The Vault

CHICAGO (CBS) ― The purpose of the American flag is a perpetual debate. Many see it as a symbol of the country that should be revered and honored, while others believe its desecration should be allowed under the tradition of dissent, and both sides hope to have their convictions reflected by the law.

That debate turned to fury in February and March 1989, when an American flag was draped on the floor as part of a student exhibit at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, by an artist who described himself as a Communist revolutionary.

The exhibit, entitled, "What Is the Proper Way to Display a U.S. Flag?" included a full-sized flag on the floor of the exhibition room, in front of a shelf that invited visitors to answer the question the exhibit's title posed and photographs of South Korean citizens burning the flag, flag-draped coffins, and other imagery intended to incite.

The Art Institute had asked the artwork's creator, "Dread" Scott Tyler, not to include it in the student exhibition, but eventually allowed it – a decision which brought heated protests led by veterans from the day it opened in February 1989, until it closed about a month later.

A couple of days after the exhibit opened, a group of veterans came to the exhibit, picked up the flag, folded it up and took it away. By that time, it was already tarnished with shoeprints and dirt.

"To see something like this – disgrace our flag?" a veteran said. "The flag that we fought for, that we love! What's the matter with you people?"

But defenders of the exhibit were there that day too, and they spoke up for what they called the right to free expression.

School officials said the exhibit did not violate the state statute, which had been interpreted with the First Amendment "to permit the use of the flag in works of art on gallery display, even though such works might cause concern to some persons or groups.

But many lawmakers did not agree. In the weeks afterward, veterans from across the country led protests in front of the Art Institute, and then-State Sen. Walter Dudycz (R-Chicago, 1985-2002), filed suit with the veterans' groups to have the exhibit shut down.

But a Cook County Circuit Court judge rejected the lawsuit on the grounds that the exhibit was protected by the First Amendment.

But Dudycz continued to take up the fight against the exhibit, and he was not alone. The City Council and the Cook County Board both passed resolutions condemning it.

The Chicago Park District's finance committee voted to cut off tax revenues to all the city museums if the exhibit remained intact, since they were not permitted to cut funding to the Art Institute alone.

"We took this action because we felt that the community outcry with respect to the flag itself required us to take some action with respect to the art museum," said Anthony Bass of the Park District.

Then-State Senate President James "Pate" Phillip threatened to cut state funding to the Art Institute.

And Chicago Police officers, who fortified security at the Art Institute due to repeated threats to the institution, said while the Art Institute was not criminally liable for the exhibit, anyone who walked on the flag could be charged with a felony.

The Flag Protection Act of 1968, which was law in effect at the time, forbade the burning and desecration of the U.S. flag, and applied to walking on the flag.

A couple of weeks after the exhibit opened, Susan Willhoft, a teacher from Virginia, was arrested and charged with a felony that could have resulted in a three-year prison term had she been prosecuted.


Artist Calls Himself Revolutionary
The Art Institute itself continued to stand behind the exhibit, and many students rallied to the cause of free speech, but some had difficulty standing by the self-avowed Communist revolutionary artist's statements.

The 24-year-old student, who now goes just by the name Dread Scott, gave a news conference in mid-March 1989, and said he was glad he had offended those who called themselves patriots.

"The flag means to me that My Lai can be committed, and people would say, 'Hey, it's just part of war;' the international plunder which exists, everything that America is and does and does historically, including the massacre of Indians, including the possible murder of between 30 and 50 million black people in times of slavery – that's what that flag means to me," Scott said.

Some protesters were sympathetic to Scott. One woman carried a sign outside the Art Institute saying, "Anti-patriotism is not a crime."

Another man said: "There are a lot of American veterans who feel the same way he does. They've been neglected by their military or they were neglected by the V.A."

Others blamed the Art Institute for placing political propaganda on display rather than art.

"I think it's an outrage," a woman said. "I'm a member of the Art Institute and I will never join again. They get no more of my money."

But despite Scott's shrill statements, the wrath that filled the streets made him concerned that his life was in jeopardy.

"Threats have been phoned in to various places – to school, to where my mother works, and to my house," Scott said.

Scott told former CBS 2 anchorman Lester Holt that "What Is the Proper Way to Display a U.S. Flag?" was, in fact, designed to provoke, but not with the level of wrath that it did.

"I was making art which I think and hope represents many of the hopes and joys and aspirations of many oppressed people in the world, and that I also like and is, I think, quite powerful as art," Scott said. "And because of this, and because it's quite powerful and sort of opposed to the interests of the ruling class of this country, I think it's been responded to so severely."

Despite the school's public support of Scott's work, he told Holt officials at the Art Institute had considered removing it when they began receiving bomb threats, but he said, "Now, I think they're very much behind me."

He added that he would not have considered removing it.

"I'll never apologize for making artwork which makes people think," he said.


Courts, Congress Take Up Question Of Flag
The exhibition acme down on March 16, 1989, and the City Council later passed an ordinance that forbade such exhibits from being shown in Chicago. But the ordinance did not survive a challenge in court.

Still, the Art Institute suffered serious fallout as a result of the exhibit and their decision to stand behind it. Many benefactors pulled out, and its federal funding grant was cut from $70,000 a year to just $1 a year.

Meanwhile, Scott was not allowed to use the artwork as his senior project, but it still went on tour elsewhere in the country, and thunderous protests followed it everywhere. A New York City gallery owner received death threats, and the curator of the Phoenix Art Museum was chased by an angry mob, according to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's F Magazine.

Scott's artwork was condemned by President George H.W. Bush, and several members of Congress. And after 5-4 Supreme Court ruling in June 1989 that flag burning desecration was a protected free-speech right, legislation was introduced in Congress to forbid the display of the U.S. flag on the ground, in addition to the acts forbidden in the 1968 law.

The bill passed both houses of Congress in late 1989, leading to nationwide protests, and the arrest of three people who burned flags on the steps of the U.S. Capitol – including "Dread" Scott Tyler. But the flag desecration charges against them were dismissed by federal courts as unconstitutional – a ruling with which the Supreme Court agreed in 1990.

Since then, there have been repeated calls in Congress to criminalize flag burning and desecration with a Constitutional amendment, most recently in 2006. The bill passed the House last year, but has failed to pass the Senate.

Since the Art Institute debacle, Scott's exhibitions have been shown at the Whitney Museum and the Brooklyn Museum in New York, among others, and he has also mounted public sculptures which are on display in Queens, N.Y., and elsewhere. On his Web site, he says he "makes revolutionary art to propel history forward."



Video Library
 Veterans Furious Over 1989 Exhibit Where U.S. Flag Is On Floor
 Elected Officials Join Protest Of Flag On Floor Exhibit
 Park District Threatens To Cut Funds To Art Institute Over Exhibit
 Veterans Protest Outside Art Institute
 Artist 'Dread' Scott Tyler Talks About Exhibit's Meaning
 City Council Plans To Outlaw Displaying Flag On Floor

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