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Confederate flag has different meanings
By LINDA M. LINONIS
For the Rev. Gena Thornton, the Confederate flag “is a sign of terrorism.”
The retired pastor of Grace African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Warren acknowledged for some, the flag was and will remain a “part of history.” That, she noted, is because there are two sides to every issue.
“For black people, there are horrific memories associated with the Confederate flag and what has happened to African Americans in this country,” she said. “It’s a sign of being taunted, hunted, separated.”
She said news reports noted that Dylann Roof, who killed nine members of Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., on June 17 wanted to leave a witness to his act. “But God has a way of turning evil to good,” she said, noting the shooter did an evil act but it led to the flag being taken down in Columbia, S.C., the state capital. “Everything happens in God’s time.”
Mrs. Thornton, whose family always lived in the North, said she acquired some insight into the Southern experience for blacks when she served as pastor for 13 years of St. Paul AME Church in Cleveland, which worked on a project of Christian unity and race relations with Ascension Catholic Church, also in Cleveland.
“Our group was about bridging the race gap,” Mrs. Thornton said.
She explained a St. Paul member, who had lived in the deep South, told her that she “couldn’t trust” because the Confederate flag represented the terror she witnessed as a child.
“What we see and experience is different,” Mrs. Thornton said.
The Rev. William C. King Jr., pastor of Price Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 920 Dryden Ave., said for him, the Confederate flag represents “the wounds, sores and scars of slavery.”
He said his wife, Ruthie, grew up in Decatur, Ala., and she and others in the South experienced “the denial of rights.” He said the flag was associated with the Ku Klux Klan in the South.
The Rev. Mr. King said he believed the Confederate flag should never have been placed on government grounds.
“It shows a bias,” he said. “We are united under one banner ... the American flag ... and black and white blood has been shed for the country and freedom.”
Mr. King said he applauded the lawmakers who pushed for the removal of the flag. “It took a lot of courage and they did what was right,” he said. He said the flag is part of history but its place is in a museum.
He noted removal of the flag is a symbolic step. “There has to be a conscious change in the hearts of blacks and whites,” he said.
The Rev. Dr. Brandon A.A.J. Davis is pastor of St. Andrewes African Methodist Episcopal Church, 521 W. Earle Ave., the oldest church of African American heritage in Mahoning County. He was friends with state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, pastor of Emanuel AME, who was among those killed in the church shooting.
“Taking the flag down is a step toward racial harmony and healing,” Pastor Davis said. “It was a great gesture to honor the lives of Sen. Pinckney and the eight other victims. But it should not have taken deaths of nine people to bring the flag down.”
The minister said though the Confederate flag has come down and is in the right place, a museum, “it is time to focus on the hearts and minds of people and work on the problem of racism.”
Diane Barnes, a professor of history at Youngstown State University, specializes in slavery and abolition studies. She said there are many different versions of the Confederate flag. “During the Civil War, there were many different battle flags. Each represented a different unit,” she said.
In general, the Confederate flag represented the Confederate nation. “Eleven states that seceded from the union formed the Confederate States of America in 1861. South Carolina was the first,” she said. The issue was the South’s fear that Abraham Lincoln was going to abolish slavery.
“The Confederacy was founded on slavery,” she said.
For some in the South, she said, the flag represents “white supremacy,” and to African Americans it represents “racial oppression.”
Barnes pointed out the Confederate flag was raised in 1961 on South Carolina capitol grounds “as a symbol of resistence to the civil- rights movement.”
The history professor said to some people, the Confederate flag “symbolizes the myth of the lost cause.” “It is about the glorious lost past ... the ‘Gone With the Wind’ picture of the South,” she said.
Ron Craig, who is a veteran of the Marine Corps and Air Force, has owned The Western Reserve Flag Co. at 19 Stadium Drive in Boardman for 10 years. He has thousands of flags with the top sellers being the American flag, Marines flag and Italian flag.
He only sells American-made flags at his flag store, so when his three suppliers decided to ditch the Confederate flag he did not want to go and get any other foreign supplier that might still offer the flag.
“If I had more I would sell them,” he said. “I am not into politics. I am just a businessman.”