All these NC towns want for Christmas next year is a parade with no Confederate conflict
Some North Carolina municipalities already are working on next year’s Christmas wish list, topped by a holiday parade that can’t become a battleground for Confederate heritage groups and their opponents.
“We’ll be talking about that in January,” said Bill Crabtree, spokesman for the town of Wake Forest.
On Wednesday, Wake Forest became the second Wake County town in a week to cancel its Christmas parade over safety fears. Santa Claus was planning to come to town on Dec. 14, but Wake Forest officials canceled the parade for what is though to be the first time since it started more than 71 years ago.
Town officials said they had received credible information that “extremist” groups on both sides of the issue of how — and whether — to preserve and interpret symbols of the Confederacy were making plans online to attend the parade. Crabtree said no one from either side made any threats, but the fear was that that dozens of people from the different groups would clash at the parade and that the situation could get out of hand.
“All you have to do is turn on the news and see, in our area, our state and across the nation, how quickly things can turn bad, how quickly people can be injured,” Crabtree said in a telephone interview. “When things go bad, there is a threat to public safety and that was something that we just couldn’t risk.”
In the past, Crabtree said, members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and of the United Daughters of the Confederacy have participated in the Wake Forest Christmas Parade, without incident. Usually, he said, as many as eight men and women dressed in Civil War-era costumes accompany a float, carrying a banner with the emblem of the SCV, which includes an image of the Confederate flag.
Confederate groups in Wake County
The SCV group that participates in the Wake Forest Christmas Parade is the 47th Regiment N.C. Troops Camp #166. It’s one of three SCV camps in Wake County and one of more than 100 across the state that claim a total membership of about 3,000 men who are direct descendants of soldiers who served in the Confederate military or government.
The Wake Forest parade is primarily a project of Wake Forest Downtown Inc., which relies on volunteers and support from the town. Applicants are given only a few rules, most of which apply to the safe operation of vehicles and floats. But also: Only one Santa is allowed in the parade, and he is provided by the sponsors; festive attire is required; and there is to be no throwing candy to the crowd and no giant noises that would scare children.
The application lists fees for youth, church, civic and community groups and for-profit companies.
Because the town is a sponsor of the Christmas parade, Crabtree said, it can’t shut out a particular group from participating. In the future, he said, turning over the parade entirely to a private organization or a nonprofit community group would allow for closer scrutiny of who is allowed to join the parade.
Garner canceled its Christmas first, calling it off on Nov. 27. That parade is put on by the town’s parks and recreation department.
Stephanie Brandt attended that parade last year with her two young children and said in a phone interview Thursday she was taken aback when the float operated by the Sons of Confederate Veterans Polk Camp 1486 rolled into view, flags flying. Four costumed men stood waving inside a flatbed trailer, its rails festooned with garland and banners bearing the chapter’s name.
“I was actually sitting next to a black man who had a young child with him. I assumed it was his son,” Brandt said. “It broke my heart when that float went by that they had to sit there and witness that.”
Complaints last year in Garner
Later that day, Brandt said, she emailed the town to express dismay over the group’s inclusion in the parade and said she hoped they would not be allowed in 2019.
She got an email back the following Monday that said the town had received many similar comments.
“Unfortunately, due to first amendment rights, that organization is legally allowed to participate as with any other entry at this time,” the email said. “While we don’t want to negate rights, we are aware of the potential effects on surrounding entries, participants and citizens from this organization.
“We are looking for a neutral solution to move forward to not only promote a safe and welcoming environment for all, but one that reduces the stigma that promotes hate and negative connotations.”
Brandt said when she learned the SCV would be in the parade again this year, she contacted the UNC campus activist group Move Silent Sam, which has been involved in the dispute over the university’s Confederate monument.
Move Silent Sam later went to Facebook and Twitter to say, “It would be great if Garner and Wake Forest could carry on with future Christmas parades without including divisive and hurtful symbols like the Confederate flag.”
The SCV has participated for years in the Sanford Christmas Parade, put on by the Central Carolina Jaycees. Organizer Gina Guerrero said she had received a number of complaints about the presence of the Gen. N.B. Forrest Camp #803, whose commander, Kevin Stone, also is commander of the statewide group. But this year, she said, “I never received an application.”
The parade went on Monday night without the group.
“It’s a touchy subject,” Guerrero said. “It’s very difficult to tell a group that does a lot of community service that they can’t be in the Christmas parade because some people disagree with them.”
However, she said, safety is the first concern and she understood the choices Garner and Wake Forest had made.
First Amendment versus inappropriate
Organizers of the Light Up the Night Hillsborough Holiday Parade thought they might get an application from an SCV group to participate in their event this year, especially after people carrying Confederate flags demonstrated in the town earlier this year.
Kim Tesoro, CEO of the Hillsborough/Orange County Chamber of Commerce, which sponsors the parade, said organizers were prepared to say “no” if any SCV chapter or other pro-Confederate group applied.
“We’re very concerned with First Amendment rights, but also with trying to give a time and place for that kind of thing without taking away from a very enjoyable community event,” Tesoro said. She said parade organizers would have viewed a pro-Confederate group as “inciteful,” and deemed it inappropriate.
Don Scott, commander of the SCV camp that has participated in the Garner parade in the past, said the Sons of Confederate Veterans are barred from racist behavior. He said it’s mostly a group that gets together to hear historians talk about the war, and to participate in community service projects.
Scott said he also is a member of a group for the descendants of Union soldiers.
Scott’s Confederate group has enjoyed participating in the Garner Christmas Parade, he said, adding that no one in his group would have participated in any violence had there been any. He could not say whether the group would have bowed out of the parade at the town’s request, saying he would have had to confer with state SCV leaders.
“But if it were up to me personally,” he said, “if it came down to being in the parade or having it for the kids, I would choose the latter.”
Social media users have weighed in on the cancellations.
“Bowing down to perceived threats sets a dangerous precedent for ALL future events,” one person wrote on Garner’s Facebook page. “It’s sad when a minority group can affect the wishes of the majority.”
In Wake Forest, some people said the organizers’ decision wasn’t easy.
“I know many people who help make this parade happen,” one person wrote in the Wake Forest Community Information Facebook group. “The one thing I know for sure is they are devastated by having to cancel. They have poured MANY man hours in to this event.”
Much protest over Confederate symbols
Clashes and protests over Confederate monuments and symbols are nothing new in North Carolina.
Last month, crews hauled away a Confederate statue that had stood outside the Chatham County courthouse for 112 years.
Meanwhile, some students and faculty members at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are upset at the school’s decision to pay $2.5 million to the Sons of Confederate Veterans to move and preserve the Silent Sam Confederate statue.
In North Carolina, supporters of Confederate monuments have said they preserve Civil War history. Those who want them removed contend they represent white supremacy and racism.
Though some Confederate monuments have come down in recent years, North Carolina has the third-most of any state.
This story was originally published December 5, 2019 at 1:11 PM with the headline "All these NC towns want for Christmas next year is a parade with no Confederate conflict."
