Black Mountain, NC - The leading Southern heritage civil rights organization today called for a nationwide tourist boycott of Gettysburg, PA, until the city formally condemns its local college for sponsoring an inflammatory art exhibit that featured a "lynched" Confederate flag.
SLRC officials said the town of Gettysburg acted with "cynical disregard for the sensibilities of Southerners" in issuing a statement that supported Gettysburg College's sponsorship of an exhibit by Florida-based avant-garde "artist" John Sims entitled, "Recolorization: The Gettysburg Redress."
Sim's exhibit included several Confederate flags provocatively redesigned, including one rendered in African liberation movement colors and another, called a "drag flag", in lavender with fur and spangles. The exhibit's centerpiece, however, was a full-size gallows from which a Confederate flag was to have been symbolically "lynched" in an exhibit kickoff ceremony titled, "The Proper Way to hang a Confederate Flag." News of the hanging ceremony touched off a firestorm of angry protest from Southerners and resulted in a candlelight vigil near the college and a rally next day at the Peace Light on the battlefield.
Initially the 33,000 - member Sons of Confederate Veterans announced an intended boycott of the town, but later restricted the measure to the College itself. The SLRC's boycott, however, calls for a nationwide boycott of Gettysburg until its Borough Council condemns the college for condoning a "cultural hate crime" and issues a blanket apology to all Southerners.
H. K. Edgerton, a former NAACP officer and chairman of the SLRC's Board of Advisors, said the town's support of the "tasteless" exhibit is "a slap in the face to all Americans, North and South, East and West." Edgerton, who at the candlelight vigil read the names of nearly 3,800 Confederates killed at the battle of Gettysburg, added, "Gettysburg belongs to everyone. If you disrespect one side, you disrespect both. The town of Gettysburg actually encouraged this disrespect. It's unbelievable. And now it's payback time. I call upon all Americans who love this country's history to join us in expressing their outrage by not spending their money in Gettysburg."
"Seventy-seven thousand Confederates fought at Gettysburg and their descendants account for an awful lot of Gettysburg's tourist trade," said SLRC Executive Director Roger McCredie. "The town fathers had the opportunity to do the right thing and denounce the exhibit as offensive. Instead, they support it. To me that shows a cynical disregard for the feelings of a lot of people whose money they are happy to accept."
For additional information, contact:
Roger McCredie
Southern Legal Resource Center
(828) 669-5189
exec@slrc-csa.org
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"Thumbs Up for Dixie" stickers are available for SLRC and local heritage fundraising projects. Contact Allison Schaum for details at slrc@crystalink.com or (864) 476-0656.
