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House Scraps Vote on Confederate Flag in Federal Cemeteries

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In this June 30, 2015 file photo, a Confederate flag flies at the base of Stone Mountain in Stone Mountain, Ga.  The House is about to put its members on record on whether Confederate flags can decorate rebel graves in historic federal cemeteries and if their sale should be banned in national park gift shops.  The vote comes after southern lawmakers complained that they were sandbagged two nights ago when the House voted — without a recorded tally — to ban the display of Confederate flags at historic federal cemeteries and strengthen Park Service policy against its sale in gift shops. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

In this June 30, 2015 file photo, a Confederate flag flies at the base of Stone Mountain in Stone Mountain, Ga. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

DAVID ESPO, Associated Press
ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Retreating under pressure, House Republicans scrapped plans for a vote Thursday on allowing the display of Confederate flags at Park Service-run cemeteries after Democrats protested furiously that the banner celebrates a murderous, racist past.

“What exactly is the tradition of the Confederate battle flag that we’re supporting?” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. challenged supporters of the proposal, shortly before the GOP leadership announced its decision.

“Is it slavery, rape, kidnap, treason, genocide or all of the above?”

No Republican rose to respond, although some officials privately charged that Democrats had falsely accused GOP lawmakers of racism and said the proposal would merely have written Obama administration policy into law.

Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio said it was time for “adults here in Congress to actually sit down and have a conversation about how to address the issue.”

Democratic protests aside, the vote had been slated for a politically awkward time — hours after the South Carolina Legislature decided to remove the Confederate flag from a pole on the grounds of the State capitol.

The decision abruptly halted debate on legislation providing funds for the Interior Department and related agencies. But the political significance was more far-reaching than an annual spending measure, marking the latest in a string of developments relating to the Confederate flag in the House.

Earlier in the week, lawmakers decided by voice vote and without controversy to ban the display of the Confederate flag in Park Service-run cemeteries.

But GOP leaders soon became concerned that the overall spending measure might fail — Democrats oppose it because they want more spending and some Republicans were unhappy with the prohibition on the flag.

That led to plans to reconsider the prohibition in a vote hurriedly set for afternoon — and a highly unusual statement by the measure’s chief Republican sponsor after the subsequent decision to reverse course.

Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., and chairman of the panel with jurisdiction over Park Service funding, said the now-abandoned proposal “had been brought to me by Leadership at the request of some southern” GOP lawmakers, and also would have written into law existing National Park Service regulations approved by the Obama administration.

At the same time, he said he regretted not telling Democrats in advance about his plans.

Rather than accept any apology, Democrats attacked at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

“These are these same House Republicans who voted for a party leader who once described himself as, quote, ‘David Duke without the baggage,’ ” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. He referred to Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., the third-ranking leader.

For her part, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi offered legislation to remove all state flags containing any portion of the Confederate battle flag from the House side of the Capitol. Republicans prevented a vote on it by referring it to a committee — but Democrats slowed the tally by casting their votes manually instead of through an electronic tally system that is customarily employed.

At the same time, Boehner’s spokesman, Kevin Smith, accused Pelosi of a “cheap political stunt” after the speaker had called for a private talks on the issue. He said the bipartisan talks could potentially address Confederate symbols within the Capitol as well as at parks and cemeteries.

Whatever the political fallout, the now-defunct proposal would have permitted the limited display of the Confederate flag at Park Service-run cemeteries in states that observe a holiday commemorating the Confederacy, and only at the graves of rebels who died in the Civil War.

In line with a Park Service memorandum from 2010, it would have affected 10 graveyards, including four in Tennessee, three in Virginia and one each in Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia.

Park Service spokeswoman Kathy Kupper said one of the Confederate’s grave was at Andersonville cemetery in Georgia and two each were at Shiloh in Tennessee and Vickburg in Mississippi.

Among the 20,000 graves at the Vicksburg National Memorial park in Mississippi are two that hold the remains of Confederates, according to Ray Hamel, a park ranger at the site. He said both men — one from Texas and one from Arkansas — died in a nearby Union hospital and were mistakenly buried in the U.S. cemetery when it was established in 1866.

Hamel said that on national Memorial Day at the park, volunteers place small a small American flag by the gravesite of each U.S. soldier, and the two Confederate graves are decorated with the national flag of the Confederate States of America, with three wide bars — red, white, red — and a blue canton corner with a circle of 13 white stars.

Ironically, Kupper said nine confederates rest in graves at Gettysburg, Pa. The state does not observe a holiday in memory of the Confederacy.

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Eds: AP reporters Erica Werner and Jim Kuhnhenn in Washington and Emily Wagster Pettus in Mississippi contributed to this story

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Activism

In 1974, Then-Gov. Jimmy Carter Visited the Home of Oakland Black Black Political Activist Virtual Murrell While Running for President

civil rights icon Georgia State Representative Julian Bond said that Carter, along with governors Reuben Askew of Florida, Dale Bumpers of Arkansas, and Terry Sanford of North Carolina, were all a part of what was being dubbed the “New South” and so supported civil rights and voting rights for African Americans.

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Virtual Murrell chats with Jimmy Carter two years before Carter was elected president in 1976. Courtesy photo.
Virtual Murrell chats with Jimmy Carter two years before Carter was elected president in 1976. Courtesy photo.

