The Confederate flag: Should it go?
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on June 28, 2015 1:50 AM
Since its creation, the Confederate flag has represented division.
It divided a nation, representing a schism of beliefs between Southerners and Northerners.
And more than 150 years after the last time it was carried into battle, it continues to divide the country.
The flag's prominence has come under fire after Dylann Roof stood up during a Bible study at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., and murdered nine people simply because of their race.
Roof, a self-proclaimed white supremacist, has been shown in photographs with the Confederate flag.
While some see the flag as an historical symbol of Southern culture, others believe it is too closely tied with racist beliefs to represent anything else. Some are indifferent about the issue.
Wayne County Director of Human Resources Jerilyn James Lee, a native of Chicago, said she believes the symbolism of the Confederate flag is multi-dimensional, but that it cannot be disconnected from slavery and racism.
"I think there are people who display the flag truly because their heritage is connected to that flag," said Mrs. Lee, who is black. "Now, do I think at some point people will use that flag in a negative way? Yes, I do. But I think you're going to find that people will use anything in a negative way, regardless of who they are or what race they are."
But in the end, Mrs. Lee said, the flag cannot escape the hatred to which it has been tied, skewing its original symbolism.
Former county commissioner and state legislator Jimmie Ford thinks the flag should come down in South Carolina -- but is encouraged by what he has seen in the aftermath of the Charleston shooting.
"I've been thinking about it since the shooting happened," said Ford, who is also black. "Descendants of Confederate veterans say it's part of their heritage. Others says it's a symbol of hatred. But what I've been thinking about the most since then is how this event has brought people together, and how people have united in South Carolina to show love for each other. You watch the news and you see people hugging on each other and just loving each other. So maybe that's the good that has come from this -- a healing that's long overdue."
Ford said removing the flag from South Carolina's capitol grounds would be a good start to repairing relationships.
"It's not going to go away overnight," Ford said. "We're not going to be able to lie down one night and close our eyes, and open them the next morning and have all of this controversy gone. If we want to make a change, this is a good starting point.
Glenn Fields, a member of the Goldsboro Rifles chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said the group is not a white supremacist organization and was founded in 1896 to preserve the "good name of Confederate soldiers."
Jimmy Brown is commander of the unit. He and Fields said they were speaking only for themselves, and that the official stance of the SCV is "that we are refraining from commenting on anything surrounding the flag out of respect for the victims and families of the victims of the Charleston shooting."
Brown said that the SCV only attempts to serve as an honor society for those revered Southern soldiers.
"Our efforts are to carry out the charge of preserving the good name of Confederate soldiers in whatever capacity we can," Fields said. "We have worked at this for so long as to not be looked at as a white supremacist group. Let me emphasize that. We are not a white supremacist group. The flag has been bastardized by other organizations and by its association with the KKK."
Ford agreed that the flag had been "taken out of context" over the course of history.
"I don't think it was meant at the start to be a symbol of hatred," he said. "It probably started as a good recognition of people who fought together for what they felt was a good cause. Then it was adopted by hate groups. It was taken out of context and adopted for causes it should never have been adopted for."
After hearing on Wednesday that Gov. Pat McCrory was seeking to remove Confederate flags from state license plates, Fields wrote the governor a letter. Fields and Brown, both of whom are white, have Sons of Confederate Veterans license plates on their vehicles.
"It was a rather short letter, but it basically just said that the license plate didn't shoot anyone," Fields said. "It said it didn't influence (Roof's) mentality."
Fields said the Confederate flag, to him, represents a group of people who were fighting for their beliefs.
"It means the same thing to me as it did to my ancestors that fought for their hearth and home," Fields said. "Just like the United States flag represents a group of people who were fighting for their home during World War II and the other wars the United States has fought in. It's our heritage, it's historical, and I cherish the United States flag for the same reason."
Fields said he understands that others have taken the flag and used it as a symbol for hatred.
