The Santa Rosa County School Board has banned the Confederate flag on the personal property (clothing, vehicles, etc.) of students from the grounds of Milton High School, and presumably all schools in Santa Rosa County.  See the Pensacola News Journal report below for details.

Confederate flag stirs more controversy

By Derek Pivnick
News Journal staff writer

The relative calm of the Santa Rosa County School Board meeting was disrupted Tuesday when a white parent made a derogatory remark to a black assistant principal.

During the meeting's public forum, parent Jimmy Summerlin complained that administrators at Milton High School unfairly revoked his son's school parking privileges in early November after he refused to remove a decorative license plate with a Confederate flag on it. Summerlin said board members were selectively enforcing a rule that was not in any policy book.

As Summerlin left the meeting room, he called Assistant Principal Shirl Williams, who is black, a ``cotton picker.'' After a brief confrontation in the hallway, where he exchanged words with administrators, Summerlin left the building.

The controversy comes more than two years after a white Milton High School student stabbed a black student during a fight. The wounded student was treated at Santa Rosa Medical Center, then released; but tensions remained high. One week after the Feb. 6, 1998 stabbing, some 400 students did not come to school because of rumors of another fight.

It was that kind of conflict Principal Lewis Lynn said he is trying to avoid by banning the flag. He said Summerlin's son wasn't the only one asked to remove the symbol from school property; he was just the only one who didn't comply.

After a student voiced concern to Lynn about the flags, Lynn went into the parking lot and identified about a half dozen students with rebel flags on license plates, bandanas or bumper stickers. Lynn told them to remove the symbol or not to park on school property.

``We have a 15 percent minority population that is offended by that,'' Lynn said.

School Board members and board attorney Paul Green stood behind Lynn, saying the action was appropriate.

As for Summerlin's remarks, Williams said she has picked cotton before, adding: ``I'm proud of the fact I did.''

But the Confederate flag connotes negative things to blacks, Williams added.

``To me, it represents anti- black, it represents pro-slavery and white supremacy,'' Williams said.

Write school officials

Write letters (e-mail AND snailmail) and make phone calls to the Santa Rosa County School Board protesting the forced removal of Confederate symbols from personal clothing, vehicles, etc.

Letters and calls should be conciliatory, cordial, and civil. Remind the board members that the First Amendment guarantees freedom of expression.   Encourage them to use this incident as a basis for educating students, parents and the public about the true meaning of Confederate symbols.   See Talking Points below to help craft your letters.  (Note: we will post sample letter here as we receive them.) 

TIPS -- (1) Format your email for printing and send a hard copy  via the U.S. Postal Service. Hard-copy letters have much more impact than email. (2) Keep your letters short.  If you have several arguments to make, send them in several short letters.

The school board  must hear from us in great numbers!

Santa Rosa County School Board
603 Canal St. 
Milton, FL. 32570-6706

John Rogers, Superintendent -- 
      email: rogers@mail.santarosak12.fl.us
Kenneth Smith, District 1 -- no info
Hugh Winkles, District 2 -- no info
Carol M. McDaniel, District 3 -- no info
JoAnn Simpson, District 4 -- no info
James M. Rigby, District 5 -- no info
School Board phone #: 850-983-5000

Milton High School 
Don Lewis Lynn, Jr., Principal -- 
      email: //lynnl@mail.santarosak12.fl.us
School phone #: 850-983-5600
Home phone #: 850-623-5917

Attend school board meeting

Mark your calendar for DECEMBER 14 and attend the next meeting of the Santa Rosa County School Board.  The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.  The address is 603 Canal St., Milton. 

We need as many Southern heritage supporters as possible to be there and rally 'round the flag!

Contact the media

Use this incident as an opportunity to educate the public and the media about Confederate symbology and the campaign of cultural cleansing now directed against our heritage.

