Debate over rebel flag widens to include all symbols of Confederacy

The debate over the rebel flag that began anew after last week's church shootings in Charleston, S.C., has morphed into a full-blown Confederate controversy.
While Stars and Bars have long been associated by many with slavery, the latest campaign to remove Confederate emblems has extended beyond the flag to statues, memorials, parks and even school mascots. Never has the debate over what symbolizes heritage and what stands for hate covered so much ground, as efforts to strip icons that have been part of the visual and cultural landscape of the South for decades are afoot at national, state and local levels.
In one Arkansas town, the school board voted unanimously Tuesday to ban the song "Dixie" for the next school year and phase out “Rebel,” the school’s mascot.
“It came to our attention that the public has been pretty upset about the Confederate flag, which has already been removed, the rebel mascot [and] the playing of the ‘Dixie,’” Fort Smith, Ark., school board member Susan McFerran told reporters after the board voted for the changes.

“They are part of our history and not all of our history is dandelions and butterflies.”
- Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C.

In Maryland, Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamentz is pushing a plan that would change the name of Baltimore's Robert E. Lee Park. A spokesman for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake told The Associated Press she supports the name change and is willing to work with the county to find an appropriate alternative.
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Tennessee have called for a bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader, to be removed from an alcove outside the Senate chambers. The bust, with the words “Confederate States Army” engraved on it, has been at the state Capitol for decades.
A group of Kentucky officials, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, want to kick a statute of Confederate leader Jefferson Davis out of the state Capitol rotunda, and activists in Minnesota have demanded a lake named after John C. Calhoun, a senator and vice president from South Carolina who supported slavery, be re-christened.

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There's a new move to change the name of Baltimore's Robert E. Lee Park, named for the legendary Confederate general.

The battle flag of the Confederacy, long seen waving above state capitols, from front porches of homes and on memorabilia and garments throughout the South, was the first casualty of the movement fueled by church shooting suspect Dylann Roof's embrace of it and white supremacy. Photos of Roof posing with the flag litter a website which he is believed to have created to house his hateful manifesto against African-Americans.
National retailers Amazon.com, Walmart, Sears and Etsy this week all announced plans to remove merchandise depicting the Confederate battle flag.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley called for lawmakers to remove the flag from public grounds, and in Alabama, Gov. Robert Bentley unilaterally ordered the immediate removal Wednesday of four different Confederate banners, including the battle flag, from an 88-foot-tall memorial that stands at the state Capitol entrance nearest to the governor’s office.

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Some are calling for statues like the one of Jefferson Davis, (l.), in Kentucky's state capitol, and Robert E. Lee, (r.), in Washington, to come down.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan opposes the use of the Confederate flag on the state's license plates, according to a spokeswoman for the Republican, and is in talks with the state's department of motor vehicles and attorney general to address the issue.
At the federal level, though, there’s now talk of whether Congress should remove statues with ties to the Confederacy from the U.S. Capitol. Among those are statues of Joe Wheeler of Alabama, who is wearing a Confederate military uniform with “CSA” emblazoned on his belt buckle. Another is of South Carolina leader Wade Hampton, leader of the Confederacy and Ku Klux Klan supporter.
But some are concerned that the snowballing effort to rid the nation of Confederate symbolism is a historical whitewash.
“They are part of our history and not all of our history is dandelions and butterflies,” Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., told Fox News. “A knee-jerk reaction is not helpful.”
He later asked, “Where does it stop? Especially if you start letting people define our history.”

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June 23, 2015: Confederate flag themed stickers are displayed at Arkansas Flag and Banner in Little Rock, Ark.

While some, like Mulvaney, have questioned whether the push to purge could wind up erasing an important part of America’s past, University of Alabama history professor Joshua Rothman, believes the distinction lies not in learning about the Confederacy but in how people choose to honor it.
“I don’t think there is a reasonable position anyone could take that says that the history of the Confederacy shouldn’t be talked about in a university or school or museum,” he told FoxNews.com, adding that the problem lies in celebrating the Confederacy, especially using taxpayer money.