50th Anniversary of Selma: All Lives Matter

Below, my photos of yesterday's upstate South Carolina march and rally, honoring the 50th Anniversary of the famous Civil Rights march in Selma, Alabama.

The Greenville rally was called "All Lives Matter"--building on recent events and the popular slogan "Black Lives Matter"--with a deliberate emphasis on inclusion highlighted by organizer Traci Fant and participants from the Empowerment Zone (host of the galvanizing yearly event Voices Against Violence, that we have sponsored at Occupy the Microphone).

It was Traci's hope to include active law enforcement in the march, and many decided to attend the march on their own time and brought family members. Other rally speakers familiar to our radio listeners include repeat-guest Reverend Jack Logan of Put the Guns Down Now, Young People.

This event was huge and well-attended, quite a contrast to the NAACP's small but prayerful Spartanburg event on February 7th, also attended by radio personnel.

As I have said countless times, Traci is a human dynamo. She did an outstanding job. Her upstate radio show REAL TALK is on every Sunday afternoon on WOLI FM (our station!) at 3pm, so don't miss it.

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First photo features my fabulous radio co-host, Double A, on left, and that's me on the right. (His sign got him into almost every video, including the Fox Carolina footage linked above.) You can click all photos to enlarge.

World Food Day March Against Monsanto

At left: We had our second March Against Monsanto today in Falls Park. It was much smaller than our first march in May, but still pretty well-attended for Greenville.

We marched through our annual autumn downtown festival, Fall for Greenville, which is an excellent PR opportunity. We passed out leaflets, talked to interested onlookers and (hopefully) drew lots of attention. Today's demonstration has been organized globally around World Food Day.






Me and Mr Daisy are currently arguing over GMOs as I post this. (GMO = Genetically Modified Organism) Yes, we both hate Monsanto on principle, but Mr Daisy believes GMOs are safe and fills up my inbox with scientific studies.

If they are safe, why doesn't Monsanto want to label them? I personally believe GMOs are magnifying allergens in food, but I realize this is a hard assertion to prove. (Why do all these kids have peanut allergies these days? NO ONE I grew up with had peanut allergies. NO. ONE. And now? It's fairly common.)

I trust Monsanto as far as I can throw them.

And the argument continues!

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Above, photos from today: 1) Save the bees! 2) protester shirt 3) part of our group masses in Falls Park.

As always, you can click all photos to enlarge. (More photos HERE.)

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Radio updates:

As we reported on our show yesterday, South Carolina has granted ‘Stand Your Ground’ legal immunity to a man who shot at a car full of teen girls and instead killed an innocent 17-year-old black male bystander.

This is the first case of its kind. Apparently, Stand Your Ground now applies to innocent bystanders who may accidentally get shot. Rania Khalek (above link) reports:

That the victim was an innocent bystander rather than one of the alleged “aggressors” sets a new precedent for the application of Stand Your Ground, which can now shield people who are bad shots and accidentally shoot a bystander, from prosecution.

As 5th Circuit Assistant Solicitor April Sampson warned over the summer, a decision in favor of Scott marks “the first time any state in this Union” has awarded Stand Your Ground immunity in the killing of an innocent bystander.

The shooting happened on April 18, 2010. Shannon Anthony Scott (33), was arrested for the murder of 17-year-old unarmed Darrell Andre Niles, shot to death in his car. From Khalek's piece:

Richland County Judge Maite Murphy has thrown out those charges, ruling on Wednesday that Scott reasonably believed his life was in danger and is therefore immune from prosecution by the state’s 2006 Protection of Persons and Property ACT, South Carolina’s version of “Stand Your Ground”, a law that gives private citizens the right to use deadly force whenever and wherever they feel threatened.

We will be talking more about this story on the air in the next week, so stay tuned.

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Thursday's show was about Raleigh (NC) police spying on NAACP Moral Monday planning meetings. The show included an informative interview with Kevin Gosztola, so CHECK US OUT.