By Virtual T. Murrell
Special to The Post

On his way to seeking the presidency, then-Gov. Jimmy Carter visited the Bay Area in his capacity as campaign chairman of the Democratic National Committee in March of 1974.

A friend of mine, Bill Lynch, a Democrat from San Francisco, had been asked to host Carter, who was then relatively unknown. Seeking my advice on the matter, I immediately called my friend, civil rights icon Georgia State Representative Julian Bond, for his opinion.

Bond said that Carter, along with governors Reuben Askew of Florida, Dale Bumpers of Arkansas, and Terry Sanford of North Carolina, were all a part of what was being dubbed the “New South” and so supported civil rights and voting rights for African Americans.

Based on Julian’s comments, I agreed to host the governor. We picked him up at the San Francisco Airport. With his toothy smile, I could tell almost right away that he was like no other politician I had ever met. On his arrival, there was a message telling him to go to the VIP room, where he met then-Secretary of State Jerry Brown.

After leaving the airport, we went to a reception in his honor at the home of Paul “Red” Fay, who had served as the acting secretary of the Navy under President John Kennedy. (Carter, it turned out, had been himself a 1946 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and served as a submariner in the 1950s.)

The following afternoon, the Niagara Movement Democratic Club hosted a reception for Carter, which was a major success. Carter indicated that he would be considering running for president and hoped for our support if he did so.

As the event was winding down, I witnessed the most amazing moment: Carter’s wife, Rosalynn, was in the kitchen with my former wife, Irene, wearing an apron and busting suds! You would have to have been there to see it: The first and last time a white woman cleaned up my kitchen.

A few months later, President Richard Nixon resigned amid the Watergate scandal. He was succeeded by his vice president, Gerald Ford.

On the heels of that scandal, Jimmy Carter’s election in 1976 represented integrity and honesty at a point in America’s history when he was just what the nation needed to lead as president of the United States.

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Oakland Post: Week of January 1 – 7, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of January 1 – 7, 2025

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Activism

Racially Motivated Violence Against Black Teen Prompts $10 Million Claim Against LAUSD 

In December, a second altercation, on a video shared with news media, showed 4 to 6 boys attacking a Black student and using racial slurs. The video also shows a person in a safety vest trying to stop the fight and telling them to “handle it after school.” Then, the video ends.  

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(Left to right) Civil Rights Attorney Caree Harper comforts the victim’s mother as she becomes emotional when describing the attacks on her son while her attorney Bradley C. Gage listens. Verdugo Hills High School on Thursday, Dec. 20, 2024, in Tujunga, CA. (Solomon O. Smith /for California Black Media)
(Left to right) Civil Rights Attorney Caree Harper comforts the victim’s mother as she becomes emotional when describing the attacks on her son while her attorney Bradley C. Gage listens. Verdugo Hills High School on Thursday, Dec. 20, 2024, in Tujunga, CA. (Solomon O. Smith /for California Black Media)

By Solomon O. Smith, California Black Media  

A distraught mother and her legal team announced a $10 million lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) on Dec. 16, alleging that her son was the target of bullying because of his race.

“CS DOE is a 14-year-old African American student at Verdugo High School. He is a Ninth Grader,” reads a statement the plaintiff’s attorneys shared with California Black Media (CBM).

“Almost from the first day of class (in August 2024), CS DOE was targeted by Latino students who called him racial slurs, physically attacked him and threatened to stab him.”

The family’s identity has not yet been released to the public due to safety concerns, according to their attorneys Bradley C. Gage and Caree Harper. The student’s mother is identified only as A.O. in the complaint.

The first video, filmed in August, showed several non-Black students punching and kicking a Black student in a bathroom on campus while yelling racial slurs. The mother claims that the students who attacked her son were not punished, and the administration asked her to move her son to another school for his safety.

“They wanted him to leave the school without giving any disciplinary action towards those students,” said the student’s mother. “He’s not going anywhere. He’s going to finish. I wanted him to at least stay until the December winter break, and then I was going to transfer schools for him.”

Before she could enroll her son in a different school the attacks escalated.

In December, a second altercation, on a video shared with news media, showed 4 to 6 boys attacking a Black student and using racial slurs. The video also shows a person in a safety vest trying to stop the fight and telling them to “handle it after school.” Then, the video ends.

CS DOE, a 14-year-old freshman, left the school but was followed by a car, according to Gage. Several individuals exited the vehicle, one with a “large butcher knife.” A fight ensued and two people were stabbed. The Black student was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon but was later released into his mother’s custody.

The high school freshmen is scheduled to appear in juvenile court on Feb. 1, but Harper says she will reach out to the District Attorney and make the case against charging the young man.

“His mama had to go find him because he was hiding and fleeing for his very life,” said Harper.

According to the boy’s mother, the young student is still traumatized and has not been able to return to the area because it remains unsafe. Racial slurs have also been spray painted on their home.

“I’m sad. I’m devastated, you know,” said the mother. “I still feel like they’re after him. I still feel like they can kill him, possibly.”

The LAUSD and principal of Verdugo High School did not respond to CBM’s requests for comment.

If you are – or someone you know is – has experienced a hate crime or hate incident, please visit CAvsHate.org for more information and to find out what you can do about it. 

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