The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Petition against Confederate flag revived for King Day
Supporters say ‘divisive symbol’ should not be allowed at event
DURHAM — A petition to ensure there are no exhibits, memorabilia or other displays of the Confederate flag at the Durham Fair, initiated and submitted to the association by a local racial justice coalition, was recently reinvigorated to coincide with Martin Luther King Day.
The Change.org petition, “Call for Community Letters to the Durham Fair Association,” had been signed by 3,835 people as of Tuesday afternoon. It has a 5,000signature goal.
In the petition, members of the Middlefield-Durham Racial Justice Team asked that the Confederate flag and all related memorabilia not be permitted at the event.
“We feel that the time to make this change is now. While some may say that the flag is a symbol of Southern heritage, it is clear that it also is used as a symbol of white supremacy and as a tool of oppression,” the post read.
“Such a divisive symbol cannot be part of a fair that wants to be inviting and inclusive of all,” it said.
The petition, initially titled “Remove the Con
federate Flag from the Durham Fair,”, was sent to the agricultural fair’s leadership last September, according to a Jan. 12 post on change.org.
Fair officials in the rural town in mid-May 2020 canceled the 101st annual agriculture celebration due to the pandemic.
The fair’s exhibitor policy states it has the right to decline exhibits “it considers to be inappropriate to its reputation or image, and this includes the right to ask the exhibitor to remove the exhibit.”
Any items, actions or activities deemed by the fair to be a threat to the safety of visitors, such as weapons or offensive material, cannot be displayed and will be removed, according to the website.
The Press reached out to fair President Daniel Miramant, Paul Bergenholtz of the Middlefield-Durham Racial Justice Team and Middlefield Federated Church pastor Bekah Forni. All declined comment for this story.
The petitions did not offer an specific instances of the flag being seen or offered for sale at the fair.
The racial justice team was formed as an initiative of the Middlefield Federated Church, according to the petition.
The issue of the flag has arisen in the past. A controversy erupted surrounding the Confederate Railroad band’s performance at the fair in 2015, over the name of the band and its use of the flag in promotional and performance materials, according to the Record-Journal.
University of New Haven National Security Department professor Robert Sanders said while the Confederacy was dissolved following the Civil War, “the symbols don’t disappear. They’re just put in the closet,” Sanders said.
He pointed to Brazil, where 10,000 Southerners relocated to São Paulo following the war. Seven generations later, there are still “county fair”-type festivals in honor of Confederate Remembrance Day. They are “removed from the real meaning of behind the artifacts, what they were representative of, and what they were trying to support,” Sanders said.
Celebrants don’t necessarily know the history of the Civil War, and what the Confederate flag and other symbols mean to millions of people in Africa, North and South America, he said.
“To them, our racial killings with guns (in the U.S.) is a safety problem with guns, not a human problem of hatred, segregation and white supremacy — the underlying factors that brought all that to life,” Sanders said.