#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.

END 

Wise Counsel for a Holy City Demonstration Planned for April 8 with new "1776" Format

 On Tuesday, April 8, Low country Up is Good, PAC, Inc. in cooperation with other Charleston area social justice organizations will hold the first 1776 format, impact scaled demonstration in Washington Park, adjacent to City Hall at 80 Broad Street in Charleston, SC from 4 pm to 4:50 pm. City Hall and Washington park are on the DASH 211 and CARTA #20 Upper King Bus Lines (Both free due to years of work by our affiliate nonprofit Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit, Inc. This demonstration will be titled, “Wise Counsel for a Holy City.” Participation sign-up begins at 3:30 pm.

A meeting of City Council, with a public comment period will immediately follow the demonstration. You have to sign up in advance to speak at City Council during public comment.

After the Demonstration, those who can't get into City Council Chambers for public comment are invited to join us at Container Bar on Mount Pleasant Street in Uptown Charleston where we'll enjoy libations, finish off the snacks before the people who actually got into the meeting catch up with us and watch the official proceedings on live stream. Container bar is on the opposite end of the free CARTA #20 bus line and thus as far as we can get from Mike Seekings on his own bus.

When you read about the mechanics rebellion a few paragraphs down, you'll know why Charleston activists drink. It it's been a bad day, Hamilton (AKA Oatmeal in the burning man world) drinks water at Container bar. If it has been a rewarding day's skirmish in the contest for a better world, he has one margarita. Wendy has cut him off from the food truck pizza. Oatmeal has so few good days that when there is a good one, someone always buys him his drink.

Image, left, our Demonstration on Daniel Island on April 5 after we didn't get our permit in court. Sure ours was small and there were a thousand people at the one in Summerville, but this our blog and we need to feel our own love.

In the 1776 format, Lowcountry Up is Good builds a high impact demonstration within the 25 person limit imposed by the oppressive, anti free speech policies of the City of Charleston, which refused to agree to a court order authorizing detailed plans for a larger demonstration under supervision of a federal Marshall at a hearing on April 4^th across the street in the Federal Courthouse before Judge Norton. In their court papers, the City said Charleston was dangerous. We tried to persuade the judge that throwing the Federal Government into the struggle to 175 aging liberals and 25 DSA members safe might lock things down. No dice.

The City of Charleston's hostility to the 1^st Amendment and it's policy of “Tourism and Real Estate Development first, Citizens and working class people maybe later when we're finished making money for the 1%” will not stop Citizens from being heard. We're simply going to put together a highly structured demonstration of committed social justice warriors, some of whom need to be able to sing. Demonstrations of less than 25 people do not require a permit.

The 1776 format demonstration consists of

• 1 designated leader and police liaison because Hamilton needs that ego reinforcement and he things it makes him look cool to Wendy. 

• 7 people chosen to speak, read or provide spoken word social justice witness hopefully bringing some fresh chants and situation appropriate Shakespeare readings. 

• 7 people who don't speak, but come to sing familiar songs or new ones they may have composed, acoustic instruments only. The city of Spoleto doesn't like PA unless you are the Bridge Run filling hotels at which point 15 thousand watts of “Don't Stop Believing” at 7 am in the morning is perfectly OK. We don't know if you can sing along without violating the participation cap.

• 6 people to hold signs, manipulate puppets, wave flags or provide non verbal content. Can free speed be silent? Yes, and very loud. Ask Alan Morris how loud his Nancy Mace cutout doll can be. Cutout Nancy won't answer our questions either, but she shows up to our town halls.

left - Flying the "Mary" Flag at our April 5 Demonstration.

There are also 4 support personnel to run internet streaming and provide tech support and security. They also chase down fliers that are blowing away in the wind after being discarded by tourists who really only came to Charleston because they want to visit Confederate Disneyland, not a living city with a beating heard of freedom's civic discourse. The four support people stand for SC's forth century, marking a history of 194 years of Slavery, 69 years of segregation and about 20 years of mildly progressive change before the Christian Coalition, Tea Party and MAGA began spending the money of Billionaires to make SC Backward Again. Support is really important because they bring the snacks and drinks.

