Kweisi Mfume, President and CEO, the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) today said the
latest vote in the South Carolina House of Representatives to remove the
Confederate battle flag from atop the statehouse dome is "a huge victory
for the NAACP and others who have worked to get the flag down."
Mfume said: "The first goal was to get
the flag off the capitol dome and out of the state House and Senate chambers.
We have accomplished that. The next goal is to have the flag removed from
any position of sovereignty in the state and in the next few weeks the
NAACP and its allies will enter a series of intense negotiations with the
governor and legislative leaders to accomplish the second goal."
Within the next week, NAACP leaders and
its Board of Directors, working with the South Carolina State Conference
will make an announcement on the status of the boycott.
The vote Wednesday in the Republican controlled
House of Representatives was 63 to 56 in favor of removing the flag. The
bill, once signed, would remove the flag from the capitol dome where it
has flown since 1962. Under the terms of the bill, the flag would also
be removed from the House and Senate Chambers and instead will be placed
in an area near the Confederate Soldiers Monument on the statehouse grounds.
The NAACP has been conducting an economic
boycott of South Carolina since January 1, 2000. More than 200 meetings,
conventions and family reunions have been canceled, resulting in the loss
of at least $20 million.
Founded in 1909, the National Association
for the Advance of Colored People (NAACP) is the nation's oldest and largest
civil rights organization. Its half-million adult and youth members throughout
the United States and the world are the premier advocates for social justice
and equal opportunity in their communities.