South Carolina under pressure to take down Confederate flag

By Scott Street

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

The National Collegiate Athletic Association has said it will
boycott events held in South Carolina, including the 2002
men’s basketball regional, if the Confederate flag that flies
above the Statehouse dome is not removed by Aug. 11.

The decision, announced Friday by the NCAA’s executive
committee, could cost the state millions of dollars in revenue if
it takes effect.

A vote is expected May 9 on legislation that would remove the
flag ““ which has flown above the capitol since 1962 ““
from the Statehouse dome, foyer and House and Senate chambers.

Republican House Speaker David Wilkins of Greenville, S.C.
doesn’t think that the NCAA decision will influence
legislators when they vote on the flag proposals next week.

“It is my belief that the General Assembly will resolve
the flag issue with honor and dignity and finality this
year,” he told the Associated Press last week.

According to spokesman Wally Renfro, the NCAA’s
involvement was spurred by the National Association of Basketball
Coaches, who asked the NCAA several weeks ago to cancel the 2002
men’s basketball regional in Greenville, S.C. if the flag was
not removed.

The committee’s decision was made, Renfro said, after
consulting Democratic governor Jim Hodges of South Carolina, who
asked the committee not to take any action until after the state
legislature voted on the proposals to remove the flag from the
Statehouse.

The NCAA’s action also follows several months of protests
by various groups over the flying of the flag, including the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which
has been asking for a tourism boycott of South Carolina since Jan.
1 of this year.

“We are determined to bring that flag down,” NAACP
president and CEO Kweisi Mfume said in a statement in January when
he announced the boycott. “It represents one of the most
reprehensible aspects of American history, not only for people of
African ancestry, but for people from every background who know and
understand the destructive horrors created by slavery in this
country.”

Other demonstrations have been led by members of the community,
including Charleston mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. and football and
basketball coaches from both Clemson University and the University
of South Carolina, who marched in protest of the flying of the
flag.

“The university has come out real strong against the
flag,” Clemson football head coach Tommy Bowden said during
the April 4 march. “We’re just here to show that
support.

In addition to the NCAA, several member institutions have spoken
out against the flag, including Penn State University, whose
baseball coach, Joe Hindelang, has said that his team will not play
another game in the state until the flag comes down.

With pressure from the NCAA, NAACP and citizens mounting, the
state legislature is moving to vote on the proposals approved next
week by the South Carolina Senate. The bill that will be voted on
May 9 would move the flag to a Confederate soldier monument in
front of the Statehouse.

Courtney Owings, a communications assistant in Hodges’
office, said that the governor supported a different proposal that
would have moved the flag to a less conspicuous location at a
monument located behind the Statehouse.

“(The governor) is in favor of bringing the flag
down,” Owings said. “He hopes that this is an issue
that will be resolved by the end of this legislative
session.”

U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.) had no comment on the
NCAA’s action, though his press secretary Andy Davis, said
Hollings has vigorously opposed the flying of the flag.

“(The senator) has said for many years that the flag
should come down,” Davis said. “Any flag flying on the
dome should come down.”

The South Carolina Legislature adjourns June 1. That body has
the sole power to lower the flag, a power it bestowed upon itself
in 1995.