About 10 picketers lined Summit Street with signs denouncing McComb Selectman E.C. Nobles as a sellout politician on Saturday.
The protest came four days after Nobles, in his first day in office, abstained from a vote that authorized a hearing regarding Mayor Zach Patterson’s residency and qualification for election.
The 3-2 vote was the second such action in May to authorize a hearing regarding an elected official. Another upcoming hearing concerning Selectman Danny Esch’s residence is set for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Selectmen split on racial lines in both authorizations, and Patterson, who is black, has called accusations against him a “high-tech lynching” to deflect attention from Esch, who is white.
Patterson, with-out calling Nobles by name at the “Mayor’s Chat”, said the abstention of Nobles, who also is black, was part of a plan orchestrated at a meeting before the meeting to prevent a tied vote.
Nobles, who won a May 23 special election, was sworn in at the meeting to replace former selectman David Myers.
At Saturday’s protest, the picketers, who were black, held signs with slogans that included: “E.C. = Esch,” “no courage,” “E.C. 4 sale here,” “U decide future,” “Divide and conquer,” and “2 blk 3 wht 1 E.C.”
The demonstration took place near Summit Street’s intersection with DeSoto Avenue, where Nobles’ family business, Nobles Bros. Cleaners, is located.
Protesters didn’t say whether they were advocating a boycott, instead refusing to talk or putting their signs in front of their faces and instructing media to read in response to questions.
They denied a report from the owner of a nearby hotel that they had asked to hold a car wash there without saying they were planning a protest.
A flyer that was circulating read “Are you a Willie Lynch Negro? E.C. …..It’ not about the Zack Patterson It’s about economic empowerment When are we going to STOP listening to Willie Lynch? His people are still using the same tactics conquer and divide. E.C. Sold Us Out to Danny Ench (That hard to believe, since Esch has never supported any BLACK person). Let’s wake up 3 VOTES are all we need to accomplish Economic Empowerment. WAKE UP ……..WAKE UP WE Must Demand That Our Elected Officials represent the Community.”
But Nobles called the protests “a cowardly act,” and asked why the leader of the group hadn’t talked with him face to face.
“For people to use Willie Lynch and lynching with the liberal use that they’re using is a slap to the black community as a whole,” Nobles said. “Those protesters might as well be wearing white sheets.”
Supporters of Nobles, who were in front of his business but not counter-protesting, said Nobles had done what Ward 3 constituents asked of him.
“Sit down and get your own idea of what you need to do for yourself,” said Chiquita McCray. “That’s why we picked him.”
“These people that’s in office now, they done got to where they can’t have things their way, and they’re misusing the people that got them there,” said Louis White. “I told them this is not fair. That man has not been on the job for one day and you’re crucifying him. … You don’t picket come here killing a black business or you’re nothing but a hypocrite. You can’t say one thing and do another.”
Benny Joseph said he was upset that such conflict was festering within the black community.
It “is destroying the very fabric of the black community,” said Joseph. “Nobody’s trying to fight against the mayor. He should be with me. He should be with Mr. Nobles. … The mayor and all of us, we should work together,”
Joseph said all it took was a look up and down the street to see more pressing problems.
“If you didn’t know any better, you’d think that Summit Street and the black community is a police state,” he said. “I’m saying that the mayor and (Enterprise-Journal Editor) Jack Ryan and the newspaper should come together for the black community right here. … Some people think they’re helping us. … I’m asking Mr. Patterson to intervene and put an end to these black cliques.”
Jacqueline Lumpkin said she saw the picket a part of a “ridiculous” cycle.
She said she approved of Patterson uncovering inconsistencies at City Hall as long-time employees resigned, but said she saw Patterson responding to challenges aimed at him by digging at others.
“I care a rats’ behind where Esch lives or where Zach lives,” Lumpkin said. “Let’s put this mess down and go forward. … This is black against black. … They got us down there acting a fool.”
Tina Leonard said she was sick of reading about arguments in the media.
“There’s better things that they can be covering than what’s going on with the mayor,” Leonard said.
And former fire chief Vernell Felder, who was at the cleaning business, asked where the outcry over a black leader being “railroaded” was when he was removed from his position last year.
Felder was fired by a 5-1 city board vote last year, with selectmen citing a violation of civil service and city policy regulations regarding conduct unbecoming to an employee of the city. He was later re-instated and immediately accepted a retirement package.
“Why didn’t they feel like there was something bad going on when they did that to me?” Felder asked. “Why didn’t all those preachers think there was something wrong then?”
Nobles said the event only makes him more determined to serve Ward 3.
“I’m a mark for doing what’s right, and I don’t think that’s fair,” he said. “I’m a black-owned business and I employ more people than most businesses, but I’m holding down the community for not voting on something I don’t know anything about? … Nobody has come to me personally and asked me why I voted the way I voted. … I want to know where these people were when my grandfather and my grandmother were hiding Freedom Riders.”
Asked about the “2 blk 3 wht 1 E.C.” sign, Nobles said “If being the E.C. is what I need to be, then that’s what I need to be, because I’m going to do what’s right for everyone.”
