Posted on 03/02/2002 3:19:35 AM PST by shuckmaster
COLUMBIA - The NAACP plans to begin "border patrols" today to discourage visitors from spending money in South Carolina, part of an ongoing protest over the Confederate flag flying on Statehouse grounds.
The civil rights organization plans to picket the eight welcome centers along the state's borders with North Carolina and Georgia. Volunteers also will hand out leaflets urging travelers to keep their money in their pockets.
"We're prepared at all of the centers. We won't be surprised if they're at North Augusta," Marion Edmonds, spokesman for the South Carolina Parks, Recreation & Tourism Department, said Friday.
The department's employees staff the state's nine welcome centers, which are Department of Transportation property.
"I don't think there will be any activity that will block people from using the centers like they normally do," Mr. Edmonds said. "And our employees are not going to get involved with any discussion of the issue. Our role is not to be a commentator."
He said, to his knowledge, the protests on the state welcome centers' grounds are a first.
Attorney General Charlie Condon has said he will sue the NAACP if the patrols go forward and law enforcement officials will be out in full force when the three-hour protests begin.
"The governor is disappointed in this effort," said Cortney Owings, spokeswoman for Democratic Gov. Jim Hodges. "If it is successful, it could end up hurting African-American businesses in South Carolina."
The national NAACP boycott began in January 2000 when the Confederate flag still flew atop the Statehouse dome.
In July of that year, a compromise among lawmakers removed that flag and others that flew in the House and Senate chambers, putting a similar banner up at the Confederate Soldier Monument on Statehouse grounds.
While the compromise satisfied many groups, the NAACP continued its boycott, saying the flag still flew in a position of sovereignty.
Mr. Edmonds said the boycott had a definite impact on the tourism industry when it began, but that has changed.
Dwight James, the executive director of the South Carolina NAACP, has said the organization was not involved in that compromise. He said the compromise didn't satisfy the group's requirements.
We go to Myrtle Beach nearly every year. However, we're making a point of going this summer for a full TWO WEEKS. This is the way to counter what these fools are doing. Encourage your friends to do the same.
But, to quote a wonderully articulate Jew I knew some years ago ( whose parents sent he & a sister out just before all the rest perished in Dachau ), when asked about some wanna-be Neo-Nazis marching in Jewish Skokie, Il, "They should be ignored"! ( actually, his wonderful German accent & diction spilled out from his emotion-not "they" , but "Dey")
Better to spend some time listening to Walter Williams & Thomas Sowell ( Williams, God's self-proclaimed gift to weomen ) was guest host on Limbaugh this past Thurs & Friday & it was a marvelous lesson in clear thinking ). Better to read a book. Better to re-arrange your sock drawer, than give any note to these yahoos. There are MILLIONS of successful Black folks in this country who are repulsed by these fools in the NAALCP.
Well said, Texican. However, I think I'll put my book by Dr Sowell in the camper, as I head to Myrtle Beach for a few days during Easter vacation. I'm seriously thinking of hunting for black owned businesses at which to spend as many dollars as I can afford.
Bless them.
Good idea. A couple of weeks ago some of us from out of state were talking about coming to SC, counter-protesting and spending a little money. I'm convinced these folks are doing this on short notice so as not to get FReeped.
Is this effort by the NAACP, considered public service?
Are all the "picketeers" using vacation time to do this?
Just curious.
Thanks for the post.
How do we get some of this action in Va?
I live and work in SC and I can tell you that these activists have little or no interest in real issues facing blacks. My kids have participated in academic quiz contests with other schools, some having 98% black students. I watched (while feeling multiple emotions of amazement, pity, and embarrassment) as junior high age kids at these schools could not answer questions like, How many ounces in a pound? Which state is nearest to Cuba? What president came after Washington? ---- you get the picture. These kids are chosen as the smartest in their schools.
This is what the NAACP should be working on, not the flag nonsense.
The answer is.............
........Could you repeat the question? Who was Washington? That used to be the name of our school before we re-named it Malcom X Junior High.
Let's see now, books, CD's, Sporting Goods, clothing, auto parts & supplies, housewares & cooking supplies, linens, tools, craft items,who knows what neat stuff awaits the shopper...
Some of the Dixie cutlure sights might use this idea, permenantly.
If you visit the SC Welcome station, watch your wallet - the NAACP can smell money. Also, stay armed - bring your water balloon launcher.
Will seeing the NAACP protests urging boycotts of South Carolina on CNN be the "last straw" that provokes even a small percentage of the much-larger European-American population into boycotting all black-owned businesses, for instance - something few black-owned businesses can afford during a recession?
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