Posted on 07/18/2006 12:49:14 PM PDT by aomagrat
A Confederate heritage group says its free-speech rights were violated when a landowner removed a billboard promoting Southern history near the famed Darlington Raceway.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans plans to demonstrate at the State House next month and buy radio advertisements to complain about losing its billboard on U.S. 52, about two miles from the racetrack.
“This is the most chilling thing I’ve seen against freedom of speech,” spokesman Don Gordon said.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans bought the billboard this spring in response to remarks by a NASCAR executive about the rebel flag.
The billboard featured a Confederate flag and a checkered race flag. The message said, “Victory is Great, but Honor is Greater. Defend your Southern heritage.”
The billboard, taken down briefly in May, also listed the group’s phone number and name.
Officials of the S.C. Central Railroad, which owns the land where the billboard stood, said the message was “controversial” and needed to come down.
“It is not in our commercial interests to have billboards on our property displaying messages that might be controversial in the local community, whatever the substance of the messages,” a company spokeswoman said in a prepared statement.
“We made no judgment as to the content of the billboard, but we did understand it to be controversial and therefore asked that it be removed.”
An outdoor advertising company, hired by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, installed the sign just before Darlington’s annual Mother’s Day race. It was removed permanently June 16, according to a July 11 letter from the S.C. Sons of Confederate Veterans commander, Randall Burbage, to fellow members.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans says it is an international, nonprofit historical society. The group, which says it has 30,000 members nationally, has taken positions in defense of the Confederate flag in South Carolina.
‘NOT ... ANYTHING FAVORABLE’
In October, NASCAR’s chief executive, Brian France, told the CBS television show “60 Minutes” the Confederate flag was “not a flag that I look at with anything favorable. That’s for sure.”
As it branches away from its traditional Southern fan base, NASCAR has tried to shed its rebel-flag-waving image. The nation’s largest stock car racing organization has started diversity programs and tried to appeal to black and Hispanic fans. The Darlington Raceway, in business for more than 50 years, has served as a pillar of NASCAR.
“A member of the France family said some uncomplimentary things, so we put that billboard up to make a statement and to stimulate new members,” the confederate veterans’ Gordon said. “We really didn’t expect anything like this to occur.”
Attempts to reach NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter were unsuccessful. However, Hunter said last spring that NASCAR did not seek to have the sign removed.
“If we find out NASCAR is involved, you can expect airplanes towing Confederate banners over every NASCAR race anywhere in this nation — forever,” Gordon said.
Mac Josey, vice president at the Darlington Raceway, said he knew nothing about the billboard and did not ask that it be removed. He said the track does not fly Confederate flags, although some fans do.
Wesley Blackwell, chairman of the Darlington County Council, said he heard about the billboard during a social gathering at the Darlington speedway in May. Blackwell said the county did not ask that the sign be removed.
‘NOT A WORD WOULD BE SAID’
The Confederate veterans group paid Palmetto Outdoor Media more than $5,000 to put up the advertisement, Gordon said. Most of the money was refunded when the sign was removed.
However, Gordon is not satisfied.
“What if it was a sign trying to bring new members to the NAACP? We all know not a word would be said,” Gordon said.
Palmetto Outdoor Media co-owner Rodney Monroe said his company’s land-lease agreement with S.C. Central Railroad has a section that called for the removal of offensive advertisements.
“We lease the property from the company and we, obviously, crossed the line as far as what was acceptable to them ... and were asked to remove the sign,” Monroe said. “We are not in the business to cause or create controversy.”
Gordon said his group had a contract with Palmetto Outdoor for the sign to stay up through part of next year.
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees every American the right to free speech. However, the sign was on private property, and the property’s owner ordered it down.
Bill Rogers, director of the S.C. Press Association, said that removal violated the principle of free speech, if nothing else. The sign did not appear to be inflammatory, he said.
“I can see why they would feel their rights are violated, that if someone doesn’t like the message, they take it down,” Rogers said.
See, that's self-serving nonsense. The First Amendment says "Congress shall make no law" abridging freedom of the press or freedom of speech. In this case, no government body has made a law restricting this organization from doing anything. What has happened is that a private property owner (the railroad) has decided what can and cannot be done on his property. Since their actions are within the law, no one has any right to tell them what can be posted on a billboard they own. This is NOT a freedom of speech issue.
NASCAR didn't abide by the lease contract so the sign was taken down. What's the big deal? If they want to put up the sign again, buy their own land.
Yeah, and people who own a motel have the right to not rent rooms to people they don't like, right?
Of course it's a freedom of speech issue. Just because the sign is privately owned, like a motel, it must treat everyone equally.
The liberals did it to themselves.
"Yeah, and people who own a motel have the right to not rent rooms to people they don't like, right?"
People who own a hotel can refuse to rent for various reasons, but not the color of your skin.
"Of course it's a freedom of speech issue. Just because the sign is privately owned, like a motel, it must treat everyone equally."
So you want to make confederate heritage groups a protected class? What about birdwatchers? Fat people? Gays?
'Outlaw Josey Wales' is one of my favorite movies. But, what does that have to do with NASCAR?
NA$CAR didn't lease the sign, the Sons of Confederate Veterans did. NA$CAR just complained about it.
You are both right of course. It is not a freedom of speech issue and a landowner should be able to do whatever with their own land, which the railroad did. However I do have to agree with the comment in the article Re: had this been an ad for NAACP membership not one word would have been said. In the unlikely event that something was said or the sign removed, lawsuits would have been sure to follow. There are groups one can disrepect with impunity and groups one must revere.. apparently.
Dixie ping!
The damnyankees have already infested the thread...
I'm a big supporter of Southern heritage, but I don't think this group has a legal or ethical leg to stand on. The property owner has a right to do whatever he or she wants with his or her property. Period. Calling this "a blow against the First Amendment" strikes me as being a bit disingenuous.
NASCAR can go to hell!The yankee agitators need to be kicked back north where they belong with their stupid ideas and treasonous trash.
"If they want to put up the sign again, buy their own land."
Or find a property owner along US 52 willing to rent space on his land. It would seem to me that the Sons of the Confederate Veterans should have no problem finding a landowner along US 52 in Darlington, SC, willing to put up a sign honoring the Confederate flag and defending Southern heritage.
Memo to Johnny Reb. The Civil War is over. Stop fighting it.
How does someone get away with putting up signs on other people's property without their permission in the first place?
I didn't see anything in the article.
As big a son of the South as I am, I have to agree. Yes, the railroad knuckled under (quite possibly under blackmail from some of the local NAACP-style race pimps) but it's private property and they have the right to ask that the billboard be removed. It's not a First Amendment issue.
Besides, if NASCAR has their way, it sure looks like they won't be racing at Darlington much longer anyway. It wouldn't surprise me if they yank the one remaining race away from their loyal South Carolina fan base in pursuit of mythical fans up north. As went North Wilkesboro, so may go Rockingham and Darlington.
}:-)4
As I said, if you follow the logic, the liberals did it to themselves.
Why can't the ancestors of Confederates be a protected group? They lost the war. Surely, they must be victims.
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