The Confederate flag doesn’t see much daylight in Tucson, but the few times a year that it does are rubbing some people the wrong way.
As legislators in South Carolina debate the symbol’s significance, discussions also are underway in the Old Pueblo over the controversial banner that once flew above the city for a brief time during the Civil War.
On Tuesday, Brian Nettles, a local Republican Party organizer, asked Tucson City Council not to allow the Confederate flag in next year’s annual Rodeo Parade.
Parade organizers will discuss Nettles’ request at their meeting on Monday, said Herb Wagner, a Rodeo Parade spokesman.
And on Wednesday, members of the Tucson-Pima County Historical Commission grappled with whether to exclude the Confederate flag from an Aug. 20 celebration of Tucson’s 240th birthday.
Both the Rodeo Parade and the annual birthday event include displays of all five of the flags that have flown over Tucson through the centuries: the American, Spanish, Mexican, Confederate and state of Arizona flags.
The first flag of the Confederacy, the Stars and Bars, flew over Tucson for 80 days, beginning with the arrival of a small Confederate force in February of 1862.
California troops loyal to the Union drove out the Confederates in May that year.
Terry Majewski, chair of the local historical commission, raised the flag issue for discussion at the group’s meeting, saying members of the public had contacted her about it.
Commission members went back and forth on the issue before deciding the Confederate flag will appear as usual at the city’s birthday party, at least for this year.
Commission member Jim Sauer said some see the flag as a symbol of hatred on par with Nazi Germany’s swastika and suggested the commission look at other ways to observe the city’s birthday.
“I have a birthday every year and I don’t need a flag to celebrate it,” Sauer said.
Commission member Peter Steere said he once saw the Ku Klux Klan hoist the Confederate flag at a rally in Georgia years ago when he was a student there.
“As one of the South Carolina senators said, the flag belongs in a museum. Period,” Steere said.
Other commission members defended keeping the flag, saying removing it would be akin to rewriting Tucson’s history.
“History is not always pleasant,” said Majewski, who said the group’s job is to represent historic events accurately even if it makes some people uncomfortable. She said the birthday celebration will not use the Confederate Battle Flag but a version known as the Flag of Confederate States.
Commission member Mikki Niemi said it would be like “telling people lies” if the Confederate flag were removed from the lineup of flags that have flown over Tucson.
The flag display takes place at the Presidio San Agustín del Tucson, a historic site, so the Confederate banner will be shown in a context equivalent to a museum exhibit, supporters said.
The flag has been the subject of renewed controversy since nine black worshippers were shot to death June 17 while attending church in Charleston, South Carolina.
The suspect charged in the shooting espoused white supremacist views and posed for photographs with the Confederate battle flag.
