SLRC UPDATE:
25 January 1999

Asheville NAACP Requests Assistance

National NAACP Pulls Charter of Asheville Branch

Asheville, NC - Seeking to block implementation of an affordable housing study commissioned by the city of Asheville, the local president of the Asheville branch of the NAACP, contacted the SLRC for assistance.  After due consideration, the Board of Directors agreed to investigate the facts in anticipation of filing a lawsuit.  Upon hearing of this development, the reaction of the usual media suspects has been predictable.  However, the hysterical reaction of the national NAACP to this proposed cooperation heaps more doubt upon the question of whether or not the NAACP is still relevant in regard to modern race relations and the fundamental issues of human rights.

Mr. H. K. Edgerton, the branch president, had worked with SLRC Chief Trial Counsel, Kirk D. Lyons previously in an effort to prevent threatened violence in connection with a proposed Klan rally.  There had been a Klan march in Asheville the year before in which the Liberals and street-denizens had displayed their tolerance of diverse viewpoints by pelting the marchers with garbage.  The leader of the march responded angrily by promising to march again.  He furthermore threatened to "turn Asheville into another Greensboro" if the police could not do a better job of protecting the marchers from the Marxists.  This was a reference to a 1979 shoot-out between Communists and a group of Klan and Neo-Nazi counter-demonstrators in Greensboro where the Communists, who opened fire, got a fatal surprise.

As a civil-rights lawyer, Atty.  Lyons was particularly impressed by the fact that a representative of the NAACP was not interested in seeking to prevent the march he just wanted to defuse the situation and prevent potential violence.  So, a year ago, on 16 January 1998, Mr. Edgerton, Attorney Lyons, and Associate Director, Dr. Neill H. Payne, met for lunch to see what could be done.  Eventually, the city turned down the Klan’s requested march permit.  Nevertheless, in working to prevent violence Attorney Lyons and Mr. Edgerton came to have an appreciation for one another.  This positive experience served to motivate Mr. Edgerton again to seek Attorney Lyons’ help.

Media blows gasket; NAACP freedom train jumps tracks

In mid December of 1998, Mr. Edgerton sent his formal request for assistance and the Board acted quickly to approve it. In their letter responding to the request, the Board was very straightforward about the ability of the SLRC to help. The letter stated: 

"The Board will offer its services pro-bono, however the SLRC is not financially able to carry the burden of an investigation and potential lawsuit without substantial help from the effected community.  Attorney fees may be payable from the defendants in any case filed, but only if a suit is filed and plaintiffs prevail.  Acceptance of this case by the Board is conditioned on the understanding that the Asheville Branch of the NAACP and other community groups will cooperate and assist the SLRC in raising funds for out of pocket expenses incurred in the investigation and litigation phases of the case."

 

A press release was issued the same day.  After four days of scratching their heads, the Asheville Citizen-Times finally broke the story with the following derogatory, erroneous and defamatory headline and lead paragraph:

NAACP solicits legal help from white separatists, raising eyebrows, questions
By Sandee Richardson, Asheville Citizen-Times Dec. 19, 1998 B1

 

A bizarre alliance currently forming between the Asheville branch of the NAACP and Black Mountain white separatist attorney Kirk Lyons has several members of the African-American community asking why.

 

This is a predictable example of the kind of potboiler journalism we have come to expect from the local Gannett propaganda outlet.  The SLRC issued a strongly worded demand for a retraction of their offensive libels and both the Citizen-Times and the parent Gannett organization were put on notice that we will not tolerate their outrageous behavior.  We have adopted a zero-tolerance policy against defamation here at SLRC.

At least one editor at the Citizen-Times had the decency to honor her promise to print a rebuttal.  On the same day that they were announcing the ouster of Mr. H. K. Edgerton by the state NAACP for "non-compliance with state and national mandates," the Citizen-Times ran the following guest editorial by this writer:

SLRC, Lyons unfairly portrayed by Citizen-Times
Dr. Neill H. Payne

 

Southern Legal Resource Center strenuously rejects the efforts of the Asheville Citizen-Times to brand our foundation and its officers with prejudicial and pejorative terms like "white separatist" and "white supremacist."  Certainly, it is clear that these terms have no real meaning.  They are used not to define but to demean. SLRC rejects this vilification and demands a correction be published.

