Supporters and opponents of the Confederate flag will square off again on Tuesday, this time in a Florida Panhandle community with a geographic twist as "northerners" may be more supportive of the flag than people in the South. The place is Walton County, sandwiched between Panama City and Destin in northwest Florida.
Founded in 1824, it's one of the oldest counties in Florida and perhaps best known as the home of Seaside, the photogenic New Urbanism beachfront community used as the setting for the Jim Carrey film "The Truman Show."
Walton is bordered by Alabama on the north and the Gulf of Mexico on the south, and the rebel flag has fluttered on the grounds of a Civil War memorial on the lawn of the Walton County Courthouse since 1964 -- the same year President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act.
In the aftermath of last month's massacre at an African-American church in Charleston, S.C., opponents launched an aggressive effort to take down the flag. The five-member Walton County Commission heard both sides debate the issue two weeks ago, and delayed a final vote until Tuesday -- at the courthouse in DeFuniak Springs on the county's north side, not far from the Alabama border.
"I'm hopeful," says Daniel Uhlfelder, a 42-year-old lawyer, a 14-year resident and leader of the flag opponents who launched an online petition to have the flag removed. "It's a divisive symbol that doesn't belong on the courthouse grounds. It was immediately offensive to me. We're the last courthouse in Florida that has a flag on the grounds." Uhlfelder said he's troubled by the setting of Tuesday's vote in DeFuniak Springs, where many families have lived for generations and where support for the flag is strongest. "It's a friendlier forum," Uhlfelder said.
In the aftermath of the Charleston killings, the governors of South Carolina and Alabama ordered the flags removed from state capitols, and the city of Pensacola recently removed the flag. Walton County's two Republican legislators are split on the issue: Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, says it should come down, and Rep. Brad Drake, R-Eucheeanna, says it should continue to fly.
"If someone says they're going to take down a valued piece of American history, I'm not going to agree with that," Drake said. The flag is not a symbol of racial hatred, he said, but of the American soldiers who fought for the "CSA," the Confederate States of America. "Regardless of the consequences, it's a valid piece of American history."
The Northwest Florida Daily News, which has editorialized in favor of removing the flag, ran pro and con op-eds on Sunday by Uhlfelder and Danny Glidewell of DeFuniak Springs, a youth sports coach and referee and former county employee, who described America as a place "besieged by political correctness."
The county commission meets at 9 a.m. central time on Tuesday. "There's going to be a lot of pressure on them," says Jim Anders, a long-time Walton resident, vice-chairman of the local Republican Party and a flag opponent. "I'm from the Panhandle and I do understand our heritage. But it needs to be taken down."
Anders, who's been in the land and timber business since the 1970s, said residents of South Walton are mostly transplants from elsewhere, and people living around DeFuniak Springs are more likely to be lifelong residents.
Commissioners Cecilia Jones and Bill Imfeld did not respond to requests for comment. The agenda includes proposed purchases of an ice machine and a mobile satellite radio telephone for emergencies and "continued discussion of the Confederate battle flag on the courthouse lawn."