More fun in the Carolina sun

At left: Frank Murray, Sen. Glenn McConnell in a Union uniform, and Sharon Cooper-Murray. (Photo from the Columbia State)





I never knew Senator McConnell was once in a movie about the Hunley... I assume it was The Hunley (1999), the most well-known cinematic account... where he got to play Civil War dress-up as a movie extra. (And FTR, I think it's perfectly fine when grown men engage in Cos-Play, but I wish they'd just own up to what they're doing!)

As for these photos, though? Dumbfounding. McConnell is a Confederate re-enactor, so is anybody really surprised?

From FITSNEWS:

The National Federation of Republican Women (NFRW) held its annual fall Board of Directors meeting in Charleston, S.C. last weekend – a decision the organization is likely regretting after several controversial pictures from one of the meeting’s sponsored events began surfacing on the internet.

One of the pictures shows S.C. Senate President Glenn McConnell - who FITS readers will recall enjoys dressing up as a Confederate General – posing in his Rebel garb with a pair of African-Americans dressed in, um, “antebellum” attire.

The event in question – dubbed “A Southern Experience” – was held last Friday evening at the Country Club of Charleston. Hosted by the South Carolina Federation of Republican Women, it was included on the national conference’s official itinerary.

In addition to McConnell, S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford attended (and spoke at) the event – although it was not listed on his weekly public schedule. S.C. Republican Attorney General nominee Alan Wilson also attended.

Invited speakers to the NFRW conference included U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, RNC Chairman Michael Steele, Rep. Joe Wilson, House Speaker Bobby Harrell, former U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins and GOP gubernatorial nominee Nikki Haley.

Many more photos at the link, all posted right on FACEBOOK.

From Roddie Burris of the Columbia State, by way of the Spartanburg Herald:

A photo of Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, outfitted in a Union Navy captain's uniform and posing with two African-Americans dressed in “slave garb,” is making the rounds on the Internet.

McConnell, easily the most powerful state senator, said the photo depicts friends greeting each other after a re-enactment performance to showcase several genres of South Carolina history to conferees from across the country. The picture was taken during a Republican women's conference in Charleston last week.

But the image — with the slave dress, the period military uniform and McConnell, who is widely known in South Carolina for his avid participation in Civil War re-enactments and for preserving the Confederate Hunley submarine — is viewed by some as offensive.

McConnell, a Charleston Republican, said the uniform he's wearing in the picture is the same uniform he wore in a movie about the Hunley, in which he had a nonspeaking role. He also points out he is not wearing a Confederate uniform, but a Union uniform that the hosts asked him to wear.

McConnell said there is nothing racist about the picture and people should “receive (the re-enactment and subsequent photo) in the spirit in which it was presented that evening,” meaning a learning experience.

But others say the image evokes painful memories of historic oppression in this state, as South Carolina once had the nation's second-largest slave port in Charleston, where the photo was snapped.

“That's the senator's unfortunate world view,” said Rev. Joe Darby, first vice president of the state NAACP, speaking of the photo depicting a Civil War era white military officer alongside black slaves. “The troubling question is how much does his world view affect his approach to public policy?”

Yet to be seen is how much such an image might affect the Republican Party, which has been trumpeting its gains among minorities this year.

Ya think?

I'm more amazed by how they're not ashamed of anything they do.

Which brings me to...

Rebel Jim DeMint sparks GOP Senate civil war
By MANU RAJU
Updated: 9/16/10
POLITICO

South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint accidentally walked into a room full of lobbyists Wednesday morning and declared that “Republicans are not prepared to take over the Senate,” according to people in the room.

Some Republicans agree — and say he may be part of the reason why.

Senate Republicans are now even more embroiled in an intraparty civil war in which DeMint has been the lead rebel, and the victory by conservative Christine O’Donnell over establishment favorite Rep. Mike Castle in Delaware only deepened GOP divisions that could haunt Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell well into next year.

