Supporters Rise Up To Defend Confederate Flag

Confederate flag supporters rise up to defend embattled symbol



An eight-mile convoy of pickups, motorcycles and cars wound through a central Florida town on Sunday in a show of support for the Confederate flag, as a backlash against its banishment from public landmarks across the South picks up steam.

Horns blared and hundreds of the rebel flags fluttered as more than 1,500 vehicles and some 4,500 people turned out for the "Florida Southern Pride Ride" in Ocala, according to police estimates. Vehicles from states across the South and as far away as California participated.

"That flag has a lot of different meanings to a lot of different people," said David Stone, 38, who organized the event. "It doesn't symbolize hate unless you think it's hate - and that's your problem, not mine.”

Organizers announced the event as the South embarked on an emotional debate over the flag's symbolism in the aftermath of the massacre of nine blacks by a white gunman in a Charleston church last month. The suspect in the church shootings had posed with the flag in photos posted on a website.

In South Carolina, lawmakers moved quickly to take the flag down from the statehouse grounds in Columbia, a longstanding demand of those who see it as a divisive symbol of the South's pro-slavery legacy.

Alabama and scores of municipalities have take similar steps since the June 17 massacre.

But the national push to pull the controversial icon from stores and public displays is being met with determined resistance in some corners of the United States.

Supporters such as those who drove through Ocala on Sunday insist the flag is a honorable symbol of regional pride, a mark of respect for Southern soldiers who died in the American Civil War.

In Ocala, the seat of Marion County, an administrator had ordered the Confederate flag's removal from a government complex. But last week county leaders overruled the order and the banner is again flying atop the building.

"It's just about heritage. I'm upset they want to remove a piece of history," said Jessica McRee, 29, an Ocala native and employee of a law enforcement agency who participated in Sunday's ride.

In Hurley, Virginia, the rebel flag is more visible than ever as residents show their support for keeping the local high school's logo, which features the Confederate flag waving from a saber.

'BACKLASH IS BEGINNING'

Mississippi, whose state flag incorporates the design of the Confederate banner, is divided. The city of Hattiesburg has removed all state flags from city buildings, but just three miles away, the town of Petal has voted to fly the state flag at all of its city buildings.

Mississippi Republican Governor Phil Bryant has refused to call a special legislative session to address the issue, resisting calls to do so from leading state officials. In a 2001 statewide referendum, Mississippians overwhelmingly endorsed keeping the current state flag's design.

"A backlash is beginning," said Ben Jones, a spokesman for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which represents 30,000 descendants of Confederate soldiers. "We are putting flags out. Everyone time one is taken down, we put five or six of them up."

Jones, a former Democratic congressman from Georgia who starred in the hit 1980s TV comedy series "The Dukes of Hazzard," said he has been selling out of the replicas for sale at his show-themed stores in Tennessee and Virginia. The show featured a stock car dubbed the General Lee with an image of the Confederate flag on its roof.

And North Carolina's Department of Motor Vehicles recently sold out of a series of specialty license plates featuring the Confederate flag, local media reported. It has ordered more of the plates, which may be discontinued in the future.

Not everyone in rural Ocala was in sympathy with the ride, which police said was peaceful.

Galina Abdelaziz, 18, a recent Ocala high school graduate, stood with three others protesting the flag at the beginning of the parade route.

"It's really discouraging to me to see this in my hometown," Abdelaziz said.

The terminus of the parade had been changed at the last minute to avoid a largely black neighborhood where residents opposed the event, according to Ocala Sergeant Robie Bonner.

Source

I'd keep it up on the grounds that the flag is a symbol of history and as a reminder to not repeat our past mistakes.

So Germany should have statues of Hitler and Nazi flags?

People can keep what they want in their private property, even pics of Hitler if they feel like being unpopular, but there is no reason why in public institutions such things should be supported. Schools, city halls, courts, etc, these places should sport no such display of political bias.

So Germany should have statues of Hitler and Nazi flags?

People can keep what they want in their private property, even pics of Hitler if they feel like being unpopular, but there is no reason why in public institutions such things should be supported. Schools, city halls, courts, etc, these places should sport no such display of political bias.

Confederate flag to Nazi statues and flags in 3 posts (after OP).

The people in the US now need to remember that the Confederate flag did not stand for hate or slavery or racism, but as a symbol of defiance and a symbol of state rights instead of a centralized government.

