BURLINGTON -- The Confederate flag may have come down from South Carolina’s state house, but some in our state are trying to raise its profile.
Nearly a hundred people came out Saturday for a rally in front of Dixie Outfitters on Plaza Drive. The store has seen a sharp increase in sales of Confederate merchandise in recent weeks.
"We're here to try to unite everyone who's in the South and say, 'This is a flag of honor and it deserves the honor that it was given and it earned during the war between the states,'” said Jamie Funkhouser, a spokesman for the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The group’s Forsyth County chapter helped organize the Saturday event.
In the wake of a June shooting at a historic black church in Charleston that left nine worshippers dead, a national debate has erupted over the Confederate flag’s significance and where it is appropriate to be displayed.
Funkhouser nonetheless disagreed with the flag’s lowering in South Carolina and said Confederate symbols were being unfairly attached to the killings.
Ultimately, Saturday’s rally lasted for a little more than an hour. The property’s landlord shut the event down, saying organizers had not received the proper approval or insurance. JR Faircloth, who owns Dixie Outfitters and had been thinking of relocating, said the shutdown finalized his decision to move.
"I felt very disappointed because it was a very peaceful gathering, people that believe in their heritage,” Faircloth said.
However, opponents have long argued the flag is more appropriately described as a symbol of hate, and not heritage.
Bree Newsome, an activist who gained national attention after climbing the flagpole at South Carolina’s state grounds to lower the Confederate flag two weeks before the state officially did, spoke about the flag’s historical value in a recent interview with Time Warner Cable News.
"Not all of history is something that we want to honor,” she said. “Quite frankly, if you go back and look back at what was said by the founders of the Confederacy, they disagreed very strongly with the notion that all men are created equal.”
Saturday’s demonstrators claim a different interpretation of history and vowed to continue advocating for the flag.
"Hopefully, we will carry it into the future, into the next generation,” Funkhouser said.