Behind closed doors Wednesday, Republican senators tried to assess the damage. Several senators at the lunch, including Scott Brown of Massachusetts, raised concerns that the party has sent a message that it had no room for moderates, even from left-leaning states, according to people familiar with the exchanges. And others expressed frustration that the GOP had essentially given away a pivotal seat that Castle could have won.

DeMint was pressed by several of his colleagues at the closed-door session Wednesday to pony up money from his high-spending political action committee to boost O’Donnell’s chances against Democrat Chris Coons, who already leads by double digits in a race that was a Republican lock had Castle won.

“In other words, put your money where your mouth is,” said a senior Republican official, who characterized the exchange as cordial.

DeMint agreed that he would — and tried to play the role as a peacemaker.

“Every Republican senator has a responsibility to help Christine build the resources she needs to win in November,” DeMint told POLITICO. “The primaries are over, and now is the time to unify as a party. I’m certainly going to do everything I can to support Christine and other Republican candidates to defeat the Democrats this fall, and I expect others to do the same.”

A DeMint aide said the senator’s PAC, the Senate Conservatives Fund, was on pace to raise $100,000 by the end of Wednesday, with an initial goal of dumping $174,000 into the race.

Read the whole thing.

THIS is the kinda thing I was talking about, when I wrote "What's the matter with South Carolina?"... the MAJOR POLITICAL ERROR, wherein progressives and liberals decided to write off our state. This was a huge mistake. Not simply for the (I hope) obvious reasons, but because it gave the American Tea Party-Right wing a consolidation-point, a working power-base of operations.

The Upstate, my district, Jim DeMint's home (he lives only a couple of miles from here), is GROUND ZERO of the Right-wing network. They can do all of this meddling in the affairs of OTHER PLACES (like your district) since they face no genuine electoral threat from progressives at home. We have been neutralized, so they are free to do what they want, which means no end of the mischief.

See, what if you had funded us ON THE GROUND, like before DeMint even got into the Senate, and was still in the House? How might that have worked out?

During this next autumn, as you watch Nikki Haley light up network TV as designated Tea Party darling, think it over.

Get back to us, we're here. Take a lesson from the Tea Party, and consider funding the insurgents for a change.

Lt Gov Andre Bauer refuses to apologize

South Carolina Lt. Gov Andre Bauer, photo from The Palmetto Scoop.


As you probably have heard, there is now a national firestorm over our esteemed Lt Gov Andre Bauer's "ill-chosen" remarks:

“My grandmother was not a highly educated woman but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that. And so what you've got to do is you've got to curtail that type of behavior. They don't know any better,” Bauer said.

He made the Washington Post, Jon Stewart and the Rachel Maddow Show! Bauer is famous at long last. ((sigh))

And locally, his reviews haven't been much better:

Bruce Ransom, a political science professor at Clemson University's Strom Thurmond Institute, called those words “shocking.”

“It’s obviously an attack on poor people,” he said.

Rep. J. Todd Rutherford, a Richland County Democrat who said he is a friend of Bauer, said the remarks would be disappointing coming from anyone.

“It appears crystal clear that Jesus has left the Republican Party,” he said. “The only comparison between animals and people that should ever be done is to say that they are all God’s children.”

Rep. Harry Cato, a Greenville Republican, said it sounds like Bauer “has gone overboard.”

“We do have a responsibility as adults, as Christians, to take care of the children,” Cato said. “They’re here, and it’s not their fault that they were not born into loving parents or a life that does not provide for them. Sometimes parents are just down on their luck.”

He added, “Maybe it sounds like the point we’ve all been talking about forever and that is how do you help people that are down on their luck? How do you break the cycle of those who are in a cycle? There‘s a lot of various cycles people get in, and they do seem to go from generation to generation.”

Ransom said he also thought that was the issue Bauer was trying to get at, using an old argument that has been made against welfare recipients on people receiving free or reduced-price lunches. Bauer was saying that poor people are costing the government more and more money, Ransom said.

“The argument is one that shows no sensitivity and no compassion, particularly in that the argument is one that makes the analogy to stray animals,” he said.

