Rugg told American Libraries that he and Dente had researched the image and were confident that it “did not represent the Confederacy.” He explained that the one complaint he received about the flag prompted them to discover that the Confederate symbol is part of the Mississippi state flag and that Elvis was born in Tupelo. They concluded that the flag was symbolic of nothing more than Mississippi’s pride in being Presley’s birthplace. Dente added, “I felt I had made an informed decision” about retaining the flag. As to the protest letter, Dente and Rugg said that they had not known of its existence until the Post article appeared.
Dente explained that the Confederate Elvis appeared along with 17 other flags “only as a colorful display” to make the high-ceilinged media center more inviting. She bought them as a bagged lot at a Salvation Army sale last summer; the resulting exhibit included the bag’s contents, which also contained a checkered NASCAR racing flag and the flags of several Asian and European countries. Citing her 34 years of school library experience, she added, “As a librarian, my responsibility is to provide displays that are representations of different ideas.”
Posted January 28, 2005.