Get Charleston Ready to Resist on Thurs. April 17 at Pink House

Get Charleston Ready to Resist on Thurs. April 17 at Pink House

#TIDEMOBILIZE Update for April 17 #chsresist at Pink Event 5-7 pm and Saturday, April 19 Demonstration at Brittlebank Park, Charleston, SC, 9:30 am to 11 am. 

April 16, 2025
Lowcountry Up is Good, PAC, Inc.

Note: Children are welcome to share this event with their parents, grandparents or guardians. There is a full playground around the event space.

Focus on Three Issues: Increasing Impact, Celebrating the Struggle & Implementing TIDE Communications

• #CHSresist in Pink will have three focuses:
  Radically increasing the size and impact of local demonstratoins and protests, starting with the one planned for Brittlebank Park on Saturday, April 19 from 9:30 to 11:00 am and converting that into change for a more just community

• Preparing for the 90th. Birthday Celebration of Louise Brown, our community’s leading social justice activist, with 80 years in the fight. It’s planned for May 1 to 4 and ends with a pirate party on the beach (already permitted for 50 people. (The Beach party needs to have event insurance to get permitted for a larger group). All the events will focus on the current issues of the struggle for social justice in Charleston. That is what Louise Wants. She isn’t done fighting. We aren’t done either. 

• Implementing our new TIDE system, an organized process for disseminating information critical to the resistance in the Lowcountry and avoiding the pitfalls of relying on algorithm compromised social media companies or legacy media vulnerable to MAGA threats. 

Fordham to Speak

Prof. Damon Fordham will follow a welcome by Christian King our host at Pink House with a short address on When We Are, What is our Place in History and What We Need to Do. Fordham is the author of five books on African American History and Culture in SC. Many do not know that he is a student and teacher of all History with a solid command of the entire story of Civilization. Fordham can tell you in relevant detail what went wrong in Rome, Greece, France in 1889 and Russia in 1917. 

Everyone says they want to watch history happen. Starting Friday the people at Pink House will begin making history happen, as our MAGA opponents have been doing to us for the past 9 years. Fordham will speak shortly after 7, beginning the 90 minute training session. He’ll be available to talk afterwards during one of the breakout sessions. We also have a fascinating presentation about the demonstration culture of France. 

On Saturday with our new tools and methods, we’ll stand along Lockwood Blvd. next to Brittlebank Park challenging the effort to turn Charleston into a place where the rich play and citizens are forced to be silent.

Speaker’s Slots Still Open

We still have some short speaker’s opportunities left in the training program. If you have something to say, please contact William Hamilton. You’ll also have opportunities to share during the tabling, potluck and breakout sessions. This is a freedom of speech based event and nobody will be silenced except for any MAGA operatives who attempt to disrupt up. 

William Hamilton ran a debating society. He ran the Gage Hall Debates and the Hyde Park Style debates held in Charleston in the 1980s. We’re not running a MAGA encounter debating society Thursday. If MAGA wants to talk, they can go ask their City of Charleston for a demonstration permit with a PA system. 

Come Prepared, Enjoy it More

Please remember to Bring a Chair and a Share (potluck dish). Organizations should bring a table and literature about their work so that they can table during the event, starting at 5 pm. We have an 8 foot chain link fence across the back of the yard where you can hang your posters, flags and banners. Members of the local burning man community (which meets at Container Bar on Wednesday evenings from about 7 to 9 pm will be helping light up the backyard as it gets dark, so expect a little magic. 

Get Ready for Blue Sky and TIDE

Make sure you download, install and get an account on BlueSky, which will be used during the event Thursday to provide real time updates and an introduction to TIDE (Total Information Distribution for Everyone), our new system for escaping the limits of legacy media and interference from commercially oriented social media algorithms like those on Facebook. 

