WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — A group of Williamson County residents came forward on Monday asking county commissioners to draft a new resolution to request a waiver from the Tennessee Monuments and Memorial Commission to change the county seal.

The seal, which shows a Confederate flag draped over a cannon, is protected under the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act.

"This is not about erasing history. It's about creating a new and better future we can all be proud of,” Williamson County resident and One WillCo member Cory Martin said during Monday night’s meeting.

Dustin Koctar, another Williamson County resident, who started a Change.org petition in 2020 to remove the flag from the seal, also spoke to the commission during the meeting.

In an interview with News 2, Koctar explained, “This is not to discount the men who fought for the Confederacy and lost their lives protecting what they believed was right, but we have seen that particular flag on our county seal closely aligned with discrimination, racial terror, with inequality and white supremacy.”

“It's not representative of Williamson County, and it's not representative of what we want to portray to the rest of the world," Koctar added.

The Tennessee Heritage Protection Act was amended by the General Assembly last year to include the protection of county seals. This happened after the Tennessee Historical Commission and a Davidson County judge ruled the Confederate flag could be taken off the seal. The Sons of Confederate Veterans appealed the decision.

In 2024, Steve Murphree, Chaplain for the Murfreesboro Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp, said to News 2 in an interview, "It's disappointing to know that people really want to remove it and that they see that battle flag is a symbol of hate rather than as a rallying point for our local men.”

For Williamson County native and now Democratic Party Chair Ragan Grossman, the Confederate flag reminds her of her upbringing and her time at Franklin High School, which changed its mascot from the Rebels to the Admirals. She described the flag as a symbol of hate and division.

"We flew the flag, and we had Colonel Reb on the field… all these years later, when you know better, you do better. I feel bad that I did that back then — I didn't know quite the extent when I was a kid, the level of hate, or the level of what that did to the community… how that divided the community,” she told News 2. “It’s [The Confederate flag] is just not something we want on our seal frankly other than in a museum in a shadow box.”

Members of One WillCo, a non-profit organization promoting racial equality in Williamson County schools, also spoke in Monday night's meeting, advocating for the removal of the Confederate flag from the seal.

News 2 reached out to the Sons of Confederate Veterans and several Williamson County Commissioners, who did not respond in time for this report.

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/after-5-year-legal-battle-theres-a-renewed-effort-to-remove-confederate-flag-from-williamson-county-seal/