NAACP Flagged in Augusta and video
By Joshua Quinn, jquinn@wagt.com
The Confederate flag came down for the 63rd annual convention of the
South Carolina NAACP which started Thursday. The convention will focus on
fairness issues and civil rights.
A luncheon kicked off the convention, which will include seminars on
economic development, health care and education. South Carolina’s NAACP
convention has been held in Georgia since 2000 when the national
organization imposed economic sanctions on South Carolina for flying a
confederate flag at the state capital.
But Thursday morning, it was the NAACP and Augusta’s mayor people were
protesting against.
Proud of their heritage, protestors from the League of the South say
they’re not as upset with the NAACP as they are with the person in Augusta
who ordered the Confederate flag to be taken down.
“Personally, I don’t like the mayor’s actions,” says one protestor wearing
a Confederate flag hat and carrying the flag on a long staff. “The NAACP
can go anywhere they want to.”
Another carried a sign that read “Bob Young is a scalawag,” and explained.
“You know what a scalawag is? That’s somebody that sells out their
heritage, and that’s exactly what [the mayor] did.”
Inside the convention at the Riverfront Radisson Hotel, South Carolina’s
NAACP president, Lonnie Randolph, Jr., called the flag a symbol of racism
and he used strong words to describe those who support it.
“There’s a word to describe people who attack America, isn’t there? That
applies both domestically and to those on foreign soil.”
It’s that opinion that also brought members of the Southern Legal Resource
Center from North Carolina to the mayor’s office, delivering a letter
saying reinstate the Confederate flag on the Riverwalk or face potential
legal action.
“I think the mayor is a coward,” says Resource Center member H.K.
Edgerton. As a past president of the NAACP in Asheville, NC, Edgerton says
it’s that organization that’s unjust, not people supporting the flag.
“[Lonnie Randolph, Jr.] simply saved [the NAACP] from the financial woes
they found themselves in. And part of that deal was to attack this flag.”
Edgerton says the NAACP is trying to garner financial support by going
after supporters of the Confederate flag in the south.
Mayor Young would not comment on whether or not the Confederate flag would
be replaced once the conference is over Sunday.
Source:
http://www.wagt.com/news/local/1083206.html
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