Myron Penn Removes Confederate Battle Flags From Confederate Cemetery

This is a story that strikes close to home.

Myron Penn, a black attorney with the law firm Penn & Seaborn, who used to be my Alabama state senator in District 28 from 2003 to 2011, has created a huge local controversy in nearby Union Springs, AL by removing Confederate Battle Flags from the Confederate cemetery there.

Penn and his White wife went into the Confederate cemetery and plucked the small little flags off the soldiers’ graves which had been placed there by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to honor Confederate Memorial Day:

“At Monday’s Bullock County Commission meeting, Attorney Myron Penn announced that he and his wife, Karen, recently removed Confederate flags from behind the Red Door Theater.

In his presentation, Penn stated that the flags were “symbols of a divided society, and I do not want the children of our community—black, white, Hispanic, or whatever–to ever feel they are a part of a community that is divided.” …

The story has roiled the Confederate heritage community on Facebook. It has also created a local backlash which was featured last night on WSFA 12:

“It’s not about race or the flag or anything else. It’s about decency and respect for the dead. You don’t do stuff like that,” added Rebecca Atkins. “You got to give respect where it’s deserved and those soldiers gave their lives just like any other soldier gives their lives. It’s nothing racial and it’s not about discrimination. You look at the person who served for our country and that’s what matters.”

Others say it was criminal, citing Alabama Code 13A-7-23.1 which states that it’s against the law to “willfully and wrongfully or maliciously destroy, remove, cut, break, or injure any tree, shrub, plant, flower, decoration, or other real or personal property within any cemetery or graveyard.”

Penn responded to the backlash and says no laws were broken since he left the items at City Hall for anyone to claim and pick up. He says the city typically removes the flags after Confederate Memorial Day anyway. …”

Note: A group called “Defenders of the Confederate Cross” will be holding a protest in Union Springs on June 19.

WSFA.com Montgomery Alabama news.

About Hunter Wallace 12379 Articles
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21 Comments

  1. Diversity Amended.

    Diversity doesn’t mean chasing down the last white person…it actually means chasing them down and digging up their corpse after burial.

  2. EVEN THO THE FLAGS WERE PLACED WITH OUT PERMISSION,WHAT IN THE HELL GIVES HIM THE RIGHT TO REMOVE THE FLAGS? THEY SHOULD BE THERE FOR IT’S THESES MEN WHO CARVED THE ROOTS TO WHAT WE HAVE TODAY. SO MANY NEGATIVE PEOPLE THINK THAT WE SHOULD SHELTER OUR YOUTH FROM OUR HISTORY,RIGHT OR WRONG IT HAPPENED.YOU NOR I CAN CHANGE THAT. USE IT AS A LEARNING EXPERIENCE . YOU DON’T KNOW GOOD WITHOUT SOMETHING THAT IS BAD TO COMPARE IT TO
    NOW ANY ONE WHO HAS A HISTORY OF A FAMILY THAT HAS BEEN IN THE US SINCE THE CIVIL WAR HAD FAMILY THAT FOUGHT DURING THIS TIME ,THEY FOUGHT FOR THE NORTH,THEY FOUGHT FOR THE SOUTH,THEY FOUGHT FOR WHAT AT THE TIME, THEY THOUGHT WAS RIGHT
    YOU WILL NEVER CHANGE OUR PAST.DOESN’T MATTER WHO YOU ARE,OR THINK THAT YOU ARE.IT’S PEOPLE LIKE THIS MAN WHO NEED TO BE TAKING DOWN A NOTCH.AND IF MY ANCESTORS WERE IN THAT CEMETERY I WOULD HAVE MY WAY WITH HIM,FOR THE SHOW OF PURE DISRESPECT SHOWN. I HOPE THIS RUINS HIS LIFE FOREVER.
    MR.PENN YOUR RIGHTS END WHERE MINE BEGAN,KEEP THAT IN MIND

  3. I HAVE HEARD A FEW PEOPLE LATELY SAY THEY DID THINGS TO BETTER OUR YOUTH ,TO MAKE OUR CITY BETTER,I’M SORRY WHO LEFT YOU IN CHARGE ? I THINK WE CAN DECIDE OUR SELVES.
    MR. PENN PLEASE READ OVER THE LAW THAT STATES REMOVAL OF ANYTHING IS A CRIMINAL OFFENCE. IT DOES NOT STATE IF YOU REMOVE IT AND RETURN TO ANOTHER PLACE IT’S OK TO DO SO. YOU ARE LIKE MOST IN GOVERNMENT,AND THINK YOUR ALWAYS RIGHT AND ABOVE THE LAW,THAT SHOWS HOW STUPID YOU ARE. YOU BROKE THE LAW AND THEREFORE YOU SHOULD BE CHARGED,AS ANYONE ELSE WOULD BE. YOU BEING A PUBLIC FIGURE DOES NOT EXCUSE YOUR STUPIDITY,AND IF YOUR LOCAL OFFICIALS CAN’T SEE THAT,THEN THEY TOO SHOULD BE BROUGHT UP ON CHARGES. I HAVE NEVER MET YOU,NOR CARE TO EVER. YOUR TRASH IN MY BOOK.TRASH WITH NO CLASS.

  4. The League should protest – that’ll show em!

    They will reverse this action and put the flags back immediately.

  5. Of all the problems facing Union Springs, you would think that small little decorative Confederate battle flags in an obscure cemetery would be the least of them.

    How about crime, poverty, unemployment, corruption, blighted houses, and terrible schools – Detroitization? The Walking Dead could be filmed there.

  6. Why hasn’t the colored lawyer been arrested? Are the charges too petty, and he would pay a fine…possibly for disorderly conduct and petty theft? You never know, an indignant descendant of one of men whose flag was stolen might object with a baseball bat. That would make an interesting trial?

  7. Anyone care to summarize James’s comments. I refuse to read posts with all CAPS or posts where the author can’t be bothered to use a paragraph.

    Thanks,

    GN

  8. By his logic, should the flags on top of graves of US soldiers be removed – as it may be divisive given their participation in Wars against Native Americans, or invasion of the South ?

  9. Myron Penn’s actions were disgusting and disgraceful. During the civil war there were between 60,000 and 93,000 blacks who fought for the South. How did he know that some of those graves he was desecrating were not black graves? This is another example of how obama has destroyed race relations in this country. If he feels he can justify any of his actions why not just go out and dig up the graves. This racist clown thought he could get away with this cheap stunt by involving his kid. Poor kid
    http://civilwarhome.com/blacks.htm

  10. Hmmm…nobody asked this black fool to go & do this, he’s just grandstanding since Odummy is in office. It was none of his damn business. He thinks he’s untouchable.

    I’m betting he ain’t……….

  11. Those men died fighting to prevent the social system that we have today, its only natural that our enemies are doing this horrible act.

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