NAACP wants battle flag off Confederate vet's memorial

AW SHUCKS/FLORIDA TIMES-UNION | 06-11-02 | ASSOCIATED PRESS

[TexConfederate1861]

The Associated Press

CRESTVIEW, Fla. - 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 citizens 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 Florida Panhandle city. An earlier move 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 flag.

"We will do what we have to do," Williams said. "We will not stop until we have succeeded in removing that flag."

Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[sweetliberty]

Who the h*** cares what the NAACP wants?? It's time regular Americans stopped pandering to these hateful people.

[x]

In a thread about rewriting history, you cite rewritten lyrics of "Dixie." What you cite may have been sung during the war, but those aren't the words the author of the song wrote. Indeed, they are very far in meaning from the Ohio Yankee Dan Emmett's original sentimental song. They have been rewritten to support the Confederate cause. The implication is that the Confederates weren't opposed to rewriting song lyrics or history when it suited their interests.