The National Newspaper Publishers Association, the Black Press of America, has announced that it will not hold its mid-winter conference in South Carolina scheduled for January 2010.
The organization of more than 200 black-owned newspapers is joining the NAACP economic boycott of the state that has been in effect since July 1999, when the South Carolina NAACP called for it as a protest of the Confederate flag atop the State House and inside the House and Senate chambers.
This announcement comes on the heels of South Carolina Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson’s outburst of “You lie!” that broke decorum during President Barack Obama’s address to the Joint Houses of Congress on health care reform on Sept. 9.
“As African-American newspaper publishers, we stand in solidarity with the NAACP and fully support the economic boycott of South Carolina,” said NNPA Chairman Danny J. Bakewell Sr.
“Rep. Wilson’s remarks were racist, disrespectful, and a disingenuous violation – not only of President Obama – but to the institution of the presidency and only solidified our position and the importance in not spending black dollars where black people are not respected.”