By L.A. Williams, Correspondent
Christian Action League of North Carolina, Inc.
July 11, 2008

HICKORY -It’s been two weeks since police arrested brothers Jesse and Matthew Boyd for sharing their faith on a public street during the Jaycees’ “Hickory Alive” event. And as of July 11, the city had yet to drop the charges or apologize for violating the pair’s First Amendment right to free speech.

“It is truly a sad day in America, the supposed ‘Land of the Free’,” wrote Jesse Boyd, 32, president of Conover-based Full Proof Gospel Ministries shortly after being charged with second-degree trespassing for “distributing Gospel tracts freely at a free public access event on the town square in Hickory.”

The Christian Law Association of Seminole, Fla., is representing the Boyds and Gibbs Law Firm, general counsel for CLA, issued a letter July 1 to the City of Hickory, the Hickory Police Department and the Hickory Jaycees asking that charges be dismissed and that the organizations not interfere with the Boyds’ First Amendment right to distribute religious literature at future events in Hickory. Read the rest of this entry »