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Posted on 06/12/2002 7:48:50 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
CRESTVIEW -- The NAACP wants the Confederate battle flag removed from a memorial on city property that honors Florida's last Civil War veteran, who died in 1957.
Sabu Williams, local chapter president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, on Monday likened the flag to the Berlin Wall, contending it represents a wall of terror, hatred, murder, bigotry and shame.
"The heritage of the Confederate battle flag is that it was meant to divide," Williams told the City Council. "Today, we should be looking at things that bind us, not divide us."
The council delayed a decision until June 24 after listening to Williams and some of about 70 other residents who packed its chambers. Each side was given 10 minutes.
Martin Barker, representing the Florida Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said the flag is a sign of history, not hate. "History is a fact," Barker said. "We can't change it, but we can learn from it. If we bury it, we will deprive our children and our grandchildren of that fact."
The memorial was put up along State Road 85, one of Crestview's main thoroughfares, a year after William "Uncle Bill" Lundy died in this Panhandle city. An earlier effort to remove the flag failed in 1996.
Williams said he had no issue with the memorial, just the flag.
One of Lundy's grandsons, Hayden Lundy, argued to keep the flag, saying his grandfather never hated anyone. "Uncle Bill Lundy was a loving man," he said.
The NAACP has organized protests and economic boycotts in other places where it has fought to bring down the Confederate battle flag.
"We will do what we have to do," Williams said. "We will not stop until we have succeeded in removing that flag."
I understand the Panhandle is basically right wing voters?
I remember the 2000 elections were called before the polls closed there because of the split time line.
Won't this outrage the right enough to actually increase their right wing voters for Jeb?
The NAACP is just vainly trying to justify it's existence and makes noise. I hope Crestview nuts up.
I wonder if they've offered their position on the subject of Reparations.
But Jeb removed the Confederate flag from the capitol grounds here in Tallahassee and put it in a museum.
That is true if you exclude Pensacola. BTW, Janet Reno is in Crestview today.
Well, at the rate of one or two flags per election year, that should take some time.
Florida's last civil war veteran was GAY??
WHO knew?
Deo Vindice
Actually, we have the nation's most conservative district.
I remember the 2000 elections were called before the polls closed there because of the split time line.
wasn't as big of a deal as some made it out to be. Those that intended to vote had already done so and those that didn't used it as an excuse.
Won't this outrage the right enough to actually increase their right wing voters for Jeb?
We don't get much attention from the State out here. Not much money, either. Unless the governor does something EXTREMELY bright or stupid, he's pretty much a non-entity here. We get more exicted about the 4 indicted county commissioners and the beach's pink flag warninigs on Memorial day.
LOL!! Probably haven't bothered to study the actual history and don't realize it. You know you can't let a little thing like historical fact get in the way when you've got an agenda.
I fly the Stainless Banner and people ask me all the time why I don't fly the Battle Flag. They don't realize there were national flags. Public education will do that to you I guess.
I'm partial to that one, too! : )
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