Honks and shouts rang out every few cars as five people associated with the Virginia Flaggers stood in front of the Confederate Monument on the corner of High Street and Randolph Street on Thursday.
While officers from both the Farmville and Longwood Police monitored the situation late in the afternoon, the small group of four adults and one young boy, carried a range of Confederate flags from those representing the Confederate army of northern Virginia to the national Confederate flag, according to Robbie Price, a Virginia Flagger and Farmville resident.
Price represented the group and said, "People have been flipping us off and cussing. The best way to react to it is to just wave and (say), ‘I love you, brother.’ I could see it if I was one of those hate groups or covering up my face with a white pillow face, man screw that crap. That ain’t what this is about."
Price explained their purpose today wasn't to protest, but "to honor confederate veterans" and protect confederate monuments, but didn't specify why they chose Thursday. They also answered questions from people who walked by their position across from Longwood University's Ruffner Hall.
According to Captain A. Q. Ellington of the Farmville Police Department, the group had a right to stand in front of the monument with the flags as long as they didn't impede sidewalk traffic.
"We are here to maintain order and peace," said Ellington.
As swearing flowed from windows of some cars driving by the demonstration, the captain said the police wouldn't interfere with the reactions of the people passing by.
"That's the par for the course so to speak. Unless somebody stops and really tries to antagonize them, then we'll have a talk with them," said Ellington.
While Thursday's demonstration was not a protest, Price said they will travel to Charlottesville on Friday, April 1 to protest the city council's decision to tear down the monument of Confederate General Robert E. Lee standing in Lee Park, as well as change the name.
"Any US history shouldn’t be removed, any monuments of anyone. US Confederate, black history, people are too divided today, you know, there’s no unity. I’ll fly the confederate flag today because its my constitutional right," said Price.
People who passed by the group of Virginia Flaggers holding different Confederate Flags in front of the Confederate Monument on the corner of High Street and Randolph Street on Thursday, March 31 had mixed reactions.
Based out of Richmond, the Virginia Flaggers seek to preserve any confederate history from flags to monuments and prevent its removal. They view the icons of the confederacy as representations of the history, not symbols of racism or hate.
The Virginia Flaggers were involved in the controversial addition of three Confederate flags alongside I-95 as a part of the organizations Battle Flag Project.
The most recent flag was raised 80 feet high in February of this year near the interstate in Prince George County in February.
The Prince George flag was preceded by a 30 feet by 22 feet Confederate flag hanging on a 90-foot pole raised in the 2015 on the side of I-95 in Stafford County, approaching the Falmouth exit.
The flag in Stafford was the second of the Virginia Flaggers' effort to raise the Confederate flag along I-95 after placing one on a 50-foot pole in Chesterfield in 2013, the first of their initiative.
For people like the NAACP, who disagree with the Virginia Flaggers' opinion, the Confederate flag represents the celebration of a Civil War period of oppression and slavery.
During the NAACP's successful effort to have the Confederate flag removed from South Carolina State House grounds, begun after the mass shooting of nine black church members in Charleston, the NAACP President Cornell Brooks remarked on the association's stance on the Confederate flag waving as a symbol.
"When we see that symbol lifted up as an emblem of hate, as a tool of hate, as an inspiration for hate, as an inspiration for violence — that symbol has to come down, that symbol must be removed from our state capitol," said Brooks in Charleston last year.
Disagreeing with the racist interpretations of the confederate flag, Price felt America needs to unify, saying "the South is more together than the northern states and the whole US country."
"People need to pull these race cards, get these race cards out of the way. I’m tired of hate groups carrying my flag, they need to go back to their original flag in 1921 when these hate groups were carrying the US flag. Martin Luther King said it best, we all need to come together at the table," said Price.
For more information and updates from the Virginia Flaggers, their website is found at http://vaflaggers.blogspot.com/.
