Free Republic

An Anderson County student suspended twice this fall for wearing items with the rebel flag on them has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that school officials trampled on his constitutional rights. The lawsuit on behalf of Tom DeFoe, a senior at Anderson County High School, and his father, Phil DeFoe, was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Knoxville. The teen's rights of free speech and equal protection have been violated by crackdowns on a vague county school dress code, the complaint states. Tom DeFoe was suspended from Anderson County High School in late October for wearing a T-shirt with...

Is Sen. George Allen a racist? Who? If you mention George Allen outside Washington and Virginia, most people don't know who he is. Yet the spin machine trying to cast Allen as a racist — as prequel to his presidential candidacy — already is operating at full throttle. Thus, before millions of Americans are able to match Allen's name with his face, they'll likely be able to link his name to the label — racist. The fact that the mudslinging has begun so early — while Allen is busy running for re-election to the Senate — confirms how seriously opponents...

On a weekend pilgrimage to this town that was once the center of massive resistance to desegregation, Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) said he believes a congressional resolution expressing remorse for slavery would be a "powerful, worthy" idea. Allen, who is running for reelection while considering a 2008 presidential bid, was in Farmville over the weekend as part of a racial reconciliation trip organized by the bipartisan Faith and Politics Institute. Also participating in the pilgrimage was Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a leader in the civil rights movement. Allen pledged to work with Lewis to build support among colleagues and the...

Sen. George Allen, who has tried to reach out to minority voters in recent years, wore a Confederate flag pin on his shirt collar in a high-school yearbook photo, a national magazine reported yesterday. As a high school student in Palos Verdes, Calif., Allen was seen riding in or driving a Ford Mustang with either a Confederate flag license plate or Confederate flag imagery on the car, The New Republic quoted witnesses as saying. The Virginia Republican, seeking re-election now and weighing a presidential bid in 2008, was to depart today to co-host a civil-rights history tour for members of...

Travelers on I-75 have a new diversion to break up those long drives to Florida. “Need a laugh?” beckons a billboard overlooking Exit 212 in Locust Grove, south of Atlanta. The sign directs motorists to the Tanger Outlet Center, where they’ll find the Foxworthy Store — an emporium devoted to Atlanta comedian Jeff Foxworthy and his buddies on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. The store’s clever T-shirts, humorous hunting paraphernalia and novelties are built around Foxworthy’s “You might be a redneck” shtick — everything from camouflage camisoles for the ladies to a “redneck jack-in-the-box” that pops out of an outhouse....

Two Hickman High School students disrupted a multicultural assembly yesterday in the school’s auditorium by unfurling a Confederate flag from the balcony. Ryan Lanman, 17, who is white, and a friend enacted their plan while another student was singing "The Yellow Rose of Texas" to commemorate the Spanish-American War and honor Texas. After the disruption, the students involved were told to leave, and the assembly continued, Principal Mike Jeffers said, adding that he couldn’t talk about whether the students would be disciplined. Lanman, reached by phone after the assembly yesterday afternoon, said he and fellow student Kevin Meyers meant to...

NEW YORK (AP) -- NASCAR CEO Brian France doesn't like fans flying Confederate flags at races as he tries to make auto racing more appealing to minorities and women. "It's not a flag that I look at with anything favorable. That's for sure,'' he said in an interview with CBS' 60 Minutes to be aired Sunday.

No Rebel rousing: Clinton High forbids Confederate flag at tonight's game 2005-09-02 From Staff Reports Clinton High School officials have asked Maryville fans to refrain from bringing or waving any Rebel flags at the two schools' high school football game tonight. Kickoff in Clinton is at 7:30. While the Maryville Board of Education this summer adopted a ban on the besieged flag at its home games, Rebels fans lustily waved the spirit symbol during last week's 41-21 win at rival Alcoa. Clinton officials made the request in an effort to honor the school's heritage, according to Dragons athletics director Jim...

The Maryville Board of Education voted on second reading Thursday night to ban flags, including the long-standing Rebel flag, from school-sponsored events. About 75 people attended the meeting with 10 audience members speaking both for and against the policy. The event safety policy bans ``noisemakers, flags, laser-pointers (lights), sirens, whistles, portable stereos (e.g. CD players and tape players), banners, horns, handheld signs and implements (e.g. poles, sticks and wires to support flags, banners or other such items at any school sponsored activity.'' The policy addresses other areas including abusive language, harassment/intimidation and taunting. ``Any action or speech that might reasonably...

