Politics

NAACP Wants Confederate Symbols Taken Off Georgia Property

Published

9 years ago

July 16, 2015

Oakland Post

The sculpture at Stone Mountain Park in Georgia. (AP Photo)

KATHLEEN FOODY, Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — The president of the Atlanta NAACP says the civil rights group wants Confederate symbols — including a giant carving at Stone Mountain Park — removed from all government-owned property and plans to pursue making those changes during the next legislative session.

Some who support flying the Confederate battle flag say the symbol represents Southern heritage and pride in Civil War-era leaders. However, Atlanta NAACP President Richard Rose and others have argued the flag is a divisive symbol and white supremacy is at the heart of the heritage the flag celebrates.

The Confederate battle flag has come under renewed scrutiny in the weeks since nine black churchgoers were fatally shot during Bible study in Charleston, South Carolina.

Dylann Storm Roof, a white man who was photographed with the flag several times, is charged in the shooting deaths and authorities are investigating the killings as a hate crime.

Stone Mountain — roughly 15 miles (24 kilometers) east of downtown Atlanta — features a large carving of Jefferson Davis, who was president of the Confederacy of secessionist, pro-slavery southern states in the 1861-1865 American Civil War, and Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. The white supremacist Ku Klux Klan also once held notorious cross-burnings and organizational meetings there.

A battle flag at the park was stolen from its pole but was replaced less than an hour after authorities noticed it was missing, Stone Mountain Memorial Association spokesman John Bankhead said last week.

Although the park is state property, it doesn’t receive state funding and operates by using entrance fees and other income the park generates, Bankhead said. Any changes at the park would also require approval from the Georgia General Assembly, he said.

Although the carving may be one of the most recognizable tributes to the Confederacy in the metro Atlanta area, the Atlanta NAACP’s call to remove the flag and memorials from state property extends beyond that to all state property and land, Rose said.

Calls to eliminate use of the Confederate battle flag and other symbols since the Charleston massacre have prompted changes in several states. South Carolina lawmakers recently voted to remove a battle flag from the Statehouse grounds after one had been flying there for more than 50 years. The flag was moved to a room with other Civil War-era relics.

South Carolina’s leaders first flew the battle flag over the Statehouse dome in 1961 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Civil War. Critics said the flag remained there to represent official opposition to the civil rights movement. In 2000, the flag was moved to a 30-foot (9-meter) pole next to a Confederate memorial outside the Statehouse, where it flew until lawmakers this year voted to take it down.

At its national convention in Philadelphia, the NAACP adopted a resolution Tuesday calling on Mississippi to remove the Confederate battle emblem from its state flag. The resolution said Mississippi is the only state with a flag that includes “a symbol of war, hate and a failed attempt to perpetuate its right to slavery.”

In Alabama, Rev. Robert Shanklin of the Huntsville chapter of the NAACP told local news media that he wants the battle flag removed from the uniforms state troopers wear and the patrol vehicles they drive. The battle flag is part of the seal used by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and the governor’s office.

A week after the Charleston massacre, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley ordered four Confederate banners flying at a Confederate monument at the state Capitol to be removed. The Mobile City Council last week also voted unanimously to remove the Confederate flag and other banners from the city’s seal.

___

Associated Press writers Phillip Lucas and Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi, contributed to this story.

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In 1974, Then-Gov. Jimmy Carter Visited the Home of Oakland Black Black Political Activist Virtual Murrell While Running for President

civil rights icon Georgia State Representative Julian Bond said that Carter, along with governors Reuben Askew of Florida, Dale Bumpers of Arkansas, and Terry Sanford of North Carolina, were all a part of what was being dubbed the “New South” and so supported civil rights and voting rights for African Americans.

Published

9 hours ago

January 3, 2025

Oakland Post

Virtual Murrell chats with Jimmy Carter two years before Carter was elected president in 1976. Courtesy photo.

By Virtual T. Murrell
Special to The Post

On his way to seeking the presidency, then-Gov. Jimmy Carter visited the Bay Area in his capacity as campaign chairman of the Democratic National Committee in March of 1974.

A friend of mine, Bill Lynch, a Democrat from San Francisco, had been asked to host Carter, who was then relatively unknown. Seeking my advice on the matter, I immediately called my friend, civil rights icon Georgia State Representative Julian Bond, for his opinion.

