Posted on 04/28/2003 6:34:59 AM PDT by lugsoul
Georgia flag will not carry Dixie cross Friday, April 25, 2003 Posted: 10:30 PM EDT (0230 GMT)
ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- The Georgia Legislature voted Friday to change the state flag to a version that echoes the Confederate battle emblem, but without the familiar Dixie cross that had led black lawmakers to promise an economic boycott.
Lawmakers agreed to quash any possibility of a referendum on reviving the Confederate battle emblem, which black lawmakers called a symbol of oppression and which had been a part of the bill.
If the measure is approved by Gov. Sonny Perdue, Georgia voters next March will choose between the temporary flag and the current Georgia flag.
As to your comments on research, if you've looked at this issue, you know that numerous efforts have been made to present definitive evidence on this question. Most come up very short, because there is no direct legislative history. The two most comprehensive efforts, whether you care for the sources or not, are one done by the AJC in 2000 and the Senate Research Report I referenced. That report contains many citations to contemporaneous commentary. Neither of these offer a definitive conclusion - not even the AJC, which clearly would if it could. However, they do present a sizable body of evidence from which the following conclusion can be drawn: if the flag change had NOTHING to do with segregation, it was just about the only thing that legislature did that had nothing to do with segregation. That, coupled with the fact that the floor leader who introduced the bill admitted that it was driven by those segregationist motivations, tends to make that conclusion far more likely than the one supported by the blanket denials of two or three men whose records reflect a long history of pushing for the most onerous and demeaning racial discrimination. The evidence is what it is - as I've said many times, I think it is very compelling that the UDC and the SCV opposed the change. At some point, maybe more will surface, but at this point one can only go in the direction that the available evidence points. My view is that it takes a pretty good pair of blinders to conclude it was all about "heritage." The existing flag at that time was created EXPRESSLY to honor the CSA veterans.
As my source stated: "The Atlanta newspapers researched the subject trying to find proof in 1992 and admitted in at least two articles they failed to do so."
The 1956 GA state flag was definitely adopted as a slap at desegregation.
Cynthia Tucker's 3/26/03 column:
1956 flag flew to defy desegregation
Email Tucker
RECENT COLUMNS
The 1956 Georgia General Assembly was a House afire -- and a Senate, too -- with anger over federal orders to desegregate public schools. The Legislature charged to the defense of white supremacy with a fusillade of resolutions, proclamations and laws designed to keep black Georgians in their place.
That year, Georgia legislators rebuked the FBI and the U.S. attorney general for intervening in a Cobb County case in which a black man was accused of raping a white woman; they declared the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education null and void; they required segregated waiting rooms in train stations and bus depots; they required the State Patrol and the GBI to enforce segregation laws; they commended an Ohio federal judge for "his determination to ignore the absurd directives" ordering desegregation; they opposed the Federal Aid for Education Bill; and they set up the All-South Centennial Committee for the centennial celebration of the Civil War.
Oh, yeah. They also changed the Georgia state flag to feature the St. Andrew's cross and stars, "such remainder being popularly known as The Battle Flag of the Confederacy," according to the act passed by the Legislature.
As Gov. Sonny Perdue drags out the debate over his proposed referendum, he should bear in mind that the claims of "Southern heritage" held aloft by the flaggers don't hold up to historical analysis. A look back at the segregationist agenda of the 1956 General Assembly helps to explain why so many Georgians, especially black Georgians, view the 1956 flag with hostility and suspicion.
The anti-integration fervor that fueled the Georgia Legislature through the 1950s has been meticulously documented by State Court of Appeals Judge Alan Blackburn in his master's thesis, "Brown v. Board of Education: A Southern Response."
". . . [The 1956 flag's] defenders contend it was intended solely to honor the Southern soldiers who fought in the Civil War and arose out of the 'all-South Centennial Committee' activities. [But] the 'committee' . . . which [was to] promote the centennial celebration of the Civil War, wasn't approved until March 9, 1956, while the 1956 flag had already been approved by the Georgia Legislature on February 13, 1956," Blackburn noted.
Besides, the pre-1956 flag honored "Southern heritage" as much as any banner could; it closely resembled the first national flag of the Confederacy. (According to the late Denmark Groover, an influential former legislator, the United Daughters of the Confederacy opposed the 1956 flag change for that reason.)
But the all-white Georgia Legislature chose the St. Andrew's cross with stars for a clear and compelling reason: It was the in-your-face banner adopted by the scowling, hate-filled face of Southern resistance as it burned crosses, beat civil rights protesters and threatened black schoolchildren. The 1956 flag had little to do with the Civil War, but much to do with the war against civil rights.
Two years ago, at age 78, Groover made a courageous appearance before the General Assembly to urge its members to put to rest this "most divisive issue on the political spectrum." He reminded legislators that he had been instrumental in the passage of the 1956 flag, since he was floor leader to then-Gov. Marvin Griffin, who had vowed to defend segregation.
"I presented the matter to the House," Groover recalled, "and . . . probably used some rhetoric indicating that the new flag was to symbolize our defiance of the action of the federal judiciary on matters involving race." It was that rhetoric -- "This will show that we in Georgia intend to uphold what we stood for, will stand for and will fight for," Groover said at the time -- that overcame opposition from the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
And that fiery defiance of desegregation is the "heritage" embodied in the 1956 flag."
[end]
Glad to clear that up.
Walt
Funny, although my ancestors were proud southerners and some fought in the war, my family, even at the peak of segregationism, always thought the Klan were idiots.
It seems to me that this mentality gives greater deference to the opinions of Nazis and neo-nazis and the KKK and skinheads than to those decent, freedom loving Americans who love the flag, but have no ties whatever to any of those groups.
The PC gangsters are trying to do exactly that in their efforts to remove Christ from public life in any form, from Christmas displays of the nativity to the wearing of a cross at work.
Also, as I've said repeatedly, I have no problem with the MS flag - it is their traditional state flag.
For once I'd be curious to hear what your response is if you don't mischaracterize my position in order to set up a false argument for your response.
Sure seems to me that that is how it is being used.
Free dixie,sw
FRee dixie,sw
White supremacists use the Stars and Stripes just as often as the Confederate battle flag. Do you also find the U.S. flag objectionable?
the letter from JFK to SC's governor is framed on the wall of the Relics Room at USC.
didn't know that, did you?
FRee dixie,sw
i wonder why the battleflag-HATERS like x,ditto,illbay,lugsole, WP and others of that ilk never bring that up?????
FRee dixie,sw
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