[ The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 4/11/03 ]
Senator calls governor racist in confrontation at Capitol
By JIM GALLOWAY and RHONDA COOK
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
JOHN SPINK / Staff
Mayor Shirley Franklin (left) congratulates Sen. Mary Squires for what she called "courage" in using a few choice words with the governor earlier in the day Thursday.
Thursday was yet another day of gut-wrenching debate over the state flag referendum.
Mary Squires, a white state senator from Norcross, called the governor a racist. Twice. An African-American senator declared the whole thing a "charade" and walked out of a committee hearing.
Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, visiting the Capitol, called the plan "disastrous" and said she'd be back to lobby legislators to shelve it.
White supporters of the old state flag and its Confederate battle emblem asked lawmakers to feel their pain, too.
And an unperturbed Gov. Sonny Perdue, who has said the discussion that would accompany a referendum would help heal racial wounds, said the state could count on many more moments like these in the 11 months leading to next year's statewide vote.
"I don't know that we began a healing process with Senator Squires today," the governor told reporters after their confrontation. "But I think it's this kind of moment that will begin [it]. People will be able to express their strong sentiments."
The emotional catharsis began in the morning, when from the well of the state Senate, with TV cameras rolling, Squires spoke about Perdue's referendum.
As approved by the House this week, the bill would immediately raise a new state flag -- a close copy of the first national flag of the Confederacy, also known as the Stars and Bars. On March 2, voters would be asked to make an up-or-down decision on that flag.
If they reject it, a second vote would be held in July 2004. Voters would be asked to choose between the state flag that flew before 1956, and the old state flag with its dominant Confederate battle emblem.
A son's questions
Squires, a Democrat and the daughter of a former statehouse lobbyist for the Catholic archdiocese, said her 9-year-old son focused on the vote with the battle emblem. "Mom, why does the governor hate black people?" she quoted him as asking.
Squires told of when she was a child and her mother slapped her for speaking disrespectfully to a black maid. Then she condemned the governor for putting the Rebel cross to a public vote.
"The emperor is naked. The governor is a racist. And these freckled white legs are headed down to the second floor to teach him a lesson," she said in an angry sob.
She grabbed a tissue and marched down to Perdue's office.
State Sen. Regina Thomas (D-Savannah) followed, and the pair cooled their heels in the anteroom -- with five baton-twirling queens, four pom-pom queens, and one fund-raising princess. The young girls, all African-American, were waiting for a photograph with the governor.
The legislators' conversation with the governor lasted five minutes.
"I said, 'Governor, stop the flag,' " Squires later said. "And he said 'No.' I said, 'You're hurting the children,' and he said, 'No, I'm not.' "
Perdue gave a similar account.
"She talked about [her children] being upset about terrorism, their concerns about getting on an airplane, them being worried about the war in Iraq -- and that I was just adding to that misery," he remembered.
Then it got ugly. Recalled Squires:
"I said, 'You need to talk to God.' He said, 'I do every day.' I said, 'I doubt it.' And then Regina pulled me out of the office," Squires said. Thomas later confirmed that Squires called him a racist again, this time to his face.
Squires later went to a luncheon sponsored by 49 African-American legislators and received a standing ovation.
The governor, within minutes of Squires' departure, defended himself and his referendum to reporters.
"Unfortunately, Senator Squires really doesn't know me very well. She's obviously agitated over an issue where there are strong passions on either side. To make it personal is unfortunate. That's bad. I regret that.
"Her characterization about my concern for children certainly is not accurate. It's very misplaced. Mary and I have demonstrated that in a very caring and loving way over a number of years," said Perdue, who with his wife has been a foster parent for black children.
Defense of governor
The governor's spokeswoman declared the confrontation a natural part of the "racial healing" intended to be produced by the referendum. "It's the Stephen Covey method of trying to solve problems. In order to gain healing, you have to listen to what the other person is saying," Erin O'Brien said. Covey is a management guru Perdue has told his staffers to emulate.
In the Senate, Republicans called Squires' remarks unprecedented and rose to defend Perdue.
"I don't believe anybody here believes the governor is a racist," said Sen. Bill Stephens of Canton, the governor's floor leader. He said Squires "crossed a line" in her comments, and some Democrats privately agreed. Squires' remarks would make it harder to forge the bipartisan vote needed to stop the referendum, they said.
The afternoon Senate hearing on the measure opened with a walkout by Sen. Nadine Thomas (D-Atlanta). She's the only African-American member of the 16-member Senate Rules Committee. "I was not going to be part of that joke," Thomas said later.
Senators at the hearing sought assurances from those involved in the debate -- supporters of the Confederate battle emblem in particular -- that they would avoid inflammatory language.
Jack Bridwell Jr., commander of the Georgia division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, promised that his members would keep their cool. "We'll not be calling names. [But] when you start accusing people of racism because they believe in heritage, something's wrong," Bridwell said.
Advice from others
The hearing attracted a half-dozen witnesses, including Cas Robinson, a former House member who spoke for the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta. "I think its morally reprehensible to put the [Confederate battle] flag to a referendum," he said.
Replied state Sen. Robert Lamutt of Marietta, a Republican congressional candidate: "You don't seem to have a concern for those who feel disenfranchised by the current flag."
Senators also heard from Ed Jackson, a University of Georgia academic who walked the panel through the history of Georgia's flags, and counseled against the "In God We Trust" motto on the proposed new banner's white stripe. "Half the people see it backward," he said.
Jackson also noted the surreal flavor of the day: "It may be snowing in North Georgia. Greg Maddux has an ERA of 11. And we're looking at the second debate over the state flag in three years."
Tell me how you really feel L B. Damm!!!
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