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Posted on 01/19/2003 4:18:10 PM PST by chance33_98
Sharpton preaches for removal of Confederate flag
JULIE HALENAR Associated Press
GREENVILLE, S.C. - The Rev. Al Sharpton says he chose to spend his Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in South Carolina because the Confederate flag needs to be removed from Statehouse grounds.
Sharpton, who plans to form an exploratory committee for the 2004 presidential race, preached to about 400 people at the Tabernacle Baptist Church on Sunday.
A 12-member, all-male choir hummed as Sharpton promised to be different than the other men running for the Democratic presidential nomination.
"They got a race of all people saying the same thing," Sharpton said. "The only thing they decide is who can say nothing better."
Sens. John Edwards of North Carolina, John Kerry of Massachusetts, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean have already entered the Democratic race. Florida Sen. Bob Graham and Colorado Sen. Gary Hart are considering a run.
The 2000 Democratic nominee, Al Gore, decided in December he will not run, which left the field wide open.
South Carolina's first-in-the-nation Democratic primary on Feb. 3, 2004, and the push to get more black voters involved have made the state important for presidential hopefuls.
Sharpton and Edwards were expected in Columbia on Monday to attend events marking the federal holiday for the slain civil rights leader.
In his second visit to the state, Sharpton preached at three services in Greenville before he headed to Columbia to join officials with the state National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Dwight James, executive director of the state NAACP, said the civil rights group has invited all the declared candidates as well as those who have expressed interest in running to the NAACP march and rally at the Statehouse on Monday.
"We'll look at it as our challenge to make whomever is nominated pay attention to the issues affecting African Americans in South Carolina," James said.
James said the NAACP rally would call for the removal of the Confederate flag as well as discussing issues such as voting, education, health care, discrimination, hunger and homelessness - and several thousand people are expected to attend, James said.
"It's a day of remembrance. It's a day for action as well," James said. "We think the removal of the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds is one of the key issues that needs to be addressed. It speaks so much to how those in the Legislature views a large segment of the state's population."
The Confederate flag was moved from atop the Statehouse dome in 2000 after the NAACP called for an economic boycott of the state. A similar flag was raised at a Confederate monument on the Statehouse grounds, so the boycott remains.
Scott Huffman, political science professor at Winthrop University, said it could be a "smart move" for Sharpton to create a national debate about the Confederate flag.
"He can raise the political antenna, if you will, of black voters across the nation," Huffman said. "At some point virtually every candidate will have to either make a statement or be conspicuous for the absence of a statement."
Lieberman has said South Carolina's Confederate flag controversy had been resolved when the banner was taken off the Capitol dome. Gephardt said he doesn't think the flag should fly anywhere in the United States.
"We're doing better than we did 30 years ago, but we're not there yet," Sharpton told the congregation. "Many of us act like it's over, but it's not over, it's still a struggle."
While a federal holiday to recognize King's birthday was first celebrated in 1986, South Carolina did not celebrate it as a state holiday until 2001. A bitter fight in the Legislature led to a compromise to create Confederate Memorial Day as an official state holiday on May 10, along with Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 21. "He would get my vote," James Williams of Greenville said of Sharpton. "I like his platform. He's outgoing. He tells it like it is - no ifs, ands or buts. He lays it on the line." Williams, a Roman Catholic deacon at St. Anthony's Church, said Sharpton would pay more attention to affirmative action and other issues affecting blacks than other Democratic candidates.
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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Black on black crime
70% of black households having no father present
The anti-achievement attitude of so many black youth (ie: it's "WHITE" to study and excel in school)
The violent culture of the hip-hop crowd
I'm sure there's more.
I was going to ax, what about the flag will help the problems facing Americans.
Hey, al, aren't you supposed to boycott South Carolina? What are you doing in Columbia? Hope you aren't spending any money there?
NAACP (color "yellow" excluded) demanded that the flag be removed from the top of the dome (where one did not really notice it from the street level), so they did. Why can't you honor the compromise/agreement and accept it?
Is it because that you never intended to honor the said compromise and your real agenda was to abolish it totally? (Duh, Chong, look up "rhetorical question" in the thesaurus.)
the hatefilled, arrogant, ignorant, self-righteous LIES spewed from the mouths of scalawags & damnyankees also SERVE the TRUE CAUSE!
in HIS case it will also ASSURE the LOSS of many DIMocRATS in 2004 & beyond.
FRee dixie,sw
Al "I'm Full of Sh*t" Sharpeton is all about things of a self-serving nature. Let him run, he will just end up another footnote on the bottom of the 2004 election, just like Jesse Jackass was in the early 80's. We need to watch out for that damnYankee scalawag Gephart and Hitlery Clinton, Tommy Dasshole and their ilk. They represent the true threat to American ideals of Individual liberty and self-determination. And they want to threaten our freedoms through our wallets.
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