Progressive History on April 17, A Special Day

Thursday is a special day. On April 17, 1867 Mary Bowers, a woman of color attempted to ride one of Charleston’s new horse drawn street cars on Meeting St. just south of Calhoun. She argued with the racist Street Car conductor. Traffic on the line backed up behind the confrontation. Ultimately, Bowers agreed to step off the streetcar but promised there would be trouble. There was lots of Trouble in Charleston. Evidently they didn’t bother to ask for a permit from the still Confederate controlled City. Ultimately the commander of the US Army of Occupation and future Governor of SC, General Ribert Kingston Scott, responding to Bower’s petition under the Reconstruction era Civil Rights act of 1867, told the streetcar company they would either allow everyone to ride without regard to color or he would put black federal soldiers on the streetcars to force them to do so. The Streetcar company gave up and threw the cars open to all on May 4th, 1867. Which is celebrated in Charleston as Right to Ride day every year. 

This year we’ll celebrate Right to Ride Day on Sunday, May 4, as the finale of a four day celebration of Louise Brown’s 90th Birthday on the beach at Sullivan’s Island in recognition of her contribution to return transit to the Atlantic.

 Thursday is also Maundy Thursday, the day of the Last Supper with Jesus, a shared meal just like our potluck or people hoping to transform the world into a better place. 

Dress to #Chsresist. 

It’s time to go through your closet and dig out the clothing, hats, flags, banners and jewelry that amplifies your message. Come Thursday dress to express, liberate and change. 

More Information

Ask now and look for answers on Blue Sky using the #TIDEmobilize hashtag and #chsresist.

You can obtain more information by calling Lowcountry Up is Good, PAC, Inc. at (843) 870-5299 or emailing wjhamilton29464@gmail.com. Updates will be posted on the Lowcountry Up is Good Facebook page and Blu Sky at https://bsky.app/profile/wjhamilton29464.bsky.social online. This event will be hashtagged #chsresists online.

Distribution - April 16, 2025, 12 noon

Up is Good
Press and Media

Tiny Houses
#TIDEmobilize
#chstransit
#chsresist
No Print
TIDE Correspondents - All

Mary Smith and Our Flag Which Remembers Her

Right, New, 2025 Mary Flag, Draft Design. The actual flag will be raised for the first time in Summerville on June 14. The new lead flag will be very large and fly from a 25-foot pole. Smaller flags will be distributed to activist organizations around the Lowcountry.

The “Mary” flag was conceived prior to the pandemic, in 2019 as a way to help unify and encourage the Lowcountry Progressive Community, which occupies one of two “Blue Islands” in the red state of South Carolina. Charleston County remains blue with a solid blue majority voting in its county elections. Nancy Mace had to have 30 thousand voters gerrymandered out of her district to hold on to her office. Without the State Legislature provided boost, the Charleston area would be represented by two Democratic Congresspersons, as it was from 2018 to 2020.

The Mary flag deliberately echos both the US Flag and the Confederate First National Flag (The Stars and Bars, not the X battle flag.) It consists of red and white stripes on the fly and a blue canton (where the stars go on a US flag). The blue canton echos the SC State Palmetto flag.

2019 version of Mary Flag, 3 x 5 feet used during the pandemic

The five stripes each list one of the important issues we need to resolve to improve life in the SC Low country. transit equity, affordable housing, sustainable climate, $15 an hour minimum wage and Equality and Freedom from Violence. Obviously there are other major areas in which the Lowcountry fails its citizens such as education, healthcare and child welfare but we didn't try to list everything on the flag.

The Canton shows a solidarity salute. This is a union and progressive salute of working class solidarity. It is a peaceful gesture and is distinguished from a raised fist in that the palm of the fist faces the viewer. Most people in SC, where Unions have been suppressed as part of the economic and social heritage of slavery and the plantation, don't understand the meaning of this salute. Due to this, we plan to substitute a white rose for the solidarity salute in the next version of the flag. The white rose was the symbol of a group of young German students who struggled to undermine Hitler in the last years of WWII. It has become a symbol of the struggle against fascism.

The young members of the White Rose were hunted down, tortured and slaughtered by the Gestapo in 1943. Read about the White Rose on Wikipedia.

