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Confederate Flag Flap Brings One-Man Protest To School
OAK GROVE, Mo. — A North Carolina man
protested outside a Jackson County school Friday in support of a
high school student.Dressed in period uniform and waving a Confederate flag, H.K. Edgerton
told KMBC’s Bev Chapman that he was protesting the Oak Grove High
School administration because they refused to allow a student to
use the flag in an assignment. The student had also wanted to involve
Edgerton in his presentation."He was told ‘Shut up and sit down’ — that he could not
do a report around there on me," Edgerton said.Edgerton, of Black Mountain, N.C., is an activist with the Southern
Legal Resource Center and he used to head a branch of the NAACP.
Three years ago, he carried the flag halfway across the United
States to make a point about American history."A black man who’s proud of his Confederate heritage … The
bottom line, this flag is not about hate, it’s about our heritage,"
Edgerton said. "It’s just a symbol of this time period in history."Superintendent Dr. James Haley said this was a sensitivity issue,
not a heritage issue, and some people find the Confederate flag
offensive.Haley said the student received a grade on his work, but he did
not follow the assignment."Oak Grove is just the tip of the iceberg — there are places
where babies can’t even use the word ‘Confederate,’ let alone
show the flag," Edgerton said.Haley said Confederate flags are not being singled out; he said
any type of clothing deemed offensive is banned from school.