Ransom said it’s hard to tell how Bauer’s remarks will affect his run for governor. They will appeal to people who believe that “all these unworthy people out here who are not responsible for their behavior and are not raising their children properly” are a burden on the rest of society, he said.

The local NAACP and Democratic Party have weighed in, also:

South Carolina's Democratic Party chairwoman, Carol Fowler, asked Bauer to apologize for making the remarks.

Fowler released a statement, saying, "Andre Bauer's crude utterances once again reveal his immaturity and poor judgment. Bauer is a bachelor who has never once had to worry about feeding a child of his own. His notion of punishing children by not feeding them because their parents missed a PTA meeting flies in the face of basic South Carolina values."

In response, Bauer said he shouldn't have used the "stray animals" reference. However, he said he knows his comments are politically incorrect, and he does not feel that he needs to apologize. He said his critics have not offered any solutions to what he called a cycle of dependency on government programs.

In a release, Bauer said he feels "strongly that we can and should help our neighbors who are truly needy ... There's a big difference between being truly needy and truly lazy."

The Greenville NAACP isn’t calling for Bauer's resignation, or even for an apology. The group’s leaders say it's too late for that. But what they would like is for Bauer not to run for governor, and if he does, they want him to lose.

Greenville NAACP leaders said Bauer has proved he doesn't deserve to be South Carolina's next governor. They are upset because they said some of the people Bauer aspires to serve are lower income.

In a news release, Clarence Echols, Greenville NAACP president, said to Bauer: "Keep your foot in your mouth. If you do that, we won't be subjected to such stupidity."

Bauer said he regrets using the metaphor, but he stands firm on his main point. He said some people who don't need welfare take advantage of it, and it becomes a cycle passed down through generations.

Echols said, "To see another politician who wants to be a leader in this state step into that same quagmire of speaking before thinking, it disturbs me greatly."

Monday morning, Bauer spoke to WYFF News 4 and said, "If they wholeheartedly feel that there ought to be a discussion, then that's great -- if they think I'm wrong by bringing up a topic that I feel is important. The fact is that we're going to have to cut somewhere in state government. We're having to cut essential services to people that can't actually provide for themselves because we're taking care of people that are just lazy. I think it's a topic worth discussing. If I'm wrong, so be it."

And here is the official non-apology from Bauer's campaign:

NAACP wages new effort to bring down Confederate flag

CSA Battle Flag image from The Palmetto Scoop.

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My first confederate flag thread is here, in which I said all I am going to say (too much, as usual). The NAACP's new campaign against the flag starts on October 2nd.

NAACP wages new effort to bring down Confederate flag

Governor says he won’t get involved

By Tim Smith • STAFF WRITER, Greenville News
September 23, 2008

COLUMBIA -- The South Carolina and North Carolina chapters of the NAACP called the Confederate flag that flies on Statehouse grounds here a symbol of evil and terrorism and said Monday they will join in their efforts to remove it.

“As long as this flag blows, it pushes a foul wind of separatism, division and racism that is not contained by the borders of South Carolina,” said the Rev. William Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP. The two chapters of the organization used the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation to announce new efforts.

North Carolina’s NAACP plans to fight any cooperation between that state and South Carolina in film projects until the flag is removed, Barber said.

Dr. Lonnie Randolph, president of the South Carolina NAACP, said press conferences supporting a boycott of South Carolina were held simultaneously in seven southeastern states.

“This is not a South Carolina issue,” he said. “This is a national issue.”

The battle flag was moved to its current location near the Confederate Soldiers Memorial on the north side of the Statehouse in 2000 as a result of a legislative compromise to take it off the Statehouse dome. The NAACP has protested its location ever since and organized a tourism and travel boycott of the state.

On Monday, Gov. Mark Sanford repeated his previously stated reluctance to get involved in the flag fight.

“That would consume the two years I have left, and I have to stay focused on the things that I originally made pledges to voters on,” he said.

This summer, Randolph revealed the civil rights organization was working with some officials in Hollywood to keep film projects from locating in the state as part of the NAACP’s campaign.

