Lawyer removes Confederate flags from historic cemetery, sparking calls for disbarment
An African American lawyer is facing calls for his arrest and disbarment after removing Confederate flags from a cemetery in Union Springs, Alabama, on Mother’s Day weekend.
Lawyer Myron Penn announced last Monday at a meeting of the Bullock County Commission that he had removed the flags and they were available for pickup at city hall, the Union Springs Herald reports.
Penn, a former state senator, told commissioners and WSFA that he removed the flags because he didn’t want his 4-year-old son growing up in a community with a symbol of oppression and divisiveness. The Associated Press and Raw Story also covered the controversy.
Critics point to an Alabama law making it a crime to “willfully and wrongfully or maliciously destroy, remove, cut, break, or injure any tree, shrub, plant, flower, decoration, or other real or personal property within any cemetery or graveyard.”
Mayor Saint Thomas Jr. told WSFA that an outside group had placed the flags in the cemetery without permission and they were in the wrong for the “illegal activity.” The cemetery is owned by the city.
