WASHINGTON — A Virginia group that puts up oversized Confederate battle flags on private property along highways across the state said it plans to install even more of them in response to an effort in Stafford County to get the flags that opponents call racist taken down.
“The Va. Flaggers have no plans to remove any of our 26 Roadside Memorial Battle Flags across the Commonwealth, including the Fredericksburg Memorial Battle Flag on I-95 in Stafford County,” the Virginia Flaggers’ spokesman Barry Isenhour said in a email statement provided to WTOP. “In fact, in light of the recent attempts by the Governor and a few local politicians to encourage the destruction of Confederate Memorials, we intend to fast track the installation of several new projects in the next few months.”
After the attack in Charlottesville this weekend in which a man is accused of plowing a car into a group of counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer, Gov. Terry McAuliffe, Attorney General Mark Herring and others have called for Confederate monuments to be taken down and moved to museums or other locations.
Because of existing Virginia law, moving any Confederate monument on public property requires the approval of the General Assembly.
The I-95 flag in Stafford
The ‘flaggers’ said in the emailed statement that their flags on private property are meant to be seen by all drivers passing by to“honor and remember our Confederate dead.
But about 20 people who spoke at a Stafford County Board of Supervisors meeting this week strongly disagreed. Some of the Stafford residents pleaded with the supervisors to do something to get the flag along Interstate 95 near Falmouth removed, and others asked the county to at least put up billboards in the area denouncing hate and bigotry.
“Every time I drive past it, my heart sinks. My heart hurts,” said Bill Malone, of Fredericksburg, who called the symbol “a giant racist flag that represents nothing.”
“Other people may have other views about the flag — but the only thing I ever see when I look at the Confederate flag is racism,” Malone, who is black said. “The Klan carries it, the white nationalists carry it. In Charlottesville that’s all you saw this weekend were Confederate flags. And it hurt me when I saw it, and it hurts me every time I drive down the freeway. I can’t miss it.”
Malone and others acknowledged that since the flag is on private property there may be little the county can do about it, but the group suggested several options including a new zoning ordinance limiting the height of flagpoles on residential properties that would prevent the flag from being seen from Interstate 95. They also suggested the billboards responding to the flag or even attempting to persuade the property owners to take it down.
“That enormous symbol of hate is an embarrassment to Stafford County and the surrounding region,” Patricia Joshi told the Board of Supervisors.
Darren Chambers grew up in Washington, D.C., before moving to Stafford County 25 years ago.
“Virginia, when I lived in Washington, D.C., was what that flag represented, and I don’t even know if that’s still not the case. You all say it’s not the case,” Chambers said.
Since the flag is so large, he and others like Edwin Santana of Stafford told the board that many people do not realize the flag is on private property, so those people often take away a message that they or their business are not welcome.
The Virginia Flaggers’ website promotes an unconfirmed story about a couple from the New York area who decided not to move to the Danville after they saw several of the large battle flags flying there.
The post is headlined “Massive Confederate Flags in Danville, VA Double as Yankee/Scalawag/Carpetbagger Repellent”.
All three of those terms are often considered derogatory. Scalawag referred to white Southerners who supported Reconstruction after the Civil War.
“Is that the first impression and the lasting impression that we want people to have?” Santana said of the flags. “From the events in Charlottesville we’ve learned that you can swap that Confederate flag out with Nazi flags and a lot of people still get the same message.”