Why is there a Fairy on Our Flag?

Mary at International Transit Convention

The most remarkable aspect of the flag is the fairy seated on the crescent moon. This honors the late Mary Smith, a remarkable local activist who died in September 2019. Mary appeared as Sylphide, the Spirit of Motion at activist events from 2017 to early 2018. A Sylphide is a young, fairy-like mythological figure briefly popular in French culture in the 1800s. It was the name of a small locomotive on the railroad in Charleston beloved by Children before the Civil War we discovered in historical reasearch. Mary’s last appearance as Sylphide was at our ConChaCo event in May 2018.

Here is a video of Mary, in full costume, shaking up a BCD COG transit planning event. She charms planners, rules the room and finally challenges a very ill CARTA Board Chairman Mike Seekings, about the midday time of their board meetings, which are impossible for most working transit riders to attend. Seekings gets pretty shaken up by being dressed down by women with a torch and wings. Mary was a tough social justice advocate and a green tutu didn't change that. After wards, I explained to Seekings that Mary was a fairy, not an angel.

Mary suffered from several autoimmune illnesses which caused her tremendous pain. She gave up her wings after ConChaCo because her body “felt like it was burning inside.” She struggled the last few years of her life, giving up her dream of becoming a social justice paralegal even though she earned high grades at Trident Tech in her classes. She switched to welding, hoping to find a fast track to a secure income, but had to abandon that as well due to increasing illness and pain. Mary was a kind, courageous activist. She is one of seven core members of Lowcountry Up is Good lost to death since our victory in the Half Penny sales tax referendum in 2016. Each of those deaths is directly linked to one or more issues listed on the flag.

In Mary's case, every issue on the flag was a challenge for her and our community's refusal to address them helped cause her death.

• Mary struggled with CARTA and inadequate transit which made it almost impossible for her to get to medical appointments, work and her classes at Trident Tech. She once worked an entire shift with her pants soaked with water which surged up through the floor of the #10 Rivers Ave. bus. She was a small woman and suffered greatly in the cold and wet at unsheltered bus stops.
  

• Mary struggled to find and keep affordable housing. She was priced out of several apartments by rising rents. She was eventually forced to live with her mother in a remote part of Dorchester County, far from the nearest bus stop.
  

• Mary was sensitive to toxins in the environment and couldn't take adequate care of herself if there was a climate change connected natural disaster like a hurricane, which destroyed her careful planning. Hurricane evacuations were a huge challenge for her.
  

• Mary was a hard worker, earning most of her income in the local Food and Beverage industry as a waitress and server. This irregular, underpaid work compelled her to choose between rent and medication many times. She was humiliated when she was forced to ask others for assistance.
  

• Mary was a small person. Though she had some martial arts training and was vigilant, she knew she was vulnerable to violence, particularly if she ended up stranded at night somewhere, waiting on a bus or a ride. Her complex life and delicate planning was easily disrupted, leaving her vulnerable to assault.

• Two new stripes will be added to the flag in June 2025 to round out the major challenges political leadership in the Lowocuntry has been resistant to addressing. Education and Healthcare.
  
  

Mary was a kind and forgiving person. She helped feed the hungry, obtain help for the homeless and get clothing to people who had nothing but rags. Despite her own struggles, she did everything possible to personify the Motto of Best Friends of Low-country Transit, “Together, We Go Forward!” While people laughed out our plans to have a Transit Fairy, no one laughed after they met her working for a better Charleston in costume. Here is a video of her challenging Mike Seekings, the Chairman of CARTA for holding their board meetings at a time when working people could not attend.

When we were designing the flag in September 2019, we needed an image of a crescent moon to go in the Canton. As we looked through available images on the Internet, we came across an image of a moon with a fairy seated on it. Though Mary had given up her wings over a year earlier, she had indicated she hoped to get her wings soon. We did not understand what Mary was saying at the time.

