Black mother successfully sues South Carolina neo-confederate organization
By winning her lawsuit, a mother made sure a racist group would not have the chance to exploit anyone else's children
A circuit judge has ruled in favor of a Black mother and against the South Carolina Secessionist Party, effectively dissolving the organization.
According to South Carolina’s Post and Courier newspaper, Alicia Greene sued the secessionists after they gave her children Confederate battle flag images at The Battery in Charleston and then posted photos of the minors on social media.
Last Thursday, Judge Alex Kinlaw Jr., the first African-American circuit judge elected for Greenville, approved the agreement in Charleston County court. He ordered the Secessionist Party to dissolve all of its online assets and organizing power and pay $1,000 to the Charleston NAACP.
Kinlaw also voiced his deep frustrations that “we are still dealing with that kind of stuff” in 2019.
“If we just love one another, all of this stuff will go away,” the judge opined.
According to the lawsuit, on June 24, 2017, the Secessionist group was holding one of its many pro-flag rallies to spread “the love to All of our Southern Brothers and Sisters.” During the event, Secessionist Party founder James Bessenger was struck by a car.
The family had been visiting White Point Garden for a picnic in the same area when first responders and a firetruck showed up. In the midst of the chaos Greene’s children were temporarily separated from her. Later that day, she realized what had happened to them in her absence, when photographs began to appear on Facebook of the two minors holding the Confederate flag images.
According to the settlement, Greene says her purpose in filing the suit was to “make sure it never happened to anyone else.”
“This is a big day for our community, for South Carolina as a state and for the nation,” said Green’s attorney, Charleston attorney Roy Willey IV. “We have no doubt that while we have financially bankrupted a morally bankrupt organization, hate still exists. People will still appear with hate in their hearts and with the flag. But today is a very big step forward in the right direction for our community.”
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