
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 2, 1994                   TAG: 9403020079
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LEXINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

CONFEDERACY'S 8 BATTLE FLAGS STILL FLY AT W&L

Washington and Lee University is reconsidering its decision to surrender eight Confederate battle flags that have flanked Robert E. Lee's statue for more than 60 years, spokesman Brian Shaw said Tuesday.

W&L planned to take down the original flags used during the Civil War, give them to the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond and replace them with reproductions during a ceremony Tuesday.

The plan upset Civil War enthusiasts in Lexington, where Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson are buried.

Members of the W&L Board of Trustees asked the school on Monday to review the documents related to the flags "one more time" to confirm the Richmond museum's claim to them, Shaw said.

The university still believes the flags belong to the Museum of the Confederacy and should be sent there because the curators want them back, Shaw said.

"This is an issue of ownership, not political correctness or symbolism," Shaw said.

Regardless of who owns the flags, they will have to be taken down from Lee Chapel, restored and put in glass cases because they will disintegrate if left hanging on poles in the open air, Shaw said.

by CNB