By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
The Wood County Commissioners are asking that Confederate flags not be allowed at the Wood County Fair.
The image of a Confederate flag being paraded through the Capitol on Wednesday was jarring to many Americans – and has led to a renewed push by some citizens that the flags not be displayed or sold at the county fair.
The county commissioners sent a letter to the fair board last July about Confederate flags or items bearing the image being sold or offered as prizes.
“We believe the overall intention of the Wood County Fair is to welcome all people to a community atmosphere that is educational, fun and respectful,” the commissioners’ letter stated. “The Confederate flag conveys a message that is unwelcoming to many people.”
For nearly six months, the county commissioners got no response from the fair board, which owns the fairgrounds.
So another letter was sent from the commissioners on Dec. 15.
“As we consider the 2021 Wood County budget, we are reminded that to date we have not received a reply from you about the topic,” the new letter stated. “Until your reply is received, we will take no action regarding your requests for capital improvement projects in 2021.”
Another letter from the commissioners followed up on Dec. 29, again stating that no capital improvement funds will be considered until the fair board responds.
Wood County Fair Board President Mike Trout then sent a letter to the county commissioners on Jan. 2, apologizing for the delayed response. Trout said the only incident involving a Confederate flag at the county fair was “well over five years ago.” In that case, a fair board member asked the vendor to remove the flag from his display, and he complied.
In his letter to the commissioners, Trout said the issue has been discussed at the state level by the Ohio Fair Managers Association, but no written policy or guidelines have been issued from them.
“As we are all aware this is a complex issue involving the First Amendment right of free speech, and any written policy would involve a vast amount of research and legal language,” Trout wrote in his letter.
The letter failed to mention that Confederate flags were banned at the Ohio State Fair in 2015, and since then several county fairs have taken similar action on their own. This past summer, the Wayne County Fair announced it would ban Confederate flag sales, following the Wooster City School District’s discussion of a resolution that would restrict the schools’ participation in the fair if Confederate flag sales were not banned.
In some counties, petitions have been circulated in an effort to get fairs to ban Confederate flags.
The current stance of the Wood County Fair Board is to continue to ask vendors and carnival booths to remove Confederate flags if they are displayed as part of their attraction.
“The Ag Society feels that these contracted attractions are representing our event as a whole, and it is our goal to maintain a comfortable family environment for all to enjoy,” the letter continued.
Trout did not respond to an email message or phone call from BG Independent News on the issue.
Wood County Administrator Andrew Kalmar said the county commissioners have not had a chance to discuss the fair board’s response to concerns about the Confederate flags.
In 2017, Bowling Green citizen Karen Wood noticed Confederate flags at the Wood County Fair and asked the organizers that they be removed.
At the time, Wood reminded that this was a battle already fought by Wood County residents.
“Union Hill and Oak Grove Cemeteries are full of Union veterans who fought the racist traitors of the Confederacy,” she said in 2017. “I refuse to get used to it. If they’re not banning Confederate flags, they are condoning them.”
Racists often defend the Confederate flag as a symbol of state’s rights, Wood said. But as Gordon Ray, a Southern historian pointed out, the Confederate states were established explicitly to preserve and expand the institution of slavery, she said. Alexander Stephens, the Confederacy’s vice president, said the same in 1861, in unambiguous terms, Wood said.
Another Bowling Green woman, Carol Kinsey also sent a letter to the Wood County Fair Board last summer asking for a ban on Confederate flags. Kinsey said she waited for a response, but the only one she received was a single-word “yes” when she asked if the letter had been received.
“The Confederate flag conveys a message that is unwelcome,” Kinsey said.
Kinsey brought the topic up at last week’s meeting of Not In Our Town Bowling Green, where members were appreciative that the county commissioners were not just letting the issue slide.
“It’s hurtful,” Not In Our Town co-chairperson Emily Dunipace said. “We don’t want it anywhere in our town.”
Another letter was recently sent to the fair board by Jean Geist of Bowling Green.
“The parading of the so-called Confederate flag past the image of Abraham Lincoln in the Capitol on Wednesday should be a wake-up call to all,” Geist said. “I wrote to the Wood County Fair Board several years ago protesting vendors selling the so-called Confederate flag at the Wood County Fair, and received no response. The vendor was still there in 2019. I am asking the Fair Board to disavow any connection with this vendor or the marketing of this flag.”
The fair board’s website lists policies for the fair, but none mention Confederate flags. Following is a list of some of the fair board policies listed on the organization’s website:
- No pets allowed on fairgrounds.
- No bicycles, skateboards, roller blades, or roller skates allowed on the fairgrounds during the fair.
- No weapons in buildings.
- No laser beams allowed on the fairgrounds.
- No political posters or displays permitted outside of booths and/or political buildings.
In June of 2020, the Ohio House of Representative had the chance to ban the sale of Confederate flags at county fairs. However, members tabled the motion.
State Rep. Juanita Brent, D-Cleveland, the ranking Democrat on the Agriculture Committee who sponsored the amendment, said the Confederate flag “is a banner of white supremacy and a reminder of our nation’s original sin of slavery.” That they should still be displayed at fairs meant to celebrate what is best about Ohio is “a real shame and black eye” on the House, she said.
Brent also tried to get through an amendment that would have cut state funding to any fair that sold Confederate flags and memorabilia. That also failed.
