Please join me in my efforts to ban the Confederate flag from all school campuses.

The controversy about the Confederate flag takes into account when the flag gained the most popularity... 31 years AFTER the Civil War!

After the Plessy vs. Ferguson Supreme Court decision in 1896, the path was cleared for legal segregation, and the main symbol of the Southern resistance to blacks being a part of this society became the Confederate battle flag. Simply put, it became a symbol used to help racist whites usher in Jim Crow.

In Virgina, the Franklin County School Board did the right thing and banned the flag from their district.
School board member Jon Atchue, said those saying he was being too sensitive are not aware of the history of violence against black people. Atchue said many black students growing up listening to stories of Ku Klux Klan members terrorizing their ancestors while bearing the flag would be fearful of seeing the image on school grounds.

"Banning that flag on school campuses would infringe with my freedom of speech," is the most common rebuttal I hear from misguided and poorly educated white racist.
But did you know that district leaders and campus administrators have a first amendment right to counter hateful messages and a responsibility to ensure the safety and inclusivity of their campuses?

I often hear differing interpretations of what the Confederate battle flag means to people. It certainly was an emblem of rebellion against the United States of America under which the most shameful institution in American history (slavery) was defended. The flag’s meaning has changed significantly over time, and the contemporary conflict about the flag should be seen more as a dispute about the future than the past.

As of 2020, that flag has become a signal of hatred, racial exclusion and hostility. The flag of the Confederacy has been consciously and explicitly embraced by hate groups as an effective tool to promote values that are fundamentally at odds with, and undermine, our school's commitment to safety and equity for all students.

I have personally witnessed the trauma that flag causes to both students and teachers when a student has it on display.  As everyone knows, there are deep rooted racial issues on our school campuses (which often go unnoticed).  The students who come onto campuses with the flag proudly displayed on their vehicles, book bags, etc. pose the risk of escalating these racial tensions even further.   The flag has become an offensive symbol of hate and division in our country and is currently used by the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacy hate groups.  

This presents a threat to our state's core values, community security, and good order and discipline.  And the state of race relations today is equally important when the flag, which was a symbol of racism in the past, is associated with justifying racism in the present. In polls, many African Americans support ending the official use of the Confederate flag, no doubt in part to make a statement about the continuing need to address institutional racism and white supremacy in American society.

Recently, the U.S. Marine Corps and the Navy ordered all public displays of the Confederate flag to be removed (a ban that extended to bumper stickers, clothing, mugs, posters and more.)

The order directed the Marine Corps commanders to find and remove displays of the flag in "work places, common-access areas, and public areas" on base.

The following companies have taken a strong stand against the Confederate flag and have either banned it, removed it from their websites, or disallowed the use of it in any capacity:

Walmart

EBay

Amazon

Etsy

Google Shopping

Warner Bros.

Annin Flagmakers

The National Park Service

Spencer Gifts

NASCAR

Please join me in doing what is right by our community and ban this flag from our school campuses so that each and every student feels protected and supported.