Informed Opinions on Today’s Topics : Confederate Symbols Come Under Fire

A local high school was ordered to stop waving the Confederate flag after the last cannon shot was fired in Quartz Hill late Wednesday night.

The Antelope Valley Union High School District voted unanimously that Quartz Hill High School eliminate all Confederate symbols from its campus, which has a Confederate rebel--nicknamed “Johnny Reb”--as its mascot and Confederate flags on its stationery.

The motion stipulates that the school may keep the image of a rebel, but all Confederate paraphernalia must be banished.

The decision came in the wake of a student-generated petition that requested that the symbols be removed because they are offensive. It was signed by more than 1,000 students.

Wednesday’s school board meeting drew more than 100 residents from both sides of the issue, arguing adamantly during the public comment section to either keep or remove the controversial image.

Some in this high desert community argue that their Southern heritage forces them to recognize those who died on both sides of the war--a dispute that some say was motivated more by economics than race.

Others say the implementation of “Johnny Reb” and the Confederate symbols was never intended to represent racist ideology. It symbolized the struggle 31 years ago to establish the first high school in the Western reaches of the Antelope Valley--an area often ignored by the rest of Los Angeles County.

Others blasted that position, saying the Confederate flag will always be a painful image to African Americans, conjuring images of the worst system of oppression this country has ever known.

Over a century after the Civil War, why do some still honor the Confederate flag and what might be the racial implications behind its use?

Henry Hearns, Lancaster city councilman:

“I know, and all people recognize, that economics was a driving element for the Civil War, but incumbent in that package was the business of keeping the slaves to do the work onan economical basis. So when blacks look at that flag it brings up in their hearts a turbulent feeling that this school is not for us, that this is for the Confederate side of the house. I believe that when this was established, the people may not have had this in mind, but the perception is there.”

Lynda Thompson Taylor, president, Antelope Valley branch, National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People:

“We don’t need those Confederate symbols representing a public entity. It’s degrading to everybody and it’s a divisive tool used to say that race is still important. It allows a climate to fester hate . . . and polarizes the community. The Civil War is over and the United States has won and you don’t raise the flag of an enemy. That’s an offense to all Americans. The Nazis have been defeated and it is not different than raising the Nazi flag in Germany.

Dave Kennedy, president, Antelope Valley Teachers Assn., and a teacher at Quartz Hill High School:

“The Confederate symbols have never served a good purpose on this campus. This is just a leftover symbol that was delayed too long in being eliminated. It was a transient dream in the beginning and it’s sure faded now (but) the racism and the animosities associated with that are still real. We do have leftover bits and pieces of supremacist movements. They latch on to that symbol and other symbols.”

Billy Pricer, Antelope Valley Union High School District trustee:

“The thing that people are confusing here is that the war wasn’t even about slavery. The Southern states were fighting for their independence. They were fighting to secede from the Union states. . . . So it is my opinion that these people have mistakenly taken the Confederate flag as a sign of slavery or racism.”