This is true, But again here was it racial? Or was the Flag in the 1950's a protest against a federal Government who was overstepping the bounderies of their involvement in state and local affairs? You know that the news media picks out the dumdest people to get a quote from, and that is what becomes documented film footage of the reasons for a protest. Orval Faubus and George Wallace were defending the rights of states to govern themselves under the laws of the then United States. There was no 1964 Civil Rights act. The Brown vs the Kansas Board of Education decision had not been enacted into federal law by the Congress. Seperate but equal education had not been declared illegal anywhere but in Kansas City. It had not even been declared illegal there. Yet federal Marshalls acting under Justice department directives caused those heady days.
People will think and do whatever they will. But countering it in this manner is like trying to put out a forrest fire with a garden hose. It doesn't get it done and it changes no ones mind about it.
What we need is a New Tactic, we need to build a "Fire line" to stop the "forrest fire", not a "water hose" to put out the "sparks". And in putting out the "sparks" we don't need to adopt the tactics of our detractor and condeam people for exercising their freedom of speach, no matter how distasteful that speach may be to us.
I worked once with a black supervisor, who in a FBI training class could not understand why police officers had to protect the right of assembly for members of the K.K.K. He was Ok with any number of other "Black" organizations and thought that they deserved police protection, But he could not understand that the K.K.K. were entitled to the same protections. Well I don't like the K.K.K. either but you can't start drawing a line and say this is OK, and this is not, or you won't have a country for very long.