Bond said that Carter, along with governors Reuben Askew of Florida, Dale Bumpers of Arkansas, and Terry Sanford of North Carolina, were all a part of what was being dubbed the “New South” and so supported civil rights and voting rights for African Americans.

Based on Julian’s comments, I agreed to host the governor. We picked him up at the San Francisco Airport. With his toothy smile, I could tell almost right away that he was like no other politician I had ever met. On his arrival, there was a message telling him to go to the VIP room, where he met then-Secretary of State Jerry Brown.

After leaving the airport, we went to a reception in his honor at the home of Paul “Red” Fay, who had served as the acting secretary of the Navy under President John Kennedy. (Carter, it turned out, had been himself a 1946 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and served as a submariner in the 1950s.)

The following afternoon, the Niagara Movement Democratic Club hosted a reception for Carter, which was a major success. Carter indicated that he would be considering running for president and hoped for our support if he did so.

As the event was winding down, I witnessed the most amazing moment: Carter’s wife, Rosalynn, was in the kitchen with my former wife, Irene, wearing an apron and busting suds! You would have to have been there to see it: The first and last time a white woman cleaned up my kitchen.

A few months later, President Richard Nixon resigned amid the Watergate scandal. He was succeeded by his vice president, Gerald Ford.

On the heels of that scandal, Jimmy Carter’s election in 1976 represented integrity and honesty at a point in America’s history when he was just what the nation needed to lead as president of the United States.

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Oakland Post: Week of January 1 – 7, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of January 1 – 7, 2025

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2 days ago

January 2, 2025

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

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Racially Motivated Violence Against Black Teen Prompts $10 Million Claim Against LAUSD 

In December, a second altercation, on a video shared with news media, showed 4 to 6 boys attacking a Black student and using racial slurs. The video also shows a person in a safety vest trying to stop the fight and telling them to “handle it after school.” Then, the video ends. 

Published

5 days ago

December 30, 2024

Oakland Post

(Left to right) Civil Rights Attorney Caree Harper comforts the victim’s mother as she becomes emotional when describing the attacks on her son while her attorney Bradley C. Gage listens. Verdugo Hills High School on Thursday, Dec. 20, 2024, in Tujunga, CA. (Solomon O. Smith /for California Black Media)

By Solomon O. Smith, California Black Media

A distraught mother and her legal team announced a $10 million lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) on Dec. 16, alleging that her son was the target of bullying because of his race.

“CS DOE is a 14-year-old African American student at Verdugo High School. He is a Ninth Grader,” reads a statement the plaintiff’s attorneys shared with California Black Media (CBM).

“Almost from the first day of class (in August 2024), CS DOE was targeted by Latino students who called him racial slurs, physically attacked him and threatened to stab him.”

The family’s identity has not yet been released to the public due to safety concerns, according to their attorneys Bradley C. Gage and Caree Harper. The student’s mother is identified only as A.O. in the complaint.

The first video, filmed in August, showed several non-Black students punching and kicking a Black student in a bathroom on campus while yelling racial slurs. The mother claims that the students who attacked her son were not punished, and the administration asked her to move her son to another school for his safety.

“They wanted him to leave the school without giving any disciplinary action towards those students,” said the student’s mother. “He’s not going anywhere. He’s going to finish. I wanted him to at least stay until the December winter break, and then I was going to transfer schools for him.”

Before she could enroll her son in a different school the attacks escalated.

CS DOE, a 14-year-old freshman, left the school but was followed by a car, according to Gage. Several individuals exited the vehicle, one with a “large butcher knife.” A fight ensued and two people were stabbed. The Black student was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon but was later released into his mother’s custody.

The high school freshmen is scheduled to appear in juvenile court on Feb. 1, but Harper says she will reach out to the District Attorney and make the case against charging the young man.

“His mama had to go find him because he was hiding and fleeing for his very life,” said Harper.

According to the boy’s mother, the young student is still traumatized and has not been able to return to the area because it remains unsafe. Racial slurs have also been spray painted on their home.

“I’m sad. I’m devastated, you know,” said the mother. “I still feel like they’re after him. I still feel like they can kill him, possibly.”

The LAUSD and principal of Verdugo High School did not respond to CBM’s requests for comment.

If you are – or someone you know is – has experienced a hate crime or hate incident, please visit CAvsHate.org for more information and to find out what you can do about it.