Confedederate Flag Supporter Marches on Buda

By Bill Peterson
Special to News 8 Austin

Buda, TX -- A Confederate flag and Southern heritage supporter who figured prominently in a lawsuit against the Hays CISD's removal of the flag as a spirit symbol arrived in Buda Monday, ending a 1,600-mile march through the South.

H.K. Edgerton, a former NAACP chapter chairman who was denied entrance to a Hays High School football game in 2001 because he carried a Confederate flag, arrived at the gazebo in downtown Buda shortly after noon, arriving from the Texas state capitol in downtown Austin.

Edgerton began his march on Oct. 14 from his home in Asheville, NC. Edgerton said he walked 20 miles per day, six days per week. All along the march, he said, local people walked with him, gave him food and made contributions to the Southern Legal Resource Center, a group that advocates causes of Southern heritage.

Edgerton said he wishes to educate people that many African-Americans, like himself, revere Southern heritage and wish to not see it eradicated.

"I'm here to expand the knowledge of folks who look like me and earned honor under the Christian Cross of St. Andrew," Edgerton said. "...The best thing I've ever been called is a Southern man."

During the summer of 2001, the Hays CISD Board of Trustees voted to phase out the Confederate flag, which had been the high school's spirit symbol for more than 30 years. The University Interscholastic League's District 25-5A, to which Hays belongs, voted before the 2001 football season to allow no flags of any kind into the stands at its games.

However, the District 25-5A decided to allow American flags into its games following the disaster of Sept. 11, 2001. On Oct. 26, a group of Hays fans and Confederate flag supporters, including Edgerton, attempted to enter Bob Shelton Stadium carrying Confederate flags. After their entrance was denied, they filed suit against three top school district officials in their official and personal capacities, alleging discrimination on First Amendment grounds.

Early in 2002, a federal court in Austin ruled that the flag supporters sued the wrong parties, saying their real grievance, if any, was against District 25-5A. The flag supporters amended their suit.

However, Eric Patterson, one of the leaders in favor of the flag in the Hays CISD, said District 25-5A has rectified the situation by reinstituting its ban on all flags, ending the suit.

"While this is obviously not how we would have preferred the case to be settled, the UIL was forced to end this particular manner of blatant discrimination," Patterson said.

PLEASE SEND YOUR TAX-DEDUCTIBLE CONTRIBUTION TO:

SOUTHERN LEGAL RESOURCE CENTER
PO BOX 1235
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC 28711