Huge Confederate flag in NC now has a neighbor — a Black Lives Matter billboard
A Confederate battle flag in North Carolina now has a Black Lives Matter billboard beside it.
Drivers can see the new sign along the U.S. Highway 64 East business route in Pittsboro, according to a GoFundMe page that says it raised money for the project.
“Shoutouts To The Community Of Pittsboro That Came Together To Make This Happen,” Kerwin Pittman, founder and director of Recidivism Reduction Educational Program Services, wrote Monday on Facebook.
The billboard, which will be up for a year, features the words “Black Lives Matter” and was “paid for by RREPS & Emancipate NC,” according to photos Pittman shared with McClatchy News. He said he has worked alongside people in the community, who chose the messaging.
“They wanted it to be known not only to the Confederate supporters, but also as well as the individuals ... in the town that are Black, that they are supported, that their lives matter,” he said Wednesday in a phone interview.
Pictures show it also stands next to a giant Confederate flag, an emblem people see as they drive toward Pittsboro, according to the GoFundMe campaign creator.
“It is important for us now more than ever as a community to show our support for #BLACKLIVESMATTER, with that message on a billboard that is counter to the confederate (flag) next to it,” said the page, which raised more than $10,000 as of Wednesday afternoon.
The new sign didn’t sit well with everyone.
“The money for putting up this billboard would have fed a lot of starving and homeless people,” one Facebook user commented on the page of ABC11, The News & Observer’s media partner. “THINK ABOUT THAT BLM.”
Other social media users said they saw it as a move toward understanding.
“See here’s the thing... both are freedom of speech,” one person said on ABC11’s page. “Why don’t we all try to understand each other’s viewpoints and maybe come to a conclusion for all of us.”
Across North Carolina, symbols of the Confederacy have sparked renewed debate in recent weeks, The News & Observer has reported.
While some contend they recognize Civil War era history, others argue they are signs of white supremacy that should be removed.
Pittsboro, roughly 35 miles west of Raleigh, has seen its own clashes in recent months.
After months of protests, officials in November removed a Confederate statue that had stood in front of the Chatham County Courthouse for more than a century, The News & Observer reported.
The battle flag that flies near the billboard was “put there by a man angry over the county’s removal of Confederate monuments,” according to Joel Brown, a reporter with ABC11.
This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 4:35 PM with the headline "Huge Confederate flag in NC now has a neighbor — a Black Lives Matter billboard."
