Confederate flag near City Hall had blessing of mayor in 1964
In San Francisco, where watching “The Dukes of Hazzard” might be a questionable political decision in 2017, a flag of the Confederacy flying near City Hall with the blessing of the mayor seems unimaginable.
But for several months in 1964, the Confederate battle flag was raised every day in front of San Francisco City Hall. And when African American leaders protested, city leaders sided with the backers of the Civil War-era symbol — ordering it replaced after it was cut down during a protest rally.
The controversial flag was the idea of Stanley Bergman, a businessman and patriot who curated a “Pavilion of American Flags” in Civic Center Plaza, on 18 flagpoles that had been naked for years. The banners were raised on Flag Day, June 14, 1964, with a military band, Mayor John F. Shelley in attendance, and no foreshadowing of the fracas to come.
“They ran Stanley Bergman’s idea up 18 flagpoles in Civic Center Plaza yesterday and everybody saluted,” a San Francisco Chronicle reporter wrote in a bright five-paragraph story the next day.
In just 48 hours, the narrative would turn into a full-blown “Ruckus Over the Flag,” as The Chronicle’s Page 3 headline stated, with demands for Shelley to remove the Confederate symbol.
“The man who raised the Confederate battle flag in front of City Hall found himself manning the barricade as well yesterday,” The Chronicle reported. “Angry civil rights leaders — calling the Southern banner a ‘symbol of hate’ — demanded
that it come down.”
James Herndon of the Negro American Labor Council called the flag “the badge of slavery.” Bergman countered with arguments that will sound familiar to anyone following 2017 flag and statue controversies in Virginia and other Southern states.
“All the flags come from the history of America and, whether we like it or not, the Confederacy was a part of our history,” Bergman said. “You can no more take the flag out of an historical display than you can go to the history books and tear out the pages on the Civil War.”
The American Civil Liberties Union backed Bergman, and so, ultimately, did the city. In a baffling compromise, Shelley decided the flag and the bronze plaque at the base would stay, then ordered a current U.S. flag to be placed above it on the same pole, to “symbolize American unity.”
The Confederate battle flag was cut down by activists later in the summer, during a July 12, 1964, march against the conservative policies of Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. Police reported that the flag theft was the only crime committed during the otherwise peaceful gathering of 35,000 civil rights activists.
Later in the year, Bergman volunteered to replace the battle flag with the lesser-known Confederate “Stars and Bars” flag, which included three stripes and a circle of seven stars.
And then, seemingly out of nowhere, another flag controversy developed — this time started by Bergman.
When artists from Russia, Poland and other Eastern Bloc countries put in bids for a Civic Center Plaza beautification project, Bergman threatened to take all his flags down, fearing a communist architect might turn his flags into an “honor guard for a nation that supplied munitions which led to the ultimate loss of 33,000 Americans in Korea.”
The last Chronicle report had a flustered Bergman moving his flags to Union Square, although they apparently never got there. Most of Bergman’s assorted American flags and plaques remain in Civic Center Plaza, including an original California Bear flag and a “Don’t Give Up the Ship” flag flown on the flagship Niagara during the War of 1812.
Over the years, the less conspicuous Confederate flag was quietly removed. Fifty-three years later, good luck finding a San Franciscan who will publicly lobby for its return.