Randolph said Monday that he couldn’t yet disclose who in Hollywood is assisting the NAACP but said the organization planned to announce some “high-profile names” in time for the NAACP’s 100th anniversary early next year.

Both men said they are also working to block collaborative agreements between the two state’s film offices.

“We don’t believe our film industry in North Carolina ought to be doing collaborative work with South Carolina until such time as this flag is removed,” Barber said.

Barber said the battle flag is wrong morally “because it supported the evils of slavery.”

“We wouldn’t allow al-Qaida to fly their flag,” he said. “We wouldn’t allow the Bloods and the Crips to fly their flag. We wouldn’t allow another country to fly its flag. We should not allow that which represents terrorism and secession to be flown.”

Randolph said little progress has been made in the Statehouse on the issue but said change that benefits blacks in the state rarely occurs except as a result of war, constitutional changes, an executive order or the death of someone.

“The Klansmen don’t wear white sheets anymore,” he said. “They wear three-piece suits and carry briefcases. But they do the same damage that they used to.”

Randolph said the state’s 67th annual convention will be held in Charlotte, beginning Oct. 2, the eighth year the NAACP in South Carolina has moved out of state for its convention to observe the flag boycott.

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Listening to: Louis Armstrong - Stardust
via FoxyTunes

Still fighting over THAT flag...

Left: Yes, you know what it is. (Image from The Palmetto Scoop.)

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For foreign readers (and Americans who didn't memorize their history lessons): South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union in 1860. Largely for this reason, Union forces fired on Fort Sumter, which is considered the official beginning of the Civil War. Yes, it all started here!!!!

How to honor such history respectfully, is the question.

It seems we still can't agree on that.

Although the CSA battle flag is on South Carolina statehouse grounds, it is no longer in the front and is displayed as part of a memorial to the deceased CSA soldiers. No one objects to the memorial itself (that I know of); it's the flag that raises objections and gets everyone all stirred up.

From the Greenville News today:

Confederate group plans response to flag flap

Organization denies comments about flying more flags to counter NAACP

By Tim Smith • CAPITAL BUREAU • July 17, 2008

COLUMBIA -- The Sons of Confederate Veterans plans a response to the NAACP's push to remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds but denied Wednesday one of its officers' statements that it would fly flags around the state in reaction.

Meanwhile, in response to questions by The Greenville News on Wednesday about whether he supported moving the flag, a spokesman for the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. John McCain said the issue of the flag has already been resolved.

"Sen. McCain has said repeatedly that he could not be more proud of the overwhelming majority of the people of South Carolina who have come together to resolve the issue," said Mario Diaz, a spokesman for the campaign.

A spokesman for the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama couldn't be reached for comment.

State NAACP President Lonnie Randolph said Tuesday the national organization had asked actors and movie studio representatives to observe the NAACP's economic sanctions against the state until the flag is moved off Statehouse grounds. He said the civil rights organization had received "very positive" responses.

The battle flag flies behind the Confederate soldiers' monument near a busy Columbia intersection, the result of a legislative compromise in 2000 to bring the flag off the Statehouse dome.

Randy Burbage, who leads South Carolina members in the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said the group's officials will consider proposed responses to the NAACP actions when they meet in two weeks.

"We're weighing different options," he said. "We always respond to attacks on our heritage, and we feel like that's what this is."

He said he was "not at liberty" to describe what was being considered, but he denied the comments of another officer earlier in the day who said the organization planned to raise flags across the state in response to the NAACP's latest campaign to remove the flag.

"That's not true," he said. "He misspoke on that. There's no plan to do that. I'm puzzled as to why he even said that. He's not the spokesman for the organization. I've already spoken to him today, and he admitted that he misspoke on that."

Burbage said it was also untrue that the organization planned to raise a flag each time the NAACP complained or that the organization was negotiating with a landowner to raise a giant flag near a Midlands interstate, just as supporters have raised such flags in Florida.

"I don't know how I can put these fires out at this point," he said. "That's him speaking for himself, not this organization."