Write to the Pensacola News Journal and tell them you do not appreciate their including a reference to a violent incident over two years ago that evidently had nothing to do with the Confederate flag in this report about a "controversial" but nonviolent incident.Don't let them get away with mischaracterizing the issue.

Pensacola News Journal
P.O. Box 12710
Pensacola, FL 32574

Executive editor, Randy Hammer
Phone:  (850) 435-8514
E-mail: execed@pensacolanewsjournal.com

Also send Letters to the Editor to:
Gulf-1 Pensacola's Home on the Web
The Gulf Herald
The Florida Sun
The Independent
The Santa Rosa Press Gazette
The Gulf Breeze Sentinel

Call local talk radio programs

Pensacola Speaks, Luke McCoy, host
WCOA Radio, 478-3446
Weekdays, 3:30 - 5:00 p.m.

Chuck Baldwin Live
WVTJ Radio, 438-1605
Weekdays, 11:00 a.m. - 1 p.m.

A clear majority of African- Americans are not offended by the Confederate Flag
An October 2000 poll conducted in Texas by Scripps Howard found that less than half of the African-Americans surveyed (only 40%) view the Confederate flag as a symbolism of racism, slavery, white supremacy, etc. (Reported by the Houston Chronicle and the New York Times.)

The following is a letter written by Mr. Kenneth Banchard in response to a recent, similar heritage violation at Asheville School in Asheville, NC.  Mr. Banchard's excellent letter contains many sound, reasonable arguments that would be useful in responding to other heritage violations. 

William Peebles
Headmaster 
Asheville School 
360 Asheville School Rd 
Asheville, NC 28806

Dear Mr. Peebles,

I am writing to express my concern about your position regarding the Confederate Battle Flag.

I am a seventy-ear-old retired history teacher with degrees from Mars Hill College and Stetson University, where I majored in history, especially the history of the old South. I taught history in Florida public schools for twenty-five years. I now live in Hendersonville, where my wife is a fourth-grade teacher at Immaculata School. Together, we participate in Living History events and Civil War re-enactments with the 25th North Carolina Infantry Regiment, CSA which, by the way, is also the 16th Iowa, U. S.

I also present a program in Henderson County public schools and for various civic groups entitled, "The Evolution of the Flags," in which I use fourteen flags, including flags from England, Scotland, the United States, and the Confederate States, showing the direct historical origin of each flag. The most significant point being the direct lineage from the Flag of St. George of England, through the earlier flags of the United States, to the third and last national flag of the CSA.

You might be interested in knowing that the first national flag of the CSA, the one called "The Stars and Bars," was exactly like the old "Betsy Ross" flag, except that it had only three red-and-white stripes (bars) instead of thirteen. The reason it looked so much like the old U. S. flag is that there was no sentiment at that time against the flag of the United States. Secession had nothing to do with the flag.

Moreover, secession was more the result of the ongoing taxation controversy that had begun in 1828 than it was over slavery. You need only review your history on the Tariff controversy to confirm this. I am sure that your time is valuable, as is mine, so I will briefly summarise.

In 1860, there were 33 states: 18 so-called "free states," and 15 "slave states," the name given to the Southern agricultural states. (I will refer to them as North and South.) This means that the North had 36 votes in the Senate, while the South had 30. And as the population of the North was 22 million, compared with 9 million in the South, the North had more votes in the House of Representatives.

There was no income tax at that time, and most Federal revenue came from tariffs on imports and exports.

As the economy of the South was dependent on exporting agricultural products and importing manufactured goods, the South was providing most of the Federal revenue. Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia provided three-fourths of all Federal revenues in 1860, and the South as a whole provided 87 percent. Thus, the South was paying the lion's share of Federal revenues while having less than half the votes in Congress.

In 1776, the thirteen American colonies fought a war for independence from England over the issue of "taxation without representation." That is, they "seceded" from the mother country because Parliament was unwilling to resolve the inequities. We find nothing wrong with that secession. In 1860 and 1861, thirteen Southern states seceded from the Federal Union for the same reason. And they are to be held at fault for that?

