Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 24, 1993                   TAG: 9307260327
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: COLUMBIA, S.C.                                LENGTH: Medium

GROUP TAKES FLAG VOTE AS REJECTION OF HERITAGE

Senators refused to renew the patent on Thursday. The vote came after Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, D-Ill., the Senate's only black member, called the patent a cruel reminder that blacks were once "human chattel" in America.

"I doubt any of her constituents would have even recognized our insignia," said Tommie Phillips LaCavera of Athens, Ga., president-general of the UDC.

The Confederate Stars and Bars is at the center of the insignia, surrounded by a broken gold ring. This is the original Confederate flag, not the more familiar Confederate battle flag, which has two crossed, star-studded blue stripes on a red field.

While those who voted with Moseley-Braun portrayed the 75-25 vote as a victory for diversity in the Senate, UDC members took it as a rejection of their heritage.

Fourteen of the 24 Southern senators voted against the UDC patent. One was South Carolina's Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, a Democrat who graduated from The Citadel, a Southern military college. He also grew up in Charleston, where the Civil War began.

"I am sure Senator Hollings' ancestors would be truly ashamed for him," said Mary Lund of Pendleton, president of the UDC's South Carolina division.

Hollings was unavailable for comment. Spokesman Andy Brack said the senator "decided that the tension caused by the symbol far outweighed the routine renewal of a patent that the UDC really doesn't need."

Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia was the only Southern Democrat to agree with the UDC.

"A lot of people in the Southern part of the United States rightly consider that part of their tradition, even though most people, including me, no longer believe that the cause was, in many respects, valid," Nunn said Friday.

During debate on Thursday, Moseley-Braun, her voice breaking at times, said the issue was "whether or not Americans such as myself . . . will have to suffer the indignity of being reminded time and time again that at one point in this country's history we were human chattel, we were property, we could be traded, bought and sold."

Lund called Moseley-Braun's statements "totally uninformed" about the reasons for the Civil War. Only a small percentage of Confederate veterans had slaves, Lund said.

The UDC, based in Richmond, is a nonprofit group that provides college scholarships to descendants of Confederate veterans. It also donates money to veterans' hospitals and decorates the graves of all veterans on Memorial Day. Its chapters often participate in Confederate Memorial Day celebrations.

\ HOW THEY VOTED\ ON DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY INSIGNIA\ \ Sen. John Warner: Voted not to table first motion, voted to table on second vote.

"The first vote was about patent protection for the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a group I admire. The second vote, however, was about racism, which I oppose; I voted against it."

"The question was no longer focused on extending what amounts to ceremonial recognition of a patriotic organization - it became a symbolic vote on how the Senate felt about racism in the United States . . . my change in vote meant no disrespect to the UDC nor to its worthy mission."

\ Sen. Charles Robb: Voted to table first motion, voted to table again on second.

"When Senator Jesse Helms introduced the amendment on the floor to reverse the committee's decision and extend the patent, it turned into an emotional debate over the Confederate flag. For some, the flag represents an important part of history and pays tribute to those who fought for the Confederacy, but for others it is a grim reminder of slavery. In the end, the vote was about symbolism, not substance.