South Burlington's Rebel debate goes back decades

SOUTH BURLINGTON - The three-month blow up over the decision to change the schools' team name, which culminated in murder threats and a federal indictment, is not the first time the Rebel name has become a flashpoint for racial tension at the school.

In fact, the high school's Rebel name — coupled with the Confederate flag — has faced opposition since at least 1963.

In that year, Bill Schneider's mother in South Burlington wrote to urge the superintendent to choose another name because of its association with the Confederacy. South Burlington High School's first class chose the mascot in 1961, but Bill Schneider, 70, of Middlebury recalled his mother thought the name would compromise the school. He said he didn't understand his mother's concern until taking college classes.

"It was simply that they wanted a mascot with emotional appeal," Schneider, a 1964 graduate, said explaining that students who chose the Rebel name had little understanding of race or politics.

In 1961, student Cathryn Towne told the Burlington Free Press that the Rebel was picked over Titans, Rams, Blue Lancers and Blue Panthers because the town was south of Burlington, the school colors were blue and gray and the school opened during the Civil War centennial year.

"And we are fighters," Towne said.

When Schneider, who was president of the Vermont Association of Student Councils, hosted in 1963 a black student leader from another state, he said he never considered that the mascot might offend his guest.

"He never mentioned it," Schneider said.

RELATED:

• An interactive timeline of South Burlington and the Rebel name
• South Burlington to drop Rebel team name
• Rebel debate rouses South Burlington

While South Burlington students chose the Rebel mascot for their newly formed school, a group of black and white Civil Rights activists toured the south to illustrate illegal segregation in transportation and accommodations. The clashes that followed the Freedom Rides were recorded as national front page news in the Burlington Free Press.

The local fight against discrimination made headlines when in 1957 a black University of Vermont student was refused service at a South Burlington motel. UVM students marched and Civil Rights activists helped push through in April an anti-discrimination bill in the Legislature.

But in September 1957, a Free Press report cited instances of black airmen being denied housing, and op eds through the 1960s show housing discrimination remained an issue for Chittenden County. Blacks were excluded from purchasing homes in South Burlington's Mayfair Park neighborhood, according to documents obtained by Elise A. Guyette, author of “Discovering Black Vermont.”

In 1964, South Burlington students reconsidered their use of the Confederate flag. According to a Free Press article from that time, individual students "considered the flag insulting to some people involved in the Civil Rights movement."

Cars bearing the school's Confederate decal sticker were reportedly targeted by acts of vandalism, such as smashed windows and slashed tires.

The flag was used almost from the beginning, but never recognized as the school's official symbol.

"During the first football game, a kid charged down the hill with a Confederate flag, and we've had it ever since," Principal John Herbert explained ahead of a student vote about whether they should continue to use the flag..

Students voted 64 percent in favor of the flag. Principal Herbert amended their decision saying it could only be used at home games.

The argument against using the flag resurfaced in January 1971, when Burlington NAACP members presented at the high school their personal encounters with racism. The Free Press report tells of a student asking whether the school's use of the Confederate flag was offensive.

"To a black person, this flag has certain connotations," NCAAP member Melvin Todd said. "The Ku Klux Klan flies the Confederate flag, so did George Wallace and his followers. Every time I've seen an offense against the black people, I see the Confederate flag."

The account said his answer was followed by a period of silence before the discussion continued.

Following the NAACP presentation, South Burlington resident Anthony Socinski wrote an op ed published in the Free Press calling for the school to drop the Rebel name and Confederate symbols.

Students responded to Socinski's op ed with their own, in which they wrote that no one alive remembered the Civil War. Their advice: "Let it lie."

Student Richard Warner submitted an alternative opinion. He suggested rebranding as any other kind of rebel.

"People can be racist without realizing it," Warner wrote. "Letting the issue lie is no solution, as racism would mount."

The issue was dropped, but garnered mention in the late 1980s and again in the late 1990's, when the symbols are said to have been officially retired. Regardless, the memory of the Confederate connection lived on.

Bob Walsh, a retired South Burlington history teacher, recalled his first encounter with team spirit during the late 60s and early 70s.

"I went to a game and I saw Captain Rebel with the flag and Dixie being played. I was shocked," Walsh said earlier this week.

A Burlington Free Press reporter found photographs of those games 30 years later after Walsh suggested to the school board in August 2015 that South Burlington should reconsider the Rebel name since Confederate symbols were being rethought in the wake of a South Carolina church shooting.

Prior to the Free Press' publication of Confederate imagery appearing at football games, many students had no idea the Rebels had any connection to the Confederacy.

"Right from the start I was conflicted,"  School Board student representative Isaiah Hines said in December 2016. "So many people support the name, was it really that much of a problem?  ?After looking into it, I quickly found out that it's something that needs to change."

The community split between those who wanted to keep the name which was tied to a proud sports tradition and those who wanted to retire it. The board voted in October 2015 in favor of keeping the name and promised to redefine Rebel and educate students about race and Confederate imagery. The administration's actions never materialized.

Students formed the Student Diversity Union following the decision in order to spearhead education on race and racism.

In the fall of 2016, Hines, a co-founder of the Diversity Union, repeatedly asked the administration and the School Board to reconsider the Rebel name.

On Feb. 1, the board reversed their decision and voted unanimously to find a new school name and mascot. The euphoria some students felt was quickly replaced with concern from parents as backlash from the decision online was immediate and sometimes vicious.

A petition to retain the name started on Change.org was tainted almost immediately by a racist rant and removed by administrators.

Alumni and community members who felt betrayed by the decision to retire the name started a Facebook group called the Rebel Alliance. The group has spoken out against spending money on rebranding the school and has twice successfully promoted defeat of the budget.

Last month the vitriol between the two sides reached a peak before the second budget vote when one of the write-in candidates who ran for the school board was accused of stalking Hines. That case is pending.

More recently, South Burlington student Josiah Leach is facing one federal charge as of Thursday after being accused of a series of death threats against five staff members and 11 students which caused lockdowns and early dismissals. The death threats mentioned the Rebel decision.

"THIS COULD’VE BEEN PREVENTED FROM KEEPING THE REBEL NAME. NOW I’m gonna have to attack you all. I don’t care for my own life as long as you’re all dead!!!!!?"

Leach told investigators he wrote the threats because he felt like he had been treated as a joke and he wanted others to feel the same way, according to court documents.

Leach faces a possible sentence of five years in prison, if convicted.

"It didn't make anything easier," Principal Patrick Burke said Tuesday about the previous week's events in light of the mascot and budget issues.

The students are choosing a new mascot, but some residents have petitioned the city for a vote.

"It was so cool to be a Rebel," Burke said, but he added, "things change."

He explained that the population of the school children in South Burlington is currently at 18 percent non-white, while the U.S. census data indicates the overall population of the city is 90 percent white.

As for Schneider, the 1964 graduate whose mother was concerned the name would sully the school's character — he thinks it's a teaching moment for the students to study the Civil War.

"Right now I don’t have an opinion on whether it ought to be changed," Schneider, said about the name. "I think the discussion is healthy and I think it's an opportunity to discuss what rebel means in this global climate."

Contact Nicole Higgins DeSmet at ndesmet@freepressmedia.com or 802-660-1845. Follow her on Twitter @NicoleHDeSmet.