THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES HAS REINSTATED THE SALUTE AS PART OF ITS DAILY RITUAL:
OFFICIAL 1954 SALUTE PROVES PATRIOTISM RUNS DEEP IN VA.BUT SOME ARE BOTHERED WITH AUTHOR CASSYE BONNER GRAVELY'S ASSOCIATION WITH A CONFEDERACY GROUP
Thursday, January 17, 2002
By EMI KOJIMA
Roanoke Times Staff WriterBASSETT - Saluting the Virginia flag as a child in grade school, Desmond Kendrick felt proud. When he solemnly stood with his hand over his heart, Kendrick thought about the words honoring the commonwealth. He also thought about the third cousin he knew as "Aunt Cassye."
She penned the salute.
Cassye Bonner Gravely wrote it during the 34 years she was historian of Martinsville's Mildred Lee Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a historical and educational organization. She died in 1967.
Last week, the salute was resurrected as part of the House of Delegates ' daily ritual, prompted by the wave of patriotism after the Sept. 11 attacks. Del. Robert McDonnell , R-Virginia Beach, proposed adding the salute when the House adopted rules for its 2002 session.
But Gravely's association with the UDC is a sore point among some delegates who said it reminds them of Virginia's painful segregationist past. Tuesday, all but two of the 10 black members stood silently when the salute was recited on the house floor.
"We're not against a pledge to the state flag," said Del. Dwight Jones, D-Richmond . "But we should make sure we affirm our commitment with a salute that honors the Virginia of 2002 and not 1954."
The salute reads, "I salute the flag of Virginia, with reverence and patriotic devotion to the 'Mother of States and Statesmen' which it represents - the 'Old Dominion' where liberty and independence were born."
It was used at UDC meetings beginning at least in 1946, said Sam Lougheed , president of the Virginia division of the UDC.
"There's no hidden meaning," she said. "It has to do with love and with the state of Virginia."
Then-Gov. Thomas Stanley signed a joint resolution between both houses that made the 30-word salute "the official salute to the flag of Virginia" on March 15, 1954, two months before the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education that prohibited racial discrimination.
Kendrick, 33, of Martinsville said the salute was meant to celebrate the commonwealth, not to divide it. He is president of the Martinsville-Henry County Historical Society and archives historical records for the county. Kendrick has researched Gravely's life extensively.
"The flag salute had nothing to do with slavery. She just wasn't that kind of person," he said. "Aunt Cassye was very history-oriented. She was adamant about knowing where you come from and your family. It makes you a better person and teaches respect for your elders."
An authority on Martinsville and Henry County's history, Gravely was regarded as a "pillar of the community," said Carl de Hart, a local historian. She kept copious notebooks on family and local history that Kendrick uses for his work now.
The salute is a "big part of her legacy," Kendrick said. He speculated that Gravely wrote it after she had worked with World War II veterans to help people feel proud of the commonwealth and its history. It may have begun as a poem, he said. Gravely won several awards for her essays and poems over the years.
Kendrick owns the small, canvas-covered notebook into which Gravely carefully copied the salute. He keeps it in a safety deposit box.
Gravely was born in 1874 in Henry County. She married Thomas Elaenor Gravely in 1894, and they had seven children. Cassye Gravely worked in her husband's hardware store and taught Sunday school at the First Methodist Church in Martinsville. She also was the UDC's honorary president of the Virginia division, a member of the Daughters of the Revolution and a life member of the Woman's Society of Christian Service. She was 93 when she died.
[Staff writer MICHAEL SLUSS contributed to this story.]
Return to Salute to the Virginia Flag Hits a Snag in the General Assembly