The mayor of Scottsboro, Alabama, on Thursday issued a statement recommending that downtown businesses close Saturday afternoon in anticipation of a protest that was planned - and has since been canceled - at the Jackson County Courthouse square.
The locally planned event was canceled Thursday by its organizer, but that didn't stop ongoing conversation on social media.
"[B]ased on all of the social media discussions surrounding this protest, and in the interest of the safety of the individuals in our community, we are recommending that retail businesses in downtown Scottsboro close at 2:00 pm on Saturday, June 6, 2020," Mayor Robin Shelton said in the statement posted on the city's website.
Jackson County Sheriff's office Chief Deputy Rocky Harnen said Friday that the social media discussions included threats of damage to the county courthouse and possible violence, but he said the organizer of Saturday's event canceled it on Thursday.
On Friday, Anthony McCamey, a local activist who had organized Saturday's protest event, said he didn't want to see the destruction and violence happening in some cities across the country coming to his hometown. His demonstration was loosely tied to events around the nation sparked by the death of George Floyd, an African American, under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis. The case has resulted in criminal charges against four officers.
McCamey said he was invited to a meeting this week with state and local officials, law enforcment, chamber officials and others to discuss his decision to cancel the event.
"They let me know that they had been following my Facebook and that they supported me for what I was pushing for," McCamey said.
He told them he cancelled it "as soon as I started receiving threats, people were sending me screenshots from different people," McCamey said. "So I deleted my event, and I got on Facebook and made a post and I let everybody know."
"Negative people" created rival pages on social media advancing an event that was not associated with McCamey's, he said.
McCamey said he wanted to make it clear that Scottsboro's black community and local law enforcement do not have the major issues that big cities do and that people in his hometown want to find common ground and seek solutions.
McCamey is worried "negative people" could create lasting problems for Scottsboro's citizens and businesses.
"I understand why Minneapolis was angry. They wanted justice. The last 10 years it's been horrible up there. At least, that's what people say," McCamey said. "So I understand them being angry. But why are we angry in the South?
"We haven't had no cops killing us in Scottsboro. Why are they acting the way they're acting? And now that the officers are arrested, people are still trying to riot everywhere?" he said.
Once all four Minneapolis officers were facing charges, "that should have stopped all the rioting and all the looting," he said.
McCamey said he knew it was still possible that protesters could show up, but it won't be for anything he planned.
"What I had originally planned to do was a protest against all racism, for any race, any gender," he said. McCamey said even those sentiments generated some negative reaction.
McCamey said he appreciates his town's historic businesses and the owners who he said were people with families and investment in their town, just like him.
"All of us matter," he said. "People can unite, and it doesn't have to be negative."
He said another event would be planned in the coming week and that it would be a peaceful prayer walk to the courthouse that would include support and participation of local officials and business owners.
Scottsboro has been one of the symbols of the Civil Rights movement and the city where where a museum opened in 2010 devoted to nine black teenagers, now called the "Scottsboro Boys," who were accused of raping two white women while traveling through Jackson County on a train in 1931. All but two were sentenced to prison, and in the years following the trial one of the two women said to be victims admitted the accusations were false, according to newspaper archives.
In 2013, then-Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley signed a resolution exonerating all nine of the Scottsboro Boys, and pardons were posthumously granted to all the defendants in late 2013.
Shelton in statement issued Thursday called for unity and conversation.
"We have all witnessed so many heartbreaking things in recent days," Shelton said. "Our country is facing a time of uncertainty and apprehension. While much of the news focuses on the events in big cities across the nation, I want the citizens of Scottsboro to know that we have a role to play in change as well."
The courthouse square was renovated in 2017.
Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569. Follow him on Twitter @BenBenton or at www.facebook.com/benbenton1.