Where You Can Find Confederate Flag Flying in North Dakota

While North Dakota is one of the northernmost states in the nation, a symbol of the South – the Confederate flag – is displayed and defended by some residents there.

The Confederate flag is on display on the exterior of the Union Bar and Grill in McClusky, North Dakota. A Confederate Digest blog post noted its presence in 2011, when the establishment was called Confederate Bar and Grill.

The eatery’s name has since changed, but the flag remains, an employee confirmed in July.

Vote Now: Should the Confederate Flag Be Removed From All Government Buildings?

The Confederate flag has faced intense public scrutiny in the wake of the June 17 racially motivated murders of nine people attending a Bible study at Charleston, South Carolina’s historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Residents of North Dakota — which became a state in 1889, 24 years after the end of the Civil War — are among those who have weighed in on the matter.

“Social media has become a lynch mob. Once the Facebook and Twitter hordes sink their teeth into something they won’t settle for anything less than full-on eradication. It’s one of the most frightening aspects of modern communication,” Minot, North Dakota, resident Rob Port, author of the Say Anything political and current events blog, wrote about the Confederate flag debate.

He compared Confederate flag opponents to those who blame violence on video games and music. “They honestly seem to believe that flags make racists. The truth is the other way around. People of all sorts of beliefs, including racists, make flags,” he wrote.

Former North Dakota Lt. Gov. Lloyd Omdahl wrote in a June 28 column in The Bismarck Tribune that before they “leap to self-righteous judgment” over what was happening in South Carolina, residents of the Peace Garden State “would be well advised to see if the shoes fits here in North Dakota.”

Omdahl wrote that while bigotry remained present in North Dakota, “much of it goes unrecognized because it isn’t as visible as a Confederate flag.”

Urgent: Should Government Buildings Be Forced to Remove the Confederate Flag?

Related Stories:

• Will Confederate Flag Still Fly at Civil War Historical Sites?
• 5 Noteworthy Quotes From Lawmakers on Confederate Flag Takedown