Jan.
17 — On the holiday marking the birth of Martin
Luther King Jr., thousands of people marched and gathered in South
Carolina’s capital today to protest what they consider a vestige of a
racist past.
 ABCNEWS’
Barry Serafin reports on the controversy over old Stars and Bars in
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Carrying signs such as “Your heritage is my slavery,” the marchers
demonstrated against the use of the Confederate battle flag, which flies
above the Statehouse in Columbia. They also called for a permanent state
holiday honoring King.
The flag issue has been
simmering in Columbia and throughout the state in recent days with a
statewide tourism boycott by the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People and the nationwide commemoration of the slain civil
rights leader’s birthday.
Even candidates on
the presidential campaign trail have been peppered with questions about
whether the flag is an appropriate symbol for South Carolina.
State police estimated the crowd at 46,000
people. Police had prepared for as many as 20,000 people to march today.
For the most part, the event was peaceful.
One man carrying a large Confederate flag with a sign that said “I love
you,” was arrested for disorderly conduct after he exchanged words with
people in the crowd and ignored police requests to back off, said Sid
Gaulden, state Public Safety Department spokesman. No other incidents were
reported.
In a dueling rally a week ago, more
than 6,000 marched in the South Carolina Heritage rally to support keeping
the flag atop the Statehouse.
To open the
events on his father’s birthday, Martin Luther King III spoke at a prayer
breakfast this morning at the University of South
Carolina.
“The flag is a terrible symbol that
brings a lot of negative energy. And while we believe the flag has an
appropriate place, it just does not belong on top of the Capitol because
it is not a sign of unification,” he said.
Protests
in King’s Spirit
Marchers gathered at a downtown church for
a service this morning before heading to a rally at the Statehouse, six
blocks away. They sang “the flag is coming down” and waved American
flags.
In King’s spirit, the march organizers
passed out pamphlets asking people to be peaceful and to avoid responding
to any hecklers.
African-Americans were joined
in the march by whites, including 16-year-old Heather Showman. She said
the flag did not offend her but she understood why others were offended by
it.
“We need to get this flag off the
Statehouse and promote racial unity,” she said.
The NAACP began a tourism boycott of the
state Jan. 1, making the flag a front-burner political issue. Numerous
business, educational and civic groups have joined the call to bring the
flag down, or to place it elsewhere on Statehouse
grounds.
But flag supporters say the
Confederate banner represents the heritage of those who fought and died
for a cause they believed in. Furthermore, they say, they will not
consider taking it down until the NAACP boycott is
lifted.
To lower the flag, opponents must
convince the state Legislature to take it down. Lawmakers gave themselves
that power after rebuffing then-Gov. David Beasley in 1995 when he tried
to take it down.
Do
Sanctions Work?
The tourism sanctions have been effective,
said Nelson B. Rivers III, the NAACP’s national field director. Many
groups that came to the city today for the rally elected to stay at
churches rather than at local hotels. But House Speaker Pro Tem Terry
Haskins, R-Greenville, said the boycott has had little
effect.
“This boycott was nothing but a phony
publicity stunt from the start,” Haskins said on NBC’s Today
show.
He said the call for the boycott came in
July, after the General Assembly had adjourned for the year and could do
nothing about the issue. Rivers said lawmakers could have held a special
session to move the banner.
The rally was
organized by the NAACP along with the National Urban League and dozens of
religious, social and academic groups. National Urban League President
Hugh Price and NAACP President Kweisi Mfume were to participate.
Governor
Seeks Compromise
Gov. Jim Hodges, who has held a series of
private meetings to try and find a compromise on the flag, planned to
speak at a Columbia King Day celebration this evening, but would not
attend the rally, his spokeswoman said.
“The
governor wants to be a mediator, a person who helps folks come together on
the flag. Therefore, it’s not appropriate for him to participate in events
that are being portrayed as either anti-flag or pro-flag,” spokeswoman
Nina Brook said.
The Confederate flag has
also emerged on the presidential campaign trail. GOP candidates Texas Gov.
George W. Bush, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and publisher Steve Forbes
have all said that South Carolina voters should determine whether the
Confederate battle flag continues to fly atop the state Capitol and that
it should not be an issue for the presidential campaign.
And the Confederate flag was not the only
contested issue in South Carolina’s Capitol today. Civil rights groups
also want the state to make Martin Luther King Day a permanent holiday for
state workers, who now can take off that day or one of several tied to
Confederate anniversaries.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Georgia Flag Boycott?
Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH
Coalition is threatening to launch a tourism boycott of Georgia on
Super Bowl Sunday to protest the use of the Confederate battle
emblem in the state flag.
State elected
officials of both parties made it clear today they have no interest
in changing the flag, despite the
threat.
“I’m saying what I’ve said all
along — we have a lot of issues on our plate and this is just not
one that’s in the mix right now,” said Gov. Roy Barnes, a
Democrat.
Civil rights activists hope to
capitalize on publicity generated when Atlanta plays host to the
Super Bowl on Jan. 30 and will call for a tourism boycott that day,
said Joe Beasley, Southern regional director for Jackson’s
Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.
Beasley said
black National Football League players will be urged to protest the
return of the Super Bowl to Atlanta until the flag is
changed.
The Confederate emblem was
added to the state flag by legislators in 1956, two years after the
U.S. Supreme Court ruled school segregation
unconstitutional.
Tourism is Georgia’s
second-largest industry behind manufacturing, accounting for $18
billion a year. Atlanta, the state’s largest city, accounts for
about 60 percent of that revenue.
“We
have African-Americans in such high places in business and
government … and it would hurt them as much as anyone else,” the
governor said of a boycott. “I would certainly hope they [boycott
organizers] would rethink that position.”
— The Associated
Press |
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