 

Noted Attorney Gerry Spence is never defamed in the press as a "white separatist" attorney.  This is in spite of the fact that he successfully defended "white separatist" Randy Weaver and makes no apologies for his friendship with Weaver.  The media ignores this friendship between Spence and Weaver, but for Lyons, any expression of friendship he has for former clients is seen as "evidence" to be used against him.

 

For those who have not spent time in the trenches fighting against systemic injustice, such friendships could seem strange.  However, for warriors like Gerry Spence and Kirk Lyons it is not unusual to admire a client who has had the full might of the United States unjustly arrayed against him and who stood his ground on principle instead of cutting a deal for convenience.  It is just such a friendship that has developed between Kirk Lyons and H. K. Edgerton.

 

Much has been made in this paper of the meeting where Kirk, H.K. and this writer were caught playing with their napkins at the table.  The important point here has been missed.  What was important about that meeting was not that there was a breech of napkin etiquette.  The significance was that during the much-celebrated "Building Bridges" week, the head of the local NAACP broke bread with the men who have been caricatured as the font of all right-wing evil in Western North Carolina.

 

The recent announcement of cooperation between the SLRC and the Asheville branch of the NAACP is an outgrowth of that first meeting.  These three men have had other meetings since.  This has given Attorney Lyons a better understanding of the problems facing the local NAACP.

 

The liberal elites of Asheville should be ashamed. They claim to be so concerned for minority rights, yet they starve the local branch of the NAACP with the thin gruel of their grudging charity.  Community "vision commissions" and pious platitudes don’t finance lawsuits.  People want justice and affordable houses, not visions.  The natural resource for Black people seeking justice should be the NAACP.  Yet these same liberals allow the local branch to languish for lack of funds.

 

It is not strange then that the NAACP should turn to Kirk Lyons for help, in spite of his being smeared with the label of local White boogieman.  This is a curious libel since Kirk Lyons currently represents more black people than any attorney in Buncombe County.  H. K. Edgerton has correctly concluded that Attorney Lyons is concerned with justice for those who cannot get justice.  The SLRC appreciates the confidence that Mr. Edgerton has shown. The SLRC intends to demonstrate that his confidence is justified.

 

"They need to quit running the NAACP like a third-world country"
– H. K. Edgerton

In spite of the fact that a quorum of the local branch voted to approach the SLRC for help, the media have portrayed Mr. Edgerton as a rogue member, acting alone.  State and national NAACP leaders moved quickly to suspend the local branch in spite of a previous agreement to give the Asheville branch more time to pay their assessments. Meanwhile, Mr. Edgerton’s opponents swiftly acted to lock him out of his offices while removing all evidence of the fact that Edgerton or the NAACP had been there.  Edgerton had become a non-person.

The latest act in this NAACP tragi-comic farce shows just how far the professional race-mongers are willing to go to maintain the status quo. In a desperate attempt to distance the NAACP from Edgerton and by extension from the SLRC, the State representative of the NAACP came on 23 January to "reorganize" the chapter.  According the Mr. Edgerton no one was informed that there would be an election.  No one knew except Edgerton’s political opponents.  He states that the membership was not informed, the rules were suspended and that the state officials had a table set up where they were taking ten dollar memberships from whoever walked in and giving them a ballot.  As one might expect, Mr. Edgerton lost the "election."  This is scandalous behavior from an organization that pretends to support fair elections and voter rights.

Conclusion and analysis

Despite the attempts of the state and national NAACP to interfere, we intend to pursue this case.  Southerners have a right to expect accountability in so-called "fair housing" schemes.  At least in this area, it is not just Black’s who are unable to gain entrance into the housing market, but low and middle-income Whites as well.  Mr. Edgerton simply wants them to implement the suggestions of their own study and find out why people who want a real home can’t get one and have no hope of ever achieving the dream of homeownership.

