Petition calls for removal of Confederate flag from park

KENNESAW — Nearly 2,700 people, as of Wednesday night, had signed an online petition to remove a Confederate flag from a downtown Kennesaw park. About the time it crossed the 2,500 signature mark, Kennesaw city council members agreed to consider a resolution aimed at allowing the city to make its own decision on whether the banner should remain on display.

But no such flag flew on any of the three flagpoles in the city’s Commemorative Park for most of the day Wednesday, as Kennesaw Police Officer Scott Luther confirmed that the flag had been removed sometime during the past few days. The park, which features monuments and plaques honoring veterans from several armed conflicts and a Sept. 11, 2001, memorial, is next to the Southern Museum at the corner of North Main and Cherokee streets.

The petition on change. org was started Monday by 19-year-old Reid Jones, a 2016 Kennesaw Mountain High graduate who says he was prompted to start the endeavor by the past weekend’s protests and violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. “I personally see it as a symbol of division in the U.S. It’s definitely not a symbol of unity,” he said. “I think leaders on both sides right now are calling for unity, and the last thing we need is to raise a symbol of the biggest divide our country’s ever seen. And it also represents white supremacy, segregation, any kind of racial division.”

Council members discussed the petition during their work session.

Though the Kennesaw council on Monday could consider a measure regarding the flag, its approval would not and could not remove the flag from the city park due to existing state law, said Randall Bentley, the city’s attorney.