Confederate flag supporters: Rallies are about heritage, not racism

ALBANY — It is, perhaps, most significant that the July 18 Confederate flag rally that started in Lee County and continued into Dougherty County was organized by two teenagers: Elizabeth Conley and Kaleb Akins.

The rally, which drew an estimated 400 flag supporters and, from all accounts, was conducted without incident, took on added significance on the following Tuesday when Albany City Commissioner Tommie Postell said it had “almost started a race riot.” And while Albany Police Department Chief Michael Persley said there had been no reports associated with the rally that warranted action by his department, the 300- to 400-vehicle procession became one of the most talked-about spectacles here in recent memory.

Neither Conley nor Akins responded to The Albany Herald’s requests for comments, but James King, the commander of the Albany Sons of Confederate Veterans camp, and Mark Thornhill, who holds a similar title with the Sylvester-based SCV camp, insisted that the rally was not an attempt to create racial unrest.

“I know politicians like Mr. Postell try to keep their constituents stirred up, but there was nothing racial at all about that rally,” Thornhill said. “It had everything to do with Southern heritage, which it seems much of the country would like to see erased.”

Both Thornhill and King took part in the Lee-Dougherty rally, and the Albany SCV commander said he encouraged every participant to “take the moral high ground” if hostility was encountered.

“I was so impressed that a 16-year-old girl (Conley) and a 19-year-old young man (Akins) put this together through social media,” King said. “When I heard about what they were planning from my son, I got in touch and asked if our SCV members could be a part of the rally. I told them we weren’t interested in taking credit, we just wanted to support what they were doing.

“When we all gathered together before the rally started, I told everyone they should take the moral high ground if they encountered anyone yelling obscenities or making obscene gestures. I was proud of the way everyone conducted themselves. None of this was done under the banner of racism, and anyone who thinks that is absolutely wrong.”

The rally is one of what the Huffington Post reported this week has been more than 130 similar events conducted in the South since the July 8 decision to remove the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the South Carolina statehouse. That decision came in the wake the massacre of nine members of an African-American church in Charleston, S.C. An avowed racist, Dylann Roof, has been charged in those slayings.

Facebook photographs of Roof holding a Confederate battle flag were widely distributed by the media after the attack.

A large flag rally was held in Stone Mountain on Saturday, and reports indicate as many as a hundred more are planned throughout the South in coming weeks. One of those will originate in the Poulan community of Worth County, venture into Colquitt County and end in Sylvester on Aug. 15. Thornhill, who is heading up the planning for that rally, said he has taken pains to establish a route that will “avoid confrontation.”

“We don’t want to upset or cause concern for anyone,” he said. “We purposely came up with a route that will not go through the mostly black sections of our community. The whole idea is to avoid confrontation. Again, we’re interested in displaying the pride we have in our heritage.

“As noted, a flag is just a piece of cloth, but it’s a symbolic piece of cloth. This flag we’re rallying behind doesn’t represent racism, it represents brave Southerners — both black and white — who bled and died fighting off an invading army.”

While groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the new Skinhead movement have displayed the Confederate emblem at events they have been a part of in recent years, King said such display is not sanctioned by the Sons of Confederate Veterans organization.

“We passed a resolution in 2006 not to allow hate groups to misuse the Confederate flag,” he said. “And while I can understand people’s use of presentism — projecting the morals of today onto issues of the past — I can assure you that race does not enter into our support of the Confederate flag or of our Southern heritage. In fact, we invite black citizens who have been indoctrinated to believe that the Confederate flag is a symbol of hatred to join us in our attempt to stop the Socialist left’s attempt to destroy Christianity in our country.

“That’s an issue where I believe we have a shared bond because most black people I know are Christians. Plus, history shows that as many as 100,000 black Confederates fought voluntarily for that flag.”

King said that during the July 18 flag rally, he contacted the Lee County Sheriff’s Office and the Dougherty County Police Department to apprise them of the group’s plans and route.

“The person with the Dougherty police said a permit was needed only if a police escort was sought,” the SCV commander said. “He said a permit couldn’t be authorized at that time, but that we would not be breaking any law in the county if we obeyed traffic laws. That’s what we did.”

As he discusses the Confederate flag, King points to a quote by former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb who declared, “To tar the sacrifices of the Confederate soldier as simple acts of racism, and reduce the battle flag under which he fought to nothing more than the symbol of a racist heritage, is one of the great blasphemies of our modern age.”

“That’s the reason we have these rallies,” King said. “Southerners are a very distinct people with a very distinct heritage and culture. We’re fighting to preserve that culture. That’s why you’ll see these rallies continue. As several have said, ‘We’re just getting started.’”