LITTLE ROCK -- Nine days after nine black churchgoers were slain in South Carolina, the Arkansas chapter of the National Association for Advancement of Colored People asked a local retailer Friday to immediately stop selling the Confederate flag.
About 20 people showed up in front of Arkansas Flag and Banner at noon Friday in protest. With the business owner looking on, Dale Charles, president of the NAACP chapter, told the crowd the flag was "divisive" and a symbol of "racism and racial hatred."
"It is time for the flag to go," he said. "If you and others continue to sell this symbol of oppression, the legacies of slavery and oppression will continue to be highlighted in American society."
In her counter, Flag and Banner owner Kerry McCoy said she was not supporting racial prejudice.
A nationwide movement to remove the Civil War-era symbol from public buildings and spaces was initiated after the June 17 killings and after photographs have circulated showing shooting suspect Dylann Storm Roof with the Confederate flag.
As some major retailers such as Amazon and Walmart announced the removal of merchandise that shows the symbol, the Confederate flag has been Arkansas Flag and Banner's top seller, McCoy said. The store has received orders from as far away as Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, and the business ordered more of the product to meet the demand.
"Like all retailers, I know not what is in the hearts of any of my customers when they buy from me," McCoy said.
She asked the small crowd Friday to look at the "bigger picture."
"Like everyone in America, I am deeply disturbed by the South Carolina events," she said. "Let us focus on the bigger picture, race relations. Who taught this kid to hate, and why did he have a gun?"
The NAACP asked McCoy to stop selling Confederate merchandise, particularly because her business is located in Taborian Hall, which Charles said used to be a gathering place for Little Rock's black community.
According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, the building housed black-owned businesses throughout the 1920s and '30s, and musicians such as Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong played in its nightclubs.
"You have to understand where we are, what this building meant in history," Charles said. "And this establishment here today is selling hatred."
McCoy noted she bought and restored Taborian Hall, thus keeping alive a "historically significant African-American building."
"I have given back to my community and black history," she said. "Without my efforts, this piece of history would have been torn down 20 years ago."
The protest ended quickly. When McCoy began to speak, Charles grabbed his podium and walked across the street to his car, with several others trailing him. McCoy went back inside her business right after giving a short speech to the remaining protesters.
NW News on 06/27/2015