For nearly three and a half years, Gorham Flag Center owner Derek Auclair had few requests for Confederate flags, selling only two since 2012. Interest has picked up, however, since the June 17 massacre of nine people at a black church in South Carolina by a young white man who said his goal was to start a race war.
“I think more than a dozen people have come in since then asking,” Auclair said Friday.
The shop owner hasn’t sold any more Confederate flags, though, and won’t in the future.
“The two major manufacturers that I buy from sent a notice saying they were halting production,” he said, adding that he’s happy the decision about whether he would sell them was taken out of his hands. “I wouldn’t even know where to get one, to be honest.”
The Confederate flag, marked by a blue X with white stars on a red background, was adopted by the Confederate states during the Civil War and surrendered after the South lost the war. The flag survived, though, and has been re-appropriated by some as a symbol of Southern heritage and states’ rights.
For others, the flag symbolizes slavery and is overtly racist. The mass killing at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, served as a breaking point for those who believe the flag should no longer be displayed, largely because the suspected killer, Dylann Roof, posted several pictures of himself with the flag.
Mounting pressure led South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to order the removal of the giant flag from the pole outside the Statehouse in Charleston – that happened Friday – and many retailers, including Wal-Mart, have stopped selling merchandise featuring the flag.
But some in Maine have not given in to similar pressure.
“I’ve gotten some looks, but I ignore them,” said Robert Hersey, who flies a Confederate flag on a pole outside his home in Gray. “When they pay my taxes they can tell me what to do on my property.”
Hersey said he flies the flag to honor Gray native Lt. Charles Colley, a Union officer killed during the Civil War. Colley’s body was supposed to be sent back to Maine, but the coffin that was shipped held the body of an unknown soldier in a Confederate uniform.
The soldier was buried in Gray anyway and remains there to this day. A Confederate flag had been planted next to the gravestone, but that flag had been removed Friday and replaced with two American flags.
Hersey doesn’t think the Confederate flag is racist, but he understands the criticism. Even so, he has no plans to take it down.
Larry Burke, who owns an eponymous gas station in Brewer, flies a Confederate flag outside his business. Asked why, Burke said the flag was given to him by a man he served with in Vietnam.
Though Burke said he flies the flag for his friend, he also felt compelled to put it up after the recent controversy in South Carolina.
“I’m amazed at the speed with which this flag has been condemned,” he said. “The flag is 153 years old. Some degenerate does this horrendous thing and all of a sudden it needs to go. What if (Dylann Roof) had been posing with an American flag?”
Burke said the response from customers to his flying the Confederate flag in Brewer, which is the hometown of Civil War Union commander Joshua Chamberlain, has been overwhelmingly positive.
“People are saying thank you,” he said. “I’m sure that there will be some negative comments, too, but that’s what makes this country great.”
The Rev. Kenneth Lewis, pastor of the Green Memorial AME Zion Church in Portland – the same denomination as the South Carolina church – said people like Burke either don’t understand why the flag is offensive or don’t care.
“I think most don’t care,” Lewis said. “I think it’s a good thing to remove symbols, but there are also some deeply held beliefs that aren’t so easily taken down.”
When told there has been increased interest in Confederate flags at the Gorham Flag Center since the Charleston shooting, Lewis called that “troubling.”
“I’ve seen a lot of flags in this state,” he said. “There is still a lot of work to do. Ignorance and hatred is often passed down. But it’s something that can be extinguished. I remain hopeful that not just symbols are removed, but a standard is raised.”
Police in Rockland are seeking a woman who was caught on video removing a Confederate flag from a pickup truck this week. Another truck in Biddeford is often seen flying a Confederate flag.
Auclair, who said he never stocked any of the flags in his Gorham store but would order them on occasion for customers, said most people he has had to turn away recently have been understanding.
Only one person got upset.
“When I told him I couldn’t order one, he said, ‘Well, why not?’ ” Auclair said.
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