Alabama councilman removes Confederate flags from graves
William White | Opelika-Auburn News
Auburn Councilman Arthur L. Dowdell poses with Confederate flags that he removed from graves at Pine Hill Cemetery in Auburn.
Media General News Service
Published: April 24, 2009
Mary Norman was shocked Thursday afternoon when Auburn Councilman Arthur L. Dowdell pulled up a Confederate flag placed on her great-grandfather’s grave and snapped it in half, she said.
Dowdell, who denies snapping the flag, said Thursday he was picking up his daughter from Auburn Junior High School near the cemetery when several people told him they “had a problem” with the flags.
He drove to the cemetery and started pulling up flags, he said.
“It’s offensive to me,” he said. “To me, it represents the Ku Klux Klan and racism.”
The United Daughters of the Confederacy placed the flags earlier this week, as they have done for 50 years, in preparation for a celebration Sunday of Confederate Memorial Day, Norman said.
Confederate Memorial Day will be celebrated as a state holiday in Alabama Monday.
“I really didn’t know exactly how to respond to him,” she said. “I happen to be a member of the Daughters of the Confederacy. I was very surprised, especially (as he is) a city councilman. I was amazed.”
Norman was not personally involved in placing the flags.
“I’m a historian,” she said. “We’re not about hate, we’re not about anything like that. We just want to honor our state’s rights, and I’ve got Confederate ancestors, and I feel we should have the ability to do that.”
Norman and a friend were taking inventory of graves at Pine Hill Cemetery in Auburn when Dowdell drove up and asked who put up the flags, she said.
“One of the flags had been placed on my great-grandfather’s grave, who was a Confederate soldier,” Norman said. “He just got very upset, and he went over to my great-grandfather’s grave, picked up the flag and broke it in two.”
She said Dowdell did not know the plot she stood on was her family’s. The flags were placed on soldiers’ graves as a mark of respect, she said.
He pulled up Confederate flags from other soldiers’ graves, too, she said.
Dowdell said in his years as councilman, he had never seen so many Confederate flags in one place.
“I’m going on the record that this will never happen again,” Dowdell said. “This will never happen again as long as I’m on the city council.”
Dowdell denied intentionally snapping the flag.
“It might have snapped itself,” he said. “If it did, so what? If I had my way, I would have broke them all up and stomped on them and burned them. That flag represents another country, another nation.”
Auburn Mayor Bill Ham said he was unaware of any incidents at the cemetery but said he talked with Dowdell Thursday afternoon. Ham said his understanding was that all city cemeteries have covenants governing how and what types of decorations can be placed on graves, except for Pine Hill because it is so old. Ham said he believed Dowdell asked an assistant city manager to look into making policies equal for cemeteries across the city.
“The bottom line is those grave plots are deeded property,” Ham said. “We sell those. So they are sold to the family of the individuals, and I think (plot owners) have a right to do exactly what they did, according to the city attorney.”
Ham said in his conversation with Dowdell, the councilman suggested the flags be placed on the graves for a shorter period of time, perhaps for 24 hours before the event.
For now, the remaining flags will stay on the graves because of the lack of covenant governing Pine Hill, Ham said. But that could change in coming years.
“I certainly think we need to be consistent in all the cemeteries with whatever the policy is, not only with this, but with everything,” Ham said. “The council has got to make that decision.”
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Reader Reactions
Sunshi is right. And so is the person who brought up the point that if there are ANY people who have a right to be angry, it’s the Indian people. This indeed was their country and it was stolen from them by the white man and look where they are today. I’ve never met an Indian who was not respectful, decent and civil to me. I’ve always had the utmost respect and honor for them and their way, their life. I’ve spent many hours reading the history of the many, many tribes and where they started and how they ended. If anybody should be angry, they should. And I apologize, personally for the misdeeds and evil that has been bestowed on these people. From the bottom of my heart. I really mean it. As for Dowdell….. he can still kiss my white arrsse. I owe him NOTHING.
This guy is just a racist idiot looking for attention. Some people still live in the past. I never owned any slaves so why am I considered a racist because I am white and proud of being from the South?
I have to agree with Sunshi9. He is right, and it is wrong. HIs people have been done this way for far to long and I believe that it needs to stop. Did you know that the kids today that grow up on the reservation do not even know they language that their tribe spoke. They are not allowed to teach them that. WHY???? They is part of them you take their language then you take part of them. I am not full blooded Indidan and I did not grow up on a reservation but I do research my heritage, and I am very proud of it. I do have this to say though. I sitll think that the coucilman should have to pay a fine and apologize to the families. Graves are private and he had no right to do what he did. As always he got what he wanted, he got everyone upset and talking and that is what he wanted. Now the question is will he get re-elected?
I am an Apache Indian grew up on a Reservation. My people were inslaved and slaughtered. No one faught for us. We as a people are still fighting. But do you hear us NO you dont. Do you know why? We tread on no one. PLEASE AS THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. DEMAND CITY COUNCIL MAN DOWELL BE REMOVED FROM OFFICE. THESE KIND OF THING CAN NOT BE OVER COME AS LONG AS IGNORANCE RULES.
