Auburn, Alabama City Councilman removes Confederate Flags from soldier’s graves
Councilman Dowdell with the flags he stole from Confederate Graves.
Katie Stallcup
Staff writer
Published: April 23, 2009
Original article – Opelika-Auburn News
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.”
Councilman Arthur Dowdell
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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I’m too angry to even begin commenting on this one. Please, write the City Council of Auburn, Alabama and let them know that things like this cannot be tolerated. This desecration of our ancestor’s graves should not go unpunished. Please urge anyone you know that is a registered voter in Auburn, Alabama to boot this thieving, grave desecrating, “councilman” out of elected office at their first opportunity. He doesn’t deserve the right to call himself a public servant. The only thing he seems to be serving is his own agenda of “political correctness” with he being the sole judge and jury of what is correct. By all means, please also write Councilman Dowdell and let him know your thoughts about his actions as well.
Webmaster – GoodOldRebel.com
I would but I don't live in his ward. But believe me, I will be at the next meeting to make sure they know that stealing is stealing, and this guy is a thief.
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Auburnmom,
I appreciate your willingness to stand up for what is right! Give them an earful and let them know that stealing is bad enough but stealing from the honored dead is just disgusting beyond words!
Thanks for visiting,
Webmaster – GoodOldRebel.com
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I received a brochure in which allegations were made against councilman dowdell to burn a cross in his yard in connection with the incident at the cemetery. It's sad that we as adults still regress to such behaviors during this golden moment of our history. A threat to burn a cross on anyone's property is considered a terroristic threat and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
With respect to the confederate flag, I feel it has no place in a cemetery unless that entire site maintains some historical significance to the war between the states and, or the emancipation proclamation. Flowers and wreaths are and have been the acceptable method of honoring those passed on. Any flag, other than the American Flag,serves only to perpetuate division. At a time when the eyes of the entire world is focused on America there are those of us still inubriated with visions of the past.
With all the attention this incident has sparked I'm confident that if both parties redirected their anger toward a solution beneficial to both each would be acting in the context on which this country was founded. As a cohesive unit, not even the sky can limit you.
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Sam Reply:
August 6th, 2010 at 1:02 am
On the contrary, guys like this creep do alot more to perpetuate division than any flag ever could.
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i have to say this and i am not going to be liked by some peaple but here we go. Why dose it always go back to a race thing. it makes me soo angry because it s been way to long since anyone hass owned slaves, and from my point of veiw about 60% of the time race is the excuse to act like a a jack*ss. from this girl in the south i m mad
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The city of Auburn should get rid of him and his sorry ways, I'am a veteran.
If he is black or white or whatever, judge him for what he has done and he is in God's hands now, or maybe the devils is what it should be.
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My uncle fought and died for this country as an officer in the United States Air Force. There is only one flag on this whole planet worth a damn and that is the one he flew under: the American flag, by which I mean the Stars and Stripes.
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Webmaster
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May 26th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
I appreciate your uncle’s service to the United States. It is because of my desire to honor those who had the courage to defend their home that I hold the Confederate Flag in high esteem. The men who fought under that flag were doing no less than their full measure of duty to defend their homes and like your uncle, deserve recognition and respect. I choose to respect them by honoring the banner under which they bravely served.
Webmaster – GoodOldRebel.com
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Like Gerald above, My Grandfather also served in the Air Force, and my sister and I in the Marine Corps. My family has a long history of military service all the way back to the Revolutionary War. I have ancestors that served on both sides in the Civil War, one being my great-great-grandfather as a Lt. in the Confederacy. I’ll tell you straight up, that flag no more represents slavery or the Ku Klux Klan than Mickey Mouse does. What it does represent is a period in history that is real and needs remembering, on both sides. Slavery was but a side affect of the war in actuallity, the war was originally fought because we wanted to become our own country and good old Uncle Sam couldn’t have that. The Confederate battle Flag represents the men who lived and died fighting for thier personal freedoms and beliefs. The fact that people of today want to use that flag as a symbol of other things simply shows thier own ignorance.
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Webmaster
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June 7th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Carl,
Thanks for your comment and thanks for your service. I couldn’t agree with you more!
Webmaster -GoodOldRebel.com
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ridiculous – just another person playa hatin – our forefathers died for this, whether right or wrong – there forefathers died for this whether right or wrong – history – i mean live with it
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Oppressed I think is what they call themselves, Black folk are so wrapped up in not remembering the days of slavery that when one symbol of the Civil War arises they go crazy. Like many people who understand that the war was about country and our rights to own property and sell property without the northern states oppressing us was what they were fighting for. The north owned slaves first then sold them down south as we were perfecting the cotton and sugar plantation way of life. They north had a problem with the south because we were very self sustaining and not needing the northern products because of free trade with England. The north wanted to do away with free labor and the south used it to become very wealthy as the southern plantations will prove to be. The war became the instrument to free the slaves so black folk need to realize that what was gained was freedom and the confederate flag is a symbol of that freedom. Anything after freedom has nothing to do with the confederate flag. That confederate flag that waved on the field of battle was just a way for the southern troops to mark the locations of their troops on the field. People need to read and study history. They need to just let the hatred go.
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The guy looks like a pimp from some bad 70s TV show. He looks about as ignorant as he probably is. I'd like to see him try to take a flag off of my ancestor's grave. He should have been arrested for desecrating graves, but the "PC" twitts who run most cities these days are to afraid of greeseballs like this guy to stand up to them.
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