Believe it or not, the tired old fight over flying the Confederate battle flag in a public place is still going on. Where is this fight still being fought? Why, it’s on the white sands of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. This time, the Harrison County Board of Supervisors has decided to re-fly the Confederate battle flag, after a hiatus of two years, in a display of the seven other flags of the past governments of Mississippi. The display stands right on the beach between Gulfport and Biloxi.
A historian hired by the Board confirmed that the Southern Cross design was never adopted by the Confederacy and that the first official flag adopted, the Stars and Bars, bore no resemblance to it. The Confederate battle flag never officially represented a government of Mississippi.
Not surprisingly, only one day after the display was raised on July 9, it began to draw protest.
An Alcorn State student, Jason Whitfield, decided to put school and work on the backburner and sit on the beach in protest. He abandons his pavilion only once a day to shower at his home and sustains himself only with those things that the throngs of his supporters bring him to eat and drink. He vowed that he would not resume his normal life until the flag came down.
This act of sacrifice has, of course, drawn attention from other like-minded groups and people around the region, including the quick-to-defend NAACP and some who disagree, like David Duke’s group of clowns, the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, or EURO. Both headliners have staged sit-ins and rallies and have drawn protestors for both sides.
Both sets of protestors, who number in the hundreds, have gathered on the Coast and committed their time and effort to this struggle to preserve the proud white Southerner’s disappearing heritage or to fight the always-lurking oppression of the Southern black.
Are EURO’s efforts in vain? Perhaps. If it weren’t for their valiant efforts to keep the flag flying on the Coast, soon people everywhere might just forget about what happened in American history from 1861-1865.
Is the NAACP’s and Jason Whitfield’s fortitude completely necessary? Maybe. After all, if they let the Harrison County Board of Supervisors get away with this one, the Board will probably want to re-segregate public schools next.
All of this conflict and division could be averted if the Board decided that they could do without the Confederate flag flying on the beach. Of course, then no one would have their chance at 15 minutes of fame and there would be no soapbox worth standing on for the Jesse Jacksons and David Dukes of the world.
The Board recently made events even more interesting by voting to put the entire matter up for election.
I’d be willing to wager that a lot of the South’s population, who are not compelled to scream wild battle cries or are terribly offended when they see the battle flag, would be happier if these conflicts were avoided.
Mississippians, for the most part, would surely be content not to receive such bad publicity in the nation’s eyes. Conflicts like this, no matter how glorified in the eyes of the clashing sides, are nothing more than squabbles and are much more trouble than they are worth.
Josh Foreman is a junior communication major. Send comments to [email protected].