Posted on 08/25/2002 7:52:35 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
Even planners of Charleston's proposed slavery museum agree it might make some visitors uneasy by taking what they describe as an unflinching look at the realities of the institution of human bondage.
But the group that really might be in an uncomfortable position is the NAACP.
On one hand, the museum is envisioned as a national attraction that will draw visitors from all across the country and beyond, much like the Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C. In Charleston, they'll see a museum that takes what backers say is a long-overdue look at one of the formative events in black history in the United States.
On the other, the NAACP will, unless something changes, encourage people not to come. The group's economic boycott against South Carolina will continue until the Confederate flag comes down from in front of the state Capitol, officials say.
It's a situation that presents particular contradictions for several members of the museum's planning committee who are also members of the NAACP, including a top state official. In essence, they're building an attraction that they might not want people to visit.
The Rev. Joseph Darby, who is on the museum's planning committee and who is vice-president of the state NAACP, said the museum would not receive an exception from the boycott.
"If the museum were open today, it would fall under interstate tourism, so it would be one of the things that's stayed away from," Darby said. "We'd be urging people living in South Carolina to come and see it. We'd be urging people out of South Carolina to come and see it when the sanctions come to an end."
But he said there is no contradiction for NAACP members who want to see the museum built and who are actively helping to create it.
He noted that the museum, which is envisioned to be funded largely through private donations, is not scheduled to open until 2007. By then, he said, there perhaps could be a resolution to the flag situation.
"My hope is that somehow this issue would be resolved," Darby said. "I would hope that within five years, we'd move into the 21st century."
Some, however, say the chances that the flag will be moved again - after the hard-fought compromise that took it from the Capitol's dome to a prominent place on the grounds - are all but nonexistent.
Glenn McConnell, president pro tem of the state Senate and a key architect of the flag compromise, said he doesn't believe the flag will be moved in his lifetime. Others agree that the flag likely isn't going anywhere."The chance of the flag being moved from the front of the Capitol are about as great as the chance of survival of an ice cube on the sidewalk in August," McConnell said. "The chances of it are nil."
He also said that the boycott has been ineffective, but that the NAACP's stance still could hurt the museum.
"They are in a difficult situation," he said. "On one hand, trying to build a tourist attraction, and on the other, trying to get tourists not to come. That's a formula for failure."
It's difficult to pin down the boycott's effect on tourism in South Carolina.
Many indicators rose in 2000 but fell in 2001, which was a bad year for tourism in the Lowcountry and across the state. Many observers point to a dramatic drop-off immediately after Sept. 11 as the culprit, although overall economic conditions also played a role. This year, tourism seems to be on the rebound, with officials forecasting increases in attraction attendance and hotel bookings.
Even businesses that draw a significant number of black tourists aren't necessarily hurting. Alphonso Brown, who owns Gullah Tours, said he's not sure whether the sanctions have affected his business.
"Business is going real well," he said. "I don't know whether the boycott is having an impact."
Darby doesn't agree that NAACP members' decisions to work on the museum means that the boycott is being abandoned or is toothless.
"It still has traction," he said. "People still get bent out of shape about it. If sanctions are ineffective, there's no need for anyone to get bent out of shape."
Just because the boycott still might be in place in 2007 is no reason not to help the museum become a reality, he said.
"It would be foolhardy on our part to say, no, we won't look toward the future," Darby said.
Other NAACP members serving on the planning committee also hope that the flag will be moved, thus avoiding some kind of showdown. But some are also willing to acknowledge possible contradictions.
"The world is a unity of contradictions," said Jim Campbell, who said the museum will serve a critically important educational role. "Once you realize that, you can do these things without any problems."
As important as he believes the museum could be, however, he said that, forced to choose, he would support the economic sanctions.
Other museum planners say the issue, right now, is a nonissue.
Congressman Jim Clyburn, who is the chairman of the planning committee, believes it's too soon to worry about it, according to his spokeswoman, Hope Derrick.
"That's a bridge they'll have to cross when they come to it," she said. "It's hard to know what will happen by then."
Much work remains before the museum can become a reality. One of the larger chores is to raise private funds for the project, which estimates have indicated could cost about $40 million.
The exact scope of the museum's content also has to be determined, and other issues remain as well. All of that will take years.
Darby just hopes, for the museum's sake, that that's enough time to find a place to put the flag.
"I look forward five or six years, if we have it all sorted out then, to be able to invite all of America to come and see it."
Given the two alternatives to pursue - an ineffective boycott, or a chance to build a museum, the NAACP chooses the dead horse....
good analogy Vidalia!
"We'd be urging people living in South Carolina to come and see it. We'd be urging people out of South Carolina to come and see it when the sanctions come to an end."
I love the smell of smoked liberal in the morning...
it smells like victory.
Isn't it great the way the media always mentions that the confederate flag is flying in front of the statehouse. They always fail to mention that it is flying above a confederate war memorial. They also fail to mention that there are multiple memorials on the grounds of the statehouse, including the "Civil Rights" memorial which has, among others, the likeness of Jesse Jackson on it.
If you are visiting Charlston, I recommend a visit to the Market, a horse drawn buggy tour of downtown, The Citadel, Patriot's Point and Fort Sumter.
Wouldn't it be sweet justice to watch those whining fools trying to squirm their way out of looking like the absolute hypocrites that they are? There is just no way they could handle this without getting in trouble with somebody. I like it.
Translation: by then we may have been able to intimidate, bully and bribe them into bowing down before Massa NAACP.
How many of the good and decent slavemasters who cared for their slaves well do you reckon will be featured at this museum? Or how about black and Cherokee slave owners or Yankee slave owners? You think this will accurately represent the "history" of slavery or will it be a grandstand for revisionist propaganda?
I never bought much at the Market, but I always did enjoy walking through there. We always find our way to one of the adjacent cafe/pubs where we would enjoy adult beverages, she-crab soup, crab-cakes and shrimp-and-grits.
The NAACP can "pack sand".
"Boy-cotton the South Carolina ain't the Gulla-way."
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