When you're living in the city where Denmark Vessey was hanged for trying to make slaves free and the Mechanics Rebellion was ended by the State Militia gunning down a labor movement of blacksmiths and carpenters with their slaves on Meeting Street, you need snacks.

Right - Louise Brown getting a selfie with someone she met on the street. After 80 years of fighting for social justice, she's a celebrity in Charleston. It's amazing to go anywhere with her. She is almost 90 and always needs a ride. Thing about how taking Louise along might spice up your next trip to Costco, where they still have DEI.

 Support handles security by watching the area. Unfortunately Support team can't really protect us. We have to pull out the prohibited bull horn and call the police for help. It's embarrassing, but we're no good at violence. We need professionals. Its scary, but you do get to see your tax dollars at work. Maybe the PD will send that nice officer that supervised us on Daniel Island. He wrote his thesis on the 1969 Hospital Strike and was thrilled to meet Louise Brown. He's into us. He can have a snack.

If you see Judge Norton, be nice. We have to go see him again about other things. He really listened to us last week. We believe he will again. Until and after those hearings, Federal Court Judges are the people protecting you from Elon Musk and Doge. Be really kind to them.

Don't give Judge Norton snacks or buy him drinks. That is unethical. There are rules against that unless you are on the Supreme Court like Clarence Thomas. Then private jet travel to all expense paid vacations underwritten by lobbyists with your wife who works for a PAC involved in cases before your court is OK. That is because James Madison believed the Supreme Court should have the authority to require us to trust them. It's good to be king.

Left- Louise Brown showing off a wreath given her by one of the Flower Ladies downtown, for free. Wendy, wondering if Jack remembered his wallet to pay for lunch.

Lowcountry Up is Good will be at the park starting at 3:30 pm. We'll sign people up there for the talk, sing and present teams and have standby lists for those waiting for their turn at what little free speech survives in the Holy City. Our tight little social justice road show starts at 4, last 50 minutes and will prove the forces freedom won't surrender the Holy City and We have snacks.

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 demonstration will social media (we verbed it) with hashtag #chsresists

Lawsuit Filed Seeking Judicial Authorization of Charleston Demonstration for US Rep. Nancy Mace (R, SC-1)

Lawsuit Filed Against City of Charleston Seeking Judicial Authorization of April 5 Ace Mace Demonstration on Daniel Island

From William J. Hamilton, III, Atty at Law; Pettigrew Free Speech Defense (A project of Lowcountry Up is Good, PAC, Inc. 

To Lowcountry Press and Media

Date March March 29, 2025, 12 Noon

Image, Above. Rev. Thomas Dixon attempts to speak to the crowd at a rally at Hampton park using a 25 watt bullhorn in March 2025, which rendered him inaudible to many people in the crowd. Several high quality sound reinforcement systems were available to use, but the city would not permit it. Use of a sound system at this location would not have violated the City noise ordinance. 

Lowcountry, SC, USA- Louise Brown, Thomas Dixon and Attorney William Hamilton filed Federal Court for the District of South Carolina, Charleston Division on Friday, Feb. 28 seeking an injunction authorizing conducting the “Ace Mace, Chip and Charge” Demonstration outside the office of Congresswoman Nancy Mace on Daniel Island on Saturday, April 5. The federal case also seeks declaratory judgment that the current “Free Speech” ordinance regulating First Amendment activities in public space within the City of Charleston is unconstitutional, null and void and the City's payment of Attorney's fees and costs expended by Pettigrew Free Speech Defense (A project of Lowcountry Up is Good, PAC, Inc.) to bring the free speech protection action. 

A copy of the Complaint Filed with the Court can be read online. The supporting exhibits package is also online and available for public view. All filings and court orders in the case can be retrieved on the federal PACER system at https://pacer.uscourts.gov/find-case

The Plaintiffs

Image, Left, July 18, 2015 March to the Sea from Mt. Pleasant to the front beach of teh Isle of Palms. Permitted by both the Town of Mount Pleasant and IOP. Hamilton began leading the march but was retired to the sag wagon. 81 year old Lousie Brown assumed leadership and finished the march with Thomas Dixon. Transit to the Atlantic finally resumed after four more yeas of struggle.

