Hazel Trice Edney

It was mid-summer 1992. A black airman with the Virginia Air National Guard walked into the Richmond Free Press newsroom and asked to see a reporter.

After he placed a stack of photos on my desk, asked for anonymity and detailed his complaint, I literally ran up the stairs to the office of Raymond H. Boone, the founder and now late editor of the Richmond Free Press. I showed Mr. Boone what the airman had revealed. In the next edition of the Free Press, July 23-25, 1992, the banner headline was clear: “Confederate flags on state planes.”

Debates now raging over the removal of Confederate flags by retailers and from public properties in South Carolina and other states call to mind this specific moment in black press history.

The lead paragraph told the story:

“The Confederate flag — the symbol of slavery and banner of hate groups in America — is emblazoned on 149th Fighter Squadron planes of the Virginia Air National Guard, based at Richmond International Airport.”

The article contained a photograph as proof.

The article further stated that the “emblem was adopted by the unit when it was first formed in 1947,” that some airmen had worn it on their uniforms and that there were “imminent plans to put the hate symbol on all of the new planes of this squadron, as well as on the squadron’s Air National Guard uniforms.”

With only six African-Americans among the squadron’s 50 members, there was little empathy for the offended black airmen — even when they complained and took action by refusing to serve people wearing the emblem in the cafeteria. The emblems had in fact been approved for use on the military planes and uniforms by the U. S. Department of Defense. They had also been copyrighted.

Maj. Stewart MacInnis, a white public affairs officer, defiantly said in a Free Press interview for the story, “Anybody who’s offended by it, I’m surprised that they’d even join the unit … Nobody’s forced to join.”

On the other hand, the African-Americans in the unit feared for their jobs if they consistently complained. But help was on the way. Then-Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, America’s first-elected black governor, had read the story and a scathing editorial written by Mr. Boone.

The very next Free Press edition, July 30-Aug. 1, 1992, published an epic headline: “Governor wipes out rebel flag/Free Press story gets quick results.”

Under the headline was a photo of Gov. Wilder, commander-in-chief of the Virginia Air National Guard, sitting behind his desk with a clinched fist, as well as a photo of the Executive Order he signed.

It stated:

“I hereby direct you to take all measures necessary to replace the flag being employed in the emblem of the 149th Fighter Squadron, 192nd Fighter Group, Virginia Air National Guard, with the flag of the United States of America. This replacement shall be carried out on all equipment and uniforms of this unit, effective immediately.”

The order was met with compliance. Maj. Gen. John G. Castles ordered the removals, stating, “I answer to the governor. I am a soldier.”

The Confederate flag emblem was removed, but not the racism for which it stood. In the weeks following, Staff Sgt. Leon Brooks, a black airman who had spoken openly against the flag, was fired by the Virginia Air National Guard “not for cause,” according to the termination letter.

Although Sgt. Brooks was not the airman who initially had come to the Free Press about the unit’s Confederate emblem, he became the unit’s scapegoat.

Again, Gov. Wilder flexed his gubernatorial powers as Air Guard commander-in-chief. He reinstated Sgt. Brooks, who later retired and eventually became president of the King William County Branch NAACP in Virginia.

In the wake of the horrific actions by domestic terrorist and white supremacist Dylann Roof, who confessed to killing nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, all eyes remain on South Carolina. This week, the state continued to fly a Confederate flag on its State Capitol grounds despite a vote Tuesday by the state Senate to remove the flag. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has called for the flag’s removal, but she does not have the same authority in this situation as Gov. Wilder did in Virginia 23 years ago.

Nevertheless, perhaps America can learn from an eloquent media statement made by Rep. Mia McLeod as she pressed for the South Carolina House to follow the Senate’s vote for the Confederate flag’s removal. She said her greatest hope is for the flag’s removal to come, not begrudgingly, but by honest change in “attitudes, hearts and minds.”