WASHINGTON – A top official at theU.S. Department of Educationhas been keeping acontroversial flaglinked toChristian nationalismand theJan. 6 insurrectionhung outside his office, according to the agency's union and a department employee who has observed it.
It's the latest in a series of instances in which the flag – which depicts a pine tree and the words "An Appeal to Heaven" – has been associated with agencies and figures at the highest levels of the federal government.
Though long tied to theAmerican Revolution, the banner in more recent years "has been adopted primarily by evangelical Christian nationalist groups," as well as the Proud Boys and certain neo-Nazi groups, according to the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, an independent nonprofit organization. It was flown in 2021 by rioters at the U.S. Capitol as they tried to prevent Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election results.
The symbol's emergence at the agency responsible for overseeingbillions of dollars in federal fundingfor the nation's schools is already raising concerns about theseparation of church and state.
Read more:Education Department braces for further dismantling
Rachel Gittleman, the president of the union for Education Department workers nationwide, said in a statement that the agency "has no place for symbols that were carried by insurrectionists."
"Since January, hardworking public servants at the U.S. Department of Education have been subjected to threats, harassment, and sustained demoralization," she said. "Now, they are being asked to work in an environment where a senior leader is prominently displaying an offensive flag – one that, regardless of its origins in the American Revolution, has come to represent intolerance, hatred, and extremism."
In a statement to USA TODAY, the Education Department did not confirm the flag's existence or address concerns related to its ties to extremist ideology.
"As usual, union members are more concerned about imagined grievances and silly political fights than the abysmal test scores of our nation's students," said Madi Biedermann, the deputy assistant secretary for communications.
It's not clear how long the banner has been hung outside the D.C. office of Murray Bessette, the principal deputy assistant secretary in the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development.
Before joining the Trump administration, Bessette previously oversaw academic programs at the Alexander Hamilton Society, a nonprofit that prepares young people for careers in foreign policy and national security. Earlier in his career, he worked at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. He has a doctorate in political science from Claremont Graduate University.
In June, the Small Business Administrationflew the "An Appeal to Heaven" flagduring a ceremony, but it was only raised for about a day,according to the magazine WIRED. Last year,The New York Times reportedthat the banner was spotted outside the vacation home of conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in the summer of 2023. House SpeakerMike Johnson, R-Louisiana, has at times displayed the symbol outside his Capitol Hill office.
Zachary Schermele is a congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:'An Appeal to Heaven' flag seen hanging at Education Department office
