NAACP Missing an Opportunity With Confederate Flag Protest

Since Greensboro, N.C., and North Carolina A&T State University are known for civil rights activity, it comes as no surprise that the Greensboro NAACP wants Dudley High School basketball teams to skip the Holiday Invitational basketball tournament in South Carolina as part of NAACP’s nearly five-year-old boycott of the state. The boycott is in response to the Confederate flag that still flies on the State House grounds in Charleston, S.C.

Local NAACP leaders, including county commissioner Melvin "Skip" Alston, want the team to honor the boycott and withdraw from the tournament, which is held during the Christmas break. Preliminary indications are that the students want to participate. The parents involved just want to support the students.

It is a rare today that high school sports become involved in civil rights issues.

Both sides in this debate have valid arguments.

The NAACP wants to keep (black) people from spending money in South Carolina, since the state flatly refused to remove the controversial flag from the State House grounds. The Dudley basketball teams want to travel to South Carolina because of the prestige of the tournament. Teams, as well as scouts, will be coming from up and down the Eastern Seaboard. Participating would be good exposure for Dudley's student-athletes as well as for the school itself.

The NAACP is missing the potential significance of the situation. Dudley could honor the boycott and skip the South Carolina trip.

If the Dudley teams show up to play with perhaps a single black sock pulled up to the knee or a white headband with the initials “MLK” on it or something to that effect, people will notice and ask why. As a team, members can say they're continuing a long tradition of students in Greensboro who take stands on social issues.

The news media will certainly be covering the tournament, and they will be sure to report on the team from Greensboro that was protesting the Confederate flag by wearing only one black sock.

Of course, the kids are not too concerned with the flag controversy. They just want to play in a basketball tournament over the Christmas holiday.

The NAACP should understand that 17- and 18-year-old kids aren't supposed to be involved in boycotts and civil rights struggles against states. They just need support from the community to play a game that they love.

Chad Roberts is a student at North Carolina A&T State University who writes for The A&T Register.

Posted Sept. 17, 2003