By Dana Davis, The Tribune

Confederate Flag defender, political activist, former President of the Asheville chapter of the NAACP and 52-year-old black man, H.K. Edgerton was recently accosted by two black men while standing by his confederate flag in front of Asheville High School. Though he was appalled by the alleged violent actions of 19-year-old high school drop-out Andre Dewayne and 32-year-old Kevin Miller, he concedes, "I know and understand their pain because they've been lied to for so long. A lot of people know nothing about that time in history."

Describing the event, Edgerton recalls, "A man approached me quickly and when he got a foot away from me, he lunged at me, tried to grab my flag, spit on me, spit on my flag, bent my flag pole. Then another man, who was older, came. I thought he was going to stop him, but he joined in, striking and spitting on me and bending my flag even more." Edgerton said the incident left lingering injuries to his shoulder.

Though Edgerton empathizes with the anguish of the two men he asserts, "You have to know how to conduct yourselves. And give a man a chance to speak. Many people have heckled me and cursed at me. When giving speeches I've had blacks heckle me and they had to be removed in Columbia and Charleston, but never has anyone accosted me or my flag. It is my 1st amendment right to take a stand, and you must not violate my right to do so."

Edgerton blames the media and the educational system for creating the perception that exists today regarding southern history. "This is a continuation about the lies of the Christian southern white folks during the Civil War. African Americans in this country don't know a thing about that war and that time. They see that flag and someone says slavery and it all falls apart and they think of Southern Christian white folks as being evil."

"We can't let the stars and stripes get away that easy. Never were the stars and bars flag flown over a slave ship. And you want to know why? Because it's a Christian Battle Flag that was emulated after St. Andrew, Jesus Christ's first disciple. In 69 A.D. in Petro, Greece -- now a part of Russia -- St. Andrew was jailed because of his teaching and preaching of Jesus Christ, his Lord and Master, and he was told he was going to be crucified on the cross. He begged that persecutor not to nail him to that Latin cross in the shape of "T" because he was not worthy of being punished the way Jesus Christ had been nailed. So he begged to be tied in an X-shape to the cross and the persecutor did what he asked him to. That X is a Greek symbol to CH, the first two letters in Christ's name. When St. Andrew was on the cross he continued his teaching of Christ and all the folks started believing him and for three days he remained on that cross teaching and after three days they begged the persecutor to take him down and when he
did, St. Andrew came down off that cross and died, and he became a martyr and a saint.

"When (Civil War Confederate ) General Beaureguard decided they needed another flag, he chose the cross of St. Andrew for these reasons. Most Southerners, in fact, did not want to do away with the stars and stripes because they didn't feel they had done anything wrong. They thought it was the north who was eradicating the Constitution.

"And as for President Lincoln, our American hero, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation. In march of 1861 Abraham Lincoln called all those black leaders in his office and he told them -- Even if I set you free you'll be inferior. You need to get out of the country because I will colonize you. Lincoln proposed the 13th Amendment, being the only President ever to do so. That amendment said Congress would never have the power to interrupt an institution of state. He told the southerners they could keep the slaves if they paid the North a 42% tariff. The South agreed to a 10% tariff but not 42%. So, who I am supposed to blame the institution of slavery on?

"At that time, one of the richest men in the world, John D. Rothchild told his family to put all their money into the Confederacy and described Lincoln as a crook. He said the slaves in the south were better off than the slaves in the north who had to work for next to nothing in the cotton mills.

"The attack on the Confederacy doesn't get the attention it deserves. These blacks today have no idea what took place back then. (Blacks) earned a place of dignity in that war. If it wasn't for Africans that war would have lasted four days, not four years. We made all of the implements of war, we fought, we participated -- not one slave insurrection happened during that period of time. They did not have whips and guns forcing them to be there. God and his infinite wisdom brought these people here. He brought about a love between master and slave that has never happened before. If you search this empirically then you will know the only one who cared about the African was the man in the south. But we don't want to face that.

"Bill Clinton's apology to (the black race) doesn't mean a thing to me. If Bill Clinton was any kind of a man he would march right down to the Education Secretary and demand that we start telling the truth to all about our history. If there are any apologies to be given, it is me. I need to apologize for walking away from the Christians in the South because I was lied to. Even the NAACP is not a black run operation. The national board is run by white liberals and Jews and I question their motives.

"Those who know their history know that we walked away from the war with dignity. But we took the loyalty we gave to the white man and started believing the lies of the North and now people are believing this madness. But even if you pull this flag from every flag pole and stand in the south you can't pull it from the hearts of the Christians in the south. If you speak to any blacks in the south my age or older you will find out that most of them had kinship to Confederate Veterans. The more who search their backbone will find out they were a part of this. They want to think they were beaten into this. Wrong. That's not how it happened.

"Times have changed. In the old south a young man would have never approached an old gray-haired man like myself. We've gotten away from that. Had we been left alone by the northern carpet-baggers, we would be better off.

"Now I have to watch the Cuban flag flying in land we used to have and know that they can live in Florida without ever speaking English. And I have to hear John Rocker get off the subway in New York and not even know where he is. Well, come get me John Rocker because I don't know where we are either and I want to know.

"My fight for my people continues. In all my speeches, I say -- Don't hurt my people, forgive them. We just don't know. -- I grew up with the same lies, claiming that Lincoln liberated and saved me. What a crock. All we have to do is think about this thing and search out the truth. I would encourage all my African-American friends to go to Southern Confederate Veterans' meetings and they will be greeted open-armed. The only day we will truly be free is when H.K. Edgerton walks out his door and every African-American is holding a Confederate Flag and I will say one thing - Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Praise God, Hallelujah.

"Not one time did Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. put down the Confederate Flag. He wanted blacks and whites to sit and eat together. I asked Dr. Young, one of King's closest friends, what his feelings were about that flag. He said, Leave it alone. Let's do something about the things we can do something about, like our children selling drugs on the street. King could never have brought us all together the way he did if he had put down the (Confederate) Flag.

"At first, I was confused by the NAACP putting down the flag, but they just don't know. I just don't want my people lied to. I hate to see them led down the path of hate. They're in the wrong ball game. There was a Machiavellian view in the North - they are different from the south. The bottom line is, if I would have had a choice back then I would have stayed in the South. If the Southern man set a man free he gave them land and a home. The North did not give them anything. You don't set a man free in the woods without anything.

"But people don't realize this. One time when I was holding the stars and bars on the street, a black man with dreadlocks told me what I was doing was wrong, and then he called to his white girlfriend and their child across the street. Now, tell me that man is not confused.

"It was the wealthy African leaders who sold the poorer Africans to the slave traders. Blacks want to speak of their African heritage, when it was their heritage who sold them out to slavery. Furthermore, it is not uncommon for blacks today to follow the Muslim religion, and Muslims practice slavery today. But no one wants to talk about that."