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capitols, at least, is constitutionally required.
Forman closes his article with a reminiscence of his high school days in Atlanta when his homeroom seat allowed him a view of the school caretaker raising the Georgia State Flag.
"I am drawn to this flag, particularly its wholesale incorporation of Dixie. I observe the same scene almost every morning, and almost every morning I hate the fact that I watch. I want to desperately to ignore the flag, ignore Dixie, and ignore the history for which it stands."
"For relief, I take my eyes off the flag and glance down again at the groundskeeper, who is still pulling the cords to the groundskeeper is black. I think of the incongruity of having black children, in a largely black city, watch a black man raise the symbol of the Confederacy for us all to honor. I tell myself to laugh, hoping that this will keep me from crying. But I forget. If I could just forget. My eyes close tightly, my fists clench, and I slowly force from my eyes images of the flag, of people in chains, hanging from trees, kept illiterate, denied the opportunity to vote."
"The bell has rung. My teacher is calling my name: "James, are you ok?" I look up startled. "Yes ma'am, I'm fine," I say, to myself as I walk out the door. I have forgotten; I have purged my mind; I am able to get up and walk out of the door. But overcoming the flag has taken a piece of me - a piece that I wil not easily recover." ¹
1. James Forman, Jr., "Driving Dixie Down: Removing the Confederate Flag from Southern State Capitols" The Yale Law Journal, Volume 101, Number 2, (November 1991,) New Haven.