Chicago school forfeits football game because of Confederate flag display

[Nambe]

STRONGHURST, Ill. (AP)

A Chicago charter school with an overwhelmingly black student body forfeited a scheduled football game because the host team has a Rebel mascot who carries a Confederate flag. Now the state's high school association says it will investigate.

The team from the Longwood Campus of Chicago International Charter School was scheduled to play Saturday at Southern High School in the western Illinois town of Stronghurst.

But Longwood coach and athletic director Bill Ham said Southern coach Scott Dillard called Tuesday and asked if his school's Confederate flag ritual would bother the Longwood players, who are from Chicago's South Side. ---

Ham said Dillard told him later that the flag would be excluded from the game, but he said he and Longwood Director of Schools Robert Lang decided to forfeit anyway to make sure that there were no confrontations between fans of the two teams. ---

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