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Posted on 11/07/2001 6:21:44 AM PST by shuckmaster

The Mobile Bay Area Veterans Day Commission said Tuesday that it will block a group from carrying the Confederate Battle Flag in Monday's annual parade in downtown Mobile.

A spokesman for the Battle Flag group, which includes members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Council of Conservative Citizens, described such action as discriminatory.

"We have a right to dignity, a right to free speech, and a right to honor," Reggie Phillips of Mobile said.

The dispute marks the latest skirmish over the Battle Flag, which Mobile officials replaced in the city seal more than a year ago. Similar controversies about displaying the Battle Flag on public property have erupted throughout the South.

At issue is whether the blue St. Andrews cross studded with 13 white stars against a field of red represents Southern heritage or the region's history of racial intolerance.

Richard Cashdollar, Mobile's public safety director and vice president of the Veterans Day Commission, said parade organizers will allow Phillips' group to march with the First National and Third National flags of the Confederacy.

The Third National Flag, which features the Battle Flag in the canton, was approved last summer for the Mobile seal. It is flown at several city and county displays.

"As no other battle flags are scheduled for display in the parade, the commission felt that display of the Confederate Battle Flag would be inappropriate, and would detract from the purpose of the parade -- which is to honor veterans and not causes," Cashdollar said in a Tuesday letter to Phillips.

Cashdollar said about 20 members of the commission, which he described as an informal, nonprofit group, voted unanimously Monday night to bar the Battle Flag.

Mobile city and county governments donate $5,000 each to veterans activities throughout the year.

It was unclear Tuesday how many years Mobile has honored veterans with a downtown parade, but Cashdollar and Phillips each agreed that no group has ever marched on behalf of soldiers and sailors from the 1860s Confederate period.

"This is the year, it's time to begin," Phillips said. "It's gone on for too long without honoring their memory."

Confederate veterans were pardoned and recognized as U.S. veterans by Congress in 1958.

Bill Voight, president of National Veterans Day in Birmingham, said that no Confederate group has ever marched in that city's annual event, which dates back to 1947, older than most in the nation.

"The only thing close is we have a group that represents the Buffalo Soldiers that ride in full uniform," he said.

The Buffalo Soldiers were cavalry and infantry regiments created shortly after the end of the Civil War from black soldiers who had fought on the side of the Union. They served in the country's western frontier.

Voight said Birmingham has had to ban some commercial interests from participating in the parade, including a mortuary that wanted to send a hearse.

"We do ask that any marching unit be appropriate for the occasion and show respect and support for veterans, e.g., no clowns, clown cars, protest floats, etc.," Patrick H. Dowling, president of the Mobile Veterans Day Commission, wrote in the Oct. 23 edition of the Mobile Register.

Cashdollar said about 2,000 people in 50 groups plan to participate in the parade, which begins at 10 a.m. The presence of National Guard and other military units will be slightly smaller than past years, he said, because of the new war on terrorism.

Phillips, who wants to bring a group of about 20 people, said he was "galled" that the commission would allow the First and Third National flags, but not the Battle Flag. He argued that it is wrong to associate the Battle Flag with racism when "the official flag of the Ku Klux Klan is the U.S. flag."

Phillips described the Council of Conservative Citizens as "pro-Southern heritage." But the council has been labeled as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and other civil rights watchdogs.

Asked about Auburn University fraternity students recently posing in front of the Battle Flag wearing Klan robes and black face, Phillips said he was "very offended and hurt" and called the Halloween stunt "sick humor."

Political Correctivism strikes again!

Time to stamp out PC'ism!

HURRAH FOR THE CONFEDERACY! HURRAH! HURRAH!

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