The Confederate Battle Flag

Floor Speech

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Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I would like, first of all, to thank the Speaker of this House and the other Members who came to Charleston last month to help us with the ongoing ceremonies for Senator Clementa Pinckney.

I would also like to thank especially my colleagues--Senator Tim Scott, Senator Lindsey Graham, and Congressman Mark Sanford--for joining with us as we stood with the Governor of South Carolina and called for removing the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the statehouse.

This afternoon, at 4 o'clock, as a result of a very definitive vote early this morning of 94-20, the Governor is going to sign the bill, and tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock, the flag will be removed from the statehouse.

I regret that I am not going to be able to accept the Governor's invitation and be there this afternoon because, around 4 o'clock this afternoon, we are going to be voting here on this floor.

I understand there will be around 25 votes, and 24 of them, I might not feel all that bad about missing, but one of them, I cannot afford to miss because that one vote, the Calvert amendment, will reverse votes taken by this body to join with South Carolina, Alabama, and activities going on in Mississippi to get rid of any official application to this flag, the Confederate battle flag.

Now, I think it is important for us to point out that this is not the Confederate flag. The Confederacy had three flags. This was never one of them. This flag was the Confederate battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, Robert E. Lee's Army; and when Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, he asked all of his followers to furl this flag.

``Store it away,'' he said. ``Put it in your attics.'' He refused to be buried in his Confederate uniform. His family refused to allow anyone dressed in the Confederate uniform to attend his funeral. Why? It is because Robert E. Lee said he considered this emblem to be a symbol of treason; yet, Mr. Speaker, Calvert puts up an amendment that we are going to vote on this afternoon to ask us to allow this flag to be sold and displayed in our national parks.

I was so proud when the decision was made by the National Park Service, Fort Sumter, a national park where the Civil War started off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina, they decided to take away all of these symbols; but the Calvert amendment is saying: No, don't take them away, put them back, and we are going to ratify the action to do so.

Mr. Speaker, I call upon all of my colleagues who come to this floor this afternoon to remember that it was on this date in 1868 that South Carolina--where it all started--South Carolina was the State that gave the votes necessary to ratify the 14th Amendment.

To me, this was a very, very important amendment calling for due process and equal protection of the laws.

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