In remarks at 'town hall' meeting, civil rights activist calls for fight to end injustice
BY DENESHIA GRAHAM AND SEANNA ADCOX
Of The Post and Courier Staff
On day three of his stay in the Lowcountry, the Rev. Jesse Jackson encouraged students at two area schools to rise above adversity and encouraged everyone attending an NAACP "town hall" meeting to get involved in fighting injustice.
Jackson kicked off Monday with a 6:30 a.m. prayer vigil with area ministers, residents and students at Stratford High School in Goose Creek where the controversial Nov. 5 drug raid took place.
Parent Cassandra Richardson said she hoped Jackson's presence made people "see the importance of keeping this going until justice is done."
Thomas Battles, regional director for the U.S. Department of Justice's community relations service, said the FBI has sent its preliminary investigations on both the Stratford drug search and the Nov. 7 fatal shooting of a mentally ill black man in North Charleston to the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.
Authorities have not yet determined whether race was an issue in either case, he said.
Battles, who is black, sat on a panel Monday night that also included Diop Kamau, executive director of the National Police Complaint Center based in Washington, D.C.
Students and parents got up one by one to make comments and ask questions concerning how police and Principal George McCrackin handled the search. The NAACP plans to write a report of Monday's two-hour meeting and send it to the Justice Department, said state chapter President James Gallman.
Some parents asked why students were not provided counseling after the drug search.
District spokeswoman Pam Bailey said earlier Monday that the school's five counselors did provide therapy for students who asked. School officials determined external counseling was unnecessary, she said.
Also Monday morning, Jackson spoke to students at Burke High School in downtown Charleston, a predominantly black school where student test scores are historically low.
He encouraged students to get a good education, hold fast to their dreams and shun violence and drug use. He then had 17- and 18-year-old students sign up for voter registration information.
The controversy over the drug raid continues to draw mixed reactions.
Tenth-grader Morgan Hawkins said the racial divide at the school was subtle before the drug raid, but the atmosphere now is obviously strained.
"I think there's more racism going on in the school," said Hawkins, who is black and was not in the hallway when police searched for drugs. "I don't think it's going to get better."
Aubrey Kimzey, a white ninth grade student, said she hasn't noticed a racial divide and still has friends of both races.
She, like Hawkins, was not part of the drug raid.
Jeff Peterson, whose daughter is in the 10th grade, said media hype has kept the issue from dissipating.
"This needs to calm down and just get back to normal so the kids can get back to normal," he said.
Jackson called on residents to participate in his march today to North Charleston City Hall. It will leave Charity Baptist Church on East Montague Avenue in North Charleston at 3 p.m.
"Let's let Goose Creek send a message to America," he said.
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