Montgomery, Ala. (WSFA) — They’re part of a long standing tradition that will soon become a part of Presidential history. The head of the Alabama NAACP, however, wants Mobile’s Azalea Trail Maids to stay home on Inauguration Day, claiming the group reminds him of slavery. “These are not just regular costumes. These are the costumes that remind someone of the plantation in Gone with the Wind,” Edward Vaughn said in a phone interview.
Vaughn went on to say the group would be the laughing stock of the Inauguration. County leaders say nothing could be further from the truth. “We want everyone to know that these young ladies do not need to be identified with slavery,” said Mobile County Commissioner Stephen Nodine. “I don’t see what the dresses have to do with racism. I don’t see it. It’s just a regular dress to me. Just a dress they wore back in the day,” said Carolyn Tius of Montgomery.
Organizers stand behind the tradition, but opponents say tradition is the problem.
“We needed something that could show Alabama’s great progress rather than something that shows a shameful past,” Vaughn said.
Har! They should just ban ALL Southerners and be done with it.
#64–Steve==oh, yes, totally hot===and you can still wipe your ass with them.
So I guess Prince “Sooty” Charles and Prince “I call my mates Paki” Harry aren’t invited this year ….
Isn’t one of those “southern bells” in the image black? And haven’t they had black women in those “southern bell” outfits in past inaugurations?
I don’t recall ever seeing a “southern bell” in past inaugurations, why should anyone give a shit? I guess with a black man entering the white house office, the NAACP is grasping at straws now trying to find racism that has been disappearing over time. Isn’t that the goal of organizations like the NAACP?
Guess Vaughn is trying to keep his job and his association relevant in a time when it’s slowly loosing it’s purpose to exist. Yet they should be looking at this as a good positive thing, a goal that they have been trying to achieve for generations they finally got. But no, they have to dwell on whats perceived as negative.
I’m also sick and tired of having to apologies to the blacks about slavery. No one alive today is responsible for slavery over 150 years ago, nor should anyone fell guilty over it, even if they are descendants of slave or slave owners.
It’s as if they wished the slave history never occurred, as if they wanted to go back in time and some how stop it. Yet if that did occur, a lot of us wouldn’t have been born today, and not just black people.
..can’t we all just get along..