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4/14/00 3:15 p.m.
The Second Appomattox
Flag issue looks like the Civil War, acts like the Cold one.

By Michael Graham
Mr. Graham is a political columnist and talk radio host in South Carolina.

he hour has come as it came with General Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia." — SC state senator and ardent Confederate flag supporter Glenn McConnell (R., Charleston)

To understand how dramatic the turn-around has been in the South Carolina legislature on the issue of the Confederate battle flag, consider the case of Sen. Arthur Ravenel, Republican of Charleston. Three months ago, state Senator Ravenel stood before 6,000 Confederate flag-wavers on the State House steps and denounced a tourism boycott sponsored by "that corrupt organization, the National Association of Retarded People." He later apologized to all retarded people, for comparing them to the NAACP.

Five days ago, Sen. Ravenel addressed another pro-flag rally, urging the Confederate faithful to keep fighting for their cause. But yesterday, 139 years to the day after his ancestors opened fire on Fort Sumter, Arthur Ravenel cast his vote to bring down the Confederate battle flag from atop the South Carolina capitol. The Senate voted 39-7 to approve the measure.

In a single session, the SC Senate — a body notorious for seeking consensus and avoiding debate — went from having no apparent strategy for handling the flag issue to nearly resolving the matter outright. All that remained when the senate adjourned late Wednesday night was a perfunctory third reading of the bill, which is expected to pass without a serious challenge or significant amendments.

The bill removes the Confederate battle flag from the dome and places it at a monument to the soldiers of the Confederacy just yards from the capitol. The bill also removes the Confederate flags hanging in the House and Senate chambers, but would protect monuments, memorials, and buildings across the state which honor either the Confederacy or the civil-rights movement. It's the kind of common-sense compromise that seemed simultaneously obvious and unattainable just a few days ago. Today it is almost inevitable. What happened?

"Once [Senators] McConnell and Ravenel signed up for it, the fight was over," said first-term senator Andre' Bauer. "They are the biggest flag supporters up here, and if they can support it, the flag people in my district will, too."

In fact, the once-invincible flag caucus had so many defections that it was reduced to a muttering clique from the GOP fringe, unable to garner even 10 votes against the compromise plan. The die-hard Confederistas howled, but the majority of flag-supporters voted to move the flag.

That's because they knew what the NAACP is now beginning to understand, namely that this deal is a win — a big win — for the self-described "Heritage, Not Hate" crowd. If the House of Representatives (which, unlike the state senate, is controlled by the GOP) goes along as expected, the flag will come down, but the stature of the Confederate heritage will have taken a small step forward.

In the past, the pro-flag movement was dominated by unrepentant racists like state Rep. John Graham Altman III, a legislator who proudly voted to maintain a constitutional ban on interracial marriage in 1996 and who denounced Martin Luther King as a "serial adulterer" from the floor of the State House just weeks ago.

Meanwhile, the anti-flag movement had its own problems with extremists, some of whom attempted to cast the Confederate flag as the moral equivalent of the swastika. After insisting that the boycott's goal was simply to "bring down the flag, period," black leaders began moving the target as the momentum moved their way.

"I will never support flying that flag in my face" by moving it to the monument, Democratic senator Kay Patterson said last week. Patterson, who is black, spoke for many black activists who want the flag removed completely from the capitol grounds (along with every Confederate monument, if possible). Indeed, leaders from the NAACP have stated that they would not support moving the flag to a high-profile location like the soldier's monument.

But just as the costly boycott and its concurrent negative publicity put pro-flag politicians in an untenable position, the willingness of people like Sen. McConnell made it impossible for black leaders not to support the final bill.

"We didn't get everything we wanted, and neither did they," said one member of the black caucus. "But how can I explain to my constituents that I voted to keep the flag flying, just because I didn't like where it was going to end up?"

As a result, white legislators who swore to never vote to take down the flag did just that, accompanied by black senators who pledged to never accept flying the flag on the state house grounds.

In the state House of Representatives, meanwhile, black and white legislators overwhelmingly passed one bill creating two new state holidays: MLK Jr's Birthday, and Confederate Memorial Day. It was another uncomfortable compromise for each side. In South Carolina, the issues may come from the Civil War, but the tactics of mutually-assured destruction are straight from the Cold one.

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