Symbols of Individual Expression
The most commonplace flag controversies in the 1990s involved school dress codes, and pitted students’ rights of free expression against schools’ duty to maintain a safe learning environment. Courts generally decided in favor of schools. At a middle school in suburban Richmond, Virginia, administrators allowed students to wear their respective “X” symbols after an assembly to discuss “the importance of tolerance and mutual understanding.”
Images:
Two X’s Depicted are two families who stood together with one son wearing a Malcolm X t-shirt and the other in a Confederate flag t-shirt, ca. 1995.Private Collection
Two X’s Depicted are two families who stood together with one son wearing a Malcolm X t-shirt and the other in a Confederate flag t-shirt, ca. 1995.Private Collection