Student leaders agreed Thursday night that purple-and-gold Confederate flags are offensive, but they disagreed on what plan of action should be taken to remove the flags from University events.
Some members of the University chapter of NAACP are calling for a campus ban of the flag, saying it is a symbol of racism. Other NAACP members, along with administrators and Student Government members, said they will not try to ban the flag but want to find other ways to remove it from campus.
The group met Thursday night at the African American Cultural Center to discuss plans for removing the flag from tailgating and football games.
Students listened to two proposals.
The first plan, a collaborative effort among some NAACP members, SG members and administrators, is to start conversations with tailgaters flying the flag and encourage them to take it down and fly an LSU flag instead.
The other plan, supported only by some NAACP members, will call for an official ban by campus administrators in addition to conversations with the tailgaters.
NAACP University chapter president Alicia Calvin said the group is calling for a “policy change” about the flag.
Calvin would not use the word “ban,” but said she wants a policy to ensure the flag cannot be flown on campus.
Calvin said the proposed policy change would not violate any First Amendment rights to free speech because the flag is “offensive.”
Collins Phillips, a member of the NAACP and SG executive board, said that there was a disagreement about how to handle the issue at an earlier private meeting held Thursday afternoon with members of SG, Office of Multicultural Affairs, NAACP and Finance and Administration.
Phillips said the consensus of the meeting was that a committee would be formed to talk to tailgaters and explain to them why the flag is offensive to some students.
“You can’t make people just stop doing something,” Phillips said. “You can make people stop doing something by understanding why they shouldn’t.”
Staci Pepitone, coordinator in the Office of Finance and Administrative Services, said the idea of starting dialogues has been in the works for a few years and that talking to tailgaters is a positive step in trying to solve the problem.
Phillips said he thinks changing people’s minds about the flag is a long process and that it is necessary to start small instead of trying institute a ban.
During the NAACP meeting, Calvin said she wants to see an immediate change and discussed plans for starting a large-scale protest. She discussed involving national media in an attempt to spread the message.
Phillips said SG and NAACP disagree about a petition that is circulating that calls for administrators to ban the purple-and-gold rebel flag, adding that the petition should be put on hold since it may divide students.
During the meeting at the AACC, Calvin said she will go forward with the petition despite complaints and she will continue her efforts to create a national campaign.
At an NAACP meeting held Thursday, Oct. 6, the idea of starting a petition to ban the flag was raised by members, including Calvin. Members created the petition after the Oct. 6 meeting and began to gain signatures.
Calvin would not say Thursday night that the NAACP officially endorsed the petition.
Controversy over the Confederate flag has been seen on other campuses as well, including the University of Mississippi, whose mascot was Colonel Rebel until two years ago.
Jeffrey Alford, associate vice chancellor for communications at Ole Miss, said the school’s administration could not ban the flag because it would violate First Amendment rights and that flags are still seen in tailgating areas.
Alford said it had long been a practice of bringing flags on small sticks into the stadium and waving them at the games. The stadium was often full of Confederate flags, he said. But instead of banning flags, Ole Miss banned flag sticks in the stadium and any other university building for what administrators said were safety issues.
The Confederate flag is no longer an issue at Ole Miss, Alford said.
Contact Ginger Gibson at [email protected]