PRESS RELEASE:  Contact: Kirk D. Lyons 828-669-5189
12 NOVEMBER 2001
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SLRC to File Suit Over
Civil Rights Violations by the
City of Mobile, Alabama

 

Black Mountain, NC - Tim Meadows was handcuffed and arrested at the Mobile Bay Area Veterans Day Parade and charged with interfering with a public event (disorderly conduct). Tim was exercising his right as an American citizen to display the Confederate Battle Flag in the Veterans Day Parade. Richard Casdollar, Vice President of Mobile Bay Area The Veteran’s Day Commission, agreed to let the Col Alexander McKinstry Camp, Sons of Confederate Veterans march in the parade, but only without the Confederate Battle Flag.

 

According to the Camp’s attorney Kirk D. Lyons this was an illegal act because Cashdollar, "cannot discriminate when citizen’s tax dollars are being used to organize the parade."  City, parade and police officials were all warned in writing that harassment, coercion or arrest of any person carrying a Confederate Battle Flag would lead to the "Mother of all Civil Rights lawsuits."

 

The SCV marchers were given an assigned spot in the parade, #6-10.  This was right behind a troop of Mobile area Boy Scouts.  Lyons warned the SCV marchers that the Parade Commission would allow the display of the 1st National Confederate Flag and the current national Confederate Flag, but anyone carrying a Battle Flag was liable to be arrested if attempted to march.  Lyons declared that he intended to carry his Confederate Battle Flag, whatever the consequences.

 

The others marchers including Tim Meadows, McKinstry Camp Commander David McCombs, his adjutant Charles Butler as well as a contingent from the Beauregard Camp in New Orleans (God Bless Shannon Walgemutte, Lynda Moreau, Dave Holcombe and Roy Lilly) resolved individually to keep their Battle Flags.  Lyons requested Reggie Phillips and Leonard Wilson carry a different flag so that they would be available as spokesman if anyone was arrested.  Two video cameras were in place to record the event as well as still photographers.  Before the parade began the group prayed that Christ would protect the SCV marchers and turn the hearts of those who hated them. They then began to march out of the civic center parking lot singing Dixie and marching at a slow cadence.

 

At the civic center gate the Mobile police illegally barricaded the SCV marchers from the parade for 10 minutes using about 15 officers and two patrol cars under the command of Capt Kennedy.  Lyons had issued strict instructions that any marcher touching a policeman could be liable for an assault charge so the marchers were careful not to bump into an officer.  Lyons warned the officers repeatedly that this was a violation of his and his clients civil and constitutional rights and that the group should be permitted to march or be arrested.  Lyons and the marchers sought ways to get around the officers, but the pass was too narrow.  Lyons bumped an officer and knocked his hat off, but quickly apologized.  The consensus of the marchers was that everyone was about to be arrested.

 

Then SCV member Tim Meadows successfully eluded the police, began marching and was arrested.  Police attention was momentarily diverted from the rest of the marchers.  Lyons and the SCV marchers chose to evade the illegal police barricade by quickly exiting the civic auditorium parking lot by another gate and wove their way through Mobile’s narrow streets to resume their assigned spot in the line of paraders.  While waiting on the sidewalk for the Boy Scouts to pass, Mobile police officers were trying to block Lyons and the SCV marchers from walking on the public sidewalk.  Lyons and the McKinstry Camp marchers then resumed their proper spot in line.  No one jumped, broke, gatecrashed or slinked into line as has been reported.

 

"Many parade onlookers cheered and clapped.  There were some boos, but the response was positive overall," said Lyons.  The SLRC is already preparing the lawsuit against the City of Mobile, Richard Cashdollar and the Veteran’s Day Commission on the grounds that Tim Meadow’s and the McKinstry Camp SCV’s civil and constitutional rights were violated and that false imprisonment and excessive force were used in controlling the SCV marchers on the personal orders of Mobile Mayor Michael C. Dow.

 

Tim Meadows was released on a $250.00 cash bond and is scheduled to appear in Court on December 17.  After release, Tim was taken to a local hospital and treated for two sprained wrists due to excessive force used in the arrest.  Tim is a painter by trade.  Lyons referred to Tim Meadows as "the Rosa Parks of Confederate Heritage."

The SLRC is non-profit, tax exempt, South Carolina public law firm that specializes in cases involving Southern Heritage violations.

 

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If anyone has received this who does not wish to be on our distribution list, please let us know. Our address is SLRC, P.O. Box 1235, Black Mountain, NC 28711. Phone: 828-669-5189 Dr. Payne and Atty. Lyons SCV members, I.N. Giffen,758, Black Mountain, NC