SOME WON'T RECITE SALUTE:
MEMBERS OF BLACK CAUCUS CITE ORIGINSTuesday, January 15, 2002
By PAMELA STALLSMITH (pstallsmith@timesdispatch.com)
Times-Dispatch Staff WriterSome House members of the Black Legislative Caucus say they will refuse to recite the Virginia flag salute because of its Confederate ties.
The caucus plans to meet tonight to discuss what action, if any, it should take in response to some lawmakers' objection to the daily recitation on the House floor.
On opening day Wednesday, the House voted without dissent or discussion to recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. flag and the Salute to the Flag of Virginia before beginning the day's business.
Many lawmakers were unfamiliar with the 30-word salute, which was adopted by the General Assembly in 1954. The Times-Dispatch detailed last week how it is also the official state flag salute of the Virginia division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which has used the tribute since 1946.
"I don't want to be part of the Old Dominion," said Del. Dwight Clinton Jones, D-Richmond. "I want to be part of the New Dominion."
Jones said some of the salute's language "gives me pause," such as the reference to the Old Dominion. He said he will participate in the pledge but not the salute.
Del. Viola O. Baskerville, D-Richmond, said many in the caucus share that view.
"At a time in our history in which the country should be pulling together under one country, one flag, why are we introducing a salute that was penned at a time when our state was most divisive?" she said.
Only three of the House's 34 Democrats were at their seats yesterday when the daily session began at noon with the pledge and salute. Democrats said their party caucus ran late and that their tardiness was not sending a message.
Del. Lionell Spruill Sr., D-Chesapeake, said he was not going to say the salute. He said one suggestion is to do away with it.
Del. Robert F. McDonnell, R-Virginia Beach, who proposed adding the tributes to the daily schedule, said last week he was unaware of the salute's origins.
The salute, written by a founding member of Martinsville's UDC chapter, was adopted officially by the state UDC in 1954.
Black caucus members question the timing: A few months after the assembly endorsed the salute, the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed school segregation.
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