We put the Moon with a fairy on it on the flag and sent her an image on the design via Facebook. She messaged back that she loved it. Two days later, Mary got her wings back when she died.

We remember Mary not only because she was our friend, but because the stories of people like her are forgotten in Charleston. We will remember.

Heavy Losses and Good Memories.

Mary's death followed that of Moya (Image, left), the beloved leader of Black Lives Matter Charleston who was shot and died in New Orleans. Moya was the best sidewalk outreach worker we’ve ever had. The death of Kathy followed two days later, our wonderful activist from Sangaree, who died in horrific pain due to problems with healthcare and transportation. We lost my wife Julia Hamilton, in June 2020 due to workplace safety issues, which led to a heart condition, all a direct result of a lack of Union representation. Dave died on the street in Pennsylvania while struggling with homelessness and transgender issues. Michael Wiffly, working to build tiny house villages, was run down in Mount Pleasant while riding his bicycle home from July 4th. Fireworks to the campground where he was staying on the Fourth of July. Just this February we lost Hazel Blondell Smith, who fought for racial justice and transit in Summerville for over 50 years. She died struggling with being prosecuted for feeding a stray dog, which Dorchester County decided to criminalize by charging her with harboring a dangerous animal, part of a larger effort to drive African Americans out of Summerville.

These were all brave, determined people who chose to fight for social and economic justice in a red state where the corrupt values of the plantation persist. Every one of them was told to leave South Carolina, over and over. Five of them are buried here and will remain here until the rising ocean covers their graves. Dave died near his birthplace in Pennsylvania, but the welfare of people in SC never left his mind.

Most social justice activism in SC is performative, a way for the participants to show they are different from the cruel, ignorant people they struggle against. The cost of pushing activism beyond that to something which actually forces the system to yield progress is very high. It usually involves sacrifices like being fired from employment for your beliefs (Louise Brown, still fighting and active after 80 years of activism), being assaulted (William Hamilton, attacked on a CARTA bus), humiliating insults from public officials, harassment and being alienated from your family.

While Lowcountry Up is Good and Best Friends of Low country Transit has lost six wonderful people to death since delivering the margin of victory needed to hopefully, someday build the Lowcountry Rapid Transit system (now delayed again to 2029), we have lost far more of our precious young talent to exile. Brilliant young activists have cut their teeth on our hard work and now fight for a better world elsewhere. As one told us before leaving, “I appreciate your fight for Transit, Affordable Housing and a living wage and I am proud to have helped, but I'm moving to Denver so I can have those things next week.

Most of the people we have left, mostly older, plan to fight here to the end when they will join their friends in the ground of this backward and cruel state. They are tough people, full of mercy and love. They're the best at what they do, person for person of any social justice organization in this hemisphere. We work with activists from Oakland California, Chicago and New York all the time. We help train them. Our friends elsewhere know we're determined and unwilling to surrender. So do we.

We are met with a battle for the future of our community, our state, our nation and our world against a cabal of billionaires attempting to find out what the limits are on what they can buy. 

SC is a tough place to make a stand. The cavalry is not coming from elsewhere. As Gandhi said, “We have to be the change we want to see in the world.” Trump's assault on the Republic means no money or people from elsewhere is coming to save us. The problem is everywhere. They're struggling in the big, blue cities too.

We have learned who we are. We're proud of our flag. We have loved and are the people who have carried it. We have one version of it large enough to cover a casket, though we haven't done that yet. A new version will substitute a white rose for the solidarity salute and change “$15 and hour” to “Pay a Living Wage.” Wages have risen in Charleston, but rent rises faster. Whatever we change, Mary stays on the moon. 

We know Mary has her wings. We know she's watching over us.

Together, We Go Forward!