As for the issue of slavery, let me remind you that it had existed in English-speaking America since 1619 and in Spanish-speaking America for more than a century before that. Thus, the British flag flew over slavery for over 150 years, and the United States flag flew over slavery for 89 years -- from 1776 until the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865. The first national Confederate flag flew from March 4, 1862 until May 1, 1863, less than two years and two months. The second national Confederate flag flew from May 1, 1863 until March 4, 1865, one year and eight months. The third national Confederate flag flew officially for less than two months.

As for the Confederate Battle Flag, which is erroneously confused as the "flag of the Confederacy" -- the one which, as I understand it, you ordered a student to remove from his room, it is only one of many flags that were used by the various Confederate armies, none of them ever flying over the nation. And, though it is not politically correct to acknowledge it, thousands of blacks fought under these battle flags. Do you believe they were fighting to keep themselves enslaved?

It is also a fact worth noting that, in 1869, there was no Southern state where a free black man could not own property and conduct business. But there were Northern states which had "non-immigration laws" and "black laws," whereby black people could pass through but do little else. Actually, there were more free black people in the South at that time than there were in the North.

Now, it has been decided by certain not-so-well-informed politicians and a number of academics, who do know better but seem not to care, that one flag out of so many that flew while slavery existed is to be known as the "symbol of slavery." Can you honestly accept that? If so, would you be so kind as to give me your reasons? I am a historian and appreciate good, well-founded historical reasoning.

Now, let me make a few comments about which flag symbolizes what. And I want you to think seriously about this.

My wife is one-fourth Native-American. (We used to call them Indians. Something they still prefer to call themselves, by the way.) She is one-eighth Cherokee and one-eighth Choctaw. Under the flag of the United States, her Cherokee ancestors were forced to march 1,000 miles from the Carolinas to a reservation in Oklahoma. ("Reservation" is a glorified name for a prison camp. I say that, because they were forced to go there against their will.) And on that march, those who were unable to continue were shot by men wearing the uniform of the United States. Her Choctaw ancestors were forced to sign the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek and marched off their land in Mississippi to that same prison camp in Oklahoma, again under the flag of the United States of America. (By the way, they were supposed to have been paid for that land, but it never happened. Do you believe they are due "reparation" perhaps plus interest? After all, we do want to be fair, don't we?)

And while you're thinking about that, consider how white people took whatever they wanted from those who were here before us, all under the great right of "Manifest Destiny," or have you conveniently laid that part of our history to rest?

Whenever did a Confederate army ride into a village of black people and slaughter all the men, women, and children, as was done in the Sand Creek Massacre, the Bear River Massacre, the Wounded Knee Massacre, in which private parts were cut off and taken home as souvenirs -- all under the flag of the United States of America. Are you proud of that? If not, would you think it fitting to brand the Flag of the United States as a symbol of racism, bigotry, and bruitality? If not, I would like very much to know your reasoning.

I am a veteran of the armed forces of the United States, having served as a combat airman during the Korean War. I love my country and respect its flag, for under it, the best constitution in existence in the world today was written. And it is that very constitution and the freedoms which it guarantees that you seem less willing to support than do I, for you would deny a student the right to display in his private room a flag that has less guilt associated with it than does the one you proudly fly on the flagpole at your school. 

I lived during the years of Adolph Hitler's rise to power in Germany and recall all too well how the people of that nation lost their freedom. Certain symbols, literature, works of art, and music were first called "Undesirable," then they were made illegal, then those who chose not to conform were punished, imprisoned, and put to death. Of course, we would never do anything like that in America, would we? Maybe you can explain why not, to one who has seen history repeat itself again and again.

I am enclosing four tracts that I publish. Read them, and then explain to me why we are to consider the Confederate Battle Flag as a symbol of slavery while excluding the Stars and Stripes and the Lincoln Memorial. As a serious student of history, I really would like to know.

Respectfully,

Kenneth Bachand