Confederate Flag Supporters Rally In Hillsborough

Hundreds of Confederate flag supporters gathered in downtown Hillsborough Saturday for the “Southern Heritage Ride and Rally.”

From the steps of Hillsborough Town Hall, Gary Williamson spoke to a crowd of about 600 people. There were old people, young people, families and couples. Most carried or wore the Confederate battle flag. Even toddlers waved their own pint-sized versions of the Southern Cross. Williamson’s message was that their beloved symbols were under threat.

 

“They are trying to take it away from us, they are trying to make it disappear,” Williamson warned. “No government, no liberal idiots, no crybabies, no anybody is going to take that away.”

The crowd cheered and gave rebel yells as drivers or motorcyclists roared by on the street below with the Confederate flag flying above their vehicles.

Thomas Holmes drove in from Orange Grove for the rally. His friend Jesse Britt carried a giant Confederate battle flag. But Holmes’ Southern Cross is tattooed on his arm.

“It’s where I’m from. It’s who I am. It’s my blood,” Holmes said. “My great-great-grandpa died in the Civil War. He was a prisoner of war in New York almost all the Civil War, and he escaped. And in the last six months he got killed.”

Like many in the crowd, Britt says he and his friends are frustrated that the use of the Confederate flag has come into question after the shooting at Emanuel A.M.E. in Charleston, South Carolina.

“We’ve had this flag for years, and nobody said anything about it until some nutshell comes out and shoots some people,” Britt said. “It makes no at all sense to me—why they’re putting it on the flag. It’s not us. It has nothing to do with us. It’s one nutshell that probably played video games too much and saw too much violence in his life.”

When pressed about the flag’s use by hate groups, Britt says he wouldn’t use it, while Holmes rejects the idea that the flag is associated with hatred.

“I was raised in the South, and we were never raised around that hate with the flag,” Holmes asserted. “We’ve never known the flag to have hate to it.”

Across the street, Christine Gattis disagrees. She’s beating a makeshift drum in a counter-protest of about thirty people. Many are wearing white t-shirts printed with the words “Black Lives Matter.”

“I understand that it’s their heritage,” Gattis said, “but they’re ignoring the fact of what their heritage really is. It’s about slavery. It’s what the Confederate War was about.”

To try to prove the Confederate flag is not a racist symbol, organizers of the “Southern Heritage Ride and Rally” brought in speaker H.K. Edgerton. Edgerton is a well-known supporter of the Confederate flag, and he’s African-American.

Edgerton tried to distance the Confederate flag supporters from the murderer of nine black worshipers at Emanuel A.M.E.

“If that baby boy had gone to the Sons of Confederate Veterans website, he would have learned about the place of honor and dignity that folks who looked like me earned under the Southern Cross,” Edgerton said.

“He would have learned about those trains carrying black folks on plantations all around the Southland of America who made all the implements of war for General Lee’s army. He would have learned about those black folks who made food stuffs for General Lee’s army. And while they weren’t there legally, he would have learned about all those black folks who went out beside our man and fought beside him—a man that he not only called ‘master,’ but a man he called ‘family,’ and ‘friend.’”

Edgerton is, surprisingly, a former president of the Asheville NAACP. He was a hit with the virtually all-white crowd, especially when he made this statement:

“The only people that ever cared for black folks is the Christian man in the Southland of America. White folks in the Southland of America care more for black folks than they care for themselves.”

But his words disturbed Hillsborough resident Robyn Davis-Ellison. Davis-Ellison is African-American and so are her two sons. They watched Edgerton speak from the edge of the crowd.

“I don’t think he believes what he’s spewing,” Davis-Ellison said, aghast. “I don’t know how he can believe it, because he watches television. He sees everything on. I’m sure he was raised by African-Americans. He seems older than me, so I know the stuff I was taught to believe. And I think he’s a token, and maybe that equals money.”

Event organizers did pay Edgerton 400 dollars to speak with money raised through a GoFundMe page. Edgerton says he makes a full-time job being an activist for the protection of Confederate symbols.

“I spend seven days a week fighting for my babies in the Southland of America and my flag,” Edgerton said. “My computer right now when I left this morning had 47,000 emails and 30,000 Facebook messages. My babies are crying out for help all over the land.”

While the rally drew people from as far as Virginia, it was not as large as the Town of Hillsborough anticipated. Protestors from both sides crossed the street to share their views. And while some had angry words, the rally appeared to be peaceful.