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 Horns blared and hundreds of the rebel flags fluttered as more
than 1,500 vehicles and some 4,500 people turned out for the
"Florida Southern Pride Ride" in Ocala, according to police
estimates. Vehicles from states across the South and as far away as
California participated.
"That flag has a lot of different meanings to a lot of different
people," said David Stone, 38, who organized the event. "It doesn't
symbolize hate unless you think it's hate - and that's your problem,
not mine.”
Organizers announced the event as the South embarked on an emotional
debate over the flag's symbolism in the aftermath of the massacre of
nine blacks by a white gunman in a Charleston church last month. The
suspect in the church shootings had posed with the flag in photos
posted on a website.
In South Carolina, lawmakers moved quickly to take the flag down
from the statehouse grounds in Columbia, a longstanding demand of
those who see it as a divisive symbol of the South's pro-slavery
legacy.
 Alabama and scores of municipalities have take similar steps since
the June 17 massacre.
But the national push to pull the controversial icon from stores and
public displays is being met with determined resistance in some
corners of the United States.
Supporters such as those who drove through Ocala on Sunday insist
the flag is a honorable symbol of regional pride, a mark of respect
for Southern soldiers who died in the American Civil War.
In Ocala, the seat of Marion County, an administrator had ordered
the Confederate flag's removal from a government complex. But last
week county leaders overruled the order and the banner is again
flying atop the building.
"It's just about heritage. I'm upset they want to remove a piece of
history," said Jessica McRee, 29, an Ocala native and employee of a
law enforcement agency who participated in Sunday's ride.
In Hurley, Virginia, the rebel flag is more visible than ever as
residents show their support for keeping the local high school's
logo, which features the Confederate flag waving from a saber.
'BACKLASH IS BEGINNING'
Mississippi, whose state flag incorporates the design of the
Confederate banner, is divided. The city of Hattiesburg has removed
all state flags from city buildings, but just three miles away, the
town of Petal has voted to fly the state flag at all of its city
buildings.
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Mississippi Republican Governor Phil Bryant has refused to call a
special legislative session to address the issue, resisting calls to
do so from leading state officials. In a 2001 statewide referendum,
Mississippians overwhelmingly endorsed keeping the current state
flag's design. "A backlash is beginning," said Ben Jones, a
spokesman for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which represents
30,000 descendants of Confederate soldiers. "We are putting flags
out. Everyone time one is taken down, we put five or six of them
up."
Jones, a former Democratic congressman from Georgia who starred in
the hit 1980s TV comedy series "The Dukes of Hazzard," said he has
been selling out of the replicas for sale at his show-themed stores
in Tennessee and Virginia. The show featured a stock car dubbed the
General Lee with an image of the Confederate flag on its roof.
And North Carolina's Department of Motor Vehicles recently sold out
of a series of specialty license plates featuring the Confederate
flag, local media reported. It has ordered more of the plates, which
may be discontinued in the future.
Not everyone in rural Ocala was in sympathy with the ride, which
police said was peaceful.
Galina Abdelaziz, 18, a recent Ocala high school graduate, stood
with three others protesting the flag at the beginning of the parade
route.
"It's really discouraging to me to see this in my hometown,"
Abdelaziz said.
The terminus of the parade had been changed at the last minute to
avoid a largely black neighborhood where residents opposed the
event, according to Ocala Sergeant Robie Bonner.
(Additional reporting by Therese Apel in Jackson, Mississippi and
Karen Brooks in Austin, Texas; Writing by Letitia Stein in Tampa,
Florida; Editing by Frank McGurty and Paul Simao)
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