A Louisiana mayor is under fire — and being applauded — for banning the confederate flag from the City of Natchitoches Christmas Parade scheduled for December 5th. For more than 20 years the Sons of Confederate Veterans have marched in the parade with a float and a rifle company with upwards of 40 people all carrying Confederate flags. They will be sitting this one out, unless attorneys file a first amendment claim.
“As mayor, I am accountable to all citizens who live in our city, and for many the Confederate flag is a symbol of hate, bigotry, violence and division,” Posey said during a news conference attended by about 50 people in the Natchitoches Arts Center. He said that while there will be many confederate flags flying he cannot allow the “flag of controversy”, even if such was permissible in the past.
“To be clear, the city of Natchitoches has not banned the Confederate flag from public display,” Posey said.
“The only thing we have banned is the flag being marched in the Christmas Festival parade.”
The parade “should be a symbol of the Christmas season and should be associated with peace, love and unity,” Posey said.
“I truly believe that our Christmas festival should seek to bind us, not divide us,” he added.
Earlier this month, Posey wrote to the Christmas Festival Committee to ask that the flag be banned from the parade, saying the flag “could cause substantial disruption or interference with the parade.”
Posey said he knows some members of the community disagree with his decision on the flag.
No word yet on whether the ACLU will take up the case of the Sons of Confederate Veterans on the basis that they have a right to express free speech, but that argument has been made and the idea forwarded by many.