Confederate Flag Down, but South Carolina Blacks See Bigger Fights
By ALAN BLINDER and RICHARD FAUSSET
JULY 20, 2015
... “That flag is simply a start; that’s all it is,” said Mr. McDaniel, the pastor of the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, a predominantly black congregation of about 1,300 people. He ticked off problems of poverty, inadequate housing and joblessness — “people who are living not check to check but hand to hand.” He added: “That flag coming down in Columbia, what is it doing for them?” ...
A handful of black leaders are indulging in an unbridled optimism after South Carolinians of all races rallied to condemn the massacre of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, which the authorities have described as a hate crime, and after a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers voted to take down the divisive battle flag. A few hours after the vote in the House, which came after a contentious, 15-hour debate, Representative Robert L. Brown, a black Democrat, closed the door to his legislative office in Columbia. Then he faced a corner and sobbed ...
Others note, more soberly, that the politics of South Carolina are divided along philosophical and racial lines that can seem as if they are one in the same. Blacks, who make up about 28 percent of the population, overwhelmingly vote for Democrats, and many of them believe that a bigger and more vigorous government is a key to solving problems that are hangovers from the days of segregation and slavery ...
The gap in the poverty rate has also remained stubborn. In 2013, census statistics show, about 27 percent of South Carolina’s black families were living in poverty. About 9 percent of white families faced similar economic troubles ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/21/us/confederate-flag-down-but-south-carolina-blacks-see-bigger-fights.html?_r=0