The Plaintiff's have asked the court for an expedited hearing the first week in April so  a decree authorizing the demonstration on the date and in the location can be requested. Organizers have asked to hold their constitutionally authorized gathering on April 5, Charleston biggest tourism day of the year. Plaintiff's have chosen that date because Congresswoman Mace's neglect of the issues of transit, affordable housing and a living wage for Charlestonians endangers the future of our tourism and medical industries. 

The City of Charleston has been emailed the documents filed with the Court and will be formally served on Monday, March 31st when copies will be delivered to Mayor Cogswell at City Hall. 

Louise Brown, lead Plaintiff, is Charleston's revered “Mother of the Movement” and has been fighting for freedom, equality and social justice in the Holy City since marching at her mother's side during the Cigar Factory Strike in 1945-6. Brown was one of twelve nurses who challenged employment discrimination at the Medical University of South Carolina in 1969 and stopped Armored Personnel Carriers during a march with Coretta Scott King and Rosa Parks near the intersection of King and Morris streets while singing, “We Shall Not Be Moved.” She was exiled from Charleston for years following the strike and lived in New York city, finally returning with her growing family years later. Brown is the matriarch of a tribe of over 100 children, grand children and great grandchildren and their wives and husbands, many accomplished in their fields.  

In 2014, Louise was peacefully arrested at the Statehouse protesting the state's refusal to extend medicare with the SC Progressive Network. In July 2015, in 95 degree heat, Brown took over leadership of and completed the five mile March to the Sea to the Isle of Palms as part of a successful seven year campaign to return of CARTA public transit to the Atlantic.

Rev. Thomas Dixon is Charleston's leading contemporary social justice activist. He has held dozens of demonstrations, marches and rallies in the Charleston area. He's fought against gun violence in N. Charleston, using marches to drive drug dealers and criminals out of suffering communities. He's run for Mayor of North Charleston and the US  Senate. He is Associate Pastor at Life Community Church in Mount Pleasant. Dixon is National Board Member of Brady: United Against Gun Violence. He was recently elected Chairman of the Charleston County Democratic Party. Dixon appears in this legal action in his personal capacity and not as a representative of those organizations. 

William Hamilton is an attorney, writer and activist. He has been in practice since 1985 and has litigated hundreds of cases including the 1994 Burke v. Charleston case about the free speech right to paint murals in Charleston. Hamilton is the author of over 1000 published essays and columns about social justice, history, town planning, public transit and Lowcountry culture. Hamilton was the first person to be awarded the I'On Community's Civitas award for transformational neighborhood leadership and has also won the City of Charleston's Spotlight award. Hamilton is the leader of Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit and Lowcountry Up is Good, PAC, Inc. He is a graduate of the USC School of Law and the USC Honors College.

Pettigrew Free Speech Defense

Image, right, May 2024 protest outside Unity City meeting on John Street. Unity City sought to take over local government, churches and schools. It is believed that after community push back the effort, funded by hundreds of thousands of dollars in right wing funding, abandoned their efforts in Charleston.

Pettigrew Free Speech Defense, the legal team, representing the Plaintiffs is seeking sworn affidavits from citizens whose rights to assemble and practice free speech within the City of Charleston have been abridged by the City's government under the new ordinances. Please contact William Hamilton by calling (843) 870-5299 or emailing wjhamilton29464@gmail.com. Updates about the case will be posted on the Lowcountry Up is Good Facebook page and BluSky at https://bsky.app/profile/wjhamilton29464.bsky.social online

END END END

Image, Left, Our Mary flag honors the memory of the late Mary Smith (represented by the fairy on the moon in the canton of the flag). If the court orders the City to permit this demonstration, the Mary flag will fly proudly in her memory.

An Online version of this Media Notice has been posted at https://lc-up-is-good.blogspot.com/2025/03/lawsuit-filed-seeking-judicial.html

Issued March 29, 2025, 12 noon

Authorization to use content in this release and the included images, all of which are property of William J. Hamilton, III is granted to all persons and media. 

Media appearances by the Plaintiffs Hamilton and Dixon live in the Charleston area and online via zoom are available. Brown can be available on zoom by special arrangement, but is currently in the Raleigh, North Carolina area. 

