MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - As motorcycles whined along a nearby street,civil rights leaders vowed Thursday to march on this beachfront cityif it doesn't end the 'apartheid traffic pattern' directed at blackbikers each Memorial Day weekend.
If court remedies don't work 'the time may be here that we'll haveto march,' said the Rev. Nelson B. Rivers, chief operating officerfor the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.'We need to flood the streets. We need to make Myrtle Beach a parkinglot.'
Rivers spoke outside City Hall as the first of tens of thousandsof black bikers began arriving for the weekend Atlantic BeachBikefest.
The civil rights group sued in federal court two years ago overthe city policy of allowing only one-way traffic on busy OceanBoulevard during the bikefest, which in recent years has attractedmore than 200,000 people. Memorial Day is the only weekend when themajority of visitors to this beach resort are black and the only timetraffic on the oceanfront boulevard is one-way.
Myrtle Beach spokesman Mark Kruea discounted arguments the patternis racist and leads to more traffic infractions for black riders, buthe said the city had no problem with peaceful protest. 'A march toexpress their First Amendment rights is fine,' he said.
Traffic flows two ways during the Carolina Harley-Davidson DealersAssociation Myrtle Beach Rally, a predominantly white event held eachyear a week before the black rally.
The city contends the two events are different - that the focus ofthe black biker week is cruising along the boulevard, which causestraffic jams. It also says the white bikers are spread out along morethan 60 miles of beaches from Georgetown to the North Carolina line.
A federal judge this month found race was a 'motivating factor' inthe different traffic patterns and ordered the city to use the sametraffic pattern for both rallies. However, the 4th U.S. Circuit Courtof appeals stayed the injunction and, beginning this morning, thecity will use one-way traffic again this weekend.
'It's a shame in the year 2005 that we still go through thestruggle that our forefathers went through back in the 1960s,' saidKevin Graham, who owns a security firm and cell phone business inWilmington, N.C.
Graham, the president of the North Carolina United BikersAssociation, said blacks feel like 'second-class citizens' during theweekend.
Renard Thornton, president of the Millennium Sports Riders chapterin Lynchburg, Va., has been coming to the Memorial Day weekend rallyfor seven years.
'We all come back because we have a passion for motorcycles,' hesaid. 'Over the top of all the racism and prejudices, we still wantto come.'
Anson Asaka, assistant general counsel for the NAACP, said the'apartheid traffic pattern' used by the city just creates morecongestion for black riders.
'The city has no legitimate explanation for what they are doing,'he said. 'If the courts don't work, we're going to take it to thestreets.'
Myrtle Beach is 'a place that has become known for its infamousways,' Rivers added. 'We have seen more Confederate flags in MyrtleBeach than in any other place in the nation.'
The rally had modest beginnings 25 years ago as the Atlantic BeachMemorial Day Bike Festival.
Atlantic Beach is a small predominantly black beach townsurrounded on three sides by the town of North Myrtle Beach. Duringthe festival, traffic is funneled one way into that community.
The town thrived during the days of segregation because it was theonly place where blacks could go to the beach. But after integration,the town slipped into decline.
The Carolina Knight Riders motorcycle club invited other clubs fora rally on Memorial Day weekend in 1980, the first event drawingabout 100 participants.
'We never thought it would get this big,' Mack Vereen, presidentof the Knight Riders, told The Sun News of Myrtle Beach on Thursday.'Even though the bikes are coming down, it's not the bikers gettingtogether. It's more like a street thing.'
