So a thousand people gathered in South Carolina to celebrate MLK Day? And there were no bedamned rebel flags? And the DEMOCRAT presidential candidates showed up? So, where were the oh so wonderful white folks? Nikki Haley? Was the GOP’s token black, Senator Tim Scott, there?
The Video Celebrates This Year’s Rally Was Held With No Stars and Bars! .. No White Folks Either?
From the Associated Press: COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — For the first time in 17 years, civil rights leaders gathered at the South Carolina Statehouse to pay homage to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. without the Confederate flag casting a long shadow over them.
The flag was taken down over the summer after police said a young white man shot nine black church members to death during a Bible study in Charleston. Following the massacre at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Gov. Nikki Haley reversed course and made it a priority for lawmakers to pass legislation to remove the flag.
Bishop James Walker, who presides over the 7th Episcopal District in Connecticut, praised the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for
“You forced important power in high places to recognize that the scared memory of the Emanuel Nine would be parched by a symbol of injustice flying over the Capitol,” he said at a prayer breakfast.
At the Statehouse, about 1,000 people assembled under chilly, sunny skies to mark the 30th anniversary of the federal holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader, who was killed in 1968.
The state NAACP said there is still more work to do to honor King and the theme of this year’s rally is “education equity,” with speakers calling for South Carolina to spend more money to help students in poorer, more rural school districts, which frequently have a majority of black students.
And this year’s event will also include appearances by all three main Democratic presidential candidates — Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley. There was a heavier security presence compared with previous years because of the candidates.
After the prayer breakfast, the NAACP then marched five blocks to the Statehouse O’Malley and Sanders up front.