesses and even the federal government against the Southern states!! Groups like the naacp, aclu and other have no place in a free capitalistic society! They only cause continued seperation of cultures and races, and, promote polarization in our society! That needs to stop! That will only happen when these groups and others finally realize this is not Russia, Cuba, Venezula or Euro socialist societies! GET OVER IT, QUIT TRYING TO REWRITE HISTORY TO MAKE IT AS YOUR AGENDA WOULD WANT!
July 19, 2008 at 9:21 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
sullivan (anonymous) says...
Now let me get this straight : The NAACP leadership would rather focus on impairing the economics of South Carolina business , which a large portion of people of color are dependent upon for jobs and making ends meet ; by making issue over a flag and a war that is HISTORY as opposed to trying to resolve PRESENT issues like black on black crime,illiteracy & school drop out ,single parent families & non exisistent fathers other then as sperm donors and promoting the gains of Equality to their race instead of Entitlement???
I guess we know why real black leaders like Bill Cosby do not embrace this group or the likes of Jesse Jackson Sr. & Al Sharpton.
The NAACP , Jackson & Sharpton "Free Government Cheese & Blame Whitey " crowd are a major part of the problem.
Freedom comes with a price which in part is : Be Responsible for who & what you are regardless of color , creed or national origin!!!
July 19, 2008 at 9:52 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
CaptPete (anonymous) says...
The high gas prices must be having an impact on money coming in to the NAACP. They are now looking for some shakedown money by bringing up a settled issue.
July 19, 2008 at 9:56 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
512c (anonymous) says...
personally, I think we need to stop waving flags for nations that support murder by selling weapons around the world (see kc-45 advert below).
July 19, 2008 at 10:31 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
UrGatorbait (anonymous) says...
It's a non-issue. The NAACP is nothing but a bunch of blowhard has beens. They are trying to move the goal post on this issue because they are just about a non-entity in tackling real issues of the black community.
July 19, 2008 at 10:44 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Lois_Lane (anonymous) says...
I agree with UrGatorbait! Bunch o' blowhards... deal with the children born out of wedlock, deal with deadbeat dads, deal with the non-education of all kids of color...deal with something that's worth the fight. Get a life.
July 19, 2008 at 11:29 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
summerville_guy (anonymous) says...
Good idea, NAACP. Attempt to hurt the economy of your own state. So ignorant. How many NAACPists down here in the lowcountry have never even seen the damn flag flying in Columbia? If they never go up there and personally see it, they have no right to complain.
July 19, 2008 at 12:54 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
drdcrimj (anonymous) says...
5th generationlocal--you are right on. The fewer of these NAACP complainer types we have the better. I'm home in SC after having been stationed up nawth for too many years and when I finally got back to Charleston I found they were here trying to change us to what they were. God help us and bless SC.
July 19, 2008 at 4:32 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
dbeast420 (anonymous) says...
Negroes Are Always Complaining People is a truer meaning.
Get over it and start doing something helpful in stead of trying to harm the state "we" allow y'all to call home.
July 19, 2008 at 5:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
bagballa (anonymous) says...
I'm black I don't see the flag as being racist or anything of the sort. It's a symbol of the south, if you hate that concept move north, or move west. I know I have relatives that died in the war, some were probably forced or tricked into fighting. But alot of them also chose to stay in the south after they were freed. If people think a flag is more important than drugs and young pregnancies their extremely misinformed.
July 19, 2008 at 8:24 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
preachlove (anonymous) says...
NAACP - [Most] of the black community would like you to focus on education, crime, jobs, etc., not a flag. A flag is jut that a flag. It can hurt no one, it can discriminate against no one nor can it injure anyone. People do that just fine. The flag was taken down from the State capitol which many South Carolinians (black and white) supported and thought this would be an end to this issue. You need to move on. This will not generate the membership or the funds you desire.
Your unnecessary boycott, even if has any effect, will only hurt minorities who are in industries that need the tourist dollars. We already have enough racial strife in this State. We don't need any more.
Move on...
July 20, 2008 at 2:48 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
LarryFarma (anonymous) says...
The NAACP has not provided even a single example of where a Confederate leader was personally disliked by blacks -- not Jefferson Davis, not Robert E. Lee, not Stonewall Jackson, not Alexander Stephens, not even Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Secession hurt rather than helped the interests of the slaveowners. The slavery issue was just a pretext for secession. The Confederates ignored the irrevocable Corwin amendment -- which was passed by Congress and submitted to the states for ratification -- which would have permanently barred the federal government from interfering with slavery in the states.
Abolitionists were among the biggest supporters of secession, and that was not because secession benefited the slaveowners.
July 24, 2008 at 5:35 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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