Odum, Ga. (no relation) is known for two things: a prison and Dixie Outfitters. While the prison is not well known, the same cannot be said for Dixie Outfitters. The little company has developed quite a following among certain segments of Southern society. As the battles continue to rage all over the South concerning Confederate flags, Dixie Outfitters’ Confederate flag-themed merchandise keeps on selling. As company spokesperson Dewey Barber said, “The more controversy, the better our sales.” If that is the case, then Barber must have seen dollar signs when he picked up a recent edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Journal-Constitution reported that a principal at Cherokee High School in Canton, Ga., banned Dixie Outfitters T-shirts after hearing a few complaints. To protest, 150 parents kept their kids out of school, claiming that the rule violates the First Amendment right to free speech.
Cherokee High principal Bill Sebring is not the first school administrator in the Peach State to ‘rouse the rebels on this issue. Students in Seminole County and Cherokee County were prohibited from wearing the Stars and Bars by school administrators as well. As usual, all of the neo-Confederates are up in arms, freely throwing around the word “scalawag,” and trying to convince everyone that the Civil War never actually ended.
According to the Supreme Court, school administrators have the right to ban T-shirts. An Ohio high school student unsuccessfully sued his board of education a couple of years ago for prohibiting him from wearing a Marilyn Manson T-shirt to school. However, there is a slight difference between this case and the Confederate flag cases. According to Georgia law, public schools are required to display the state flag on school grounds. Georgia’s state flag contains a small Confederate battle emblem.
Three colossal ironies are at work in this case. First of all, if the army that originally followed the Confederate flag into battle had been successful, these students would not be citizens of the United States. Therefore, they would have no First Amendment rights to violate.
Second, a principal is banning students from wearing and displaying a symbol that he is required by law to display on a flagpole for all to see.
Last but not least, an old law on the books in Georgia prohibits the use of the Confederate flag to sell merchandise. So technically speaking, Dixie Outfitters is selling T-shirts in violation of Georgia law. Afternoon soap operas have fewer plot twists.
All silliness aside, the main question is what rights the students have. High school students’ rights to free expression are limited. Students are prohibited from wearing T-shirts that advertise products that are illegal for minors to possess or promote activities that are illegal to engage in. For this reason, there are rules against T-shirts that advertise sex, drugs or alcohol. It is not illegal for minors to possess Confederate flags.
There is also the issue of a principal’s responsibility to maintain order. It is hard to believe that the presence of Confederate flags is a threat to order at a suburban North Georgia school that is 91 percent white. If anything, banning the symbol has been more disruptive to school order than permitting it. Sebring’s actions, however noble their intent, have failed to produce the desired result.
Justice Louis Brandeis, one of the nation’s greatest legal scholars, once said, “Sunlight is the best antiseptic.” Banning the controversial only increases its popularity, especially among rebellious youth. Just ask rapper Eminem and country singer Toby Keith how controversy surrounding their lyrics affected their album sales. Both men had their albums at the top of their respective genre’s sales charts this past year.
Sebring’s actions have only fed a controversy that keeps popping up like the villain in a series of bad horror movies. In the shadow of this controversy, lies become truth, fact becomes fiction and myth becomes history. Censorship won’t fix anything. Reasoned dialogue and education will.
Tony Odom is a graduate student in the history department. Send comments to [email protected].