Angry white man snatches 'Rosa Parks' sign from black woman at town hall meeting

 

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Staff Reporter | Posted August 12, 2009 4:06 PM

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If there was any doubt that race is playing a role in the town hall confrontations taking place in recent weeks, a new video demonstrates exactly how racially polarized the debate has become.

A provocative scene shown on the news Tuesday night featured a black woman being escorted from a town hall meeting in Missouri held by Senator Claire McCaskill. The clip on the news showed the black woman hauled off by the police, which seemed to indicate the black woman was angry at something being said.

Most of the town hall participants and angry protesters in recent weeks have been white, so the image was a bit unusual. But a new video released on YouTube puts yesterday's news clip in context. The black woman, identified later as Maxine Johnson, had just been attacked by a white man, who walked up from his seat in the bleachers and yanked away a sign the black woman was holding that depicted civil rights icon Rosa Parks.

As the black woman was showing the sign to a news photographer who asked to see it, the white man, identified by the local press as 67-year-old James Winfrey, walked over and grabbed the black woman's sign and stole it from her. The mostly white audience cheered when the man returned to his seat and ripped up the sign. (Editor's Note: From the video, the white person appears to be a woman but the commentary from the YouTube poster and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch story indicate the white person was a man.)

When the black woman got up and walked over to get her sign back, the police intervened and separated the two. But the part that was shown on most television stories only depicted the black woman being carried away by police.

The video of the incident is shown below:

Here's a description of the incident by the YouTube poster who uploaded the video:

"This is what actually happened at the event. The news only showed the woman being escorted away by the police. What happened was the women walked in with signs, the crowd booed and yelled at the women. The women rolled up their posters and put them down. A photographer/reporter approached the woman on the end and wanted to see what the poster was. As the woman went to show the photographer/reporter what the poster was, a man from the bleachers stood up and snatched the poster from the woman and photographer/reporter. As the woman went to retrieve her poster the police stepped in and escorted the woman and the man from the building. 

The poster was not of Obama, it was not pro health care, the poster that was taken from the woman and wrinkled up into a ball was of Rosa Parks.

National news coverage only showed the woman being escorted from the forum and left out the fact that it was the man who started the incident. Not to mention it was a poster of Rosa Parks."

Here's how the St. Louis Post Dispatch described the incident:

"Maxine Johnson, who is well known at St. Louis City Hall as an ant-eminent domain advocate. She also ran on the Green Party ticket in the Third Ward against Alderman Freeman Bosley Sr. The sign was not unfurled and had nothing, it seems, to do with health care: It was actually a poster of Rosa Parks.

However, Johnson opened it -- only briefly -- to show Post-Dispatch photojournalist Elie Gardner. (It's unlikely that Gardner asked Johnson to display the poster. Gardner probably just asked what the poster said for her cutline info.) . . . A man in a blue shirt -- later identified as James Winfrey, 67, of Cedar Hill -- grabbed the Parks poster from Johnson.

Johnson rushed to retrieve it, and a rhubarb ensued. Police hauled away both individuals from the meeting but only Winfrey was arrested. He was held on suspicion of misdemeanor assault."

Articles written by a Staff Reporter are unsigned reports from a member of the staff.