"It's easy to use it as a symbol or a tool to achieve an end," he said. "That flag didn't kill anyone. It was Roof that killed nine people in that church. He used that flag as a symbol to achieve his desired end."
Brown said that while various groups throughout the years have appropriated the Confederate flag for the wrong reasons, anyone who studies its history should be able to understand why it is not offensive.
"What's interesting to me is how people have latched onto the Confederate flag in the wake of this. (Roof) wore a Gold's Gym T-shirt, too, so are we going to start boycotting Gold's Gym?"
Wayne resident James Morgan, who is black, said the issue boils down to respect.
"My belief is that as long as you respect me as a person -- or as a man first and then a person and human being -- we don't have any problem," Morgan said. "The landowners (in Sneads Ferry) called me and asked me -- there was one camper a couple of doors from me that had the Confederate flag flying -- and they called me at home and asked me was it offensive to me. I said, 'No, it's not offensive to me because they have their beliefs and I have my beliefs, and as long as he respects me, I respect him.'"
Keith Spivey, chairman of Fremont's Small Town Economic Prosperity Committee, said he is completely indifferent about the Confederate flag despite the fact that he is black.
"It doesn't bother me one way or the other because I know there's some people that look at it that when they look at that flag they think, 'Oh my God, I remember that time, and it was this or that,' and it's kind of hard for me to relate to because one, I wasn't there, and two, I don't look at it in that light," said Spivey, a native of the Bronx, N.Y., and a retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant.
Spivey said he is a fan of "The Dukes of Hazzard," and the Confederate flag displayed on top of the car in the show never bothered him.
"I have a version of the General Lee at my house, a little die-cast metal model, and it has the Confederate flag on it," Spivey said. "When I brought it home my son and daughter asked me what the flag meant. So we researched it and found out what it was and that was it. It was a part of history and we left it at that. As far as taking anything judgmental or racial away from it, personally, I don't. Professionally, I don't."
Jim Hinnant, a local historian, said he wishes more people understood that what is considered the Confederate flag in modern times was only one version of several used by the Confederacy.
"First of all, it's not the Confederate flag," Hinnant said. "It's the battle flag -- the square one was used by the Army of Northern Virginia and the rectangular one was used by the Navy and also the Army of Tennessee. It has become a symbol for some people of white supremacy and that type of thing, which is a shame because it was never intended for that flag to represent that."
Hinnant, who is white, said due to the flag's inextricable connection to white supremacy and slavery, he has no problem with recent calls to remove the flag from license plates and state capitol grounds.
"I think it might be a good gesture on everybody's part to remove it to help with race relations between everybody," Hinnant said. "It could help heal what has gone on in the past, as well as what has gone on in current events.""
The official flag of the Confederate States of America, Hinnant said, consisted of 13 stars within a blue square in the top left hand corner of the flag with two solid red bars and one solid white bar between them.
He said if people want to choose a flag to represent Southern heritage, that is the flag they should fly.
"What I would like to see happen is the use of the first national Confederate flag," Hinnant said. "If they want to use that one, as far as showing a Southern pride type thing, then fine, that would be good. I think that might make it a moot point."
Kerry Thompson is a Civil War re-enactor, said the actions of a criminal should not affect the way history is preserved.
"It's a no-brainer for me," Thompson said. "It's part of our history, it's part of our heritage. I mean I'm completely against (the backlash), completely against it. I think it's been used for the wrong purposes. The flag didn't kill anybody, a nut case worshipper of false history did. He used a gun to do something he shouldn't have done."
Thompson, who is white, said that while the flag is a symbol with negative connotations, the symbolism of the flag should not cause the removal of a piece of history.
"We go around the state doing re-enactments, and it's part of history that we have to teach future generations," Thompson said. "So if we take it all away then you don't have the advantage of showing them. It'd be like taking the cross away from Christianity. It's a symbol that has been there for a long time, and not just for showing hatred. That's been misconstrued."