Confederate flag doesn't reflect best of Southern heritage
Rick Bohan
September 27, 2015 at 12:00 PM
updated September 27, 2015 at 12:05 PM
... As a young boy in South Carolina during the 1950s and early '60s, I remember "whites only" rest rooms, water fountains, restaurants, and hotels. We had two very separate swimming areas at our local state park, the one where we white kids swam and another where the black families took their children.
Finally, I remember the posters that the KKK put in store windows announcing upcoming rallies. Those posters always featured an image of the Confederate flag. I never felt then, nor do I now, that the KKK intended the use of that flag as simply a symbol of my heritage as a Southerner.
I was certain then, as I am now, that the Confederate flag was used by people who sought to send a clear message of white supremacy and harsh, sometimes violent, resistance to full enfranchisement of black men and women and their children. I am just as certain that the use of that flag hasn't changed in the five decades since ...
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/09/confederate_flag_doesnt_reflec.html