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Confederate Decoration Day Brings Unlikely Supporter


June 1, 2007

Sunday was declared Confederate Decoration Day and an unlikely advocate
spent the day proudly paying tribute to a flag that has taken on
a racial connotation.

H.K. Edgerton, an African American man, wants southerners, black
and white to reconcile.

He said, “A black man in the south wearing a Confederate
uniform, carrying a Confederate flag, is not unusual. It’s
part of who we are, it’s part of our heritage.”

Edgerton said he proudly carries the Confederate flag as a tribute
to all the soldiers who died under it and goes on, saying, “Black
folks earned a place of honor and dignity under the cross of St.
Andrew, under the Confederate flag I carry here in my hand.”

Edgerton quotes the Reverend Martin Luther King’s famous
speech, saying, “I have a dream that one day the sons of
former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able
to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”

Edgerton continues, “If you attack this flag, you might
as well take the chair and slide it under the table because of
the number of lives here in the southland of America tied to this
flag; both red, yellow, black and white.”

Edgerton is the president of Southern Heritage 411 and former
president of the North Carolina Chapter ofthe NAACP.

Copyright 2007 by WKRN Nashville Tennessee