After years of resistance, and against the wishes of many who embrace the state's secessionist past, the legislature approved a measure recognizing the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. At the same time, however, the legislators instituted a Confederate history day. The state legislature also voted to remove the Confederate battle flag from the State Capitol dome and move it to a nearby flagpole. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People continues a boycott against South Carolina over the prominent placement of the flag and its segregationist symbolism. Racial Profiling Nationwide, racial profiling has surfaced as a major civil-right issue.
Critics say the practice has widened as a result of the nation's war on drugs.
But more whites than minorities use drugs, by a ratio of about 5 to 1. And racial profiling often takes the investigations to an extreme. In one case in which the American Civil Liberties Union got involved, in East St. Louis, IL, Hispanics made up less than 1 percent of the population, but 41 percent of the people searched by the police. Shop O2 . All Rights Reserved.