Girl Flag-Burner Marches To Avoid Being Sentenced

Seventeen-year-old Martha Meyers, an Arlington girl convicted of burning a flag during a student protest last year, won a one-year suspended sentence when she agreed to carry an American flag on a three-mile march to Harvard Square from Middlesex County Superior Court yesterday.

When Meyers appeared before Judge Frank W. Tomasello to appeal an earlier sentence of six months in jail and a $50 fine, he asked her if she was ashamed of her act. She replied that she was and Tomasello asked her if she would have courage enough to carry the court flag to Harvard Square and back, on the condition that he would dispose of her case when she returned.

The Woman Consents

Meyers agreed to this proposal and left the courthouse carrying the 15-pound flag and surrounded by four court officers. When asked why she agreed to march with the flag she said, "It's better than going to jail."

Hundreds of spectators stopped to watch as Meyers carried the flag down Cambridge and Quincy Streets and across Harvard Yard. When she passed the Cambridge fire station the firemen came out and applauded. As the march passed by a team of construction workers, the men stopped work and took off their hard-hats.

Court officers relieved Meyers of the flag when she reached the Abraham Lincoln statue on Cambridge Common and escorted her back to court. There Tomasello remarked that "you conducted yourself with dignity and propriety" during the march.

He also gave her a short lecture on the flag before suspending her sentence. "Don't forget what the flag represents. It represents love and those who gave their lives for us and this country... Don't forget, an individual many years ago carried a cross. Believe in your God; believe in your country."