Economic sanctions still on in South Carolina

The

NAACP TODAY

After more than 50,000 protesters marched in Columbia, S.C., on Jan. 17, 2000, demanding that the Confederate Battle Flag cease flying from the Capitol dome, and economic sanctions initiated by the NAACP in January 2000 caused the state to lose about $500 million in tourist trade, South Carolina took down the flag on July 1, 2000. But that did not satisfy the NAACP South Carolina State Conference of Branches.

"They took it [the flag] from one prominent place, the dome, and placed it in another - in front of the capitol with a 24-hour guard and illuminated it so that now you can see it day and night," says Dwight C. James, the conference's executive director.

"That didn't meet the condition of our resolution, that the flag should not fly in a position of sovereignty," James says, referring to a resolution ratified by the NAACP national board in October 1999 and reaffirmed in October 2000. It authorues a campaign of economic sanctions against the state beginning Jan. 1, 2000, until the Confederate Battle Flag is no longer displayed in positions of sovereignty. "Once that condition is met, we can stop our campaign," James says.

Many people, including State Sen. Maggie Glover, took for granted that when the flag came down, the economic sanctions would end. "We won that one," she says. "We got what we could. Like the song says, `You've got to know when to fold 'em.' Let's acknowledge our victo ry and come back at this another day."

That attitude was rejected by the South Carolina NAACP and the sanctions are still ongoing. To make sanctions more effective, on March 2 the state conference conducted several border patrols at state-line welcome centers where they distributed information about the sanctions to motorists. The South Carolina attorney general has threatened legal action against these border patrols.

The NAACP also continues to picket several venues: Charleston's prestigious Spoleto Festival, one of the country's premier art festivals scheduled this year from June 24 to July 15; the Family Circle Cup tennis tournament (April 13-21); the MCI Heritage Classic golf tournament planned for April; and the NCAA's Southern Conference Basketball Championship that took place Feb. 28 to March 3.

And the NAACP believes there is more work to be done. The organization has discouraged family reunions in the state and encouraged corporations and associations to hold their annual meetings elsewhere.

And earlier this year, on Jan. 21 Martin Luther King Jr. Day - the NAACP South Carolina State Conference, 2,500 protesters strong, marched on a cold and rainy day to let the world know the struggle continues.

- Phil W. Petrie

Copyright Crisis Publishing Company, Incorporated Mar/Apr 2002
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