Orangeburg restaurant owner takes Confederate flag flight to City Hall

The fight over a Confederate flag in one South Carolina city has entered a new battleground: the zoning department.

A restaurant owner has filed a zoning complaint over a Confederate flag that continues to fly outside his eatery at a prominent Orangeburg intersection not far from South Carolina State University and Claflin University — both historically black colleges — and in a county where African Americans make up more than 60 percent of the population.

The zoning appeal is the most recent development in a feud between Edisto River Creamery & Kitchen owner Tommy Daras and members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who maintain they own a disputed cubicle-sized property where the rebel flag pole stands.

The fight is also the latest illustration of the continuing cultural debate over the Confederate flag and other monoliths dedicated to the Confederacy, which have come under more scrutiny since Dylann Roof's racially-motivated murder of nine black worshipers at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.

Read more: http://www.postandcourier.com/news/orangeburg-restaurant-owner-takes-confederate-flag-flight-to-city-hall/article_2d87ae84-415c-11e7-bcc7-a7e8f239112c.html