One man's perspective after a lifetime under the Confederate flag

[struggle4progress]

Andrew Dys, The Herald
10:24 AM, Jul 13, 2015
1 hour ago

... For decades, the Confederate flag has been used to remind Sam Foster that he is black and that whites were in charge.

That same flag was used in his youth in Chester to mean that the Ku Klux Klan was riding that night, and staying inside meant staying alive if you were black ...

To make extra money in the 1960s and 1970s, Foster would referee sports events. He would drive home at night and pass stores flying Confederate flags. If there were a flag, he would not stop for a cold drink or to use the restroom.

Yet in his dozen years serving as a legislator beneath that Confederate battle flag – when he was the only black representative from York County and one of just a couple dozen blacks in office across the state – he remained undaunted, because he had been taught not to hate anyone ...

http://www.independentmail.com/news/one-mans-perspective-after-a-lifetime-under-the-confederate-flag

[4Q2u2]

1. What is not seen

Many times does not enter into the equation. All those people flying those flags believed it was not harming anybody and they were sticking up for individual rights. Never knowing (or believing) they were denying a man of his basic rights. To not have a place to stop for something as simple as a cold drink. A daily burden I have never known, and cannot understand. What I do understand is that mans strength of character and true American spirit.

Blinded by hate they cannot see in that man what they say they admire in Americans.