Lawyer Kirk D. Lyons got married 15 years ago in a traditional Scottish ceremony, wearing a kilt as he walked down the aisle to the strains of bagpipes. Like most traditional weddings, the ceremony was held at the bride's church and paid for by her family. But this church, the Church of Jesus Christ Christian, was located in the Aryan Nations compound in Idaho, where the father of the bride was second-in-command of the white supremacist group to Richard Butler, who officiated. A former leader of the Texas Ku Klux Klan stood as best man. Those nuptials, along with Lyons'...

Today H.K. Edgerton, a black man from Asheville, N.C., will walk into Maryville with a Confederate flag and a hope for ``dialogue.'' He'll stop at the Blount County Courthouse, at about 1 p.m., to get his message out, one that he hopes will bring blacks and whites together, rather than divide people. He walked this week from Johnson City and has experienced both affection and anger from people he's met on the road. ``This is not about a longevity trip, not like it was when I walked to Texas. This is more about coming to Maryville to try to change...

Tony Horwitz writes in his review of John Coski's The Confederate Battle Flag: America's Most Embattled Emblem that "few emblems in American history have provoked stronger passions than the battle flag of the vanquished Confederacy. To some it symbolizes honor and independence; to others, hatred and slavery." How can a flag that was never officially recognized as the flag of a country, a flag that never flew over a government building or other facility, become one of America's most divisive symbols. It is the purpose of this brief article to look at the history of the Confederate flag, not to...

Maryville bans Rebel flag at events 2005-06-14 by Bonny C. Millard of The Daily Times Staff The Rebel flag will no longer be allowed at any Maryville school system events. The Maryville Board of Education voted on first reading to ban flags, noisemakers, sirens, whistles, laser-pointers and hand-held signs Monday night during its monthly meeting. ``This would prohibit bringing in any kind of flags,'' Director of Schools Mike Dalton said. The exemption to this policy will be equipment, approved by the principal and Dalton, used by groups such as cheerleaders and the flag team. The no-flag policy eliminates the use...

Ban on Rebel flag items is overruled JUDGE SIDES WITH STUDENT IN W.VA. CASE By Brian Farkas ASSOCIATED PRESS CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A federal judge has ruled a high school dress code that banned items bearing the "Rebel flag" is overly broad and violates students' rights to free speech. But U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. warned students if they use the Confederate battle flag as a symbol to violate the rights of others, "the very ban struck down today might be entirely appropriate." Copenhaver's ruling came in a lawsuit filed by Hurricane (W.Va.) High School senior Franklin Bragg,...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A federal judge has ruled a high school dress code that banned items bearing the "Rebel flag" is overly broad and violates students' rights to free speech. But U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. warned students if they use the Confederate battle flag as a symbol to violate the rights of others, "the very ban struck down today might be entirely appropriate." Copenhaver's ruling came in a lawsuit filed by Hurricane (W.Va.) High School senior Franklin Bragg, who was ordered to serve two in-house detentions last November for wearing the T-shirt with the flag's image. The...

The defining moment of my visit to New Orleans a year ago occurred in a gift shop. I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit this, but at least it wasn't the kind that sells feather boas and t-shirts with jazz-playing lobsters. I wasn't a sorority girl nursing my hangover at Café Du Monde during Mardi Gras; I was a tourist visiting what used to be a sprawling, stately slave plantation. I was busy mulling over that subtly troubling experience, browsing through the gift shop's bookshelves, when I came to a curious array of volumes. The title The South Was Right! jumped out...

Just saw this on Fox. Dean was in NH to submit his $1000 filing fee for the NH primary. There were protestors there waving confederate flags, wearing sheets (that you Dr. Raoul?), and holding "Dean McGovern" signs.

Three MAJOR civil war cinema epics are due in 2003. 1) Robert Duvall plays Robert E. Lee in Gods & Generals, out Feb. 21; 2) Jude Law portrays a jaded confederate in Cold Mountain, due Dec. 25, 2003; and 3) Tom Cruise plays a Civil War veteran who witnesses the end of a Japanese culture in The Last Samurai, due Dec. 12, 2003. Gods & Generals is replete with special effects, although director Maxwell still used more than 10,000 extras to re-create battle scenes.

Confederate-heritage boosters say they would win a flag referendum in Georgia, despite potential boycotts. The defeat of Governor Barnes was among several recent indications of voter support for Southern Independence symbols: 1) South Carolina Gov. David Beasley was defeated in 1998, two years after he pushed a measure to remove the Confederate banner from atop the Statehouse in Columbia. 2) In April 2001, Mississippi held a referendum in which 66 percent voted to retain that state's Confederate-themed flag. 3) On Tuesday, 58 percent of voters in Harrison County, Miss., elected to keep a Confederate flag display at the beach in...