CRESTVIEW — Old Glory mingled with the stars and bars, the Bonnie Blue and the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia Saturday morning as a Southern Strong convoy of almost 40 vehicles marshaled in Old Spanish Trail Park.
Jake Moore was ready. The Pensacola resident had a custom trailer hitch flag pole bracket fastened on the back of his pick-up truck, from which fluttered the U.S. flag flanked by the battle flag and a black version of the Gadsden “Don’t Tread on Me” standard.
“We’re going to keep doing this every month,” Moore said. “We need to get the word out this is our history.”
“We’re standing up for what we believe in,” Crestview resident Susan Hollingshead said.” You have to do that. If you don’t stand for what you believe in, we’re all going down.”
“We have to stand up for our history or we’d be lost, honestly,” convoy participant Joseph Morgan said.
SHOWING PRIDE
Dorrian Vance, one of the convoy and rally organizers, said the event was a matter of showing pride in Southern heritage at a time when the Confederate battle flag is being debated.
On Sept. 14, the Crestview City Council will discuss the battle flag’s presence over Confederate Park and its monument to Confederate veterans, including William “Uncle Bill” Lundy.
“It’s a Confederate soldiers’ memorial,” Lundy’s great-grandson, Greg Lundy, said. “We can’t think of a better place to flay a Confederate flag.”
“We want the council to know we’re not lying down,” Vance said. “We’re not going away.”
Vance said the Southern Strong organization has attracted about 700 members of “like-minded people who want to share and fight for our heritage” from Escambia through Walton Counties.
After it left Crestview, the convoy headed south to Fort Walton Beach, Pensacola, then east to conclude with a rally in Milton, where organizers said the presence of the battle flag on public property is also under debate.
“We love our flag more than they hate it,” rally co-organizer Tammy Dempsey said.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: 3-county Southern Strong convoy departs Crestview