The Confederate flag: Symbol of heritage or symbol of hate?

ATLANTA — Is it a symbol of heritage or a symbol of hate? The Confederate battle flag has been at the center of a heated controversy across the country over the past several years.

Many states have removed Confederate flags and Confederate monuments after protests and outcries by social justice groups.

After our investigation into alt-right groups in Georgia, Channel 2's Mark Winne took a deeper look at the flag and its history here in Georgia.

Confederate flag removed in Georgia

The last Georgia state flag that prominently featured the Confederate battle flag was taken down by former Gov. Roy Barnes.

“Something that is offensive to a substantial part of our population should not be a symbol of the state,” Barnes told Winne.

Barnes says that decision likely cost him a second term.

“If it did cost the election, it’s not the end of the world,” he said. “I was comfortable with the decision I made.”

That flag now sits on Chris Hill’s garage wall.

“This was the last battle flag to be raised over the state capitol of Georgia,” he told Winne.

Hill is a member of the III% Security Force militia, an alt-right group operating in many parts of the country.

The Confederate flag and the alt-right

During Winne’s investigation into the alt-right close to home, the rebel flag and Confederate monuments played a prominent role.

“I’m supposed to be silent, while people go and vandalize our statues, and tear down monuments to our heroes, like Robert E. Lee.  And that offends me. It disgusts me,” said Brad Griffin, a self-described Southern Nationalist, who is a member of the League of the South. “It’s about our ancestors.”

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Griffin says he helped promote the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that infamously culminated in violence.

He says a central purpose of the rally was to protect monuments honoring Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.

The Confederate flag: Symbol of racism?

Hill and his group say the Confederate flag represents their heritage, and shouldn’t be used as a symbol of racism.

“We don’t want to see that battle flag being used as a racist tool,” he said.

He says those at his militia meeting oppose racism.

“When people say it is about racism, they are just totally uneducated on it,” one militia member said.

Barnes disagreed.

"Some of these folks that don’t understand refuse to accept the fact that the Confederate battle flag has become a racial symbol. The Confederacy was born out of the idea of preserving and expanding slavery,” he said. “The Civil War was fought over slavery, and everybody can scream to their highest voice or anything else, but if you study history dispassionately, you know that to be true.”

Barnes said he doesn’t oppose Confederate monuments, but thinks there should be equal representation.

“I don’t have any problem with Confederate monuments but where are the monuments to those that were held in bondage for 400 years?” he said

Attorney and Black Lives Matter Atlanta organizer Tiffany Roberts said, to her, the flag and the Confederate statues are all about racism.

“Those statues symbolize people who believe that black folks should be required to work for free, for white people, under brutal conditions -- being raped, being killed, being lynched,” she said.

Cox Media Group