Image Credit: Williamson County, TN (Franklin, Brentwood, Spring Hill, etc.) / Facebook & Williamson County Govt.
The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
A group of Williamson County residents asked County Commissioners this week to draft a new resolution in a renewed effort to get rid of the Confederate flag in the county’s seal.
After a five year legal battle that ended when the General Assembly amended the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act to include county seals, the group is now asking for a waiver from the Tennessee Monuments and Memorial Commission to change the seal.
Those in Williamson County who want to see the flag gone say that it is aligned with white supremacy, and discrimination and is not representative of the county or how they want to be portrayed.
Cory Martin, a member of One WillCo, said that it was not about erasing history but rather about creating a better future that all in the county can be proud of.
The seal, adopted in 1968 and which includes the flag draped over a cannon, was at risk of removal after the Tennessee Historical Commission and a judge in Davidson County ruled that it could be taken off.
The Major Nathaniel Cheairs Camp 2138 Sons of Confederate Veterans filed suit against both the county and the Tennessee Historical Commission to keep the seal as is.
The lawsuit said that the commission and the county had followed an unlawful procedure in seeking an official declaration that the seal was not a historic monument and therefore not subject to Tennessee’s historic preservation law. The law does not favor monuments and markers of Tennessee history to be altered or removed.
According to legal arguments on behalf of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the county had first begun the process of petitioning the commission for permission to alter the seal, an admission by the county that they believed the seal was indeed subject to the state’s law.
The law in question, which lawmakers subsequently made changes to, the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act, requires that historic monuments be preserved and protected, but extends that protection to public statues, as well as works of art, and street names.
The Confederate flag appears in the upper left quadrant of the Williamson County seal along with the cannon. Depicted in the other three quadrants are a Bible in front of a window belonging to a church, animals in a pasture, and a school house.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