My observation? It never ends.

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Listening to: Yo La Tengo - Moby Octopad
via FoxyTunes

Obama readings for your perusal

Left: Deadheads for Obama logo.

Equal Pay, not abortion (Politico):

Move over, Jane Roe. Lilly Ledbetter has taken her place as the name on the tongue of Democrats courting female voters.

On June 23, Barack Obama kicked off a “discussion for working women” with a speech directed at working mothers that criticized John McCain for his support of conservative judges, decisions and legislation.

But he didn’t once mention or even allude to abortion or Roe v. Wade. Instead, he keyed in on Ledbetter, the woman whose suit against Goodyear for pay discrimination was thrown out by the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision last year delivered by Justice Samuel Alito. The decision upheld a lower court’s ruling that she only had 180 days after she was hired to discover the pay disparity and file suit.

The court’s decision in the case, Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., had already been cited 221 times in decisions by lower federal courts as of late April, according to the Alliance for Justice. Earlier this year, the Fair Pay Restoration Act — which would have effectively undone Ledbetter by giving women more leeway to file discrimination suits and was co-sponsored by both Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton — failed to pass the Senate.

“Sen. McCain thinks the Supreme Court got it right. He opposed the Fair Pay Restoration Act,” Obama said. “Lilly Ledbetter’s problem was not that she was somehow unqualified or unprepared for higher-paying positions. She most certainly was, and by all reports she was an excellent employee. Her problem was that her employer paid her less than men who were doing the exact same work.”

McCain, who skipped the vote on the Fair Pay act, told reporters that "I am all in favor of pay equity for women, but this kind of legislation, as is typical of what's being proposed by my friends on the other side of the aisle, opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems."

By shifting his focus toward pay issues and away from abortion, Obama places himself in a far less polarized environment, and steers clear of the “ick factor” that many Americans, regardless of their political views, associate with the practice of abortion.

Obama says Iraq war must end (also from Politico):

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is vowing to quickly end the war in Iraq and shift the focus of the war on terror to Afghanistan and Pakistan, declaring in an address to be delivered later today that the “single-minded and open-ended focus" on Iraq "distracts us from every threat that we face and so many opportunities we could seize.”

“This war diminishes our security, our standing in the world, our military, our economy, and the resources that we need to confront the challenges of the 21st century,” Obama says in excerpts released by his campaign. “By any measure, our single-minded and open-ended focus on Iraq is not a sound strategy for keeping America safe.”

Obama is delivering a major address on Iraq at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, ahead of a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan later this month.

In the remarks, Obama vows to take “the fight to al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan”: “In fact – as should have been apparent to President Bush and Senator McCain – the central front in the war on terror is not Iraq, and it never was.

The constant talk of Senator Barack Obama's "arrogance" (is there such a thing as a non-arrogant national politician or presidential candidate? Examples, please?) is wearing on my last good nerve.

From Firedoglake, Attaturk's "He's bordering on arrogance"--lays it out very simply:

Those are the words of AP's new Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier about Barack Obama in March 2008. Ron, the word you were too timid to use but were thinking was "uppity".

And finally, Barack Obama's much-covered and picked-over speech to the NAACP yesterday, on YouTube:

Jail death protest in Fountain Inn

Graphic from epodunk.com


Yes, I'll be there.



Jail death protest in Fountain Inn
New Beginning Missionary Baptist Church in Laurens County leading protest



By Nathaniel Cary
STAFF WRITER, Greenville News
Updated: Thursday, September 27, 2007 - 11:38 am

A local human rights group plans to protest outside of Fountain Inn's Police Department tonight.

The group, Schimuranga, led by Rev. David Kennedy, will hold a demonstration in connection with the death of a black Fountain Inn man at the Fountain Inn jail July 29.

The protest is the latest in a string of demonstrations over the death of Richard Javis Johnson, 25, who died at the jail when he was found hanged by his long sleeved T-shirt 30-40 minutes after he was booked on a crack cocaine charge.

