Change was permeating Williamson County in the late 1960s.
The county's schools were desegregated in 1967.
The next year, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis on April 4.
And in July, the county adopted a seal featuring a Confederate flag in its upper left corner, which today is under scrutiny.
Hewitt Sawyers, a Franklin native and 37-year pastor at West Harpeth Primitive Baptist Church, remembers that time well.
Sawyers grew up under Jim Crow laws and during the civil rights era. He remembers places he could and couldn't go in Franklin.
"When I went to the ice cream shop in Franklin, my father told me not to sit at the counter but to bring it back outside," Sawyers said. "I didn't know why. I never questioned it. I just knew I wasn't supposed to sit there."
When he was 10 years old, he observed young white children call his father by his first name instead of his last.
"When I asked my father why they did that, pointing out that I thought it was disrespectful to call your elders by their first name, he responded to me, 'That's just the way it is.' "
Sawyers also asked his father why he couldn't go to the school a half-mile from his College Grove home, and again he responded, "That's just the way it is."
Now, Sawyers said he is "honored" to serve on a new task force to study the future of the Williamson County seal.
"Today there are some things still entrenched and ingrained," he said. "It must be different. It's time for it to no longer be 'just the way it is.' "
The Williamson County Board of Commissioners in July approved, 18-5, the formation of the nine-member task force.
Williamson County seal adopted in 1968
Commissioners decided to create the task force after they received hundreds of emails for and against the removal of the Confederate flag from the seal, adopted July 15, 1968.
A petition to change the seal was launched by Franklin resident Dustin Koctar, who is a part of the Franklin Justice and Equality Coalition, and has drawn over 11,000 signatures.
The seal has four quadrants "representing the diversity of the county," according to the county's description.
It was designed by longtime county historian Virginia Bowman, who was the historian of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Franklin Chapter No. 14, and Franklin native and journalist James H. Armistead, editor of The Review-Appeal. The seal was accepted by Judge Fulton Greer.
The county website describes the seal.
The upper left quadrant depicts a Confederate battle flag draped over a cannon, which symbolizes the rich history in the county. The upper right quadrant shows a schoolhouse, illustrating the importance of education. The lower left quadrant portrays a Bible in front of a church window, which represents religion. The lower right segment shows farm animals, denoting the county's rich agricultural roots.
Rick Warwick, a county historian for over 25 years and a member of the task force, said he saw change coming.
"It's here," Warwick said. "This was a little Southern town, and the trouble is most of the people in Williamson County are not from Tennessee. Most are from California or Michigan or some other place. New people are here now, and the symbols have to represent their values, not the past."
According to a recent Williamson Inc. Market Research Report, 60% of Williamson County residents were born outside Tennessee.
Warwick also questioned whether the county needs a seal.
Warwick had a close friendship with Bowman, who died in 2018 at the age of 94.
Bowman was born in Franklin, loved learning the history of her hometown, served on local historical societies and wrote many books.
In "Historic Williamson County: Old Homes and Sites," she explains the book's purpose.
"It has been a labor of love this journey into yesterday, and effort to preserve for posterity a glimpse of a vanished way of life. If it quickens the interest of one reader or has a part in saving one historic landmark, my efforts will not have been in vain," she wrote.
'Is it necessary to change?'
Cheryl and Joseph Charles Wilson were both born in Williamson County, which they describe as a "friendly and community-minded" place, and now live on a farm in the Triune area.
Cheryl Wilson served as a county commissioner for 12 years, and "Charles" Wilson's forefathers settled almost a fourth of Williamson County. Wilson Pike, which runs through the county, was named for his family.
Cheryl Wilson said she feels that education about the county's history should be more deeply considered.
"I want to suggest to people, go to the Williamson County Archives, and you can study all of this and read and understand the history of Williamson County before you make decisions," she said.
"You can't erase the Civil War," she said.
In the Battle of Franklin on Nov. 30, 1864, the Confederacy lost its hold on Southern states. The five-hour battle began at dusk and resulted in the death of six Confederate generals and almost 10,000 casualties, including 7,500 Confederate soldiers.
"People need to think things out," Cheryl Wilson said. "People need to do research and educate themselves. What best represents Williamson County? Is it necessary to have a seal? Is it necessary to change the left quadrant? Is it necessary to change the Bible on the seal? If you constantly change something is that wise?"
However, she said, "we will accept whatever is decided."
'Time to bury the myth'
The task force, chaired by Williamson Inc. president and CEO Matt Largen, will meet for the next couple of months. Some meetings, to be announced, will be open for public comment.
The task force will make a recommendation to the county commission, and if that recommendation includes changing the Confederate flag on the seal, the commission will send a resolution to the Tennessee Historical Commission, which is the state's legal governing body over changing historic symbols and monuments.
Eric Jacobson, CEO of the Battle of Franklin Trust, stood recently on the lush green grounds of the farm known as Carnton, which once belonged to the McGavock family during the Civil War era.
"A lot of people say it's beautiful," he said.
"It is beautiful, but that's not what it is all about."
He said he thinks the county is still dealing with its past, which is rooted in the Civil War and slavery.
"A lot of people ask if the McGavocks treated their slaves well. My response is we really don't know, but the reality is that human beings were owned on this land," he said. "They worked day and night. Most never left this land. Most never went to town, and some never stepped foot inside the family home. It was oppression."
Jacobson said the South is facing "a day of reckoning," following the killing on Memorial Day of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer held his knee to Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes.
"We are reckoning with our past in race, slavery and the Confederacy," Jacobson said.
"The Confederacy is dead. It's time to bury the myth."
Kerri Bartlett covers issues affecting children, families, education and government in Williamson County. She can be contacted at kbartlett@gannett.com, 615-308-8324 or @keb1414 on Twitter.
"seal" - Google News
August 03, 2020 at 05:02PM
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'A day of reckoning' is here in debate over Confederate flag in Williamson County seal - The Tennessean
"seal" - Google News
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