PROTESTERS RESPOND TO COLUMN

                         ;                           ;             John Fletcher/STAFF PHBTOGPAPHER
Asheville activist H.K. Edgerton, with "Heritage Not Hate" sign, took part in a protest outside the Citizen-Times building on 0. Henry Avenue Wednesday morning to voice opposition to a column by staff writer John Boyle. The Saturday column challenged Edgerton for romanticizing the relationship between Southern slave owners and slaves.' Kirk Lyons, (with hat on), director of the Southern Legal Resource Center in Black Mountain, which among other causes fights to preserve Confederate heritage, is inter- viewed during the 90-minute protest by Clint Parker, right, of the Asheville Tribune weekly newspaper. Edgerton was once president of the Asheville NAACP, but has since taken up the Confederate cause. Edgerton has said that some relationships between slaveholder were loving and civil. The column sarcastically suggested that if Edgerton thought so highly of slavery, then he could be Boyle's slave, Edgerton said he was offended, and didn't appreciate someone inviting him to address him as "Massuh Boyle."