Pettigrew Free Speech Defense Reactivates in Charleston, SC

Petigru Free Speech Defense Reactivates in Charleston, SC

Pettigrew Free Speech Defense (https://www.facebook.com/petigru.free.speech.def) will be reactivated by Lowcountry Up is Good, PAC, Inc. under the leadership of Activist Attorney William J. Hamilton, III, (Admitted to the SC Bar in 1985). Pettigrew Free Speech defense was founded during the time of Occupy Wall Street in Charleston in 2011 to provide counsel and legal assistance to Occupiers arrested during that movements actions. The organization has been reactivated several times since. Over a dozen SC attorneys have been involved. Some members have been involved with free speech issues in Charleston since 1994. We've worked with the ACLU, Unions and national free speech advocates.

14 Years of Protecting Free Speech in Charleston, SC

While Charleston's tight historic public spaces (increasingly privatized) and tourism focused governments do present special challenges to activism and free speech, the area is not so unique that the Constitution of the United States do not apply here. Challenges regarding activism vary throughout the area. We have assisted in filing and assisting others in filing applications for permits. 

We and the ACLU were able to end the illegal prohibition against political activity in Summerville's public parks in 2019. We've helped plan demonstrations to avoid predictable roadblocks and fine avenues for activism which evade Government's desire to silence local citizens so tourists can enjoy “Confederate Disneyland” for Black Lives Matter.

Current Free Speech Issues in the Lowcountry

We're familiar with the speech regimes of the area's various governments. While the landscape is changing rapidly, we've had good luck helping people stay loud and effective in a red state culture which regards citizens as a nuisance.

We have several serous issues which need to be addressed now, including unnecessarily restrictive limits on the use of amplified sound and where people can gather. The Customs House steps, traditionally used for local demonstrations have had their use restricted.

The work group is named after Charleston Attorney James L. Petigru who defended the rights of Northern property owners during the American Civil War here. During the secession convention he famously told a Northern newspaper reporter that, “South Carolina was too small to be a sovereign country and too large to be an insane acylium” during the reporter's visit to his Law Office on St. Michaels Ally (which still stands today).

If You See Free Speech Rights Being Violated or Want to Help

If you are aware of issues arising please take notes, capture video and get the names, addresses, phone numbers and contact information of witnesses. Legal actions aren't won with principles and ideas, but with facts. Dates, locations, times, names, distances and other details matter. Judges do not grant injunctions based on a vague sense of oppression. They will still protect our rights if we can prove they have been violated in ways the law and court decisions prohibit.

To Join the Effort

If you are an attorney, paralegal or private investigator interested in assiting with our work please email William Hamilton at wjhamilton29464@gmail.com or call (843) 870-5299.

We post on blue sky under https://bsky.app/profile/wjhamilton29464.bsky.social and maintain a Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/petigru.free.speech.def Posts include the hashtag #chsresist 

Updates and Timeline #chsresist

This page provides a timeline for known and planned local resistance events and planning updates on events in development. It is presented in reverse chronological order, most recent first. See listings at bottom of this page for other sources of current information on the resistance in the blue County of Charleston, SC.

#TIDEACT Apr. 19 to May 4

Published April 17, 2025

Updates on Blue Sky at https://bsky.app/profile/wjhamilton29464.bsky.social

Information updates rapidly, check our temporary Blue Sky Feed from the QR Code Below for updates and links. Subscribe to Lowcountry Up is Good, PAC, Inc. Email for updates. As TIDE is fully implemented, we’ll transition to a shared control system with new online locations, as well as print content, phone tree scripts and other content.

Sat. Apr. 19– Together In Community

Brittlebank Park, North End 9:30 to 11:00 am- Demonstrate true patriotism as part of a national 50150 effort which includes other demonstrations across SC. Bring your flag and your signs. Dress to express. Rosa Parks pancakes by Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit.

Thur. April 24– Stand for Real Rapid Transit

5 to 6:30 pm, Palmetto Brewing Warehouse Tap Room. The 100 foot right of way beneath I26 was set aside for a transit line into downtown for 20 years, but now it will be a dog walking park for the rich. Check in with Best Friends across the street, under I26 before taking your presence into the design/build open house and demand the lowline set aside a lane for the Lowcountry Rapid Transit System.

