Whistling a New Dixie

By TAMALA M. EDWARDS/CHARLESTON

Every day in Charleston, S.C., the South rises again. Airport advertisements hawk local plantations preserved in antebellum splendor. The Old City Market sports Sambo lawn jockeys and fat black mammy dolls holding pigtailed blond babies. And a few blocks away, the Rebel flag blazes in a store window.

But hold that mint julep, Rhett: the flag in question is done in red, black and green--the colors of African liberation. In the heart of the city where the first shots of the Civil War rang out, Sherman Evans and Angel Quintero, both 34, both black, have fired a volley of their own. At NuSouth, their 10-month-old boutique, all the gear features that red, black and green flag logo, a symbol, they say, of racial solidarity. "It's about unification, not polarization," says Quintero, noting that most of his customers are white. The line has caught the attention of entertainers like the popular R.-and-B. group Boyz II Men and retailers as far north as Massachusetts. "It'll sell out," predicts Patrick Petty, owner of Culture Shock, a funky Boston boutique that intends to carry the line.

The NuSouth partners see themselves as taking on giants like Polo and Tommy Hilfiger. They object to the way those mainstream manufacturers are, in their view, "pimping" urban culture. "A $25 Hilfiger T shirt means nothing," challenges Evans, who, like Quintero, is black. "This is an empowering message for us, by us and about us."

At first the logo hit like hot grease in cold water--it caused a high school student to be suspended when she wore it to school in nearby Goose Creek. Passersby have also had visceral, sometimes negative responses. But Evans and Quintero say the reactions are always followed by conversation. Even Confederate loyalists, they claim, have walked out of the boutique as fans--and customers.

--By Tamala M. Edwards/Charleston