Black official removes graves' Confederate flags
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I go duffy on dem bitches
Joined: Mar 2001
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From: Gonzales, Louisiana
Black official removes graves' Confederate flags
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http://www.al.com/newsflash/index.ss...st=alabamanews
Black official removes graves' Confederate flags
4/24/2009, 1:45 p.m. CDT The Associated Press
(AP) — AUBURN, Ala. (AP) ? Several Confederate flags placed on the graves of Civil War soldiers got pulled up by a black Auburn city councilman, who called them symbols of racism and hatred.
Mary Norman, president of Auburn Heritage Association, said she was at her family's burial plot in Pine Hill Cemetery when Councilman Arthur Dowdell removed the small Confederate flag from her great-grandfather's grave Thursday afternoon.
"He pulled up the flag, snapped it in two and put it in his car," said Norman, who is white.
Dowdell said Friday he did not break the flag's stick intentionally. Instead, it broke when he pulled it out of the ground. But, he said, "I should have broken them all. They are offensive to me. They represent racism and the Ku Klux Klan."
Dowdell, who was elected to the City Council in 1995, said he was motivated to act when he went to pick up his daughter Thursday afternoon from her school near the cemetery. He said some parents complained to him about small Confederate battle flags being on graves throughout the cemetery in downtown Auburn.
Dowdell said he drove to the cemetery and saw it decorated "like a Klan rally or a skinhead rally."
"It's intimidating to black folks, and it's intimidating to me as a civil rights leader," he said. Dowdell said he pulled up four flags and left.
Norman, a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, said other UDC members placed the flags on the graves of Confederate veterans because Sunday is the official day for Confederate Memorial Day and Monday is the state holiday for it. She said the flags marked the graves of 75 known Confederate soldiers in the cemetery and a monument for 98 unidentified Confederate soldiers also buried there.
She said putting the flags on the graves of Confederate veterans for a few days around Confederate Memorial Day has nothing to do with race or hatred. "This has been a tradition in Auburn for over 100 years," she said.
Mayor Bill Ham Jr. said the city of more than 43,000 residents had never had any problems with previous Confederate Memorial Day observances. "This was a shocker," he said.
Ham said he was troubled that anyone would remove an item from a grave without permission. He said he had received more than 20 phone calls about the removal by Friday afternoon and all were opposed to what was done.
Norman said she and a friend were in the cemetery doing research for a book about the historic burial ground when Dowdell pulled up the flags. Her friend took a photo of him leaving the cemetery with the flags.
"I don't think you can go and desecrate graves, and he desecrated graves," she said.
Dowdell said other city cemeteries have restrictions on what can be placed on graves, but Pine Hill Cemetery does not. He said he will ask the City Council to pass an ordinance allowing the flags for only 24 hours on Confederate Memorial Day and requiring a sign explaining their presence.
"We don't have anything like those flags flying four days before Martin Luther King Day. We celebrate it on that day," he said.
___
Information from: Opelika-Auburn News
http://www.al.com/newsflash/index.ss...st=alabamanews
Black official removes graves' Confederate flags
4/24/2009, 1:45 p.m. CDT The Associated Press
(AP) — AUBURN, Ala. (AP) ? Several Confederate flags placed on the graves of Civil War soldiers got pulled up by a black Auburn city councilman, who called them symbols of racism and hatred.
Mary Norman, president of Auburn Heritage Association, said she was at her family's burial plot in Pine Hill Cemetery when Councilman Arthur Dowdell removed the small Confederate flag from her great-grandfather's grave Thursday afternoon.
"He pulled up the flag, snapped it in two and put it in his car," said Norman, who is white.
Dowdell said Friday he did not break the flag's stick intentionally. Instead, it broke when he pulled it out of the ground. But, he said, "I should have broken them all. They are offensive to me. They represent racism and the Ku Klux Klan."
Dowdell, who was elected to the City Council in 1995, said he was motivated to act when he went to pick up his daughter Thursday afternoon from her school near the cemetery. He said some parents complained to him about small Confederate battle flags being on graves throughout the cemetery in downtown Auburn.