Where does it end? Did I bring you over on a ship? Well, sorry for the harsh words but I am sick and tired of my rights being invaded. Do I need to go rip up flags at an african-american cemetery, NO. I am a white caucasian male that respects history. Racism is taught, not heredity. I was not involved in it, so for crying out loud, stop your whining. It was not you or me when it came down to it. We all have suffered in our lives but we hear WOLF all the time. If you want to talk right or wrong, what about the true Americans, it wasn’t me or you, the Indians of our nation. These are the people that we should respect, pay or do anything they asked. What I or you do, makes a difference, I respect the flags of others as my flag should be. But it is so easy to claim your foul yet, do we forget the real AMERICANS? So cry your foul about whatever you can, at least your family tree was not ended as they did with who was truly an American. I’ll buy you a ticket if you don’t like it here…... Get a job, be somebody, live your life, oh…
I forgot, the new American way, WELFARE. If what you have is so bad, improve. You think your councilman was right? Let me break a few of your flags. I hope I have raised your eyebrows and pissed you off. Get up and get forward. It is all about perception, teach the right perception. Along history, someone always pays….. Get up, get forward, get it!
P.S.-For all the pansies, life is a difference - make it.
Scumbags - You have a life somewhere in you, find it.
Crybabies - Look in mirror and smack yourself.
If you hate it, improve! Don’t be part of it.
STOP THE RACISM! Stop teaching it, go forward, look around and learn. It is a small planet, enjoy!
In reply to Submariner07:
Apparently you dislike Councilman Dowdell. He does not represent my district, so I will not get into that. I agree with you that removing the flags without knowing which ones had been placed there with approval was wrong; yet placing them there in the first place without permission was also wrong. I still contend, permission needs to be received from the families prior to placing the flags on the graves.
I HAVE A CONFEDERATE AND A AMERICA FLAG RIGHT OUT SIDE MY DOOR. IF SOMEONE DOES NOT LIKE IT DOES THAT GIVE THEM THE RIGHT TO STOP AND TAKE THEM DOWN. NO IT DOESNT! IT WOULD BE CALLED TRESPASSING! EVERY PERSON HE TREADED ON SHOULD FILE CHARGES ON HIM AND DEMAND HE BE REMOVE FROM OFFICE. I LOOKED IT UP AND HE DID BREAK THE LAW AND SHOULD BE MADE TO PUT BACK EVEY FLAG HE REMOVED.
Last I heard, cemetery plots are personal property and sacred according to family traditions. If this little racist can rip up stars & bars, he can rip up Old Glory, Don’t Tread on Me, Stars & Stripes, Aussie flags, the Maple Leaf, family crests and tombstones themselves. Anyone willing to stop this jerk for trespassing, intent to deface and disrespect the dead? Is this little twerp guilty of hate speech? How about a class action lawsuit against this little cockroach for restricting our freedom of religion? It’s dictator wannabees like him that facilitate growth of organizations like the KKK. I’d like to invite this brave little warrior to my home for a discussion just inside my threshold.
Reply to: Posted by ( melli1200 ) on April 26, 2009 at 2:41 am
“It is obvious that the people who have objected to the removal of the flags have no understanding of what its meaning has become today. It is not simply a “symbol of history”.“
Dear Melli1200,
It is my history along with countless others in the United States. Do I walk through the kioks sntaching down t-shirts of Malcolm X, MLK, Rosa Parks, or any of figure of racial/cultural history…NO! I would call Malcolm X ( “By ANY MEANS necessary”) and Lewis Farrakhn to by anything less than offensive. To us, they represent hatred and separation. It is what they condoned and advocated. Dowdell is NOT doing this for a widespread cause. He is putting on a show for his cause…promotion of himself. As you may remember from history, the greatest way to conquer is through separation of the masses through unrest, envy, and resentment. He is succeeded in his mission. He gets placed on his plastic pedestal for the time and people will talk about him for this incident once he is dead and gone, but what type person thieves from a cemetery in order to advance themselves and capitalize that public exposure to benefit their political career? Whether white, black, hispanic, Jewish, Wiccan, or Islamic anyone reading about his actions should be outraged. Resentment, anger, and prejudice do not travel in the form of a rod or staff, but rather a branch. What other resentments and prejudices does THIS man harbor. This will only be the beginning of his grand standing. For someone who believes himself so courageous I find it quite revealing that he chose to take from the dead who could not speak rather than speak out first. That would be a coward on a larger scaled municipal playground hollering “Look at me, Look at me.“ We have looked Mr. Dowdell and a thief and a coward is what you will always now and forever be. The only legend you will be in the future will be found in your own lobes and not the true recognition of others!
It is obvious that the people who have objected to the removal of the flags have no understanding of what its meaning has become today. It is not simply a “symbol of history”. There are much uglier meanings and darker feelings that have become synonomous with the Confederate flag for over 100 years. Boarding schools in states from here to Maine have insisted their students remove Confederate flags from their rooms.
It seems obvious that these people who think the flags should stay are either not well-educated or have no sympathy of how this would make the families feel. Did they even bother to ask them if this would be alright? I doubt it. Let the DAR find a more appropriate way to celebrate; one that is suitable for the 21st century.
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