The purple-and-gold Confederate flag waved high above LSU tailgaters as usual Saturday, despite a call from the University chapter of the NAACP to ban the flag on campus.
Many tailgaters insisted on their right to fly the flag on campus, and denied that the flag has ties to racism or hatred.
The NAACP held a meeting last week to discuss a campaign that would encourage the University to ban the flag on campus because members said it is a symbol of racism.
Many tailgaters told The Daily Reveille before Saturday’s game that they would still fly the flag even if it were banned. Some tailgaters became hostile at the mere suggestion of a ban.
Jessica Paul, wildlife and fisheries junior, sat across the street from the Agriculture parking lot with a purple-and-gold rebel flag hung from a tree.
Paul said she did not understand why the flag was a big deal.
“It might be offensive to some people,” she said. “At the same time, it’s a heritage to us.”
Chris Macinyre, a fan from Toronto who was visiting campus for the weekend, said he did not think the flag was racist but about maintaining a tradition.
Macinyre said many tailgaters flew the flag while they were students and fly it now to remember past years at the University.
“You take away our tradition and you take away our livelihood,” he said.
Blake Cado, electrical engineering senior, hung the flag from a stop sign on South Stadium Road near Doran-Agricultural Engineering Center, said he thinks most tailgaters would not have a problem with the Confederate flag.
“We don’t have it to make a racial statement,” Cado said.
Chris Ortiz, a law enforcement agent from Kenner, said he thinks it would be against his rights to force him to take the flag down and said the flag was not sending a message of racism.
“People say that’s a sign of slavery,” Ortiz said. “That wasn’t the flag of the Confederate states.”
Jan Hadrus, an LSU fan from Hammond, hung the flag from the side of the Frey Computing Service Center on South Stadium Road above a table full of food she prepared.
If a rule were made, she said she would take the flag down but insisted she has a right to fly the flag.
“I like anything purple and gold, and I like that flag,” she said.
Gil Lerma, a Metairie business owner, said he, too, would take the flag down out of respect to the University if a rule were created.
“It’s not racist,” Lerma said. “It’s the mindset of individuals.”
One tailgater who refused to give his name but identified himself as a lawyer in Baton Rouge said that the First Amendment protected speech, more specifically offensive speech, and he would continue to fly the flag.
Several tailgaters refused to talk about the issue except to say that they raise the flag because they can and will not take it down if it were banned.
One tailgater said he did not see how the flag could be offensive but that if black people find it offensive, they need to stop playing rap music containing profanities – which he finds offensive – before they complain about the flag.
Another woman who was sitting in a tent with a purple-and-gold Confederate flag above it said she was not concerned about waving the flag because black people were allowed to be more racist than she.
The woman insisted that as long as black people had a Black Miss America and Black Entertainment Television, she should be permitted to wave the flag on campus.
Craig Freeman, mass communication associate professor who specializes in First Amendment theories, said a recent Mississippi decision may give governments more leeway in regulating the Confederate flag.
Freeman said the court ruled that a government entity may be allowed to regulate the flag because it gives no definite message.
Gaines Foster, history professor who teaches a class on the history of the South, said the flag that is being debated was never the official flag of the Confederate States, but studies show it was considered by some post-Civil War Southerners to be the flag of the South.
The flag that is controversial was created in the rectangular shape for the Confederate navy.
Foster said the flag was used in a square form by the Eastern Theater of the Confederate army, and after gaining popularity, it spread west across the South.
Foster said the flag was used after the war in memorials and was adopted as the official flag of the United Confederate Veterans.
Foster said that in the 1930s, some people believed the movie “Gone With the Wind,” lead to the flag being used outside of ceremony.
The flag became associated with a counter civil rights movement in the 1950s and subsequently was flown from the tops of state buildings in several Southern states.
Foster said symbolism, racism and Southern heritage cannot be separated because racism is a large part of Southern history.
“I don’t understand how that gets to be an either-or debate,” Foster said. “Some people believe it represents Southern pride, but I think to reduce it to either-or doesn’t work.”
Contact Ginger Gibson at [email protected]