Pubdate: Mon, 15 Dec 2003
Source: Post and Courier, The (Charleston, SC)
Copyright: 2003 Evening Post Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.charleston.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/567
Author: James Scott

JACKSON ISSUES CALL TO MARCH

North Charleston Protest Tuesday

The Rev. Jesse Jackson continued to rally people across the Lowcountry on 
Sunday to join him in a march to North Charleston City Hall on Tuesday to 
protest what he characterized as overzealous police.

Not since the spring of 1963 when then-police chief Bull Connor authorized 
the use of dogs and fire hoses to quell civil rights demonstrations in 
Birmingham, Ala., "have we seen guns and dogs pointed at our children," 
Jackson told crowds in Charleston, Georgetown and North Charles-ton.

"Every parent in that school should be outraged," Jackson said Sunday night 
in North Charleston, referring to the recent drug raid at Stratford High 
School. "The pastor of every parent should be outraged."

At Morris Street Baptist Church in Charleston on Sunday morning, he said 
"we are looking at a scene reminiscent of Birmingham and Bull Connor."

Jackson is on a four-day sweep through the Lowcountry that ends Tuesday 
with a march to protest the drug raid and the shooting death by North 
Charleston police of Asberry Wylder.

Before a cheering crowd of about 125 people Sunday night at Charity Baptist 
Church in North Charleston, Jackson urged the community to take a stand 
against injustice and indifference.

"North Charleston is 58 percent black," Jackson told the crowd. "You do 
have the power to do something about it."

The Nov. 5 drug raid at Berkeley County's largest school sparked outrage 
across the country after police, some with guns drawn, handcuffed about a 
dozen of the more than 100 students in the hallway while a barking police 
dog sniffed their backpacks. Officers found no drugs and made no arrests.

On Nov. 7, North Charleston officers twice shot Wylder after he tried to 
stab an officer attempting to arrest him for stealing sliced ham from a 
grocery store. The officer wore a protective vest and was not injured. 
Several eyewitnesses, however, said the second shot was fired after Wylder, 
a mentally ill black man, had been handcuffed.

The FBI is investigating both incidents.

Jackson said the Christian church must overcome the sin of indifference. In 
the 1960s, white ministers missed the opportunity to share in the struggle 
to build a new South, Jackson said.

White ministers today have the same chance. "Here in 2003, the church can't 
be indifferent," he said. "The church can't betray (the students) by its 
silence."

Later in the afternoon, Jackson spoke to a crowd numbering in the hundreds 
at Georgetown High School. Though he touched briefly on the recent closure 
of Georgetown Steel, much of Jackson's roughly 45-minute speech echoed 
themes he touched on during the morning sermon as well as during his visit 
to North Charleston earlier this month.

His common refrains included "stop the violence, save the children" and his 
call for people to "move from the racial battleground to the economic 
common ground on up to the moral high ground."

At nearly every stop, Jackson urged residents to register to vote and 
appealed to people to contribute to his Rainbow/Push Coalition. Envelopes 
were passed out and Jackson urged attendees to pay $35 to join.

"When the playing field is even, the rules are public, the goals are clear, 
we can make it," Jackson said in Georgetown. "It is time for a new South to 
even the playing field."

North Charleston City Councilman Sam Hart said Sunday night that he hoped 
Jackson's visit would be a positive influence on the community.

"With his vast experience in the field of civil rights and being involved 
in situations of this order I think he's able to steer people in the right 
direction," Hart said.

Jackson plans to attend a prayer vigil set for 6:30-8 a.m. today in front 
of Stratford High School.

Tuesday's march begins at 3 p.m. at Charity Baptist Church on East Montague 
Avenue and will continue down Mall Drive to North Charleston City Hall.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman