My high school, S.R. Butler in Huntsville, is being closed. The final graduating class received their diplomas last month. But when I was there, 40 years ago, Butler High was a booming place, the largest high school in Alabama in 1974. We had the usual high school drama, a good football team under coach John Meadows, proms and pool parties, and we had one more thing.
Confederate flags.
Butler’s mascot was the Rebels. I was never sure why. I think S.R. Butler was a Huntsville civic leader, not a general from 100 years earlier. (R.E. Lee High School was across town.