Confederates on The Charles? In 1991, Harvard Faced Flag Flap

The red-and-blue Confederate colors once fanned crimson-hot tempers here at Harvard.

In 1989, Brigid L. Kerrigan ’91 hung the Confederate banner from her Peabody Terrace window. Two years later, she unfurled the flag again from her Kirkland House dorm, prompting a 70-person silent protest, according to The Crimson.

That year, Kerrigan was joined by Timothy P. McCormick ’91-’92, who hung a similar flag from his room in Cabot House and later voluntarily took it down, The Crimson reported.

As a protest, Jacinta T. Townsend ’92, who is black, hung a swastika from her Cabot House suite, which was in view of McCormick’s. She said her swastika was intended as a protest against the Confederate flag—though she took it down amid an uproar from the Jewish campus group Hillel, according to The Crimson.

These days, black leaders on campus are convinced that the student body would react quickly to condemn the appearance of any Confederate flags.

“I think that most of the students on campus would come together and oppose the use of the flag on campus,” Tracy “Ty” Moore II ’06, president of the Black Men’s Forum, writes in an e-mail. “Harvard is an exceptionally accepting institution, but the students understand that an atmosphere of respect should be maintained at Harvard, at least superficially, and the use of a Confederate flag would be superficially disrespectful to numerous students on this campus on so many levels.”

The former president of the Black Students Association, Lawrence E. Adjah ’06, expresses similar sentiments.

“When you’re talking about Harvard, I think the response would be very, very strong because it goes past southern pride,” Adjah says. “It ties to a history of hegemony and racism that people today will not stand for.”a swastika from her Cabot House suite, which was in view of McCormick’s. She said her swastika was intended as a protest against the Confederate flag—though she took it down amid an uproar from the Jewish campus group Hillel, according to The Crimson.

—Staff writer David Zhou can be reached at dzhou@fas.harvard.edu.