Free Republic

A Michigan man employed at the Hillsdale Bob Evans plant was fired after refusing to remove a Confederate flag from his truck, the Hillsdale Daily News reports. According to the man, his bosses at the plant forced him to remove it after receiving a single anonymous complaint. Angela Payne, a spokeswoman for the restaurant chain, told NBC24 that the flag was “offensive to many… customers and employees.” The employee, Wesley Rogers, was told two weeks ago to remove the flag but refused, resulting in his termination. “They said they were doing their best to follow up on a complaint,” Rogers...

On a warm day in August, a couple dozen people gathered for an afternoon picnic at Shawnee Mission Park. Under the shade of a shelter surrounded by leafy green trees, two men cooked burgers and brats on a charcoal grill next to a row of tables topped with red plastic tablecloths and a summery spread of sliced watermelon, barbecue-flavored potato chips and sopapilla cheesecake. The weather would have been perfect if not for occasional gusts of wind that whipped through the grove and threatened to topple the three flags fixed to portable poles next to the dessert table: an American...

A Confederate flag advocacy group is rallying Saturday in Albert Lea for the reinstatement of the Hartland volunteer firefighter suspended in July for flying a Confederate flag on a department truck during a parade. The firefighter, Brian Nielson, didn't respond to interview requests. He previously told media he was protesting "political correctness" and the censuring of the flag. There was a national push for removing the flag from public locations after the Charleston, S.C., shooting. Nielson said he doesn't support slavery nor racism and has since apologized to both cities. But he said he would fly the flag again, though...

A trio of students has been suspended from school after one of them brought a Confederate battle flag to campus.

Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2015 9:43 PM Subject: Norfolk council decides to keep Confederate monument By Tim Eberly © September 22, 2015 NORFOLK The city’s Confederate monument is not going anywhere. The City Council decided not to remove the towering structure downtown, despite pressure from a civil rights group that considers it a symbol of racism and slavery. The council’s decision came on the second day of its annual retreat, held this year at Slover Library. All three black council members agreed that removing the monument was unnecessary, and no other council members lobbied for its removal, either. “You can’t...

I remember the good old days when liberals who wanted to tear down the symbols of the Confederacy were assuring us that it was only an issue when it flew on taxpayer owned, public property over the seat of government. Other than that it was a question of free speech. (Or racism or oppression or whatever you like.) Remember that line? Ah, good times, my friends. But that’s long since ceased to be the case. As many of us predicted, this trend was going to spread like pubic lice at an Occupy Wall Street camp, and it has been...

More than 20 Christiansburg High School students are out of class Thursday morning after wearing Confederate flags on their clothing. According to Montgomery County Public Schools spokesperson Brenda Drake, the students were originally put in in-school suspension. However, the students didn’t comply and were told to leave school for the day. This involves 22 or 23 students, according to Drake. Several students were given in-school-suspension and 17 were given out of school suspension for disrupting the school day. The students protested the school's decision across the street Thursday morning. Some students received three days of out-of-school suspension; others received one...

Earlier this month, the SPLC launched a new initiative called "Erasing Hate," which "aims to identify and eliminate government-sanctioned symbols honoring the Confederacy." "There are numerous government-sponsored symbols of the Confederacy that are out in the public across the country, and, quite frankly, it's time for them be removed," said SPLC founder Morris Dees. "In Montgomery, Alabama, we have a Robert E. Lee High School that wasn't even named until [Brown v. the Board of Education], the desegregation case. We have government-sponsored holidays honoring Confederate 'heroes'." Flags, street names, building names, and statues honoring the Confederacy became public targets across...

In 1949, the surviving members of the United Confederate Veterans attend the funeral of their commander, James W. Moore. Moore joined the confederate army at the age of 13, died at the age of 99 and was buried in Selma, AL. Here's your chance to see video of some real confederate veterans.

A statue of Jefferson Davis has been removed from its place on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin after a failed appeal by a Confederate heritage group. Crews could be seen Sunday morning removing the statue of the Confederate president from its place near the university's iconic clock tower.

