“No media (T.V. Radio, etc.) Black Press Only!” read a sign posted on the door of Bolton Street Baptist Church, the Savannah Morning News reported.
White reporters were denied entry to a meeting to discuss an upcoming mayoral race in Georgia, while black reporters for at least two television stations and the publisher of the black-owned Savannah Tribune newspaper were allowed into the meeting.
Reporters who got inside were prohibited from taking photos, video or audio recording, according to Stephen Moody, an African-American reporter with WJCL who attended the event.
AP reports that Mayor Eddie DeLoach is seeking re-election this fall. He became Savannah’s first white mayor in 20 years after winning the 2015 campaign.
Elections for Savannah’s top office are nonpartisan, meaning all candidates who qualify end up on the November ballot.
Savannah Alderman Van Johnson, one of three black mayoral candidates to have announced campaigns so far, spoke at the meeting about his campaign for mayor, said groups have the right to determine how they assemble. Johnson said afterward he:
…relayed “my vision for an inclusive Savannah, a progressive Savannah.”
Asked by WTOC-TV about only black reporters being allowed inside, Johnson said:
“It’s not my meeting. Again, I was asked to come give a statement, and so I came and I gave a statement.”
Regina Thomas, a former Georgia state senator and one of the incumbent mayor’s black challengers, skipped the church gathering Wednesday. She said the meeting appeared divisive and was scheduled too early in the campaign.
Former Savannah Mayor Edna Jackson declined to comment before going inside, as did Chatham County Commissioner Chester Ellis.
“This is not my idea,” Ellis said.
The question is – is it racist? And what would happen if Trump hung a sign at The White House “white press only”? Yeah, we know, that’s totally different!!
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2HOclG3 Tyler Durden