The ceremony will go on. The groups get city permits to gather in the public park next to the Baltimore Museum of Art, where the monument of Jackson and Lee astride horses was dedicated in 1948. The seven-ton, 14-foot-high statue depicts the two generals at their last meeting, in 1863 during the Battle of Chancellorsville, Va. Shortly after, Jackson was accidentally shot and killed by his own men.
In previous years, the ceremony has featured music from the Civil War period, a Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag, a salute to the Confederate flag, and a march from the southern end of the Hopkins campus down Wyman Park Drive to the monument. The march will be shortened this January so the groups do not step on Hopkins property.
"I can assure you there will be a celebration of General Lee's and General Jackson's birthday," said Cummings, who counts 20 ancestors, including his great-great-grandfather, as Confederate soldiers. Lee was born Jan. 19, 1807, and Jackson on Jan. 21, 1824.
Cummings, of Towson, said the lack of a reception site will surely depress turnout because it means there will be no bathroom facilities, a particular problem because many of the participants are older.
"I can't encourage people to come if they're going to be uncomfortable," Cummings said. But he remained defiant. "They're not going to deter us from having it. Maybe that was their intention, but that's not going to happen."
Hopkins officials said they have no control or desire to control what happens on public property.
News of the refusal was first reported on the Web site Inside Higher Ed this week, after appearing on several blogs of Confederate groups and Southern writers last week. The blogs have urged readers to contact Hopkins President William R. Brody. A Hopkins spokesman said Brody has received "some" communications but declined to characterize their nature.
Sons of Confederate Veterans released a letter from Brody's executive assistant, sent after the group asked the university to reconsider its stance. "We have considered our decision and do not wish to change it," said the letter from Brody assistant Jerome D. Schnydman, dated Oct. 14.
The Confederate groups say they have been misunderstood, and that the flag to them represents their ancestors who fought in what they call the War Between the States and the Revolutionary War. "You have a situation where we've let other people define us, and in the past haven't spoken out as strongly as we should about other groups who have usurped the use of our flag," said Michael K. Williams, commander of the Gilmor Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
He acknowledged that Hopkins is a private institution, but he said that because it receives federal money it must adhere to federal nondiscriminatory policies when it comes to renting space on campus. Williams said his group is a federally registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Marvin L. "Doc" Cheatham Sr., president of the Baltimore chapter of the NAACP, said his association supports freedom of speech but that he did not have enough information to wade into the debate over whether Hopkins was denying the First Amendment rights of the Confederate groups. But he said the Confederate flag was a "despicable" symbol that stood then and now for segregation.
Don Cash, an NAACP national board member from Columbia, applauded Hopkins' decision and said, "What that flag means to me is slavery."
