But they really don’t understand what it is that the flag and those symbols represent, to people that don’t have their background. They’re just repeating what they’ve heard so often. They both said it was the “heritage” and the reporter asked what it was about the heritage, and neither of them could answer that. The reporters asked two young people, a young white man and a young white woman, about why they supported the flag.
I’ve seen it, I was in Richmond over the weekend, and they were preparing for a rally in support of the flag in Petersburg. It’s easy to remove a symbol, it’s not easy to change people hearts. I’m not so sure this is a permanent change.
And I’m still not certain that’s not the case. But that after a period of time, we would go back to right where we were before. So it was politically correct to get on board. Even so I’m concerned that this is not permanent, that it is the flavor of the month, that people were rallying around the idea of removing the flag, because everyone was upset that nine people had been murdered. Edna Medford: I think I was most surprised with how quickly things changed, and how quickly attitudes need to change. I was really pleasantly surprised that people spoke would speak about their colleagues and their dear friend who they respect so much, Senator Pinckney, and I think it shows the way the Voting Rights Act made a difference and secondly that the way religion played out in this is phenomenal. What a difference it made to have black and white views at the table actually having a dialogue about what this meant. With the Voting Rights Act, it was not until 1970 and the enforcement of the Voting Rights Act by the Federal Government and a special election in 1983 that the first black state senator was elected. The other thing we have to remember and often forget is that when the flag went up on top of the State House Capitol, there wasn’t a single African American state legislator, even though the number was in large proportion.
If you listened on both sides of the aisle, of the legislators again and again, people appealed to another Southern cultural tradition, the culture of faith. And President Obama reflected those words when he gave his speech, grace. But when the victims’ families spoke about grace, forgiveness, for this horrible, horrible murder, and asking God to forgive him. We’re so used to seeing the bad side of Southern Heritage with waving the flag and what it means. But I really think it ironically was really part of Southern Heritage. I think the difference, the real difference, wasn’t so much outside forces or so much the influence of Governor Nikki Haley, or from business. It’s something I had hoped for my whole life just about. I actually thought it might not come down. Vernon Burton: When they asked me about the flag coming down I said I was not as optimistic as most people were. state house grounds, that surprised you?ĭr. President Lincoln’s Cottage: Is there anything about the events over the past few months, the massacre in Charleston, the Confederate flag being removed from the S.C.