Since Peter Kalajian’s opinion column criticizing the display of the Confederate flag appeared in the Oct. 14 issue of The East Carolinian, a student newspaper at East Carolina University, Kalajian and his editor, Amanda Lingerfelt, have been the targets of a campaign aiming to have the university punish them for publishing the piece.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, James E. Hickmon, whose website, My Dixie Forever, features multiple images of the Confederate flag, has organized a petition asking that East Carolina University take disciplinary action against Kalajian and Lingerfelt. Hickmon says he has more than 250 signatures.
Lingerfelt said to her knowledge there are no plans for her or Kalajian to be punished in any way, however.
“I spoke with members of the Student Press Law Center and our university’s attorney and came to the general consensus that there was nothing they could really do or were prepared to do,” Lingerfelt said in an e-mail.
Lingerfelt said when she first published the column, she did expect some degree of negative response since many in her area display the Confederate flag, but she did not anticipate the level of controversy the column caused.
“I never expected anyone to be so offended that they would try and take action to discipline employees of our paper. I felt the column was a valid opinion and that it was well within Peter’s First Amendment right to express his opinion on the Confederate flag,” Lingerfelt said.
Most of the negative response to the column, Lingerfelt added, has come from outside East Carolina University. She said she has received about 30 letters to the editor complaining about the column, but only two were from East Carolina students.
Donald Downs, a UW political science professor, said Kalajian and Lingerfelt were completely within their First Amendment rights in publishing the article and East Carolina University would not be justified if it were to punish the students.
Downs also said Hickmon’s attempt to have the students disciplined for publishing the column, which they are legally free to do, was just “another tactic of the anti-freedom left the right has adopted.”
“It was absurd when the left did it, and it is absurd when the right does it,” Downs said.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Hickmon has said he never asked for the students to be censored. His request is that they be required to take a Civil War history class.
Downs said forcing the students to take a class would still be infringing on their rights, however.
“This guy should take a First Amendment class,” Downs said.
Amid all the criticism, Lingerfelt said she has received support from faculty in East Carolina’s communications department “who may or may not support Peter’s opinion, but support his right to express it” and from local journalists who agree with her decision to print the column.
Lingerfelt said although she had heard some discussion about the Confederate flag among students before the column was published, she never realized what a controversy it was in her area until now.
Lingerfelt did not express any negative feelings toward those who choose to display the “negative” flag. She said she was impressed by their devotion to their cause.
“After having listened to the complaints of those who take great pride in their Southern heritage, I realize that to them, this issue is a common controversy, and they work hard to promote a positive outlook on both their heritage and their flag,” Lingerfelt said. “I never knew there were so many people who dedicate their lives to this cause, and that impresses me.”