Sun. Apr. 27– Progressive Planning with Pasta

5:30 to 8:30 pm, 32 Sowell St., I’On, Mt. Pleasant: Join Lowcountry Progressive Leaders for a simple meal (vegan and meat sauces) and plan the May Mobilization. No MAGAs admitted. Private property. 

May 1-4 – Nobody Turnes Louise Around

90th Birthday Celebration of the 80 year social justice work of Louise Brown, the Lowcountry’s Mother of the . Includes May 2, 10 am, Panel Discussion at Parkside Church and a May 4, 4-7 pm Celebration on the front Beach of Sullivan’s Island (permitted and insured) in front of Sullivan’s Island Elementary School with a fish fry, sand castle contest and Ghandi style making salt from the sea. Donations needed. Search for #lbrown90 for details.

Looking Forward

July 4– How do we mark the 249th. Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Dixon is planning a demonstration in N. Charleston.

November Municipal Elections– MAGA has the money and the will to take over the Lowcuntry’s municipal governments in our municipal elections. Do we want Maga Pleasant? Do we want Charleston to continue to walk away from Freedom of Speech? How do we protect our towns and cities.

Archive Items

 April 4, 2024- Judge Norton wouldn't grant our motion, but we feel someone needs to stand up for the people of Daniel Island so we'll be substituting a small, rapid turnover demonstration smack in the middle of downtown Daniel Island for our original planned demonstration. Read the details https://mailchi.mp/59601203e3ec/speed-dating-for-social-justice-wo-nancy-mace-will-substitute-for-denied-demonstration-on-daniel-is-on-apr-8?e=f71545c879

April 5, 2024 promises to be a busy day for Social Justice. At least four demonstrations are planned around the Lowcountry including Ace Mace demonstration outside the office of Nancy Mace on Daniel Island from 1 to 4 pm, a  demonstration on Hutchison Square in Downtown Summerville. This is the Lowcountry's busiest tourism weekend and a prime opportunity for national witness that we are a real, vital community that is no longer content to stumble forward towards a future as "Confederate Disneyland."

March 29, 2025 Lowcountry Up is Good files suit against the City of Charleston in Federal District Court to obtain court approval for April 5, 2025 demonstration outside the Daniel Island office of Nancy Mace. Read the press release. 

March 28 - First "Cadet Mace Tolerates Those Who Do" buttons distributed at Mount Pleasant Town hall skipped by Rep. Nancy Mace. Image of design on right. Try to pick one up at some of the upcoming progressive events in her Congressional district. Mace began her tenure in Congress by voting to impeach lame duck President Trump in 2021, but now she's a believer. As a cadet she subscribed to the Citadel Honor Code which says, "A Cadet will not lie, cheat or steal or tolerate those who do." Mace the first female graduate of the Citadel, whose father was the Commandant of the Citadel has abandoned those core values for a more flexible approach that if Trump can help me get the  Republican nomination for Governor, anything he does is good. Like our Senator Lindsey Graham, who ran against trump in the Republican prirmaries in 2016, the rabid red base has persuaded her to abandon her core values, making a mockery of the Citadel and her fellow cadets. 

March 28- Maceless Town Hall Held in Mount Pleasant. Huge, orderly assembly of Citizens demands better reorientation from US Representative Nancy Mace (R, SC-!) in packed Town Hall Meeting in Mount Pleasant. Meeting ends with stirring rendition of America the Beautiful from crowd. Mace dismisses gathering as "fake news" and unsafe, insulting constituents in Mt. Pleasant. 

March 17 2025- Application for police permit for Ace Mace- Chimp and Charge Demonstration filed with Charleston PD.

Pettigru Free Speech Defense Reactivates in Charleston, SC - Pettigrew Free Speech Defense (https://www.facebook.com/petigru.free.speech.def) will be reactivated by Lowcountry Up is Good, PAC, Inc. to provide legal cover for resistance Free Speech activities. Attorneys, paralegals and investigators needed. 

March 16, 2025- #chsresist hashtag deployed to help local efforts cohere on Blue Sky and other social media outlets.

Other Sources of Information on the Resistance in #CHSSC

• Charleston Good- Runs a website featuring many of the local events and organizations working for a more sustianable and just Lowcountry. See https://growpurpose.com/charlestongood/community-events/
• Facebook page of Rev. Thomas Dixon. Rev. Dixon's personal Facebook page posts regular graphical promotions on local progressive and community events. 