The local Democratic Party has closed its booth at a county fair in northeastern Ohio because officials won’t ban the sale of Confederate flags at the event.

The 12,000-strong city of Bucyrus, Ohio, down near Mansfield, will host a "Confederate Flag Pride Parade" on Saturday. The Port Clinton News-Herald reports that roughly 50 vehicles are expected to participate, and that city leaders are expecting neither disruption nor significant changes in traffic volume. Event organizers didn't exactly echo the "heritage not hate" refrain of Confederate Flag supporters nationwide. One told the News-Herald that the flag is "not racist at all," that it's "just another red, white and blue flag," a "military thing." He said that organizers in Bucyrus had been trying to assemble a parade before, but couldn't...

What caused the Civil War? That seems like the sort of simple, straightforward question that any elementary school child should be able to answer. Yet many Americans—including, mostly, my fellow Southerners—claim that that the cause was economic or state’s rights or just about anything other than slavery. But slavery was indisputably the primary cause, explains Colonel Ty Seidule, Professor of History at the United States Military Academy at West Point. The abolition of slavery was the single greatest act of liberty-promotion in the history of America. Because of that fact, it’s natural for people who love freedom, love tradition, and...

The recent movement to scrub the American South of Confederate flags and names, which many view as pro-slavery symbols, has a new celebrity supporter: Julianne Moore. The Academy Award-winning actress has teamed with movie producer Bruce Cohen in launching an online petition to change the name of J.E.B. Stuart High School in Falls Church, Virginia, arguing that the name represents a "history of racism."

School leaders in Dickson County decided, after a summer of controversy surrounding the confederate flag, the wise thing to do would be to ban all flags and banners. Some students are angry as they feel their patriotism is being compromised. School leaders said there is a right and wrong way to show American pride: "It's not an unpatriotic act by any means because we have a number of ways in which students do learn how to be patriotic and express American pride." -snip Students said they were told they would get kicked out if they bring an American flag onto...

MARYLAND HEIGHTS • A Confederate flag flying at a home in a Maryland Heights neighborhood may be disturbing, but flying it is constitutionally protected, officials told residents of Glenbush Drive at the City Council meeting Thursday night. The flag appeared on Aug. 17 and has been flown from mid-morning until about 6 p.m. daily, said a black couple who live nearby. They said they have lived on Glenbush for nine years and appreciate the city's diverse population. Police Chief Bill Carson said he was aware of a dispute over the flag involving others on the street on Aug. 18. "It...

He has crashed Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s show in Iowa, knocked former Florida governor Jeb Bush off course in New Hampshire and sucked up most of the political oxygen this summer. Now Donald Trump is headed south. Trump said Wednesday night that that event was switching venues, from a civic center to a football stadium, because he now expects an attendance of 30,000 to 40,000. Some say Trump’s appeal in the region is different, and according to University of Mississippi journalism professor Curtis Wilkie, it has precedent. “There is a history of outrageous politicians who are able to develop a...

South Carolina's Charleston County School District issues new dress code banning Confederate flag. WCBD's Mayci McLeod reports.

A Civil War battle re-enactment at a historic South Carolina planation has been canceled in the wake of the shooting deaths of nine black parishioners at a Charleston church in June. Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant will not host the re-enactment of the Battle of Secessionville that was scheduled for November, according to local media outlets. Boone Hall marketing director Rick Benthall said the event comes too soon after the slayings at Emanuel AME Church on June 17. Benthall said it was canceled out of respect for the victims' families and to allow the community to heal. "It was...

RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. - A dividing highway in Riviera Beach is becoming historic again. A proposal to rename Old Dixie Highway to Barack Obama Highway ultimately passed in Riviera Beach, but not without hitting some speed bumps. "I got a little worried for a minute, because we didn't seem at first to have the majority," said Mayor Thomas Masters, City of Riviera Beach. There was plenty of approval from the crowd to remove Old Dixie Highway from 1st Street to Silver Beach Road. "You have the chance to right the wrong and make a new chapter," said one woman who...