Confederate Flag supporters take to Atlanta streets

Tuesday, supporters of the former flag marched to the capitol to remind the new governor about his promise for a referendum. Several hundred old Georgia flags, which bear the St. Andrews cross, more widely known as the Confederate battle emblem, were paraded down the streets of Atlanta, on the way to the steps of the capitol.

Leaders of the rally held a "pledge of allegiance" to the old flag. Old flag supporters sang, and played their message with enthusiasm. But quietly, from the sky, an airplane towed a message for the new governor: "Barnes was just a warm-up."

"This is not a protest," said one speaker. "We gathered here today to celebrate!"

"Every time we're given the chance to vote, we win," said Ron Wilson of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. "Cram it to 'em. Don't back up. Make sure the referendum happens," he told the crowd.

Many supporters dressed up for the occasion, with Confederate uniforms. They say that Roy Barnes was trying to erase Southern heritage. "It's been with us for so long, why not keep it a little bit longer?' asked Flag Supporter Gerry Turner. Turner is a Civil War re-enactor, and the flag is also a part of his history. "Part of my family was on the South side, fighting during the war. All of us were fighting for our rights. As we like to say, 'rats...'"

Shortly after the rally, Governor Perdue agreed to a non-binding referendum, which means Georgians will be able to vote, but it will be similar to an opinion poll, and will not carry the force of law.

Even though the governor is pushing for this non-binding referendum, it's not a done deal. The legislature would still have to approve a flag change, and no one knows when a referendum would be held.

Governor Barnes suddenly and quietly rammed the flag change through the General Assembly in January 2001.

The Bravehearts of the South
Between 1861 and 1865: 260,000 men gave their lives in pursuit of freedom. And they made 320,000 men give their lives to deny that freedom to the South. (temporarily)
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THERE WERE NOT ENOUGH OF THEM

Honoring sacrifice in defense of home, hearth and conviction, however ancient the memory of that sacrifice, is a stubborn attribute of the human heart. This is particularly true when sacrifice is spent in a lost cause. John W. Thomason Jr., a senior Marine officer and novelist, expressed the South’s devotion to the memory of its fallen sons eloquently on the eve of World War II, as he reflected on the timber of the men of a previous century who enshrined a banner in the hearts of their progeny. Those who profess not to understand the stubborn Southern devotion to the St. Andrew’s Cross could profitably study his words:

"It was never a homogeneous army. The Tidewater regiments of Virginia with … their cavalier dash were not quite the same as the sturdy blue-light soldiers from the Valley whom Stonewall Jackson led down to First Manassas. They were plain and simple men from the hill farms of North Carolina and Tennessee ... who hardened under fire as steel in a furnace. South Carolina sent high-nosed heroes ... hard-dying men in any company. In the hearts of Alabama and Georgia soldiers there smoldered always an angry hell, burning brightest in battle. From Texas and Mississippi and Arkansas came the tall hunters who broke the cane and bridled the western waters; --bear killers and Indian fighters regarded as savage and dreadful by civilized patriots called to arms out of rock-fenced New England pastures.

Louisiana sent those famous cosmopolitan Zouaves called the Louisiana Tigers ... and there were Florida troops who, undismayed in fire, stampeded the night after Fredericksburg, when the Aurora Borealis snapped and crackled over that field of the frozen dead hard by the Rappahannock ...

"One thing they had in common was a belief in Southern rights. That one of those rights involved the dark institution of chattel slavery is not pertinent because few of them owned slaves or hoped to own them. That tariff and free trade entered into it is not pertinent, either: These were pastorals, and their economics were bounded by their fields and woodlots. --Those men believed in something. They counted life a light thing to lay down in the faith they bore. They were terrible in battle. They were generous in victory. They rose up from defeat to fight again, and while they lived they were formidable. There were not enough of them. That is all."

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