SOUTH CAROLINA: Group to Fly Confederate Flag at State Capitol
The Confederate flag will fly again above the State House grounds – but just for one day.
Flag supporters will hold a rally at 10 a.m. Monday – the two-year anniversary of the banner’s removal from the Confederate soldiers memorial – where the flag will be raised on a temporary pole in the same spot. The event is organized by the S.C. Secessionist Party.
The S.C. Secessionist Party will mark the two-year anniversary of the Confederate flag coming down from the State House by raising the banner again on a temporary pole Monday. Pictured is last year’s event, which drew around 150 people. File photo by Gerry Melendez
“July 10th, 2017 will mark two years since the initiation of the politically correct cultural genocide we have seen sweep across the Southland,” the group said on the Facebook event. “One thing the enemy didn’t take into account was the deep and enduring sense of brotherhood and community we southerners have.”
Last year’s rally drew around 150 people, and organizers said they planned to make it an annual event.
The Confederate flag was removed from State House grounds on July 10, 2015, several weeks after an avowed white supremacist fatally shot nine black parishioners during a Bible study at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. The gunman, Dylann Roof, posted numerous pictures of himself posing with the flag.
“Without realizing it, the enemies of the South created a new generation of Southern Heritage Defenders. From Virginia to Florida and from South Carolina to Oklahoma Southerners have rallied together in defense of what we hold sacred,” the post on the Facebook event reads. “Every year on the anniversary of the removal of the Battle Flag of our ancestors, we will gather at the South Carolina State House, hoist the flag back in its rightful place, and thumb our nose to those who would erase our history, heritage and culture.”
“I think it’s one more effort to intimidate people who stand up for civil rights,” said Evelyn Foxx’s walking partner, Meg Niederhofer.
Alachua County NAACP chapter president Evelyn Foxx awoke Monday morning to a Confederate flag left on her lawn, Gainesville police reported.
Alachua county NAACP President Evelyn Foxx provided this photo of a Confederate Flag left on her lawn.
Police are investigating and ask that anyone with information call detectives at 352-393-7670.
Foxx, 66, walked out of her house around 6:30 a.m. to meet her walking partner, Meg Niederhofer, for a morning stroll.
“When I walked out, it was just laying there,” Foxx said.
Niederhofer said from afar she thought the flag was an American flag and went over to pick it up. Foxx and Niederhofer called police shortly after realizing what it was.
Foxx says she’s been getting death threat phone calls that typically come in around 1-2 a.m. from callers claiming to be in the Ku Klux Klan.
“I’m just a little shaken,” she said. “The phone calls are one thing, but when someone actually comes to my house to do that…”
Niederhofer, the wife of County Commissioner Robert Hutchinson, said she and Foxx meet several times a week to walk together and over the past year Foxx has expressed fear about continued threats.
“I think it’s one more effort to intimidate people who stand up for civil rights,” Niederhofer said. “And you think those days are long gone and this proves they’re not.”
GPD spokesman Ben Tobias said officers canvassed Foxx’s neighborhood Monday morning to speak with neighbors. The department is investigating to determine whether the incident should be classified as a hate crime, he said.
“We’re looking into it and if we find someone responsible for it, then they could potentially be charged with a crime,” he said.
The department has been investigating threats made against Foxx since November 2016.
Hutchinson said the flag is a symbol of divisiveness and bigotry and took to Facebook to post about the incident.
“There should be no doubt about the Confederate battle flag’s usage as a symbol of divisiveness, bigotry, and hatred, or that racists live among us who still cling nostalgically to their culture of tyranny and intimidation,” he wrote.
–gainseville.com
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