Confederate flag supporters tout heritage at Obama visit

Rick Martin waved the "Stars and Bars" Confederate flag across the street from Taylor Stratton Elementary School in Madison where President Barack Obama spoke about health care on Wednesday.

The bright colors of the flags, particularly a version of the more iconic Confederate battle flag, made Martin and those with him stand out among the early onlookers, especially since the flag has come under fire as a symbol of hate and racism after the apparently racially motivated shooting deaths of nine people at an African-American church in South Carolina last month.

But Martin said he showed up for history.

He said he drove two hours to Nashville from Flintville, Tenn., to make a statement about his right to wave the flag. He said he was not protesting Obama, only supporting history and that he would even like to meet the president.

"It would be my pleasure to meet the president of the United States," he said. "I served under him in the Marine Corps."

Martin also made the case with passers-by that the flags of the Confederacy were not symbols of racism, but of heritage.

"Black people and white people fought under this flag," he said, and he also said he planned to protest at a Ku Klux Klan rally planned in Charleston.

Some drove past and honked at Martin or gave him a fist pump. Others just shook their head.

Either way, Martin's first location was on the property of the McFerrin Missionary Baptist Church, where church workers asked him to move, not wanting to become involved in the controversy over the flag.