Ace Mace, Chimp & Charge Demonstration Planned for April 5 on Daniel Is.

 Social Justice Advocates Plan April 5 Demonstration near Daniel Island Office of Nancy Mace

Updates: see our Charleston Resists update page for a timeline and updates. 

April 4- Due to the decision of the Court, we'll move to our plan B for Daniel Island on Sat. April 5. It will be a small, rapid turnover demonstration smack in the middle of downtown Daniel Island. We're calling it "Speed Dating for Social Justice W/O  Nancy Mace."

March 28- The City of Charleston has refused to grant a permit for this time and location. Lowcountry Up is Good, Inc. filed an action in US District Federal Court on March 28 to obtain a Court Order authorizing the demonstration. Please return here for updates and revisions based on what happens in court. Your presence at the hearing will help show the court that this demonstration and the issues it raises are important to the Citizens of the Lowcountry. Full details on the Lawsuit being filed.

March 27- We're looking for experience in making and deploying some puppets for a political puppet theater as part of this demonstration. We're also seeking musicians to play for some of the time we'll be by the road. We hope to have a sing along as well. Please bring us your suggestions so this can be more than a shake sings and chant demonstration. 

The fight to save the Lowcountry's future as a component of a diverse, social democracy will be the motivation for a major social justice demonstration action being planned for Saturday, April 5 near the Daniel Island office of US Representative Nancy Mace. The demonstration will include delegations from a coalition of human rights and economic justice organizations from the 1^st Congressional District and Lowcountry including those committed to healthcare, reproductive rights, civil rights, the living wage, education, affordable housing and transit. 

The demonstration will prove local opposition to the recent decision by the US Congress to surrender it's Constitutional authority to control and protect the public purse to Trump/Musk which Rep. Mace chose to endorse with our vote. 

Justification for Ace Mace Social Justice Action

Charleston is rated the best place in the US to vacation, but low wages and a rising cost of living drive citizens to desperation. Working residents spend hours snarled in traffic, missing time with their children who struggle alone to learn through homework what their schools seem incapable of teaching. Mace ignores her constituents and these issues while pursing the Republican nomination for Governor or SC and seeking profile on right wing media through sexuality connected culture war issues. On the only weekend of the year when every Charleston area hotel room is full, we will point out the lack of focus leaders like Rep. Mace have on issues like reliable transit, affordable housing, a living wage, education, healthcare and human rights. 

As progressive South Carolinian's we accept the reality of living in a red state, however, that does not mean it is acceptable for a US Representative to dodge contact with the people she represents while they stagger under collapsing federal safety net programs, a rapidly rising cost of living and the loss of the cultural and environmental opportunities which once made living in the SC Low country more attractive than it is now. Our position as working citizens here is unsustainable, even for conservative Republicans. 

Our Congresswoman should be holding town halls, connecting with the people she represents and working towards a better future for all our children, red and blue. While we cannot hope to find common cause with MAGA Trumpublicans, it is the duty of our Congresswoman to hear and represent us all. In areas where our interests coincide such as cost of living, traffic and housing, it continues to be her duty to act in the Congress in the best interest of our entire district. 

Image, right, William Hamilton, outside the Office of US Representative Nancy Mace on Daniel Island after an advocacy visit to her staff on Feb. 26, 2025. 

This demonstration is scheduled to commemorate the 158^th anniversary of a demonstration in downtown Charleston where African Americans and their supporters confronted a city guard (the police department of that era) composed of former Confederate soldiers at the four corners of law. This confrontation was a part of the two month long successful struggle to desegregate Charleston’s then new, horse drawn streetcars. During the demonstration (also called a riot by some observers) the US Army of Occupation turned out a company of Black Federal soldiers to protect the African Americans and preserve order. No one was killed during the tense confrontation, which took place in the first weeks of Federally enforced reconstruction. Mary Bowers, the Rosa Parks of Charleston would go on to help lead the struggle, demanding the right to ride on Meeting street two weeks later and ultimately winning it for all Charlestonians in early May.

