Flag, and controversy, hits Georgia highways

By April Hunt, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Southern battle colors are flying again, this time as part of an effort to unfurl huge Confederate flags along Georgia’s interstates.

Among the three flags that have gone up so far is a car dealership-sized Southern Cross north of Tifton that measures 30-by-50 feet. Two others are in north Georgia.

“We want to remind people of who they are and where they came from,” said Jack Bridwell, the division commander of state chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which is paying for the flags. “Being Southern is nothing to be ashamed of.”

None of the flags fly in metro Atlanta, though Bridwell said the group is actively looking to buy a site along the highway or sign a long-term lease.

Even without the Southern Cross flapping at Downtown Connector commuters, what organizers see as a way to honor soldiers during the 150th anniversary of the Civil War has nonetheless revived the debate over the history of the war and slavery’s role in it.

What has changed in that discussion, though, appears to be who has the upper hand.

Georgia added the Stars and Bars to its state flag in 1956 as an overt symbol of white supremacy at a time when civil rights for racial minorities began to become a national issue, said Gordon Jones, the senior military historian at the Atlanta History Center.

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