The actions of the NAACP have been very instructive.  They have moved with breathtaking speed to destroy this cooperative effort by this highly suspect coup d’etat.  The local media have also played their part in trying to smear and vilify the SLRC.  If we were the "blue-eyed, engrafted Devil’s" of the media’s mythology, would it not be in the interest of everyone for us to sit down at the table of brotherhood and cooperation?  Apparently not, because this myth gives them the villain they need to help them sell papers.  Supporting this myth also gives the NAACP a reason to raid their members’ cookie jars.  They need boogie-men and Confederate flags to hate.  An honest attempt at dialogue would indicate that Southerners who revere their heritage have a legitimate viewpoint.

In spite of all the facts to the contrary, in spite of Kirk Lyons’ record of defending scores of Black people, in spite of agreeing to help the NAACP, the newspapers continue to portray us as White (fill-in-the-blanks).  There is a very simple reason for this.  The corporate culture of the media elites is against a resurgence of conservatism.  The traditional South, its heritage and values runs counter to everything that they seek to promote.  Outspoken, conservative, Southern organizations all across the board are under the same sort of attack.  They play the race card because they know it is the one weapon that can turn the steeliest Southern spine into jelly.

They will not let you have a voice, if they can help it.  You will not have a voice if you let them continue to dictate who can speak for the South and what Southerners can say.

Attacks on the Colors

There is not a week that goes by without at least one report of a Heritage violation. Many times we cannot help the victims of these attacks because either there are problems with the facts situation or there is no adequate remedy at law or we just lack adequate financing to pursue it.  Whatever the case, we do everything we can to help them.  Sometimes the solution is not a lawsuit.  Often times the best remedy is political, then we will refer them to the various Southern heritage organizations.  Heritage groups are very important to our efforts.  We need them for client support, liaison, and raising public awareness of these outrages.

Teacher fired for refusing to strike colors in classroom

Greenville, SC - Until recently, Dr. Winston McCuen was a teacher of Latin, and advanced placement U.S. History and Government at St. Joseph’s private Catholic High School in Greenville, SC.  He was fired from his job on 22 January 1999 for protesting the action that the school administration took in removing his Confederate flag from his classroom.

This firing culminated an ongoing dispute about a small Confederate flag, which Dr. McCuen displayed as a teaching aid for his classes in history and government.  Headmaster Leonarczyk (of, no doubt, a fine Southern family) started harassing Dr. McCuen to remove the flag. Apparently, the presence of this "teaching aid" was giving Leonarczyk a case of the fantods.  In spite of many favorable comments from adult visitors and no complaints from students, Leonarczyk’s importuning continued.  However, it reached a fever pitch after a visit to the school from two prospective parents who found the presence of the flag offensive.  (We have not determined if these two were also descendants of fine Southern families.)

Claiming concern for the reputation of the school, Leonarczyk threatened dire consequences if Dr. McCuen did not "voluntarily" remove his flag.  Dr. McCuen refused.  He told them that if they wanted it down they would have to take it down themselves.  Dr. McCuen says he was also acting out of concern for the school and for his students.  He applied to teach at St. Joseph’s High School because it had the reputation of a conservative institution.  He felt that the cowardly sniveling of the administration on this issue ran counter to the mission and every principle upon which the school was founded. Nevertheless, the flag was removed.

When he was hired he stipulated that he would say the Pledge of Allegiance only on the condition that he be allowed to say, "one nation under God, divisible."  To protest the insult to the Confederate flag, Dr. McCuen then refused to acknowledge the United States flag.  He began to remain seated during the morning Pledge of Allegiance.  His students admired this and a few joined the protest by remaining seated also.  For this he was fired.  The McCuens deserve the support of loyal Southerners.  Even though they are expecting a baby in May, he felt that he had to do his duty and not cave in like so many do.  He did this for his children and ours. SLRC is looking into what remedies might be available.

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SOUTHERN LEGAL RESOURCE CENTER
PO BOX 1235
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC 28711