Letter | Confederate flag-lowering story misleading and disappointing

Re July 11 article, “Confederate flag lowered at the S.C. State House for last time.”

Dear Ms. Cope and Mr. Shain:

I read your article in The Sun News with great interest, intending to save it for posterity. Unfortunately, I found it to be misleading and heavily slanted in favor of the Confederate flag supporters. I will give you two glaring examples.

First, the only reason you gave for the placement of the flag on the Statehouse dome in the 1960s was to honor the 100th anniversary of the Civil War. You made no mention of the more likely and then relevant reason, which was to express displeasure, opposition and disdain to the world for the Civil Rights Movement and its direction. At least you did not refer to the conflict as the War of Northern Aggression, which would have been more in keeping with the tenor of your article.

Secondly, and even more telling, the most significant person that you chose to single out and interview from the crowd of 10,000 or more was an African American man in a Confederate army uniform, carrying a Confederate battle flag. You presented this relative anomaly as though he were typical of the crowd, if not of the African Americans of South Carolina and the nation. I am certain you can see how misleading that would be to persons who have not studied the history and facts, whether pro- or anti-Confederate flag.

I will be consigning your disappointing article to the recycle bin, where I believe it belongs.

The writer lives in Murrells Inlet.

This story was originally published July 16, 2015 at 6:58 AM with the headline "Letter | Confederate flag-lowering story misleading and disappointing."