Mayors join fight to tear down slavery’s flag
By
Dianne Mathiowetz
The struggle to take
down the Confederate battle flag now flying over the South
Carolina Capitol is gaining new support.
Mayor Joseph Riley of
Charleston, S.C., has announced plans for a five-day march from
the seaport city to Columbia, the state capital, "to put
pressure on the legislature to act and to act now" to remove
the flag. The march is to begin April 2.
A boycott called by
the NAACP in July 1999 has resulted in cancellation of 54 large
conventions and meetings at just seven of the city's big
hotels, according to the Columbia Metropolitan Convention and
Visitors Bureau. Columbia's mayor has joined Riley in calling
for the flag to be taken down from atop the Capitol.
In 1962, in the midst
of the growing civil-rights struggle, South Carolina
legislators voted to fly the Confederate battle flag over the
Capitol. Earlier, in 1956, Georgia had incorporated the racist
rebel stars and bars in its state flag as a sign of defiance
against the movement to end segregation. Despite years of
protest, the legislature has refused to take down the racist
emblem.
When almost 50,000
marchers gathered on Martin Luther King Day to demand that the
flag be removed, however, the movement took on a new dimension.
Politicians have been scrambling to strike a compromise that
would not offend the racist supporters of the flag. Other
elected officials, such as Mayor Riley, oppose placing the
Confederate flag at any prominent place at the State Capitol,
saying "it's wrong."
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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