But he says he won't back down. If I don't accomplish anything else in this life I will further the goals of racial justice. On a mission. As the first white president of the Atlanta-based Center for Democratic Renewal, Turnipseed has argued for a plan that would compensate descendants of African slaves. In 1997, he served as co-counsel with renowned civil rights attorney Morris Dees in a watershed case against the Ku Klux Klan in South Carolina.
Historians still debate the origin of the fires.
And generations of Columbians still harbor old animosities. In 1962, the state General Assembly voted to raise the flag above the State House to officially commemorate the centennial anniversary of the war. Turnipseed claims it was unofficial defiance. It was placed above our capitol to defy the gathering momentum of the civil rights movement. In recent weeks, Gov. Jim Hodges has tried to broker a compromise, but Turnipseed is not in a dealing mood.