Johnson's family members said they didn't think he would have hanged himself, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson toured the jail last week and said he'd seen photos that looked like Johnson had been beaten to death.

Fountain Inn police have declined to discuss specifics of the case, but said they will be cleared of any wrongdoing after the investigation. The State Law Enforcement Division is investigating and has said it won't release details for up to five more months.

The demonstration will be held 6-8 p.m. in downtown Fountain Inn, said Councilwoman Wanza Bates.

Schimuranga, a group started out of Kennedy's church, New Beginning Missionary Baptist Church in Laurens County, was organized to protest injustice to the black community, Kennedy said.

"We are holding this demonstration to expose institutionalized racism in the city of Fountain Inn," Kennedy said.

And before anyone criticizes Jesse for ambulance-chasing, being a glory-hound, etc, it's important to add that he is FROM GREENVILLE and comes to South Carolina frequently to visit his mother and extended family.

And a good thing, too:

Jesse Jackson Comments On Inmate's Death

UPDATED: 9:03 am EDT September 18, 2007

FOUNTAIN INN, S.C. -- Rev. Jesse Jackson was in the Upstate Monday, and commented on a controversy over the death of an inmate found hanged in his cell.

Jackson and members of the Rainbow Push Coalition toured the Fountain Inn jail this morning. The visit comes after the hanging death of inmate Richard Johnson in July. Officials have said that Johnson hanged himself, but some family members and supporters have said that officers were responsible for his death.

After Monday's tour, Jackson told reporters that he thinks that the dimensions of the cell would not make it possible for Johnson to hang himself.

Johnson's mother, Anita Johnson, said that the coroner's officer refused to let her see her son's body.

"I was denied to see his body at the hospital," Johnson said. "The hospital said I couldn't see him, the coroner said I couldn't see him, and the Fountain Inn Police Department said me and my family could not see my son."

Fountain Inn Police Chief Keith Morton said that he and other officers tried to call Johnson after her son's death, but could not reach her. Morton said they also drove around to different places trying to track her down. By the time they were able to reach her, they said Johnson's body had been turned over to the coroner.

Greenville County Deputy Coroner Ken Coppins said, "....because it was an in-custody death, our protocol was to seal the body bag and nobody opens it until autopsy so that evidence that needs to be collected is collected that morning at autopsy."

Coppins said that he gave his number to Anita Johnson, but because she did not have a phone, she called three times but never left a number.

Less than 24 hours after Johnson's death, his body was turned over to the Fletcher Mortuary in Fountain Inn. Coppins said he can't explain why Anita Johnson then waited until three days later to see her son there.

Jackson said, "You need to see for yourself to see how impossible it would have been to tie something around your neck and drop three inches and be suicide."

He said it appeared to him that Johnson was beaten to death, based on markings on the body. But the coroner's officer said it is common for doctors to remove pieces of skin during the autopsy.

Morton said, "Mr. Jackson is welcome to his opinion, but once again, all the information was collected by independent agencies and they'll make the determination on the cause of death."

City Official Solicits Complaints From Citizens

City Councilwoman Wanza Bates is soliciting complaints from the citizens of Fountain Inn regarding the police and is passing them on to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

Bates said. "People feel that they're being inappropriately treated and we need to do something about that. The city of Fountain Inn needs to do something about that."

She said, "I'm hoping that we have the appropriate policies, regulations, procedures in the city of Fountain Inn so that citizens feel safe so that when a police officer stops them, that they are appropriately stopping them, that they are not harassing them, that they are not physically abusing them. These are the natures of the stories I've been told."

News 4 has learned that SLED confirms receiving something of this nature, but there is no official investigation.

Later Monday, Jackson went to Clemson, encouraging people to register to vote. Jackson was in Simpsonville on Sunday night pushing the vote.

He and the Rainbow Push Coalition visited Bethlehem Baptist Church as part of Jackson's 12-city voter education tour across the state.

The Greenville NAACP is also investigating the death of Richard Javis 'Jabo' Johnson while in police custody in Fountain Inn.