Jackson Free Press

Coming from a family of beef-cattle farmers in Clay County, Chad Scott supports the local-food movement.

However, the fact that Scott, 31, has "liked" Facebook pages related to supporting locally grown food, sustainable energy development and opposing genetically modified organisms doesn't fully explain his politics.

"The Old South was an agrarian society, and the farmer really held a spot in that society," said Scott, who works at a furniture store in West Point. "When I see the way the United States of America treats the small family farmer right now, it ... makes me more pro-Confederate than I otherwise would be."

Scott is also a spokesman for the Magnolia Heritage Campaign, which last fall started a petition drive to preserve what it considers Mississippi heritage by acknowledging Christianity as the official state religion and English as the official language, among other things. The referendum, known as Initiative 46, would also require the display of the state flag at all public buildings. The flag, which has come under renewed scrutiny since photos emerged of Dylann Roof posing with a Rebel flag. Roof is the suspect in the Charleston, S.C., massacre of nine African Americans at a church.

In response to calls for Mississippi to remove the emblem from the official state flag, Scott's group is planning a rally at the state Capitol on Monday, according to Scott, in "defense of our state flag and our Southern heritage" as well as "our ancestors and their monuments."

Scott points to talk in Memphis about moving the grave of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who is widely credited as helping start the Ku Klux Klan to terrorize blacks after the Civil War, off city-owned property.

"I know this isn't popular, but General Forrest is a Mississippian, and I know he has a jaded past, but he's one of the greatest military men of all time. His body was placed there in Memphis (Tenn.) when he was more favorable, and I just don't think it's right to dig it up," Scott told the JFP in a telephone interview this morning.

Approximately 50 to 75 people have signed up to attend the rally, slated to start at 10 a.m. on July 6, Scott said. The Magnolia Heritage Campaign comes on the heels of a rally last week at the Capitol that called on state leaders to change the flag, as well as a prayer vigil at the Governor's Mansion. Gov. Phil Bryant has said he opposed changing the flag.

"Our state has been traumatized with that flag, especially for black people, and we have been ridiculed nationwide and internationally because of the flag," Ineva Pittman, a Civil Rights Movement veteran, told the Jackson Free Press on July 1.

One prominent Republican official, Speaker Philip Gunn of Clinton, has expressed an open mind about changing the flag, which has spurred backlash among conservatives. For example, a Facebook group called "Keep the Flag, Change the Speaker" was created on June 23.

Scott said he and his fellow pro-Confederate comrades might be open to talking about changing the flag, but that's about it.

"I would be willing maybe to sit down with a rational person and talk about (supporting) it and why they disagree with it. I don't know if a change could be hashed out because this environment is terrible right now," Scott said. "You've seen it. They're climbing up the pole in (South) Carolina to take it down, and there are thousands of people rallying to keep it. We're just really divided right now, and there's a lot of hatred so a compromise would be hard to reach."

Additional reporting by Adria Walker.