NAACP Renews Efforts To Boycott the State of South Carolina, Harvard Feud Brews

And now the most intriguing two minutes in television, the latest from the political grapevine.

On the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday, the NAACP will try to renew its boycott of the State of South Carolina with a protest march in the state capitol of Columbia. And the state chapter of the NAACP says it will post border patrols around the state to urge travelers not to visit. The reason: The Confederate battle flag can still be found on the state capitol grounds. Two years ago, the state legislature voted to remove the flags that flew over the capitol and inside the building, leaving one only at a confederate memorial outside. NAACP President Kweisi Mfume called that "totally unacceptable, equally offensive and grossly divisive."

Those same words might have been heard when officials in the town of Lauderhill, Fla., received the plaque they had commissioned for their King celebration on Saturday.  The plaque was to honor the African American actor James Earl Jones, thanking him for "keeping the dream alive." The company that made it, Merit Industries of Georgetown, Texas, said of the error, "We have a lot of people who don't speak English."

Dr. King, by the way, is supposed to have a memorial erected in his honor on the Washington mall, where four acres have been set aside for it. But as Opinionjournal.com notes, the effort has stalled because the King family is demanding a licensing fee before it will allow the civil rights leader's image and likeness to be used...to raise funds for the memorial." The King family has also sued news organizations for using film and/or text of King's famous "I Have a Dream” speech without paying for it.

Finally, recall that dispute between Harvard University President Lawrence Summers and Afro-American studies professor Cornel West? West was incensed that Summers chastised him for his outside political activity and for such non-academic work as his recent hip-hop CD. In its coverage, the New York Times referred to West, who is a Ph.D., as Dr. West. Summers, a Ph.D. as well, was called "Mr. Summers."