Artist Avoids Opening Of Controversial Gettysburg College Flag Lynching Exhibit
By Deborah Fitts
October 2004

GETTYSBURG, Pa. - A flood of indignation over an art exhibit at Gettysburg College that demeaned the Confederate battle flag prompted college officials to scrap plans for a public "lynching" of the flag and drove the artist from attending the Sept. 3 opening.

The most controversial part of the show, the work of African-American artist John Sims, was a 13-foot "gallows" that Sims planned to erect on the lawn in front of Schmucker Hall, which houses the college art gallery. Sims had scheduled a mock lynching of the flag for the evening opening, a display he dubbed "The Proper Way to Hang a Confederate Flag."

But advance publicity prompted a wave of e-mails and other communications, which flooded into the college and to Gettysburg Borough. College spokesman Patricia Lawson estimated the total at 200 to 300 messages.

Lawson said concerns about security forced the college to ask Sims to bring the "lynching" indoors. Since the gallery rooms weren't high enough for Sims's gallows, the display was reduced to a flag dangling from a noose. Sims expressed disappointment at the college's decision.

"They were scared," said Sims, reached by phone in Sarasota where he teaches at an art school. "The university buckled under pressure. They're not used to dealing with white supremacy."

The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) took the lead in the protest. Their initial call for a possible boycott of the Borough was dropped, and instead the national organization called for a boycott of Gettysburg College itself.

Borough spokesman Walter Powell expressed relief that the SCV had decided against boycotting Gettysburg. "They figured out that the Borough didn't organize this exhibit and to target the merchants was unfair," he said. "We supported the college's right to freedom of expression, but we took no position on the exhibit."

But Powell said the Borough would ask the college for "full reimbursement" of the costs of providing extra police coverage. "There's simply no money in the budget."

The final figure was not available at press time. But prior to the event, Borough police had estimated the cost at from $30,000 to $130,000. Besides Borough officers and state police, about 20 officers from other municipalities were involved in the coverage, Powell said, and they would also seek reimbursement.

College spokesman Patricia Lawson said turnout for the opening night of the show was "awesome," with more than 900 visitors entering the gallery - a record. There were no incidents.

It was the all-new element of the flag "lynching" that was "the flash point," Lawson said. She stated that the show had provided the college community with "the opportunity for a dialogue and exchange of ideas."

Two counter-events took place in Gettysburg - a candlelight vigil on Thursday night outside the gallery, sponsored by the SCV and the North Carolina-based Southern Legal Resource Center, and an SCV vigil at the battlefield's Peace Light on Friday evening, timed to coincide with the opening reception.

Jim Palmisano, commander of the John Wesley Culp Camp of the SCV in Gettysburg, said about 35 attended the three-hour event Thursday, which comprised the reading of the names of the 4,712 Confederate dead at Gettysburg. Individuals took turns, and as time ran out on the Borough permit, two people read names at once. Each name was marked by the ringing of a ship's bell.

Friday's event was "a great success," Palmisano said, drawing more than 200 people to the lawn in front of the Peace Light. He said the vigil was intended as "a plea for the college to stop misrepresenting the flag as a racist and hate symbol"

He said the event also represented an assertion that "we take back the flag from the hate groups that misused it over the years. We are the rightful heirs of the flag, and it's our goal to take it back and reestablish it in its rightful place."

Palmisano said the boycott of the college was intended "to educate people that the administration is not at all concerned with the feelings of a great many people." Punishing the Borough made no sense "when they've been so good to us," he said. "The college was the culprit."

Besides Palmisano, among those who spoke were the SCV's ANV commander, Henry Kidd, along with Pennsylvania Division commander Mike Duminiak and Maryland commander Gerry Bayer.

Sims called those who opposed his exhibit "neo-Confederates," who he said were "well organized and very frightening. I think it's all connected to white pride and white supremacy." (Sims also said the KKK had contacted the college. But Lawson, the college spokesman, said she was unaware of any such contact. She did say, however, that the FBI had contacted the college and warned officials "to take these groups seriously.")

Sims said groups like the SCV "brush off issues like slavery, segregation and the KKK. Sometimes symbols are contaminated beyond repair. That's what's happened to the Confederate flag."

Palmisano said the Confederate battle flag was "strictly a military flag" and "did not represent slavery and repression. It meant something only to the soldiers. It was a symbol of sacrifice. We want to save the true history of the flag, so it won't be destroyed by the reinterpretation of the academics."

Sims's exhibit, "Reclamation Proclamation: The Gettysburg Redress," included several Confederate flags in different colors, "drag flags" in pink and purple with sparkles and fur, and a "ReVote" installation with three of the voting booths used in the controversial 2000 presidential election in Florida. The show was scheduled to run at Schmucker Hall through Sept. 26.

Lawson noted that Sims's show was actually several years old and had previously been on display in Tampa and Harlem. It was the all-new element of the flag "lynching" that was "the flash point," she said. She stated that the show had provided the college community with "the opportunity for a dialogue and exchange of ideas."