A Southern heritage group has filed a lawsuit against the Augusta Commission and former Mayor Bob Young in an effort to restore a Confederate banner to its former place on Riverwalk Augusta.

Georgia Heritage Council Inc., with a listed address in Gainesville, Ga., filed the civil suit in Richmond County Superior Court on July 7, records show.

The plaintiffs seek a judgment against the city, alleging that the city violated a section of state law that prohibits the alteration or defacement of monuments that honor or memorialize veterans, regardless of whether they fought for the United States or the Confederacy.

The controversy started in September 2004, when Mr. Young ordered the Confederate flag to be removed from the riverwalk before the October convention of the South Carolina National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The local branch of the NAACP had requested its removal. A green-and-gold Augusta city flag was raised instead, and a black plaque covered the inscription describing the Confederate flag at the base of the flagpole.

In response, during October's convention, Southern heritage supporters protested across the street from Radisson Riverfront Hotel Augusta.

The Georgia Heritage Council argues in its court filing that the Confederate flag constituted a memorial to the state's Civil War veterans.

The heritage council, whose Web site features a doctored picture of Mr. Young wearing a beard and turban and District 5 Commissioner Bobby Hankerson holding an assault rifle, is asking the courts to sanction the Augusta government, force it to put the flag back on the pole and enjoin Augusta from "any further action removing or concealing the flags and plaque in the park."

Reach Jeremy Craig at (706) 823-3409 or jeremy.craig@augustachronicle.com.