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NAACP Keeps Boycott Over Confederate Flag

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From Associated Press

The national NAACP decided Saturday to continue its economic boycott against South Carolina over the state’s flying of the Confederate flag atop its capitol.

“It is not just a piece of cloth. This is about the dignity of people,” Kweisi Mfume, the president of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, said at its 91st annual meeting.

NAACP leaders also announced plans for a march next month on the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee to protest Gov. Jeb Bush’s move to eliminate racial and gender preferences in admissions at the state’s 10 public universities and in granting state contracts.

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“We are hoping to send a message to Gov. Bush, and others attempting to deny opportunity, that the NAACP won’t go away quietly on this issue,” said Mfume, who hopes 20,000 people will participate in the rally.

Mfume and Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP board, outlined the organization’s agenda for 2000, which includes combating racism, saving affirmative action and registering about 4 million voters nationally.

On the same day as South Carolina’s important GOP presidential primary, Mfume took the opportunity to stress the NAACP’s resolve to stick with the boycott until the flag is lowered.

“This is the same flag that was embraced by the Ku Klux Klan when it was founded,” Mfume said, adding, “The flag will come down. It’s just a matter of when.”

The NAACP started a nationwide tourism boycott of the state aimed at removing the flag Jan. 1. The goal of the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, with 500,000 members in 2,200 branches, is to pressure the South Carolina Legislature to lower the flag or risk losing an estimated $280 million.

Those who support the flag, which has flown over the statehouse since 1962, say it honors Southern heritage. Opponents say it is a symbol of racism and slavery.

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State legislators, with the sole power to lower the banner, are struggling with what to do.

Last week, South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges proposed moving the Civil War-era flag from the statehouse dome, saying it should be placed at a Confederate monument on the capitol’s grounds.

“This compromise we were offered is unacceptable and is nonnegotiable,” Mfume said.

Bond said Hodges’ compromise would “move the flag from a place of honor above the capitol and give it a place of honor on the capitol steps.”

Bond said the NAACP would agree to having the flag displayed in a Confederate relic room near the capitol or in a glass case inside the capitol.

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