What's a little billboard between friends, after all? On one side, Selma welcomes the First Family to Selma, paid for by the Selma Post-Herald. The other side commemorates the KKK and Nathan Bedford Forrest with the words "Keep the skeer on them." Be afraid!
The billboard was erected by the friends of Forrest, Inc., a historical group that says it meant nothing racist by placing the billboard so close to this historic Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Spokeswoman Patricia Goodwin told the News, “That billboard was put there with positive intent to ask people who come to Selma to explore and enjoy our 19th century history. Does it say anything in the Constitution where a certain faction of people cannot be offended? I’m offended by all these people walking around with their pants hanging around their knees.”
She claims that she only chose the location because of its high visibility to visitors.
The Southern Poverty Law Center pointed out that Goodwin is a known neo-Confederate activist who has called the historic 1965 march “the Mother of All Orgies” and has previously fought efforts to commemorate the civil rights marchers who were beaten with bullwhips and police batons on Bloody Sunday.
But it's not meant to be racist at all, right? I love the smarmy denials the most, like when they compare a billboard celebrating hate and acts of hate to saggy pants, don't you?
I'm sure it has absolutely nothing to do with the African-American First Family's visit to Selma this weekend, either. It was just an accident that they put that billboard so close to a bridge that is so iconic to the civil rights movement, right?
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