Lawrence pupils could get lesson on Confederacy

HATTON -- Black students in the Lawrence County school system may be offered a class on why the rebel flag should not offend them.

Two attorneys representing parents in the rebel flag T-shirt controversy here will present an educational proposal to the Lawrence County Board of Education.

The proposal will center on educating children -- black and white -- about the Confederacy, attorney Kirk Lyons of Black Mountain, N. C., said following Monday's school board meeting.

Lyons is chief trial counsel for the Southern Legal Resource Center. He and Charles Yow of the Native American Heritage Initiative represent some of the families of students whom principals suspended last month.

Principals Ricky Nichols at Lawrence County High School and Earl Leonard at Speake School suspended 19 students for wearing rebel flag T-shirts to school.

About 100 people supporting the students attended Monday's meeting at the Hatton Elementary School mini gym.

Lyons said the actions of the principals appear to be discriminatory. The Confederate flag should have a place of honor in any Alabama school, he said.

"We want to work with you and not against you," Lyons told the board. "The Confederate flag is a patriotic symbol for all of Alabama."

Many blacks feel the Confederate battle flag is a symbol of a repressive government that endorsed slavery.

The board remained silent as two other speakers criticized the school system's position on the issue.

The school system has a policy that gives principals the authority to ban clothing they view as offensive. Hazlewood High School Principal Johnny Yates used that policy in the early 1990s to ban clothing that black students wore.

In 1995, a federal judge upheld an earlier ruling that allowed principals to ban clothing featuring the rebel flag.

Nichols said there have been at least six instances this year where students felt uncomfortable, intimidated or threatened by students wearing rebel flag clothing or insignia.

Board member Ricky Terry said the school system is not against the rebel flag. He said the suspended students defied the authority of principals.

"It's like wearing a bikini to church," Terry said. "The preacher wouldn't like it. There is a time and place for everything."

Terry continued: "I love the flag. I have nothing against it. But this board will not let anyone wear anything offensive."

Superintendent Dexter Ruth-erford met in the Central Office with Lyons, Yow and members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans earlier in the day.

"It was a very productive meeting," Rutherford said. "They had some good points. We listened to each other, and I think we made some progress."

A suspended student's parent, Tammy Weatherwax, wants the suspension removed from her son's record. She made that request to the board. Mrs. Weatherwax said the students should be allowed to make up the work they missed during the suspension.

Nichols was not at the meeting, but he stated previously that he suspended the students because they defied his ban on wearing rebel flag clothing and insignia.

He said he warned the students on the Friday before they wore the T-shirts to school Monday, Oct. 16.

A number of supporters for the students sought the autograph of former University of Alabama quarterback Walter Lewis during Monday's meeting.

Lewis, who is black, attended the meeting to give the board a presentation on bond financing. Some of the items Lewis signed had the rebel flag insignia on the flip side.

The controversy has included complaints from parents of white suspended students that black students are allowed to wear FUBU (For Us, By Us) clothing.

Another case of "pity the poor blacks" and "get the evil white Southerners". Why is it black students can wear their own clothing that they can express pride in their heritage, but white students of Southern descent are not allowed to express any pride in theirs?

Does anyone else see a double standard here?! Does anyone else see the reverse discrimination going on? I know that many are offended by this ... I AM!

Just to make things really clear here ... I AM NOT A RACIST! But I do believe in fair and equitable treatment for all! So if the white students cannot express pride in their heritage by wearing the Confederate flag, then the black students cannot wear the FUBU clothing or anything that denotes their African heritage. So lets put them all in OD green uniforms and send them off to fight! ;^)

No discussion of the CSA battle flag and the war generally would be complete without this letter from the official records:

RALEIGH, N. C., January 29, 1865.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS:

SIR: It is not to be presumed that the press of public duty leaves you much time to read private letters, nevertheless I suppose that should you find a moment's leisure you will not object to hearing the views of your countrymen, however humble, who are struggling with you for independence. How this war can be successfully managed, brought to a speedy and honorable end, bringing us independence, are questions that are upon every tongue. I propose to give you my plan briefly: Declare by law that every soldier who has or will enlist in our Army, and who at the time of such enlistment was not a slave-owner or land-holder, shall receive a bounty or pension at the end of the war, upon being honorably discharged, of one negro slave and fifty acres of land. I will state it thus: We have 3,500,000 slaves. We have probably enrolled 1,000,000 of men. Half these men are slave-owners, leaving 500,000 who do not own them. I would give one slave to each such soldier and fifty acres of land, and if he died in the service, to his representatives. Thus you spread the institution. You make every family in the Government interested in it. You do away with the doctrine that this is the rich man's war and the poor man's fight. And if the war is to continue you can make the slaves the very means of our defense --- declare by law that all negroes captured from the enemy shall belong to the captors by general orders --- declare to the enemy that all who will desert and enlist in our Army, take the oath of allegiance and fight in our cause, shall have a negro and fifty acres of land upon being honorably discharged, and shall further have all the negroes which they can capture from the enemy, to be their own property at the end of the war. Lincoln has tempted thousands of men into his Army by offering reward. I now propose to outbid him, and as we have the most alluring means we shall get the most men. If we make it to the interest of the world to fight on our side, men from all quarters of the globe will take up arms in our defense. We can reduce Grant's and Sherman's armies one-half in numbers by desertions if we offer them the bait. We can enlist men from all quarters of the United States if we make it to their interest to come. In a word, we can buy out the armed forces of Lincoln, secure their service on our side. We can command thousands of men from Ireland, Germany, Poland, Austria, England, and France by offering them a home in the sunny South and a servant. We will thus avoid the trouble of arming slaves. We will remove the prejudices against the institution and bring all the world up to its support from interested motives. The slave-owners can well afford to give up to the soldiers who have and will fight to maintain the institution 1,000,000 of slaves to secure forever the other 2,500,000. The mode of getting the land and negroes to pay these bounties with would be by taxation in kind, by general laws to purchase, by donations to the Government, by capture, by enslaving the free negroes in the South, by taxation and contribution by State Legislatures if needed. With this system of laws wisely and properly regulated our people can be satisfied. Many of our farmers and mechanics can be released and sent home to attend to the industrial pursuits, and an army of 500,000 men can be put at General Lee's disposal to march where he pleases, and feed them on the front instead of looking to his rear for supplies.

Hoping, sir, that the wish of your heart, the independence of the South, may be speedily consummated,

I am, with great respect, your obedient servant,

J. W. ELLIS.

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Aw, Shucks!