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April 30, 2004

White supremacists lead charge to un-name MLK

Racists in Zephyrhills are leading a drive to un-name a street for MLK. Of course, their argument goes something like “Gee, it will cost me money to change my business cards...,” but their motives are undeniably racist.

ZEPHYRHILLS - Renaming a street to honor Martin Luther King Jr. was supposed to unite Zephyrhills' black and white residents. Instead, it exposed feelings of racism many had no idea existed.

Divisions grew deeper this week when the city council went back on its decision to name the street after the civil rights leader, restoring it to its original Sixth Avenue name.

It's an action many say is worse than never having honored King at all.

``They just don't want the street name because he's black,'' said Irene Dobson, who circulated a petition for the street to be named after King, ``and they don't realize what he's done for America.''
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Zephyrhills' decision to name a street after King endured for six months, when council members agreed the change had been enacted hastily and detracted from the city's orderly grid system of street names.
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Blanche Benford, a protest organizer, said, ``This isn't just about a street,'' she said. ``It's about racism being quietly hidden.''

The name was changed in October after a petition was brought before the city council seeking to rename Sixth Avenue in King's honor. Council members voted 4-1 to make the change, angering residents who thought the decision would disrupt downtown's numerical street system.

At the next meeting, Councilwoman Cathi Compton made a motion to reconsider the name change, but the decision stood with a 3-2 vote.

Those who disagreed vowed to take the issue to the polls in April.

They kept that promise.

Newcomer Gina King defeated then-council President Lance Smith, who had voted for the renaming.

Six-term incumbent Elizabeth Geiger, who had sided with Smith, defeated her opponent Rj Morgan by a single vote. Morgan's main reason for seeking office was his feeling that the council hadn't handled the issue properly.

Councilwoman King said the council did not follow a 1987 ordinance governing requests for street name changes. The ordinance says any property owner living on a street, or whose property abuts the street, may request a renaming.

Dobson, who circulated the petition calling for a Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue even though she doesn't live within the city limits, said the rationale offered by opponents to the name change masks the real reasons they are against it.

So, who could be against naming a street peaceful man with drams of harmony amongst all peoples? This guy, for one:

MLK was a plagerist.kiar, bisexual,communist and serial misceginist, who was beating a White woman in his hotel room on the night James Earl Ray sent his rotten soul to burn in hell for all eternity.MLK planned to drive our people and his people into mutual extinction through racemixing and deliver the pathetic remmenants of our races into Red tyranny May the flames of Satan ravish his corrupt flesh forever

A quick glance at the Stormfront site reveals lots of comments in support of this kind of thinking. Perhaps tellingly, many of the comments are just as full of misspelling and grammatical errors as the one above.

Stormfront is a White Supremecist organization whose goals include the spreading of misinformation and hatred. The fact that the Zephyrhills City Council bowed to the demands of this group is atrocious.

An unmistakable logo greets visitors to the Stormfront Home Page, the gateway to Don Black's online world of bigotry: a cross ringed by the words "White Pride World Wide." Under this logo, Black describes his site:

“Stormfront is a resource for those courageous men and women fighting to preserve their White Western culture, ideals and freedom of speech and association  a forum for planning strategies and forming political and social groups to ensure victory.”

Though Black claims to be a "White Nationalist," not a hatemonger, his idea of "White Pride" involves demeaning, demonizing and menacing Jews and non-whites, and his concept of "victory" includes the creation of ethnically cleansed political enclaves.

Contact the City of Zephyrhills and ask them to ignore the racist twits and do the right thing.

Email the city council here.

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Posted by Norwood at April 30, 2004 07:23 AM
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