USA has this culture of monetizing symbols (it probably started with sports and the team symbols) and in that setting people earning money from symbols such the confederate flag "kind of make sense" and maybe this movement has to do with the money involved on that market.

lol wonder when the hate will come that Texas has the confederate flag in the capitol building seal(s) and also flown over at welcome centers.

Mississippi's 'discussion' has already begun.

I will upvote you if you can find one document written/stated by a Southern Secessionist before or during the Civil War that does NOT include the preservation of slavery and white supremacy as a major, if not the main reason for secession.

What would it take to convince you that yes, secession was very much about white supremacy and the South was willing to commit treason and kill millions of their countrymen to keep blacks down?

MYTH - The Confederate Flags are an authorized symbol of Aryan, KKK and hate groups.

FACT - Quite the contrary. These despicable organizations such as the KKK and Aryans have taken a hallowed piece of history, and have plagued good Southern folks and the memories of fine Confederate Soldiers that fought under the flag with their perverse agenda. IN NO WAY does the Confederate Flag represent hate or violence. Heritage groups such as the SCV battle daily the damage done to a proud nation by these hate groups. The SCV denounces all hate groups, and pridefully boast HERITAGE - NOT HATE.

Might not be a legitimate source of information despite the copyright.

Finding anything spoken from a confederate veteran in this day and age takes a little bit of time, however for the most part, history is written by the victors, and even though a large majority of Europe had abolished slavery by the Civil War's time, America had yet to fully do so. The South clung to it, but eventually they would abolish it. They did not fight "to preserve slavery" as even they would understand that violated the inalienable rights of the human being in the US constitution.

So I couldn't find a quote from a veteran himself, but I'll ofc keep looking.

When the Confederacy seceded from the United States, the bankers once again saw the opportunity for a rich harvest of debt, and offered to fund Lincoln's efforts to bring the south back into the union, but at 30% interest. Lincoln remarked that he would not free the black man by enslaving the white man to the bankers and using his authority as President, issued a new government currency, the greenback. This was a direct threat to the wealth and power of the central bankers, who quickly responded.

"If this mischievous financial policy, which has its origin in North America, shall become indurated down to a fixture, then that Government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off debts and be without debt. It will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce. It will become prosperous without precedent in the history of the world. The brains, and wealth of all countries will go to North America. That country must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe." -- The London Times responding to Lincoln's decision to issue government Greenbacks to finance the Civil War, rather than agree to private banker's loans at 30% interest.

"Slavery is likely to be abolished by the war power, and chattel slavery destroyed. This, I and my European friends are in favor of, for slavery is but the owning of labor and carries with it the care for the laborer, while the European plan, led on by England, is for capital to control labor by controlling the wages. THIS CAN BE DONE BY CONTROLLING THE MONEY." -- Triumphant plutocracy; the story of American public life from 1870 to 1920, by Lynn Wheeler

Some people need to learn their history, and not the crap modified and government approved stuff they teach in public schools.

If people would have done that in the first place the flag would have never been a problem.

The confederacy lost the war, why is their flag still flying on government buildings?

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that." - Abraham Lincoln

Even if the racial connotations are ignored, do you see Ukrainian flags flying next to Russian ones in chrimea? The confederacy lost the war, why is their flag still flying on government buildings?

The battle flag was never adopted by the Confederate Congress, never flew over any state capitols during the Confederacy, and was never officially used by Confederate veterans' groups. The flag probably would have been relegated to Civil War museums if it had not been resurrected by the resurgent KKK and used by Southern Dixiecrats during the 1948 presidential election.

The 1948 Dixiecrat political party extensively used Confederate symbols, including the battle flag, and contributed to the flag's post-World War 2 re-popularization. In Georgia, the Confederate battle flag was reintroduced as an element of the state flag in 1956, just two years after the Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education. It was considered by many to be a protest against school desegregation. It was also raised at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) during protests against integration of schools.

Lest not forget that both Grant and Sherman had slaves themselves and the Union army was composed of forced slaves, the volunteers were paid a lesser wage and charged for clothing issuance. The highest paid black soldier was paid nearly half the lowest paid white soldier.



Discrediting the statement of southern racist with fact that Abraham Lincoln and both his Generals were racist, have you ever lost a battle but continued to have pride in something?