South Carolina Lawmaker Faces Backlash After Wearing Confederate Flag T-Shirt At Event For Black And Hispanic Kids
A white Greenville, S.C. county councilman is under fire after a photograph surfaced showing him wearing a T-shirt with a Confederate flag at an event for Black and Hispanic children.
Several voices are calling for Greenville County Councilman Lynn Ballard to apologize or resign from office, local newspaper Rock Hill Herald reports.
Ballard was photographed at the event, Friday (March 4), hosted by the nonprofit Upstate Circle of Friends. In the picture, the organization’s executive officer George Singleton, who is Black, stands next to Ballard whose T-shirt features a motorcycle with a Confederate flag and a woman in lingerie.
Ballard posted it on his Facebook page, but the picture was later removed from the social media platform.
Local community activist Bruce Wilson received a screenshot of the photo and then sent it to Greenville County Councilmembers, the Herald reported.
Wilson, who plans to run for state office, applauded Ballard’s work in the Black community. “But that doesn’t give you the right to disrespect the Black community,” he said.
Ballard told The Greenville News that he plans to address the issue at the next council meeting on March 15 but declined to comment further.
“Why would you apologize to the county council and not apologize to the community?” The Herald quoted Wilson. He thinks it’s too late for an apology and the councilman should resign at this point.
Meanwhile, Ballard has apologized personally to Singleton, who said in a Facebook post on Sunday (March 6) that he didn’t notice the offensive T-shirt that Ballard was wearing at the gardening event.
"We had a conversation about the insensitive nature and meaning of his shirt to our communities we both serve, and specifically to Upstate Circle of Friends, our founder, Mrs. (Deloris) Pinson, and myself," Singleton wrote.
"He apologized to me personally, at this point I feel councilman Ballard’s next step is a public apology to Mrs. Pinson of UCF, our communities and our county as a whole, especially as an elected official and representative of his district."
