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U.S. NEWS Thursday 21 March 2019
Bid to strip Confederate link from

Arkansas flag fails again

By ANDREW DeMILLO sessions,” he said in a state-
Associated Press ment. “My hope is that
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An someday we can have a
Arkansas House panel on flag with symbolism that
Wednesday rejected for a unites the whole state.”
second time a proposal to The committee’s only four
change the meaning of a Democrats and one Re-
star on the state’s flag that publican voted for the bill,
represents the Confeder- while all the votes against
acy, despite an endorse- the measure came from
ment from the Republican Republicans.
governor. said Republican Les War-
The proposal was not to ren, who voted against the
change the design of Ar- measure. Hours after the
kansas’ flag, but to remove bill failed, another Repub-
language that describes a lican who voted against
blue star above Arkansas’ In this Feb. 1, 2011 file photo, an American and Arkansas flag the measure filed new leg-
name on the flag as rep- blow in the wind as snow falls in Fayetteville, Ark. islation that would remove
resenting the Confederate Associated Press the language in state law
States of America. Instead, posal an effort to erase the who contributed actually explaining what the flag’s
that star would represent state’s Confederate history nothing to our civil service, stars represent.
the United States of Ameri- and questioned why the nor our court system, nor The vote occurred two
ca and a blue star currently Native American nations the formation of the state’s years after Hutchinson
representing the U.S. would should be commemorated counties and law enforce- signed into law legislation
represent Native American on the flag. One oppo- ment agencies, nor the he’d backed to remove
nations. nent, Robert Freeman of educational systems, either Confederate Gen. Rob-
The House State Agencies Hot Springs, said the Native in Little Rock or the county ert E. Lee from the state
and Governmental Affairs American tribes that would seats?” Freeman said. holiday honoring civil rights
Committee rejected the be commemorated were Hutchinson underlined his leader Martin Luther King
proposal by a 10-5 vote. “vicious, murdering sav- support for the measure Jr. That proposal had failed
The panel rejected anoth- ages.” Wednesday afternoon. repeatedly before a House
er version of the proposal “Is there even one among “I continue to support this committee in the 2015 ses-
last month. this committee who wishes legislation, and I am cer- sion and Hutchinson made
Republican Gov. Asa to commemorate a star on tain it will come back up for it part of his legislative
Hutchinson has endorsed our state flag to a people debate in future legislative agenda two years later.q
the change, calling it the
right thing to do. Demo-
cratic Rep. Charles Blake,
the bill’s sponsor, said he
hasn’t ruled out bringing
up the proposal again and
said it’s also possible a simi-
lar proposal could be filed
in the Senate.
“Our state flag is the larg-
est and most prevalent
symbol we can put out to
the world,” Blake, who is
black, told the committee.
“That symbol should be an
inclusive symbol. That sym-
bol should be the Arkansas
we all want to be going
forward.”
The other two blue stars
on Arkansas’ flag repre-
sent France and Spain. The
fourth star representing the
Confederacy was added
in 1923 and a year later
it was placed above the
state’s name on the flag.
Blake has said that change
came at the height of the
Ku Klux Klan’s rise in Arkan-
sas and other Southern
states, and can be viewed
as a symbol of white su-
premacy.
Opponents called the pro-