By Eric Frazier
efrazier@charlotteobserver.com

Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP President Kojo Nantambu on Friday reiterated his belief that Charlotte is a "racist bastion," but said he never called on high-profile events like this week's CIAA tournament to boycott the city.

His comments came during a CIAA tournament luncheon sponsored by the National Education Association, which had invited the Rev. William Barber, head of the N.C. NAACP, to speak about the dangers of school resegregation.

Nantambu came under fire in January after leading protests over Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' decision to hold a snow makeup day on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Nantambu called Charlotte "a racist bastion" and asked for a drive to keep the CIAA, NCAA, PGA "and any other A" from coming to Charlotte.

But Friday, he said his remarks had been misinterpreted. He said he had called for a letter-writing campaign to companies sponsoring such events, asking them to join the NAACP in voicing outrage over issues like the King holiday and CMS' decision last year to close 11 school buildings, mostly in majority-black areas.

"We still think Charlotte is a racist community. We still think the school system is extremely racist," he said. "All of its actions to modify the schools are against the poor or minority community ... the people should not stand for this."

"These are companies concerned about equity too," he added. "We're asking them to stand with us and say, 'Why is there so much resegregation, why is there so much racism in this city?'"

Other African-American leaders have called Nantambu's assessments overly harsh, and frowned on any talk of a boycott. CMS leaders have said they decided the school closings by looking for underperforming, underutilized schools. They said the King holiday decision wasn't racially motivated.

Barber, the state NAACP president, stopped short of calling Charlotte a racist city, but said Charlotte has for a decade been moving away from its progressive past as a leader in school desegregation.

He and Nantambu said the organization will be sending letters to political and civic leaders around the city and state outlining the NAACP's concerns about what's happening in Charlotte.

Nantambu said he'd rather not boycott. "But if it has to come to that, we don't have any problem with that either. We're going to make sure Charlotte is nationally exposed."

Got news to share with Qcity readers? Email us at editor@qcitymetro.com.
Sign up for our weekly email newsletter below

Sign up for our Weekly Email Newsletter Email: For Email Marketing you can trust

Other Ways to Share Twitter Del.icio.us MySpace

Discussions and Submission Agreement