UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, April 22,1994
7
Brian Vandervliet / KANSAN
Dancing on the Beach
South Carolinians feud over Confederate flag
Members of the University Dance Company perform in front of Wescoe Hall to promote their upcoming shows.
Disagreement continues on banner's value, symbolism
COLUMBIA, S.C. — With the Confederate battle flag waving in the sun atop the Statehouse, African Americans and whites squared off yesterday over the legacy of the Civil War and civil rights and the searing emotions the banner calls forth.
The Associated Press
South Carolina is the last state to fly the Confederate flag above its state capitol. The legislature first approved flying it 32 years ago, during the heat of the nation's civil rights unrest.
The banner remains part of the state flags of Georgia and Mississippi. Georgia Gov. Zell Miller tried to change his state's flag last year, but the Legislature refused.
Even before the start of a legislative hearing about whether to take the flag down from the South Carolina Statehouse, tempers flared.
An African-American man dressed in chains and threatening to burn the flag was taunted by whites and told to return to Africa. Jerome Smalls returned the catcalls.
"This flag stands for murdering babies and chil-
"We've given you everything you've asked for!" replied Betty Platt, a white woman. "We're tired of it!"
dren! This flag stands for bombing churches!" shouted Smalls, a African-American activist from Charleston.
Supporters in South Carolina's Legislature say the flag is a symbol of Confederate heritage. Opponents say it is a symbol of hatred, racism and slavery.
"It's a little of both." said Sam Loftis, a 49-year-old white electric repairman from West Columbia, as he waited outside the Statehouse for the hearing to start. "On my part, it hate. I don't like Blacks."
The hearing was called by Sen. Glenn McConnell, a white Charleston Republican who supports keeping it aloft, to gauge public opinion.
Competing proposals to resolve the dispute include letting the public vote on flying the flag, flying the Black Liberation Flag along with the battle flag or flying the flag only in April as part of a Confederate history month.
Scores of police stood side by side as a crowd of more than 100, waiting to get into the hearing room, traded barbs.
The only incident occurred during the hearing's early moments when security escaped a man out of
James Felder, an African-American former state legislator, urged lawmakers to find a compromise. "I'm accusing you of perpetuating the sins of a past generation," he said.
"Take down that flag which is constantly abrasive and abusive," said the Rev. Babcock Fitch, vicar at a multiracial Episcopal church in Eastover. "It was this mindset which got us into the Civil War."
But Mary Lund, president of the state chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, urged lawmakers to keep it flying.
"There was no animosity between whites and Blacks in those awful years between 1861 and 1865," she said. "The war was not fought for slavery."
Before the hearing, McConnell maneuvered a proposal through an initial Senate vote to ensure the flag could not be removed permanently during upcoming Statehouse renovations.
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