This is why we shouldn’t patronize Myrtle Beach not only during bike week but Never, Never, Ever. Racism is still Alive!
Date: November 27, 2008 Publication: Tribune-Review/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Author: Mike Seate
Every few years, I take a brief spring vacation in Myrtle Beach when the seaside resort town plays host to Atlantic Beach Bike Week, an event that draws about 300,000 mostly black motorcyclists.
Not anymore. In September, the Myrtle Beach Sun News reported the town’s City Council approved laws to roll up the red carpet that welcomed those bikers.
I’ve been watching this one closely because Western Pennsylvania played host to the country’s second largest black biker event, the National Biker’s Round-Up, in July.
As an estimated 30,000 riders rolled into Westmoreland County Fairgrounds, chief organizer Billy Walker told me the local merchants were thrilled to have the bikers in town, and local officials were eager to have the round-up return someday.
Down in the Deep South, well, such welcome mats are hard to come by.
Even in the late 1990s, when I first attended the Myrtle Beach event, there were signs of trouble.
Several local merchants—including pro golfer Greg Norman, who owns a chain of popular seafood restaurants—refused to open their doors during black biker week. Some hotel owners found themselves on the losing end of a class-action lawsuit filed with the help of the NAACP, because they refused to serve rally-goers.
After that lawsuit, it was assumed that Myrtle Beach had opened its doors for good. After all, the town hosts a raucous spring break party for hundreds of thousands of beer-soaked college students each year, and seldom do the town fathers complain.
But apparently that hasn’t occurred to Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes, who recently told residents: “We don’t need the rally. We can fill all the hotel rooms without bike week.”
Quite a few of Mayor Rhodes’ constituents turned up at City Hall to try to dissuade him from turning away the bikers, explaining that the money they take in from the two-wheeled throng accounts for as much as 30 percent of some restaurant and hotel owners’ annual incomes.
Nevertheless, Hall and members of council voted to end the event.
Politicians are a savvy breed and those in Myrtle Beach are no exception. Rather than simply ban the motorcycle rallies outright, officials instead voted to make life so miserable for any visiting riders that, eventually, they’ll give up and turn their motorcycles toward home.
To make the bikers feel less welcome, the council hastily approved 15 laws—including noise limits for motorbikes, anti- loitering laws and fines for wearing beachwear off the sand. The days when towns could simply erect a “No Coloreds Served” sign are over, but apparently there are ways to make certain visitors feel unwelcome.Their loss. I’m sure Westmoreland County would be thrilled to have the business.
Copyright 2008 Tribune-Review/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
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