SOUTH CAROLINA: I-85 Confederate Flag Back in Spartanburg as Property Owners File Appeal
SPARTANBURG — An appeal has been filed with Spartanburg County to allow a flagpole to remain on private property after the county notified the group the flagpole was in violation of a 1999 zoning law.
“The property owner appealed our notice of violation,” county Communications Manager Scottie Kay Blackwell said. “We now must wait until their appeal is heard before next steps are taken.”
The appeal was filed on Nov. 7. Blackwell said the next county Board of Zoning Appeals meeting is scheduled for Dec. 20.
A massive Confederate battle flag was raised on the flag pole near where Interstate 85 and I-85 Business converge northeast of Spartanburg on Oct. 23. A Spartanburg chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans claimed responsibility for the flag, which the group said was the largest Confederate flag in South Carolina.
A video posted Oct. 23 to the organization’s YouTube account depicts a flag-raising ceremony the day before on vacant private property. The local chapter, Camp 68, erected the flagpole on property it owns off I-85 for what it said is the purpose of remembering Confederate soldiers. On Nov. 2, the Confederate battle flag was replaced with a South Carolina state flag. The state flag was removed and replaced again with a Confederate battle flag on Nov. 18.The county had issued the property owner an order demanding removal based on a 1999 zoning law that in part bans flagpoles that have no accompanying uses such as a home or a business.
On Oct. 27, an attorney for Camp 68 issued a statement explaining that the Confederate Naval Jack flag was part of a variety of flags intended for the pole.
Camp 68 “will continue to alternate the flags that it flies,” the statement said, and “looks forward to providing an array of historical flags and hopes that their presence spurs further interest of our citizens in the rich history of Spartanburg County and South Carolina.”
County Councilman David Britt told The Post and Courier he wasn’t surprised an appeal was filed.
“We will just let our staff and attorneys deal with it,” Britt said. “It is normal for someone to appeal. Staff will handle it and our county attorney will just follow the process.”
The Confederate flag has long been a divisive symbol in South Carolina dating back to the onset of the Civil War when the slave-owning state was the first to secede from the Union.
The symbol has lived on more than a century after the South’s defeat. Despite efforts to claim it represents a deep cultural heritage for White Southerners, the flag’s use by white supremacist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan and later others have branded it a racist symbol.
–postandcourier.com
