The NAACP and Me
Herb Silverman
Founder and president of the Secular Coalition for America
Posted: 09/15/2015 5:08 pm EDT Updated: 2 minutes ago
... Two slight racial improvements occurred in 2000. South Carolina made Martin Luther King's birthday an official state holiday, the last state to do so. (At the same time, the state also made Confederate Memorial Day an official state holiday.) Also, the state General Assembly agreed to move the Confederate battle flag from the Capitol dome to the Statehouse grounds.
This flag "compromise" continued to ignite protests. The state NAACP called for a tourism boycott of South Carolina until the flag was removed from Capitol grounds. To give you an idea of the negative public response to the boycott, state Senator Arthur Ravenel, a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, called the NAACP the "National Association For Retarded People." He later apologized--to the mentally handicapped for comparing them to the NAACP. I had long been a silent supporter of the NAACP, but around this time my wife Sharon and I felt compelled to join the organization and add our voices to the protests.
Dot Scott, President of the Charleston Branch of the NAACP for many years, ... is a deeply committed Christian and I am an atheist, but we have more in common than sets us apart. She is as much in favor of separation of church and state as I am, and she respects the work of our local secular humanist organization. Dot supported me in 2003 after a disturbing incident at a Charleston City Council meeting at which I had been invited to give an invocation. As I approached the podium, half the council members walked out because I'm an atheist. When news of the walkout appeared in the Charleston Post and Courier, Dot wrote this letter to the editor:
"I read with disbelief the actions of our councilmen who walked out of an official meeting during the invocation by Herb Silverman simply because of his religious views. It is most difficult for me, a Christian African-American female, who has probably experienced every kind of prejudice and intolerance imaginable, to understand an act that was not only disrespectful, but also unquestionably rude by folks elected to represent all of the citizens, regardless of race, creed, color, religion or sexual orientation. It is most regrettable that during a time when the fight is so fierce to have all citizens' rights protected and respected, some of us would neglect to do the same for others. When any elected official demonstrates such lack of tolerance, especially while performing his official duties, those of us of conscience must speak out and voice our outrage" ...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/herb-silverman/the-naacp-and-me_b_8136402.html
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