Lonnie Randolph, president of the South Carolina state conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the election of Gov. Nikki Haley, the daughter of Indian parents, leaves him optimistic, but to move forward the state needs to avoid the mistakes of the past.
Chief among the mistakes, Randolph said, is the mistreatment of people and the celebration of the Confederacy. Randolph likened the festive events in Charleston to mark the signing of the Ordinance of Secession in December to a “9/11 party” or a celebration of the Wounded Knee massacre in which 300 Sioux Indians were killed by U.S. troops in 1890, or a happy commemoration of the atomic bombings on Japan or one for “Hitler’s hostility.”
“There is never a time … (when) we should be practicing and bragging about disrespect,” he said.