Eagle Scouts stand. I call the name Michael Westerman, a young Kentuckian, gunned down by flag-haters for displaying the flag on the back of his pickup truck. Would that he could also stand, here now, beside these scouts. But, in a way, actually, he is. Side with the flag-haters and the blood of L. D. Smith, Michael Westerman and William L. Skinner is on your hands.
Time is up.
This speech was delivered by Richard Barrett at the City Council meeting at City Hall in Jackson, Mississippi on April 4, 2000. Several of the newly-installed Negro councilmen, who had taken aim at the Confederate flag, had already been imprisoned for extortion or corruption. Barrett had successfully sued the Jackson Public Schools, as well, when Negress Ollye Shirley, imposed as head of the school board, had tried to ban the flag. Negro Kenneth Stokes, however, persisted in his campaign against the flag. Barrett has been leading the fight to save the flag.