Mark Young

Dozens of colleges have banned their sports teams from traveling to South Carolina to compete in athletic contests and spring practices. The move comes in response to an NAACP boycott of the Palmetto State because the Confederate Battle Flag flies above the state capitol.

Among those that have pulled the plug on trips are a number of Philadelphia-area schools, including Swarthmore, Temple, Bryn Mawr, and Haverford.

The administration at Swarthmore College "has decided that our spring athletic teams will support the NAACP boycott of South Carolina because of the Confederate flag that flies over the state capitol." What this boycott means to Swarthmore, which had six athletic teams scheduled to go to South Carolina, is that their teams will have to move to other facilities to hold their spring practices, as will the other schools that participate in the boycott. All the schools involved will also have to find other teams to play against.

Haverford College began the Philadelphia-area boycotts when women's tennis coach Ann Koger went to Athletic Director Greg Kannerstein after the January 17 protest outside the South Carolina capitol. Kannerstein said that Koger and her two assistants were "feeling uncomfortable about sending the team." As Kannerstein told Campus Report, "We first just made a decision not to send the team. It was a matter of personal gut reaction by both the coaches and myself that it was not the time to send the team to South Carolina. We sat down with the administration and with others in the athletic department and talked it out amongst ourselves…that we would support the boycott."

Only after the press reported on Haverford's decision did the school make a formal announcement on its stand on the flag issue. Soon the tennis and the lacrosse teams from Bryn Mawr College, as well as Temple's tennis team, joined the boycott, as have Franklin and Marshall College, and Dickinson College.

Mark Duzenski, Swarthmore's golf coach, told Campus Report that it was not until local newspapers began asking Swarthmore what the college planned to do on the issue that administrators decided to take action. Duzenski also stated that the administrators, and not the teams or coaches, made the decision for Swarthmore to boycott. Some coaches and players were critical of Swarthmore's administration. Women's tennis coach Dan Sears said that he was not happy that the final decision was "made behind closed doors," while women's tennis co-captain and senior Michaela DeSoucey said, "they [the administration] did not give us time to reschedule."

What the schools are now finding out is just how expensive a boycott can be. Swarthmore has six different teams that have to find new facilities. By waiting until almost the start of spring practice to issue the boycott, Swarthmore has had to scramble to not only find new practice facilities, but also teams to compete against. Since most of the South Carolina facilities were reserved last fall, the schools will lose the registration and deposit money on those sites, as well as the expense of securing new ones. Hostility toward the Confederate flag is not the first time that a flag has sparked controversy on campus. In the early 1990s, the school refused to fly the American flag in a prominent position on campus. A student referendum forced the school to reverse its anti-American flag position that had dated back to the 1960s.

Temple University joined the ban by announcing that it had cancelled a match by the school's tennis team in Hilton Head. The school's basketball coach, John Chaney, announced that he would never allow his team to play in South Carolina and called on the NCAA to ban teams from competing in the state.

"The NCAA would make an important step if they were to say that that state is out of bounds for any teams to go there," Chaney asserted. His refusal to play in the state, he maintained, would include forgoing participation in NCAA tournament games that are scheduled for Greeneville, South Carolina in 2002.

"You can change somebody who is crazy, but stupid is forever. That's what you find with those racists," Chaney opined. "They'll never change and that flag will never come down. They should organize and do what they told the blacks to do: Go find your own country. That's what they should do."

Colleges and universities purport to strive for tolerance and diversity on their campuses for all groups. Yet when it comes to the heritage and pride of Southerners, some see a selective recognition on the part of many institutions as to what to tolerate and what cultures to respect.

At Emory University in Atlanta, the Kappa Alpha fraternity house removed the Confederate Battle Flag from the front window of their house last November after a public forum on the issue. The school remains quiet on the matter, not answering complaints filed by the Black Student Alliance or affirming the fraternity's right of free expression to display the flag. Though both sides have met to try to reach a compromise on the issue, at this time they remain deadlocked.

While it has been used by racists to promote their viewpoint, the Confederate Battle Flag is also a symbol of pride in the South, representing the sacrifice given by those who stood up against what was seen as Northern aggression. One state, Georgia, felt so strongly about the sacrifices made that the state flag was changed to incorporate the Confederate Battle Flag in 1956 to honor Southern soldiers. The Atlanta Journal reported on July 5, 1992 that they could not find any reason that the Georgia State flag was changed in 1956, other than "to create a living memorial to our great heritage and the brave people involved."

Although numerous Southern states incorporate symbolism from the Confederacy in their state flags, only South Carolina, which flies the Confederate Battle Flag in addition to their state flag, has been targeted by the NAACP. Proponents of the flag point out that both the cross and the American Flag are also misappropriated by racists and it would be equally ludicrous to ban those symbols.

Seen by the schools as a symbol of hate, the Confederate Battle Flag has been banned from most Southern college and university football games, along with the playing of "Dixie." Even the name "Dixie" has been dropped from school sponsored organizations, as was the case with the University of Georgia Dixie Redcoat Marching Band, which has since dropped the offending word from its name.

At the University of Mississippi, according to student Harold Morgan, "the Confederate Battle Flag was a part of school functions until 1983 or ‘84 when the University officially disassociated itself from it." Students could continue to bring the Confederate Battle Flag into the stadium until last year when the university banned sticks, which were used as flag poles, from the stadium.