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Official rethinks debate on flag

A Brooksville council member asks the city to shelve discussion on removing the city seal's Confederate flag.

By DUANE BOURNE
Published January 30, 2005

BROOKSVILLE - Just days after Brooksville City Council member Frankie Burnett proposed removing the Confederate battle flag from the city's official seal, he was considering withdrawing his proposal. Burnett asked city officials to remove the item, at least for now, from the City Council agenda, both City Manager Richard Anderson and city clerk Karen Phillips confirmed Friday.

Even after announcing his proposal at Monday's council meeting, Burnett, who could not be reached for comment Friday, had shown signs of backpedaling, saying he would scrap the plan if it raised racial tensions within the city.

Burnett later explained that the Confederate flag issue was less about race and more about inclusion for black city residents, who have been historically disenfranchised.

Officials from the Hernando County chapter of the NAACP, however, signaled Friday that the push to abolish the Confederate flag from the city's logo is not a dead issue.

Chapter vice president Richard Howell told the St. Petersburg Times that the civil rights group would consider taking up the issue, and he said he had a message for anyone who thinks that Burnett, the second African-American elected official in city history, is using his council seat to push a black agenda.

"It is not an NAACP issue; it is a city issue," said Howell, who also criticized Burnett for not recognizing what he got himself into and falling victim to criticism.

"Don't make proposals like that if you don't stand by it," Howell said. "Apparently someone convinced him that this was going to cause racial unrest. (Black people) never caused racial unrest in Brooksville."

Burnett, who serves as president of the Hernando NAACP chapter, said he proposed removing the flag from the logo after listening to the concerns of constituents who said that, in 2005, images of pre-Civil War Hernando County are not appropriate and send mixed messages since Brooksville is also the county seat.

Adopted in 1986, the seal shows a map of Florida, a picture of the county courthouse and two Civil War soldiers superimposed on the front. One of them is carrying the Confederate battle flag. The top of the seal is crowned with a bald eagle flanked by the U.S. and Florida flags. The bottom of the seal has profiles of explorer Hernando de Soto and the Seminole Indian Chief Osceola.

The proposal to remove the Confederate flag drew ire from critics, namely former council member Richard Lewis and Sons of Confederate Veterans member Dan Williams, who said the battle flag has a rightful place in Brooksville history. Any attempt to remove the flag, they said, would amount to an attempt to revise history.

Florida was the third state of the Confederacy, and Hernando County was home to the 3rd Florida Infantry, Company C. Brooksville was named after U.S. Rep. Preston Brooks, who was proslavery and an advocate for state's rights in the pre-Civil War South.

But proponents of the proposal are resolute.

"Take the flag off, and everyone will be happy," Howell said Friday.

After last week's council meeting, Phillips said, some council members had received e-mail about the flag issue.

"I expect that council members have also been getting phone calls," she said. "They were bound to, given the issue."

Despite any controversy, council members were ready to pick residents for a committee to explore the issue, she said.

Howell thinks Burnett's proposal prompted more than a few angry phone calls. But he said the NAACP membership would have backed its president on the issue Monday night, had Burnett first sought their support.

"There is no black agenda," Howell said. "This is a message to the African-American citizens of Brooksville: We will stand behind Frankie on issues like these and keep him from coming under attack."

Duane Bourne can be reached at 352 754-6114 or dbourne@sptimes.com

[Last modified January 30, 2005, 00:10:19]