Flag ban from parade prompts suit by southern heritage group

VAN BUREN — An organization promoting southern heritage is suing the city and Mayor Joe Hurst, saying Hurst banned the group’s float from last month’s Christmas parade for displaying a Confederate flag.

Sons of the Southern Cross, a Van Buren-based group, is accusing the mayor of suppressing the group’s right to free speech, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court.

Joey McCutchen, a Fort Smith attorney, is representing Sons of the Southern Cross.

The lawsuit states the group participated in the city’s Christmas parade for 11 years prior to the parade held Dec. 12. The 2020 parade was billed as a “reverse” parade, with floats remaining stationary while people walked or drove past them, a change prompted by the covid-19 pandemic.

The group’s floats in prior years included a Confederate flag. The group originally had been assured by a representative of Old Town Van Buren, the parade’s sponsor, it would be permitted to display a Confederate flag in the 2020 parade as well, according to the suit.

Hurst was the one who directed the group’s float be excluded, according to McCutchen.

Old Town Van Buren published several rules for float entries in the 2020 parade, including one stating, “No flags, other than the American flag, or any discriminatory items, sayings, etc., should be present on your float. This parade is about CHRISTMAS.”

McCutchen objected to that rule, calling flags a matter of free speech.

“The rule prohibiting any Flags other than the American Flag is clearly a content-based restriction on free speech when such rule is applied, made, or enforced by a state actor because it allows one type of Flag but not others,” the lawsuit states.

Hurst didn’t return a message left for him at his office Friday seeking comment.

Sons of the Southern Cross is seeking a permanent injunction that would allow the Confederate flag and other flags to be flown at future parades. The group also is seeking an unspecified amount in damages related to the costs of working on the float.

McCutchen said the group spent about $1,000 on the float.