Sales of Confederate flag jump in Triangle after national opposition
Many big brick and online retailers are taking the Confederate battle flag out of stock, and it may be removed from North Carolina-issued license plates.
Even the General Lee, the orange car with the battle flag made popular in “The Dukes of Hazzard” television series, will now feature an American flag on its roof. Golfer Bubba Watson, who bought the original car at auction, announced Friday that he was painting over the Confederate flag.
But there remains an intense defense of the symbol in some areas of North Carolina and across the South. North Carolina’s mom-and-pop retailers that sell the flag say they cannot restock it fast enough as customers search for it widely, saying it represents Southern heritage and fallen soldiers.
Eric Stallings, manager of G.I. Joe’s Army Surplus in Clayton, said selling the flag is just business.
“I don’t really have a love for the flag or a hate for the flag,” he said. “I’m actually just trying to keep the lights on.”
In 2014, Stallings sold 32 flags, he said. In June alone, he has sold more than 90.
To manage the demand, he has limited sales to two flags per customer, he said.
A day after Gov. Pat McCrory called for the battle flag to be removed from specialty license plates, Dixie Outfitters in Burlington, a shop that sells Confederate-themed merchandise, sold every flag in the store.
Laurie Faircloth, who works daily at the family-owned store, said that she is proud of the flag, and her part in continuing to allow Southerners to show off the emblem. Faircloth said the flag does not represent racial hate, but heritage and a desire to memorialize ancestors.
“People’s history is threatened,” she said of efforts to take the flag out of public life.
Faircloth said other retailers are marking up prices on flags that normally sell for $10 to $15 because of the demand. “I’m not doing that price gouging,” she said.
The spreading desire to remove the flag from public places has been one collective response to the shooting last month that killed nine people inside a church in Charleston, S.C. The suspect was shown in widely distributed photos holding a gun and the Confederate battle flag.
Lawmakers in South Carolina plan to debate whether to remove the battle flag from the state Capitol grounds in Columbia, and officials across the South have acted to remove the flag, calling it a misused symbol.
Byron White, who owns a small event center a few doors down from Dixie Outfitters in the Burlington strip mall, said he also finds the flag to be an offensive symbol. While its supporters often call for a “history lesson” in Southern heritage, White, who is black, said the flag was born out of allegiance to racial inequality in the South.
“The flag to me represents white supremacy,” White said, noting that it has been used by hate groups and terrorist groups.
White has observed at close range the rush on sales of the flag, and he said that he felt racial animosity from some customers when they left the store celebrating their purchase. He said some customers have made derogatory racial comments to him.
White said he does not blame the shop owner, a white man who he said is a close friend, for selling the flags, or for the behavior of customers.
“Like I told the owner, make your money, dude,” he said.
He added that he does not blame people who fly the flag in honor of ancestors they lost in the Civil War, but he takes issue with people who defend the racial status quo of the time.
The passion about the flag was evident Friday as a News & Observer reporter interviewed customers. At one point, White interjected after hearing comments from one about slavery that he said he found offensive. A male customer had to be held back by another to avoid a more serious altercation. The two men declined to provide their names and said they work in law enforcement, declining to elaborate.
Cedric Swift, 33, a friend of White’s who was with him Friday, said customers have a “constitutional right” to buy and display the flag. But Swift, who is from Mebane, remembered one phrase in particular from Friday’s argument.
“Don’t disrespect my heritage,” the man who was arguing with White said.
“He’s from North Carolina, I’m from North Carolina,” Swift said. “Why is it his heritage, not our heritage?”
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Flag facts
The Confederate flag being debated now is the battle flag of the Confederacy. This wartime flag is now the most well-known symbol of the Confederacy but was never considered its national flag.
The Confederacy had three national flags. Two featured, in one corner, the “Southern Cross” design from the battle flag.
While some Southern whites see the battle flag as a symbol of heritage, it is also the flag of many anti-black groups. The Southern Cross was adopted after Reconstruction by the Ku Klux Klan, which waged a decades-long terror campaign against blacks in the South.
Throughout the 20th century, the flag was present at many incidents of white violence against blacks demonstrating for civil rights. The flag gained popularity in Southern state capitals as a protest symbol against the 1960s civil rights movement, was flown in public spaces and became part of the design of state flags.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, more than 500 extremist groups used the Southern Cross as one of their symbols.
This story was originally published July 3, 2015 at 8:56 PM with the headline "Sales of Confederate flag jump in Triangle after national opposition."