You can read a detailed account of this and other related events in spring of 1867 in Voices of Black South Carolina by Damon L. Fordham, pp. 29-33, History Press, 2009.

Demonstrations and social justice actions executed in Charleston and the Lowcountry this Spring will be linked to events in that historic struggle to win the right to ride which will continue to Memorial weekend, when it is hoped the long fought for Beach Reach CARTA Shuttle will survive budget cuts to return transit to the Atlantic. 

Image, Left, Protestors demonstrating support for Ukraine, Charleston, SC at the US Customs House, Feb. 24, 2025

The Organizers, Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit, Inc. and Lowcountry Up is Good, PAC, Inc. plan to seek a permit for the demonstration from the City of Charleston Police Department. No violence or destruction of property is planned as part of this peaceful demonstration. Participants will be required to sign up online prior to participating. An overflow standby area will be established and the demonstration will be three hours long, conducted in two 90 minute shifts. An after event is being planned.

Education advocates will be asked to wear red; healthcare & reproductive rights advocates blue; Transit advocates green; housing advocates brown; labor advocates yellow (reflective vests) and gender identity advocates pridewear.

Image, left, Louise Brown, "The Mother of the Movement" (wearing the green mask) a veteran of the 1960s Civil Rights movement, One of the Twelve nurses who led the MUSC Hospital Strike of 1969, will help lead the effort. 

This demonstration is scheduled to take place during the finals of the Credit One Charleston Open, the largest women’s only tennis tournament in North America. It will be conducted on public property in accordance with the rights and privledges reserved to citizens under the First and Fourtneenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States and with the supervision and help of a team of Experience, SC Licensed Attorneys trained in Civil Rights and Social Justice Advocacy issues, led by William J. Hamilton, III, Lowcountry Attorney,  activist and writer.

For more information contact

William J. Hamilton, III
Ex. Dir.
Best Friends of Lowocuntry Transit, Inc. & Lowcountry Up is Good, PAC, Inc.
wjhamilton29464@gmail.com
(843) 870-5299
Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/wjhamilton29464.bsky.social
Monitor #chsresist for details

 

Remember Rosa Parks and Fight for Transit, #TransitEquityDay 2025 in CHS

 

Don't Give Up Your Seat in Feb. Remember Rosa Charleston, SC, USA- This year's Transit Equity Day (Feb. 4)  is important because we know a major effort to defund public transit in the United States is on the way. The MAGA agenda is anti urban and destroying the quality of life in our cities is a central tactic. Nothing robs people of their freedom more effectively than rendering them immobile. Charleston's excruciatingly slow progress towards construction of the LCRT might end if the Trump administration manages to defund Transit. Like Rosa Parks, we need your help to prepare to hold on to our seat, our place, our dignity and our rights.  Project 2025's anti transit agenda Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit will begin our effort with a public information campaign on Martin  Luther King Weekend promoting our local effort to the Lowcountry Progressive Community. its important that people wanting to be involved step forward so we can promote their contributions to this effort. Local media is no longer strong or effective enough to help us, so we need to reach our own people and activate the community.  Starting Feb, 4 We'll be putting posters honoring Rosa like those at the top of this email on selected CARTA buses. You can sponsor this entire effort for $100.  Right, Social Media Banner Promoting Rosa Pancake Effort, from 2022. We'll also be doing several pancake breakfast efforts that week to connect the community with the memory of Rosa's struggle with our own Civil Rights Hero, Louise Brown. If your church, organization or business wants to serve the pancakes, we'll provide PDF versions of posters and handbills to drive participation and raise awareness not only of Rosa, but also Charleston's own Mary Bowers and Esau Jenkins, Charleston's Transit Equity Heros. We can be present with multimedia content to empower your members or customers.  If you would like to help, now is the time. We'll soon be involved in a fight to save the millions of opportunities to ride transit provided by CARTA and Tri County Link At little organization now, we'll prepare us for a much stronger effort later. We're not going to give up our seat and the opposition will learn that, however if we're strong at the start, the damage the conflict will cause can be reduces and get us to a better future sooner.  We'll be announcing the effort at next week's CARTA Board Meeting, so anyone who can pitch in now will really help. If you can help, reply to this message or Contact William Hamilton at 843-870-5299 or wjhamiton29464@gmail.com

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