#CHSResist in Pink April 17

 “#CHSResist at Pink” 

Community Organizing Event Set for Thur. April 17 in CHS

From Pink House & Lowcountry Up Is Good, PAC, Inc.
To Press and Media, #CHSResists Community
Status For  Immediate Release

Charleston, SC, USA- Progressive bbnd Social Justice Organizations in the SC Lowcountry will come together to refine and focus their efforts nnnj NJ I’m on Thursday, April 17 at Pink House Community Resource Center, West of the Ashley, at 1551 Mulberry St, Charleston, SC 29407 from 5-8 pm in an event being called #CHSResist in Pink.

Pink House is located within Walking Distance of stops along the Savannah Highway and St. Andrews CARTA bus lines. An effort will be made to carpool return trips for those who wish to stay at the event until after bus service ends. Participants in the event are asked to carpool to reduce traffic, parking and carbon impact. 

Rev. Christian King, Director of Pink House, and Louise Brown of Lowcountry Up is Good, PAC, Inc. will convene the event.

Evening of Community Organizing Planned

Image, Right- Charleston Police Chief greets Louise Brown, Mother of the Movement at a demonstration outside Charleston City Counsel on April 8, 2025. Pastor Thomas Dixon in red scarf on Right

Progressive organizations will be invited to table and share information about their activities starting at 5 pm. Each organization should bring a folding table and two chairs. A potluck dinner and social will begin at 6 pm. At 7 pm, there will be training sessions on next-generation activism, communications, legacy media and tactics, and fundraising by local progressive leaders. A session on using the internet while avoiding the algorithm-driven dead ends on Facebook, integrating with national efforts, legal issues involving local governments and event permits and fundraising are planned. The event will close with topical breakout sessions. Parts of the program will be live-streamed.

Every organization participating is being asked to bring a leaflet or card describing their organization with full contact information. This may also promote other events or activities they have planned for the future. 

Planning for Louise Brown’s 90th. Birthday Will Advance

Louise Brown Leafleting on James Island with Lowcountry Up is Good, PAC, Inc. 2019 to obtain a covered bus stop for the neighborhood.

Plans for the Upcoming 90th. Birthday Celebration for Louise Brown, SC’s senior Social Justice leader, planned for the first weekend in May, will be refined at the event. Opportunities to share and become involved will be coordinated. Updates will be distributed with #louisebrown90 hashtag.

Individuals participating should bring a chair, a plate, silverware, a drinking cup and a dish to share. The event organizers will provide lemon-aid and tea. Everyone is asked to bring a dish of food to share. There will be a desert competition.

Organizations will be required to qualify to participate in advance. Qualifications to participate will be evaluated before and during the event by the Lowcountry Up is Good legal committee under the leadership of William Hamilton. Pink House is on private property. Any individual attempting to disrupt the event will be required to leave. Diversity of tactics, culture and belief within the progressive community of Charleston will be respected. Any disturbance in the neighborhood will be reported to the City of Charleston Police Department. 

An on site food pantry will be operating to assist any participants working with food insecurity. No one at this event will be hungry or go home empty handed. When we share, there is enough for all. 

Pink House opened its doors in 1997 and organized officially in January 1999. It is a learning and community resource center addressing the needs of children, the disabled, and others in need specifically in the Ardmore-Sherwood Forest Neighborhood  West Ashley  The program has proven itself by an overwhelming success record. Popular with its students and volunteers which include a well-trained cadre of teenage volunteers – standardized school tests are measurably higher among the Pink House students.

Lowcountry Up is Good, PAC, Inc. is a political action committee devoted to pursuing better public transit, affordable housing and a living wage for the people of the SC Lowcountry. Organized in 2016, it conducts organizing effectiveness training for both political and non-political groups. It is currently the sponsor of Plaintiff’s Litigation in Brown v. Charleston, a case seeking to restore freedom of speech currently pending in SC Federal District Court. 

More Information and Updates

You can obtain more information by calling Lowcountry Up is Good, PAC, Inc. at (843) 870-5299 or emailing wjhamilton29464@gmail.com. Updates will be posted on the Lowcountry Up is Good Facebook page and Blu Sky at https://bsky.app/profile/wjhamilton29464.bsky.social online. This event will be hashtagged #chsresists online.

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