Proof?
I knew Dale Sr. from CMS, The Rock, and Darlington, and from what I remember he was all Southern like me. His friends weren’t Yankees, and he was as conservative as anyone I know. Campaigned for every Republican that asked.
I also remember Dale didn’t give a tinkers damn what color a mans skin was.
His daughter has had a podcast for a couple of years now, and on one episode, she talked about it. He’d put a bumper sticker on his car that had the flag and “Southern by the grace of God” on it. When a black friend told him she found the flag offensive, he cut that part of the bumper sticker off. The daughter said he didn’t want to offend anyone.
And this isn’t a new stand for Jr. He wrote about his position to the flag in his autobiography 13 years ago.