Confederate flags still fly on private properties in Massachusetts, even as some suppliers have removed them from stores.
“It’s not a racist flag, it’s an American flag. I’ve got a right, but I want to avoid conflict,” said Edward Filipiak, who has flown both a Confederate and U.S. flag at his home in Taunton, Massachusetts,
according to WCVB-TV. Under pressure, he took them down, noting his right to fly them but his hopes to avoid backlash.
Vote Now: Should the Confederate Flag Be Removed From All Government Buildings?
Meanwhile a black student hung a partially burned Confederate flag on a Civil War memorial after a flag-burning ceremony at the Col. Robert Gould Shaw sculpture. Stephen Allsop said the gesture was to show “solidarity with people who live in states like South Carolina,"
Boston.com reported.
The Shaw memorial honors the all-black Massachusetts 54th Regiment, which inspired the 1989 movie "Glory."
The symbolic protests came after South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican, called for Confederate flags to be taken down from South Carolina statehouse grounds after nine black churchgoers were gunned down at their Charleston Bible study by a 21-year-old seen pictured with a Confederate flag.
"This flag, while an integral part of our past, does not represent the future of our great state," Haley said at a news conference June 24.
The flag was removed from the South Carolina capitol ground on July 10.
A Pew Research Center survey found that most Americans agreed with the decision to remove the flag, including 76 percent of African-Americans, 52 percent of Hispanics and 56 percent of whites.
About 18 percent of people living in the South reported having a positive reaction to seeing the flag displayed, compared with 11 percent in other regions, according to the survey.
Urgent: Should Government Buildings Be Forced to Remove the Confederate Flag?
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