In 1982 I was a student at the University of Mississippi. Not many year before that very campus had been the focus of national attention. James Meredith was the first Negro to attend that prestigious campus. Its rolling hills and redbrick building create a picturesque institution of higher learning. That year the first CONFEDERATE FLAG controversy was to come into my life. I have since lived through a couple others. Many years later after graduating from Ole Miss, while living in Atlanta, Georgia, it surfaced again. I was working in a law firm and had to stay clear of public discourse that might embarrass the firm where I was employed as a paralegal. Yesterday, I accompanied my sister to the parking lot of Wal Mart in Searcy, Arkansas. This time I was not a student. I was not barred as a paralegal nor a critic but allowed in as a photographer.
When people are engaged in speaking for a cause they believe in and they allow a photographer to photograph them they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect I honor that now as I post these pictures. I will state this. When I was at Ole Miss, the Klu Klux Klan came to march on behalf of the flag. It was my first time seeing them up close. There robes were not cheap sheets as they had been dismissed as. I was always impressed with how sturdy the real material of a Klansman rob felt. No robes were worn outside Wal Mart’s festivities. The guys who organized it and all who participated showed their faces. They had nothing to hide. They shouted “this is not about hate”.
No matter how once sums it up. Flags, Banner and symbols like this one has had a checkered past. From the battlefields where it charged to the terrorist who once used it to the hearts of those who claim it as their heritage.
I close with the words my sister uttered, I know this too shall pass. Yesterday it was EBOLA today THE CONFEDERATE FLAG. Tomorrow when you wake up, try to erase all this and remember when the smoke all clears…the flag is a symbol. It is someone’s right to carry and fly it. Loose not the that the smoke and mirrors of the media and the failed systems keep us fighting one another do not care for its abolition nor its continuation. Common men need to find common grounds
Testimonials & Lies 