Feinstein’s Flag
By 
Another great moment in the past of Dianne Feinstein.
Confederate-flag-waving Klan and Nazi terrorists, emboldened by Ronald Reagan’s racist reaction and war drive against the Soviet Union, were on the offensive. At a 1981 Memorial Day ceremony, Feinstein presided over the re-installation of the Confederate battle flag in Civic Center as part of a set donated by the Bechtel corporation, at Feinstein’s request, to replace the original flags (Oakland Tribune, April 19, 1984).
“San Francisco is proud to fly these flags where both visitors and residents alike may see and appreciate the more than 200 years of America’s rich history which they symbolize,” she declared, as reported by the May 21, 1981, San Francisco Examiner.
It did not take long before complaints started coming in to the office of Supervisor Doris Ward. Local 6 of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union (ILWU) passed a motion demanding that the racist banner come down. It did come down in 1982 for a mass labor rally to get out the vote for the Democrats, but went back up within a week (see “Black Militant Puts Dixie Flag on Trial,” WV No. 357, June 22, 1984).
On April 15, 1984, Black Spartacist League representative Richard (Ritchie) Bradley donned a Civil War Union Army uniform, scaled the 50-foot flagpole and ripped the flag of slavery down. Cheered on by protesters, Pete Woolston, a member of the ILWU Local 6 General Executive Board, burned it. Both Bradley and Woolston were arrested.
Like Shelley 20 years earlier, Feinstein put the flag right back up. After Bradley ripped the second flag to shreds the next day, he was arrested again (WV No. 353, April 27, 1984). Recreation and Park Manager Malloy declared that “he will continue to fly the Confederate flag until or unless the Board of Supervisors orders it down” (San Francisco Examiner, April 17, 1984).
In 1984, the Democratic National Convention was coming to town and Feinstein was angling for a spot on the Democratic Party ticket as vice president. To that end, she was eager to “make San Francisco safe for the neanderthal Strom Thurmond types and the (then) current George Wallacites, her Dixiecrat brothers-in-arms who will soon be arriving,” as we put it at the time (WV No. 358, July 6, 1984).
After an appeal by Supervisor Ward, Feinstein grudgingly agreed not to put the KKK flag up again. But the city pressed charges against Bradley. As Colin Kalmbacher, writing on the website Law & Crime (Feb. 27, 2018), put it: “Feinstein’s office worked with San Francisco’s then-District Attorney Arlo Smith on the prosecution. Of particular concern to Feinstein was that Bradley make ‘restitution’ to the City of San Francisco for the destroyed flag.”
Yes, this is a leftist site. But the citations to major newspapers are the citations to major newspapers. They are providing the receipts.