Open Letter

     We at Dixie Outfitters have been contacted by many students and parents advising us of the banning and/or considered banning of shirts featuring the Confederate Flag and in particular Dixie Outfitters brand shirts at their school.

     School Boards and Principals please be advised that there are currently over 36 lawsuits filed upon school boards for banning confederate flag clothing. Your actions to ban Southern Heritage from your schools put you at risk of similar lawsuits.

     We have responded to students/parents requests by putting them in touch with several organizations. The Southern Legal Resource Center (www.slrc-csa.org), Black Mountain, N.C., and the Sons of Confederate Veterans (www.scv.org) specialize in cases of discrimination against Confederate Americans under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The American Civil Liberties Union (www.aclu.org), and the First Amendment Lawyers Association (www.firstamendmentlawyers.org) specialize in cases involving freedom of speech as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. We are also advising them to stand up for their rights and to fight back at school attempts to deny them of their rights and freedoms.

     We understand that your intentions to prohibit the Confederate Flag from being worn at your schools may be to prevent controversy or incidents involving racial issues. There are other remedies available to prevent such incidents or controversy and we respectfully disagree with denying your students their rights as guaranteed by law.

     The demonization of the meaning of Confederate flag by special interest groups such as the NAACP and the KKK have little or nothing to do with the real history of the flag. The real truth is that 260,000 Southern men and women died for this flag. The real truth is that the War for Southern Independence had little or nothing to do with slavery or racism.

     It is the responsibility of our schools to educate its students about the true history of the War for Southern Independence and the Confederate Flag and not to succumb to those who make trouble because they are uneducated about the facts. Schools should not punish the innocent for being proud of their heritage while upholding ignorance, misinformation and unruliness caused by propaganda disseminated by radical special interest groups for their own purposes.

     We hope that your school will reconsider your current policy in regard to the Confederate Flag and allow your students the rights and freedoms enjoyed by all other Americans.