CINCINNATI (AP) _ NAACP leaders said Monday they will step up their campaign against flying of the Confederate battle flag on state grounds in South Carolina.
Dennis Courtland Hayes, interim president and CEO, said at the civil rights organization's national convention that action plans are in the works and urged members to stay tuned for details.
"We're going to return to South Carolina," Hayes said.
Ben Jealous, who will take over in September as president and chief executive of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, drew cheers from the crowd when he began his speech with a reference to South Carolina. He pledged an aggressive leadership of the organization.
The NAACP and other critics call the rebel flag a symbol of slavery and racism. Advocates say it is an emblem of Southern pride and heritage.
It once flew atop the Capitol dome in South Carolina, but a 2000 compromise removed it to fly on Statehouse grounds near the Confederate Soldier Monument, which is near a busy Columbia intersection.
The NAACP, which held large protest rallies in Columbia and demonstrations at state welcome centers several years ago, has continued a boycott of the state.
State Sen. John Courson, R-Columbia, a flag supporter, said he doesn't think there is much interest in South Carolina in stirring up the flag debate.
"It's been so long since it's been debated," he said Monday by telephone. "I think the issue has been resolved; eight years ago when black and white members of the General Assembly agreed on the compromise."
Marion Edmonds, spokesman for the South Carolina Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department, said there was anecdotal evidence that some organizations honored the boycott, but that tourism and conventions business overall has grown in the state.
"Once the flag came down in 2000, most convention and meeting planners accepted that as a good-faith effort," he said.
Jealous, elected in May at age 35 to be the youngest head of the NAACP, told delegates that black people and advocates of civil rights are at a crossroads, with black gains undermined by rising housing and health care costs, rundown schools and street gang violence.
"In this organization, we are at a defining moment in our history," he said. "This country is ready for change."
He said the candidacy of Barack Obama, poised to become the first black major-party presidential nominee, underscores that readiness. Obama planned to address the convention Monday night.
"As the NAACP, we must be prepared to make the case more aggressively, to communicate more broadly, to coordinate more boldly, to accelerate the pace of progress more rapidly," Jealous said.
The activist and former news executive said he wants to use online tools such as blogging and social networking to communicate and reach out to new members, particularly younger generations.
"We will build a bridge to a better America," he said.
More than 8,000 people are in town for the convention that runs through Thursday.
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Associated Press writer Page Ivey in Columbia, S.C., contributed to this story.
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