Protests Begin in Honor of General Lee
Now that a small group of law students at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia have succeeded in their mission to eradicate all Confederate flags from campus, including those displayed at Lee Chapel, where General Robert E. Lee is interred, other groups have decided to contest the decision. This Saturday, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Lexington-based Stonewall Brigade, will hold a flag vigil downtown at noon. The demonstration will be followed by an open forum at 4:00 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Express to respond to what the SCV refers to as “grave robbery.”
The flags were removed after the law students claimed that the Confederate flags were hurtful and offensive to minorities. According to the SCV, Washington and Lee University can easily remedy the situation. This can be accomplished by separating campus policies from the chapel.
“We feel that what they did is a desecration of Robert E. Lee’s memorial and gravesite,” said Commander Brandon Dorsey. “It is borderline illegal, and the flags should be returned. No military servicemen should have the flags for which they fought removed from their gravesite.”
W&L President Kenneth Ruscio issued a lengthy statement earlier this month stating that the Confederate flag replicas were not presented in “an educational manner.” According to Ruscio, original flags on loan from the American Civil War Museum in Richmond will be on display in the chapel museum on a rotating basis.
Dorsey said that W&L may have violated state law by removing the battle flags, therefore desecrating the memorial of a war veteran. “”Our chief concern is primarily seeing that Robert E. Lee’s gravesite and memorial are maintained in the manner they were originally conceived to be,” he said.
The SCV was rebuked last spring when they contacted W&L after the law students’ demands were publicized.
“We’re so diametrically opposed. We don’t think there is any hope for dialogues,” he said. “We wanted the university to allow public debate. We wanted historical experts to talk about the relevance of Lee in this era. It was a flat rejection.”
