Golfmagazine pulled from stores over cover
By Chris Dixon

Tuesday,March21, 2006

Edition:FINAL, Section: LOCAL & STATE, Page B1

Thecover of the February/March issue of The Green magazine carrying

a reproduction ofa 1784 poster headlined "Negroes for Sale" is a stark reminder of apast many would just as soon forget.

The recent issueof this black and multi-culturally oriented golf publication arguesthat upscale golf resorts have displaced Gullah and Geecheecommunities across the Lowcountry.

The cover was toomuch for at least one nationwide retailer. Late last month, all 385branches of The Sports Authority, including the location in NorthCharleston, were ordered to remove and destroy all their copies ofThe Green, according to Sobukwe Odinga, the author of the article. Hecalled the move censorship.

"I expected therewould be controversy, but I didn't expect the magazines to be pulledand destroyed," said Odinga, also the publication's managing editor.

Neither theSports Authority's corporate offices nor its public relations firmwould return calls. The three South Carolina locations of the SportsAuthority, including the one in North Charleston, also were phoned.None reported any copies remaining on their shelves.

Ina Martinez,president of The Green, said that the decision to remove the magazinehad been confirmed by her magazine distributor.

In the article,titled "Another American Skin(s) Game," Odinga compares thegentrification and loss of black communities in the Lowcountry tothat of Harlem in New York City. He cites Marquetta Goodwine andWalter Mack, a pair of leaders in the St. Helena Island Gullahcommunity, and Seth Markle, who helped run the Nia youth program atSt. Helena's Penn Center from 2000 to 2002.

In the article,Markle calls the buses that carry Lowcountry black people togolf-resort jobs "slave ships," while Mack says that "they used totry to plant cotton. Now they plant golf courses and condos."Goodwine refers to Hilton Head's Sea Pines Co. as "originators ofGullah 'destructionment.' "

Sea Pines Co.President Mike Lawrence took exception to Goodwine's statements thatblacks were being exploited by his company. "We have many nativeislanders working for us here in all capacities," he said. "Some arein supervisory roles and they've been great employees — they'reone of the things we love about being in this part of the world."

ON THE NET

To purchase acopy of The Green

magazine or tolocate a retail store

that carries themagazine, connect to

www.thegreenmagazine.com