Dowdell said he drove to the cemetery and saw it decorated "like a Klan rally or a skinhead rally."
"It's intimidating to black folks, and it's intimidating to me as a civil rights leader," he said. Dowdell said he pulled up four flags and left.
Norman, a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, said other UDC members placed the flags on the graves of Confederate veterans because Sunday is the official day for Confederate Memorial Day and Monday is the state holiday for it. She said the flags marked the graves of 75 known Confederate soldiers in the cemetery and a monument for 98 unidentified Confederate soldiers also buried there.
She said putting the flags on the graves of Confederate veterans for a few days around Confederate Memorial Day has nothing to do with race or hatred. "This has been a tradition in Auburn for over 100 years," she said.
Mayor Bill Ham Jr. said the city of more than 43,000 residents had never had any problems with previous Confederate Memorial Day observances. "This was a shocker," he said.
Ham said he was troubled that anyone would remove an item from a grave without permission. He said he had received more than 20 phone calls about the removal by Friday afternoon and all were opposed to what was done.
Norman said she and a friend were in the cemetery doing research for a book about the historic burial ground when Dowdell pulled up the flags. Her friend took a photo of him leaving the cemetery with the flags.
"I don't think you can go and desecrate graves, and he desecrated graves," she said.
Dowdell said other city cemeteries have restrictions on what can be placed on graves, but Pine Hill Cemetery does not. He said he will ask the City Council to pass an ordinance allowing the flags for only 24 hours on Confederate Memorial Day and requiring a sign explaining their presence.
"We don't have anything like those flags flying four days before Martin Luther King Day. We celebrate it on that day," he said.
___
Information from: Opelika-Auburn News
it's my D in a B
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 24,787
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From: Your Mom's House
If these were someone's graves from 1995, I could see it being a little different. But either way, you can't fuck with someone's grave because it personally offends you. There is no stipulation for public approval in gravestones, that's a man's final resting place, what he wants on his gravestone is none of your business.
un-Touch'd krew
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 51,774
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From: My own level of hell
Charge that fucker with desecration of a gravesite like they should.
even I find that flag mildly offensive but historically speaking it is not an offensive flag when related to confederate soldiers.
even I find that flag mildly offensive but historically speaking it is not an offensive flag when related to confederate soldiers.
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Wannabe ///M3 owner
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 9,616
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From: Northern California
I gotta agree. These are people's graves. The fact they offend you doesn't give you the right to remove things from them. I think he should vacate his seat and offer a public apology. If this was a white councilman removing something symbolic from an african american man's grave Jesse Jackson and Al Sarpton and all of his cronies would be up in arms calling for his removal from office and that he be stoned in public. This should be no different
I'm made of meat!
Joined: Mar 2003
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From: Richmond, VA
The people in those graves died for what they believed in. That flag is not a symbol of racism. Having lived across the street from a civil war graveyard in Georgia for many years, I've learned it means a lot more than what that ignorant 'tard claims. If klansman use a pillowcase for a hat, then why aren't all black people afraid of pillow cases? That has more to do with the Klan than that flag.
CBOTY 2010
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 34,786
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From: MI
wow thats fucked up
so because he didnt like it he felt it was his duty to remove it from someones grave? thats pretty pathetic.
so we celebrate memorial day one day a year but we put american flags up all year round on graves. should we only have them the one day. sadly they wont do anything to this guy but fuck his ass should be charged with desecration and be removed from office. who does he think he is that he can just do that? ohh a black guy who happens to be a civil rights leader? fuck him
so because he didnt like it he felt it was his duty to remove it from someones grave? thats pretty pathetic.
so we celebrate memorial day one day a year but we put american flags up all year round on graves. should we only have them the one day. sadly they wont do anything to this guy but fuck his ass should be charged with desecration and be removed from office. who does he think he is that he can just do that? ohh a black guy who happens to be a civil rights leader? fuck him
